After years of wearing your contact lenses comfortably, you might be dismayed to learn that your favorite brand has been discontinued.

This custom toric contact lens line is from Alden Optical.

If you don’t want to change what has worked so well for you, you might consider a new program by Alden Optical that provides custom-made contact lenses as duplicates for your preferred brand.

Alden Optical President Tom Shone told Contact Lens Headlines that the cost may be about the same in certain cases as what you paid when your favorite contact lenses were available commercially.

Even when custom contact lenses are more expensive, certain contact lens wearers may have special needs that can be met only by a discontinued brand.

“Some brands have unique characteristics such as the size or corrective powers, or they are made from unique materials,” Shone said.

He said one example is the discontinued Hydron Mini lens from CooperVision, which has a distinct design including an unusually small size that could benefit certain wearers.

These types of custom-made contact lenses are available through the Alden, N.Y. company’s recently announced Phoenix program, which specializes in duplicating certain brands of discontinued contact lenses.

Any eye care practitioner should be able to assist patients with ordering these types of custom-made lenses, Shone said.

He said potential wearers also can contact the company at info@aldenoptical.com for recommendations of eye care providers who can assist them with special orders in their geographic area.

In her recent music video, “Bad Romance,” pop star Lady Gaga’s appearance is more arresting than usual thanks to a bit of computer magic: Her eyes were digitally altered to appear bigger.

Not surprising, the doe-eyed look she has in the video has inspired a fad among many teenage girls and young women: wearing special color contacts that mimic the anime-style look. These so-called “circle” contacts have a darkly tinted zone that makes the wearer’s pupil look much larger than normal.

The problem is that circle contact lenses are being sold illegally via the Internet without a contact lens prescription, which eye doctors say could cause serious eye problems ranging from minor eye discomfort to serious eye infections, including potentially blinding infections such as Acanthamoeba keratitis. This especially is true when contact lenses are not properly cleaned and disinfected after each use and/or are shared among friends.

Today, the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) and American Optometric Association (AOA) issued a joint statement titled, “Concern Regarding Cosmetic ‘Circle’ Contact Lenses.”

In the document, the organizations point out that all contact lenses, whether they correct vision or are used simply for cosmetic purposes, are classified as medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and cannot be obtained legally in the United States without a prescription, which requires a contact lens fitting by a licensed eye care practitioner.

The joint statement also says studies show individuals who purchase contact lenses via the Internet or mail order have a four times greater risk of eye infections than those who purchase their lenses from an eye care professional.

The AAO and AOA also warn of the dangers of sharing or swapping contact lenses with friends and advise consumers desiring cosmetic contact lenses to alter or enhance their appearance to do so only after consultation with their eye care provider.

The AAO/AOA joint statement follows a similar warning about circle contacts issued earlier this month by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease, generally causes vision problems that cannot be adequately corrected with eyeglasses.

But specially designed contact lenses often provide excellent visual acuity for people suffering from mild or even moderate stages of keratoconus.

In the January 2010 issue of Optometric Management, Gregory W. Denaeyer, OD, reviews four contact lens strategies for correcting vision problems caused by keratoconus:

Specialty soft contact lenses. This option often works well for individuals with mild keratoconus. Several contact lens companies produce specially designed soft contacts to fit the steep curvature of mildly keratoconic eyes, and these lenses also can correct significant amounts of keratoconus-induced astigmatism, according to Dr. Denaeyer.

Bi-aspheric gas permeable contacts. Gas permeable contact lenses that are aspheric on both surfaces (bi-aspheric) offer two advantages for keratoconus patients. The aspheric back surface helps the lenses stay centered for a more comfortable fit, and the aspheric front surface helps reduce higher-order aberrations for sharper vision, Dr. Denaeyer says.

“Piggybacking” contact lenses. This strategy involve fitting a gas permeable (GP) contact lens over the top of a soft lens. The GP lens can be specially designed to provide optimal vision for the keratoconic eye, and the underlying soft lens provides a cushioning effect for greater comfort. The soft lens also may help improve the fit of the GP lens and protect the cornea from friction caused by the GP lens that could otherwise lead to corneal scarring.

Scleral contact lenses. Specialty gas permeable lenses called scleral contact lenses are much larger in diameter than regular GP lenses so they can vault over the entire cornea and rest on the white of the eye (sclera). The large size of scleral lenses reduces pressure on the cornea and enables the lenses to stay centered, even on highly irregular keratoconic eyes.

Eye doctors who can offer their keratoconus patients all four of these contact lens strategies will help improve the fit and comfort of their contacts and help provide optimum vision, Dr. Denaeyer says.

[Ed. note: Another strategy not discussed by Dr. Denaeyer is the use of hybrid contact lenses. Essentially, the center of a hybrid contact is a gas permeable lens and the peripheral portion is a soft lens. Special hybrid lens designs are available specifically for keratoconus.]

SOURCE:  Four strategies for keratoconus. Optometric Management. January 2010.

Scleral contact lenses provide acceptable visual acuity and comfort in patients with keratoconus, according to researchers evaluating the effect of these extra-large gas permeable (GP) lenses on people with the corneal condition.

In a report published in this month’s issue of Eye & Contact Lens, researchers Muriel M. Schornack, OD, and Sanjay Patel, MD,  described the results of a study of 32 patients with keratoconus who were evaluated for scleral contact lens wear.

Of these, 12 patients (37.5 percent) decided not to be fitted with scleral lenses after an initial contact lens exam and consultation.

The remaining 20 patients (32 eyes) underwent the fitting process with Jupiter scleral contact lenses (Medlens Innovations, Front Royal, Va., and Essilor Contact Lenses, Inc., Dallas, Texas).

Mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of the keratoconic eyes prior to being fitted with the scleral lenses was 20/76, as tested on a standard eye chart. After being successfully fitted with the lenses, mean BCVA improved to 20/30.

One patient (two eyes) abandoned the fitting process because he needed cataract surgery. The remaining patients (95 percent) continued to wear the scleral lenses successfully over a follow-up period ranging from 3 to 32 months.

Scleral contact lenses differ from conventional gas permeable contacts in their size and design. Scleral lenses have a much larger diameter than regular GP lenses so they can vault over the entire clear front surface of the eye (cornea) to correct vision problems caused by severe corneal irregularities.