Contact Lens Evaluations

The FDA classifies contact lenses as medical devices and therefore a thorough diagnostic examination is necessary. This comprehensive eye examination will allow our eye doctors to determine your most accurate prescription and also evaluate the overall health of the front and back of your eyes. After the examination, our doctors will decide if contact lenses are safe to be prescribed to you. 

Many patients are now contact lens candidates in terms of refractive error as soft contact lenses are now available in an extended range of parameters to correct: nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism. Good contact lens candidates are patients who are mature and responsible to maintain good contact lens habits to avoid contact lens-related infections.

We know that being a first-time contact lens wearer can be intimidating, but don't worry, we got you! Our patient optometric technicians will gladly contact lens train you. Putting lenses in the eyes for the first time can be challenging and the only thing we ask of you is: patience with yourself. Once you are able to insert and remove the contact lenses on your own, you would then be able to take the lenses home to practice. The doctor will also schedule you to come back for another appointment to follow-up on your contact lens fit.

Dont worry! Sometimes we may need several days of contact lens training before we are successful with insertion and removal.. and that is totally fine! As we have said before, putting lenses in your eyes can be very challenging for some people. We are happy to help you every step of the way!

Contact lenses are very safe for healthy eyes! It is important to first do a comprehensive eye examination to make sure contact lenses are an appropriate option for you. Our doctor may want to first treat any kind of ocular disease prior to beginning a contact lens fit and evaluation .

Part of the comprehensive eye exam is to do a dry eye screener. If our doctor finds that you have mild dry eye we may need to concurrently treat your dry eye and also fit you into a contact lens that will not exacerbate your dry eye. In more moderate-severe cases of dry eye and ocular surface disease, our eye doctor will recommend treating and managing the dry eye prior to beginning a contact lens evaluation and fit. After the ocular surface disease is managed, the doctor will decide if it is safe for you to proceed with contact lenses.

A child's motivation and maturity level indicate if a child is a good candidate for contact lenses. The child needs to be responsible enough to care for the contact lenses and hygiene regimen. The optimal age to begin wearing contact lenses is usually around 10-12 years old. An older child may have a higher motivation for contact lens wear and therefore adapt more quickly.

We may begin contact lens wear in children younger than 10 years of age as we may be prescribing contact lenses for myopia control therapy. In this case, parents and/or guardians need to be more involved and help the child with insertion and removal, replacement schedule regimens, and lens care/hygiene support.