The History of Contact Lenses,colored contact lenses

Contact LensesWhen the history of contact lenses is looked over in years to come the range of contacts currently available will stand out. Who would ever have thought that we would have mirrored contact lenses,vampire contact lenses,gothic contact lenses and all the other wacky contacts.

The 1980s only offered so much in terms of eyewear fashion. Today's junior high students walk around in invisiline braces and colored contact lenses and display their school photos proudly.

It is only relatively recently however that the popularity of lenses really took off, they did not become mass marketed and affordable until the Generation X crowd were heading to college. The developments made have been astounding in a range of ways.

Leonardo da Vinci considered the contact lens back in 1508 suggesting that a lens could greatly improve vision if applied directly to the eye.

In the 1820s, English astronomer John Herschel considered fitting a lens to the eye and in 1887 a glass eye maker, F.A. Muller, fitted an eye with the first glass contact lens. In 1888, A.E. Zurich, a physicist, made a pair of glass lenses to correct his own vision and coined the term "contact lens.

In the 1900s, the contact lens science went into high gear with many chemists, physicians, and engineers trying out different materials to make a comfortable, corrective lens. Plastic contact lenses were invented in 1938. In 1947, the first contact lens made of plastic that covered only the cornea was invented by American Kevin Tuohy. Throughout the history of contact lenses, constant advancements have been made.

Sorting Fact from Fiction in the History of Contact Lenses

Truths about contact lenses are as follows: soft contact lenses greatly outsell hard contact lenses; children can wear contact lenses as long as they are mature enough to take care of them, contacts do not cause eye infections if properly cleaned, and contacts can greatly improve peripheral vision.

Myths about contact lenses are as follows: contact lenses can get lost behind your eye, contacts cause eye infections and blindness, you cannot wear contacts to play sports, and contacts cause eye irritation.

Contact lenses history is still being written. As long as contact lens wearers have regular eye exams, dispose of contact lenses as prescribed, keep contacts clean, and take care of their contact lenses and overall eye health, contact lenses can be a joy to ears- especially when compared with the alternative- eyeglasses. If the history of contact lenses is anything to go by we can expect even more exciting and sometimes wacky developments.

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