Toric Soft Contact Lenses
: Does anyone have experience with "toric" soft contact lenses? I went
: to get contacts and was told because of my astigmatism I would have to
: get either gas permeable (hard) lenses or the toric soft lenses. I'm
: sure I can't tolerate the hard lenses, and would like to know just how
: soft these toric lenses are, do they feel just like regular soft lenses?
I didn't like the fact that when the lens rotates on your eye, your
vision blurs. Toric softs either have "heavier" bottoms, or are
thinner on the top and bottom to keep them from rotating in place. I
couldn't tolerate much rotation before the blur - someone with less
astigmatism might be able to handle more.
Don't be too quick to dismiss gas perms. I've had them for over 5
years, though I don't wear them all the time. Give them a try.
The soft torics had the same consistency ("softness") as the normal
soft lenses.
: Also, how bad does astigmatism have to be to warrant a special lens?
: Mine is -1.0 and -0.5, which doesn't sound too bad compared to other
: people I know who have astimatism. I had contacts about 7 years ago
: and had perfect vision with them, so either the astigmatism has gotten
: worse, or it isn't an issue. My optometrist claimed astigmatism didn't
: get worse, then backpeddled when I told him of my previous experience
: with contacts. At roughly twice the cost of normal lenses I'm wondering
: if they are really necessary...
Every Doctor (optometrist and opthamalogist) I've ever seen has tried
non-torics on me first so I could make the decision. If it wasn't
satisfactory - then we'd try torics. The Doctor gets trial lenses
cheap, so I'd suggest you try non-torics, and only pay the extra bucks
if you really need to. Sorry, but I can't remember how many diopters
of astigmatism I have.
-Paul Tobin
