I wear hard lenses, is that the same as a rigid gas permeable contact lens?

This is a common question for long time lens wearers. Hard contact lenses the lens of choice during the 1960’s and 70’s. The material used for hard lenses was PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate), also known as plexiglass.

Do you want to know a few other things that are also made of PMMA plastics? airplane windows for one. Also that old black desk phone you used to have, that was probably made of PMMA material as well. It makes sense that that material is not the healthiest of choices when it comes to what should go on your eyes. The major drawback with hard lenses was the lack of oxygen transmission through the plastic.

So while hard lenses served a great purpose and helped millions of people see clearly, science and technology was able to improve the plastic used. Enter gas permeable contact lenses. Gas permeable plastics benefit your eye because they allow oxygen to pass directly through the plastic (hence the term gas permeable). Most “hard lenses” fit today are actually gas permeable contact lenses.

On a side note, gas permeable lenses provide the best vision and are by far the healthiest type of contact lens in an overwhelming majority of situations. So why don’t more people wear them? 2 reasons, for starters, they are more challenging to fit. Fitting a gas permeable lens is more of an art form than fitting soft lenses. The second reason is they take more time for the wearer to get adjusted to wearing them. Gas permeable lenses can take anywhere from a week to a month or more to become fully comfortable.