Soft Contact Lenses

Soft contact lenses came in during the 1960s though they did not suit every wearer. Some of the early developments took place in Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe and new ideas were not necessarily transmitted quickly or accepted readily.

1960 Otto Wichterle (from 1952) together with Lim experimented with soft lenses.

1961 Wichterle produced first wearable soft lens.

1965 World’s first soft lens conference held in Prague.

The illustrations show examples of 'Geltakt' and 'Spofa', very early hydrophilic contact lenses in fluid-filled tubes from Czechoslovakia. The glass tube had to be broken to access the lens, with consequent risk from broken shards. Dominic Ruscio at Bausch & Lomb was the first to develop a non-glass phial/serum bottle to serve the storage purpose. He used 'Pyrex', as found in kitchens across in the world, sealed with a stopper and a foil cap.

1969 The ‘Bionite’ soft lens made available.

The Frank Dickinson Collection includes a 'Bionite NATURALENS' case in the fom of a transparent plastic cylinder with a tight plastic pull-off lid and a removable white plastic base. This was designed for upright storage of the lens overnight and the minimum amount of storage fluid required was marked by a blue line. Note the instructions emphasising the importance of rinsing the case and replacing the solution daily. Unfamiliar to most UK contact lens opticians who have seen it, it is possible that Dickinson picked it up on his travels abroad and that this type of case was never made available in England.

Glossary:

HEMA - 2-hydroxyethyl metacrylate. A transparent hydrophilic plastic lens material.

Hydrophilic - A quality of a soft lens which transmits a certain amount of oxygen and may have varying water content. Lenses with a very high water content are for extended wear ('EW').

1970 John de Carle and Galley start work on ‘Permalens’, the first extended wear lens.

These are second generation Permalens lenses, still being produced at the time by the original maker, Global Vision. The blue labels denote negative power lenses and the red label a positive lens. Later on 'Permalens' lenses were produced in their turn by Barnes-Hind / Cooper / CIBA. The changes in ownership of certain brand names can be one of the most complicated parts of tracing their history.

1974 Titmus Eurocon introduced the first cosmetic soft contact lens with either a printed or a hand-painted iris. The same year their Weicon Soft Toric lens introduced the concept of dynamic stabilisation.

1977 To the left are the original Hydrocurve design of soft lens. Notably the label says that they were for 'extended wear'. The Hydrocurve bifocal introduced by Barnes-Hind in 1977 was the first aspheric soft bifocal lens.

1978 Toric contact lenses made available.

The Duragell (right) was a type of 1970s lens with extended wear capability.

To the left is the second generation Hydron lens (the originals had metal caps). The screw-lid jar is a typical Smith & Nephew container and may be compared with, for example, their 'Snoflex' range.

1978 Syntex produced the first non-HEMA material soft lens, known as the CSI.

1980 Tinted daily wear soft lenses made available.

1981 Extended wear soft lenses made available.

1982 Bifocal daily wear soft lenses made available.

AOflex: The Aoflex soft lens was developed by Pierre Rocher in France. Rocher spent many years in the contact lens industry manufacturing PMMA, soft and RGP lenses until 1984, when he chose to develop an optometry practice mainly devoted to presbyopic patients fitted with progressive ophthalmic lenses.

1988 Cosmetic coloured lenses made available.

This is a contact lens fitting set from the early 1990s (pictured right) consisting of 7 polymacon B hydrophilic soft toric lenses (43% water) in sealed fluid-filled jars arranged in a grey foam rack, removable from its white plastic 'video tape'-type case. This product represents a brief liaison between a solutions company (Allergan) and a lens manufacturer (Hydron) to produce a moulded soft toric lens.

This pack of 'Choice A.B.' soft lenses (pictured left) contains a customer information card to the effect that the box contains easier to open blister packs, introduced by customer demand. In fact blister packs were a natural progression, saving considerable weight as disposability led to a significant increase in the numbers of lenses supplied in one go. 'Choice' was a hydrophilic disposable soft lens (45% methafilcon) with a light blue tint.

1999 New generation extended wear soft lenses introduced.

'Soflens 66' was a popular spherical prescription lens, manufactured by Bausch & Lomb in Waterford, Ireland. This set of three sterile blister packs (pictured right) dates from circa 2000. This monthly disposable lens was still available at the time of writing (2005).

Extreme H20 Lenses (pictured on the left) came from America (c.2000) and were promoted as 'The contact lens that will not dry on the eye'. Note their presence within a retail display box which would originally have contained 12 lenses. The museum also collects this in-practice promotional material.

The College of Optometrists

Soft Contact Lenses