Contact Lenses- Extended Wear
These have been described as being the greatest breakthrough in soft contact lenses in the past 25 years. This is because the material that the new lenses are made from are a great deal more porous and so allow the corneas to breathe much better than conventional lenses.
Silicon has now been incorporated in the material of extended wear lenses. This allows a much higher amount of oxygen to be delivered.
So, wearers of extended wear lenses do not need to remove their lenses at night. The level of oxygen transmission through extended wear lenses is high enough to keep the corneas healthy even when the wearer is sleeping, a significant benefit to certain groups of people. For those who still prefer to remove their lenses every night, extended wear lenses are more comfortable than the older materials in that they feel more moist and cooler to wear and reduce the slight eye redness that is associated with standard materials.