What Are Cosmetic Contact Lenses?

If you thought contact lenses were just used to help correct someone’s vision who doesn’t want to wear glasses, think again! Custom contact lenses made by our team at Hetzler Ocular Prosthetics Inc. function as eye prostheses and are worn by all sorts of people with permanently damaged or disfigured eyes. Read on to learn more about these lenses to see if they’re right for you.

Eye conditions that can benefit from custom lenses

Injuries, medical conditions and even infections can disfigure an eye, making a patient feel self-conscious about their appearance. Our prosthetic lenses are designed to match the appearance of the unaffected eye to make the different appearance of the disfigured eye hardly noticeable.

Common disfiguring conditions that require custom lenses include incomplete pupil formation (aniridia), lack of color in the eye (albinism) and corneal damage from trauma. As we’ll describe below, we can also create special cosmetic contact lenses to improve vision in many cases.

Prescribing cosmetic lenses

The first step in getting a cosmetic lens is scheduling an eye exam with an optometrist or ophthalmologist. This exam will rule out conditions that could impede successful prosthetic lens wear.

Assuming the exam goes well, your doctor or ocularist will take close-up, high-resolution photos of your eyes to ensure the color of the prosthesis matches that of the companion eye. With the images in hand, your ocularist will get to work crafting a lens that looks identical to your other eye while feeling comfortable enough to wear at all times.

The benefits of custom contact lenses

Cosmetic contact lenses wouldn’t be such a popular choice for eye prostheses if they didn’t have a number of benefits. Here are a few reasons to consider custom lenses:

  • Eliminating double vision: Diplopia, also known as double vision, can be treated by wearing an eye patch. However, many patients don’t like the attention they might get when walking around town wearing an eye patch. The best solution is wearing a custom lens that’s hardly noticeable and completely covers the pupil to block out light.
  • Eliminating photophobia: Light sensitivity caused by iris trauma or an irregular pupil can make everyday life miserable. We can create custom contacts with a clear pupil opening to create a normal pupil size, eliminating that uncomfortable light sensitivity.
  • Enhancing vision: In addition to eliminating common eye problems, custom lenses can enhance the vision of those who can see just fine as is. Many professional athletes wear lenses tinted in gray, green or amber to enhance their vision on the field or court. Colored lenses can also be used in place of sunglasses to block out light.
  • Enabling color vision: Those with color blindness don’t have to live with this condition any longer, thanks to colored contact lenses. Red lenses can restore full color vision for certain types of color deficiencies.

See what our team can do for you

If cosmetic contact lenses sound like something you’re interested in, schedule an appointment with our team at Hetzler Ocular Prosthetics Inc. We’ll get you in as soon as possible to go over all of your options for eye prostheses.