Rgp lenses or soft lenses?

Question

I've been wearing soflens toric 66 lenses by bausch&lomb since 2006. I stopped wearing them after half a year and now i am wearing them again (after a whole year of not wearing them at all and only wearing glasses. I find that they are very uncomfortable and am looking to get a new brand. I also read up on rgp lenses and am considering them. my prescription for contacts is:

Right: sph: -5.00, AX:180, CYL: -0.75, BC:8.5

Left: sph: -4.75, ax: 170, cyl: -0.75, bc: 8.5

I have read that if my astigmatism is less than 1.00 I can probably just wear regular spheric lenses. Can an optometrist on this site verify that for me? Would it benefit me more to wear regular spheric soft lenses, toric lenses, rgp lenses, or toric rgp lenses?

How much is an rgp fitting? Does my regular optometrist do this fitting for me?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Myabe u can try purevision toric. It is recommended to correct the asti with toric lenses.

Answer 2

Ok, that is a contact prescription that shows a 0.75 cyl , but it is very possible that your actual cyl power is 1.00 or even 1.25.

Contacs don't come in a 1.00 cyl, so a 0.75 would be used. You may also have 1.25 cyl, but they prefer to undercorrect that part by still using a 0.75 instead of the full 1.25.

Torics come in a 0.75, 1.25 , 175 cyl..some go higher...

So, your astigmatism may be higher than you think , unless you have seen your glasses prescription , and it is also a 0.75 cyl.

Not having to correct a cyl of less than 1.00 isn't always true. A 0.75 or 1.00 can be  borderline and depends a lot on the overall power of the lenses.

Someone with an Rx of -1.00 - 0.75 X 180 usually won't get as good vision without that  0.75 being corrected with a toric.

But , your cyl power is only 20% of the total , and can quite commonly be dropped  with  no noticable difference in the vision.

Increasing the spherical power in your case by 0.25 or 0.50 , depending what your actual cyl power is, just may work very well for you , eliminating the need for torics.

Although some people are more sensitive than others about having a small amount of astigmatism corrected.The only way for you to know for sure is to get some trials from your Dr. in the spherical equivalent and try it out for yourself.

Your astigmatism is nowhere near high enough to warrant RGP torics.

Even regular RGP's could present you with a whole new set of problems , such as a very long adaptation period, several return visits to the Dr....shorter daily wearing times , and just about always being aware that they are in your eyes.

So it all comes down to....you probably have a 75% chance that using soft lenses in the spherical equivalent will do the job just fine.

If not, then there are several other brands of soft torics that could be tried.

After all this, it just dawned on me also, that being as you haven't worn them for so long, it is normal to take several days again before your torics will feel as comfortable as they used to.

I hope you started off wearing them again on a slow wearing schedule, 3 to 4 hours the first day , increasing an hour or 2 a day after that.

This was long winded, but I hope I shed some light on your question.

LOL...there was no other response here when I started writing this.

Answer 3

You have only a minor amount of astigmatism.  And the least visually disturbing kind...with the rule.  I won't go into what this means, but you may do very well in a spherical lens.  I am concerned that the comfort level may be no better as the torics these days are generally comfortable.  It may be a dry eye issue (there are people who's eyes are too dry to support a contact lens....I am one of them), a poor fit issue, or a solution incompatibility issue.  Rigid lenses will more than likely be no more comfortable, at least in the beginning.  You can correct your vision with either type of lens, the key is to make sure you are working with an experienced contact lens fitter.