peterskim

DISCLAIMER: I am not an eye doctor and I don’t really know anything about eyes so do not take any of my posts about contact lenses as having any scientific validity. These are purely my non-scientific observations as a typical contact lens consumer.

As you know from one of my recent posts, I’ve been experimenting with different contact lenses. My trials up to this point have been focused on these three lenses (in current order of preference):

- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys

I saw my eye doctor friend again last night and she had three more brands of contact lenses for me to try out! Before I try those out, I should try to figure out if I like the O2 Optix or Acuvue Advance more, so I’m going to try the Acuvue Advance for a week. After that, I’m going to try the following:

- CIBA Vision Air Optix Aqua
- CooperVision Avaira
- CooperVision Biofinity

My eye doctor friend thinks that the higher frequency replacement lenses are better in terms of eye health, since it’s getting a clean lens into your eye more often. Daily lenses are way too expensive for me to wear every day, so it’s really down to the 2 week disposable vs. the monthly disposables. I’ll most likely go with a 2 week disposable, which from my lists above are:

- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys
- CooperVision Avaira

There are a lot of factors into selecting a contact lens but the most important should probably be fit and comfort. These silicone hydrogels have varying levels of oxygen permeability but in the end, the differences between silicone hydrogels are minimal compared to the leap in oxygen permeability from conventional hydrogels (e.g. Acuvue 2), I don’t think it’s important to choose one silicone hydrogel over another based on oxygen permeability.

Especially in this economy, price is obviously another factor. Here are the 2 week silicone hydrogels listed from the lowest to highest priced (pre-rebates):

- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- CooperVision Avaira
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys

However, Acuvue always offers rebates on their lenses which makes their stuff significantly more affordable. Currently, there’s a $100 rebate on the Acuvue Oasys for first time Oasys wearers. After rebates, here is the list ordered by price:

- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- CooperVision Avaira

If you’ve never worn Oasys and it works for you, it’s obviously the best deal since they’re widely considered the best silicone hydrogel on the market. Unfortunately, for me, my eyes feel noticeably dryer wearing the Oasys as opposed to the O2 Optix or the Advance. That’s really odd considering the Johnson and Johnson markets the Oasys as a step above the Advance in terms of comfort and moistness.

If you’ve gotten this far in reading my post, you probably now think I’m a weirdo for being so interested in trying different types of contact lenses. But I’m not like this just with contact lenses — I’m always up for trying new products. If you are reading this and happen to work for one of these contact lens companies, I’d love to be a guinea pig for you in trying out new lenses or giving you feedback on existing lenses! Or for that matter, this applies to any sort of consumer product — just send me samples and I’d be glad to offer feedback on your product and if I like it, I would be glad to evangelize it through my blog, Twitter, etc. My email address is: p s k 2 ( a t ) a l u m n i     d o t     c w r u     d o t     e d u.