The Benefits of Silicone Hydrogel

Many people spend long hours in front of computer screens, which, in standard Hydrogel lenses, can result in rapid dehydration of the lens’ surfaces leading to discomfort and red eye. Dryness, often exacerbated by climatic and altitude conditions, is the most quoted reason for reduced lens wear or even discontinuation of contact lens wear altogether.

When first introduced to the market, SiH lenses were better than non-Silicone Hydrogels in terms of reducing drying effects. However, these first SiH lenses had comfort issues related to stiffness of material (modulus), difficulties in surface wetting and a propensity to encourage deposits. A second generation of SiH lenses, with much lower moduli, were developed to address the issue of comfort. However, patients with more complex prescriptions still could not benefit from the increase in ocular health that SiH can bring.

The Full Collection From UltraVision

UltraVision is now able to produce a lathe-cut SiH contact lens, made with Definitive™ by Contamac Ltd, which has the benefit of increased oxygen transmission, combined with the best attributes of hydrogels.

 

Properties	Attributes
Naturally hydrophilic SiH	Excellent Wetting
Lathe cut	Wide range of powers
74% water content	Higher comfort level
DK 60	Increased oxygen transmission
Modulus 0.27	Faster settling time
High water retention	Longer wear times

 

UltraVision’s SiH contact lenses are extremely comfortable, and require no plasma treatment to increase wettability thereby reducing deposition. All these attributes make a powerful addition to a contact lens fitter’s range of contact lenses.

Definitive™ SiH is a unique material, in that it has high water content and high water retention, which has the benefit of not drying out throughout the day, therefore does not need to absorb tears to maintain hydration, thus providing increased comfort levels.

Source: Contamac Ltd.

Indications

Red Eyes

Eyes that look red at the end of the day are one of the most common complaints from contact lens wearers and RGP wear often leads to 3 and 9 o’clock drying with resultant redness at the limbal areas.  UltraVision’s SiH lenses are excellent at reducing this problem, due to the high oxygen transmission and high water retention.

Dry Eyes

Definitive™ is excellent at reducing dry eye problems for many reasons:

• Increased oxygen supply improves ocular health generally
• High water retentiveness leaves more of the tear film on the eye rather than being taken up by the lens
• Lid irritation at the end of the day is very much reduced because of the high comfort levels
• The improvement in wearing time is most marked in certain adverse conditions such as; air conditioning, travelling on planes and at altitude.

Ocular Health

Due to its high oxygen permeability, SiH has consistently proven to be excellent for long term ocular health.