TO REPLACE GLASSES

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 5

TO REPLACE GLASSES

I USE OF CONTACT LENSES | LATEST OPTICAL DEVELOPMENT I Relief to many persons suffering I from certain types of eye disabilities | is prophesied by Mr E. Hirst, of Auck- ' land, a manufacturer of contact | lenses. These obviate the wearing of 1 ordinary glasses or spectacles. The | contact lenses fit over the eyeball s itself, being slipped beneath the oye- | lids and actually resting oil the sclera, I or white portion, of the eye. A spaco I between the cornea and the lens con- | tains a “ buffer ” solution' which fills 1 any irregularities in the cornea, auto- | inatically correcting certain optical j defects. Mr Hirst, who is a Czecho-Slovakian | from Prague, lias spent two or three | years experimenting witli the manu- ! filature of contact lenses, and has been 1 producing them for nearly 12 months. CENTURY-OLD IDEA. It was pointed out to the ‘ Star ’ by Mr Hirst that contact lenses were no new development, as they were being worked upon about 100 years ago. This early research was allowed to lapse, however, on account of the danger to the eye from the glass from i 1 which the lenses were then made, and because of that material they could not be fitted well. The most recent development, however, is the use of crystal-clear plastic material which can he moulded to fit the eye. The lenses may be of any power and will correct almost any defect of the eye, it is claimed. In the . United States of America, where it is estimated that there are 40,000 wearers of contact lenses, the 1 fitters have stocks of hundreds of contact _ lenses .of differing types from which, by the process of elimination, a lens suitable to the requirements of the patient is obtained. Mr Hirst’s system, however, is to make every lense individually. First of all an-impression ■ of the eye is taken on a jelly-like substance after a local anaesthetic has been used. This is a perfectly painless procedure and occupies from three to five minutes for each eye. The lenses are then moulded to this impression with | extra precision, being accurate to j within hundredths of a millimetre. I MANY ADVANTAGES. I Mr Hirst claims that many cases can . be corrected with contact lenses far better than with ordinary glasses. For instance, in extreme cases of conical cornea and after cataract removals, it is claimed that the results are better , than with glass lenses. The speaker : quoted the case of a lady of 67 who , had been almost blind for about 30 j years. She had contact -lenses fitted recently and was able to see moving ! picture shows for the first time. I The advantage of contact lenses over ! ordinary spectacles were numerous, ! claimed Mr Hirst, but in addition to their help in cases as outlined above,

tj jo lenses gave a normal field of vision, which was somewhat confined with , glasses. They were invisible, and thus ! were used more frequently than the i more conspicious glasses- which were ! often not worn to the extent they I should be through self-consciousness, j In the realm of sport contact lenses ' I were invaluable, and were used by a number of boxers. was explained that the plastic substance of which the. contact lenses were made was unbreak- < able unless struck between two solid 1 surfaces. A recent copy of a medical 1 journal - instanced-the case of .an Air 1 Force pilot who was forced to bale out, ’ hut whose parachute failed to open. < Every bone in his body was broken by i ; the force of his impact with the I ground, but the contact lenses lie was wearing were intact. Experiments were now being made with a tinted lens to counteract sun glare. Another advantage was that the lenses did not mist’iii steam and could be worn while swimming. In view of these advan- i rages Air Hirst was satisfied that the < present day spectacles would appear 1 incongruous in five or 10 years time. , f PYSCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES. < As was the case when false teeth , were worn, it took a little time to , become used to the contact lenses. , This was purely an individual matter, t depending upon the ability of the j patient to overcome a natural psycho- , logical resistance. The period the f lenses might be worn varied with the individual, but the average was he- , tween four and eight hours, while the , average person- learned the technique of inserting and taking out the leuses in about half an hour. , A demonstration of inserting the contact lenses given by Mr Hirst was ' most convincing. When one lens was worn the only difference between the two eyes was that the one covered by the lens looked slightly larger than the other. But when both lenses were ~ inserted they appeared perfectly nor- J 1 mal. Only a few seconds were re- a quired for the operation, and every as- r surance was given that they were per- • ? iectly comfortable. 1