Does a cosmetic coloured contact lens change the visual sensitivity of patients?

Abstract

Recent work has shown that the dot‐matrix coloured DuraSoft 3 contact lens produces a slight depression of visual sensitivity. These studies have compared the tinted lens to a clear lens condition and they fail to address the possibility that patients may present to optometrists wanting to wear these lenses for a cosmetic (that is, non‐refractive) reason. We considered this issue by evaluating the performance of 12 subjects, with and without a piano blue‐coloured DuraSoft 3 lens, using the Humphrey Field Analyser (HFA). Lens wear gave an average 0.7 dB decrease in sensitivity for both the central and peripheral field. Although this effect of lens wear is of minor practical importance, optometrists nevertheless should alert patients to the possibility of subtle subjective effects.

Key words:

• Key words:
• coloured contact lenses
• visual field
• perimetry
• cosmetic contact lenses