New multi purpose contact lenses are just around the corner that will be able to treat presbyopia, a gradual loss of the ability to focus on nearby objects and an array of other vision problems, not just presbyopia.

The next-generation multifocal contact lenses made with silicone hydrogel polymer, a more breathable and safer material than older soft-lens polymers are being pre-market tested by optometrists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry.

The new multifocal contact lenses are manufactured to be multipurpose, meaning they can be used to correct an array of vision problems, not just presbyopia. The new multifocal lenses improve focus on nearby objects that even contact wearers experience.

ontact-lens wearers say freedom from eyeglasses is a great feeling, one they want to keep. Optometrists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry are responding with prescriptions for next-generation multifocal contact lenses.

Bifocal glasses can help aging eyes, but for contacts wearers, presbyopia has been an annoying part of aging.

"There's a huge number of people who don't want to give up contacts due to presbyopia, or don't want to wear reading glasses over their contact lenses," according to Adam Gordon, O.D., M.P.H., an associate professor in the School of Optometry. Gordon directs the Cornea and Contact Lens Clinic at UAB Eye Care, the clinical and retail operation of the School of Optometry.

The new multifocal contact lenses are made with silicone hydrogel polymer, a more breathable and safer material than older soft-lens polymers, according to Gordon. Cutting-edge laser technology is used to manufacture each lens' complex optical designs, which improve focus on nearby objects.

UAB Eye Care doctors are conducting pre-market evaluations of new designs and materials, so patients in the Cornea and Contact Lens Clinic may receive a prescription for the next-generation lenses before they're available to eye doctors nationally.

Spotting Presbyopia

A comprehensive eye exam can spot the early signs of presbyopia. In addition to treating the condition with eyeglass prescriptions, optometrists traditionally have relied on a corrective technique called monovision - that is, prescribing one contact lens for distance vision and another contact lens for reading in the same patient. Monovision is essentially using non-matched lenses to improve sight.

"Before multifocals, monovision worked very well for 50 years or more, but it created compromises in vision that some people could never get used to," Gordon said. "In monovision, the two eyes are always doing something different: one eye is always blurry and the brain has to figure out which eye it should pay the most attention to."

Advantages of the New Multifocal Contact Lens Technology

The new multifocal lenses require fewer brain-sight adjustments and appear to improve vision for a large number of contact wearers. "The new multifocal lenses are a closer simulation of the way natural vision works and the way eyes are designed to focus," Gordon said.

The new multifocal contact lenses are manufactured to be multipurpose, meaning they can be used to correct an array of vision problems, not just presbyopia.

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