Toric & Astigmatism Contact Lenses

Toric contact lenses

If you suffer from astigmatism, there’s never been a better time to get toric contact lenses. Developments in toric lens technology have resulted in more comfort, stability, and clearer vision than ever for contact lens wearers with astigmatism.

While rigid gas-permeable toric lenses are considered the best contacts for astigmatism, soft toric contact lenses offer more variety in wear levels, from daily contacts for astigmatism to biweekly and monthly lenses.

How to put in toric contact lenses?

Toric contact lenses are meant to sit in a specific orientation on your eye and should naturally settle in place after 20 minutes of wear time at maximum. Ensuring your lenses are not inside out is also important. Many toric lenses have small laser engraved lines on them to assist in fitting the lens. Ensuring you insert your toric lens with these marks at the bottom of your eye (six o’clock) will speed up the process of the lens “settling”. Blinking often during the first twenty minutes of toric lens wear will also speed the lenses in settling into their natural orientation on your cornea.

Are toric contacts for everyone?

Toric contacts are meant to correct slightly higher amounts of astigmatism in your optical prescription. If you have no astigmatism (CYL and AXIS on your glasses RX is blank, SPH or DS) you do not need toric lenses. Further, if your astigmatism correction is low, it can be corrected in other ways than using a toric lens. This is one of the reasons your contact lens prescription numbers can differ from your glasses prescription numbers.

What are the best contact lenses for astigmatism?

The best contact lenses for astigmatism vary depending on the patient. Everybody’s eyes are different and everybody wears their lenses differently. Visiting your eye care professional for a contact lens fitting will ensure your toric lenses provide you with the comfort you want all day and the oxygen your eyes need. The most oxygen permeable contact lens material in existence can still deprive your eye of oxygen if it doesn’t fit properly.

Are toric contact lenses more expensive?

On the whole toric contact lenses tend to be a little more expensive than spherical lenses due to the added manufacturing technology needed to produce them. Talk to your eye care professional about the most economical replacement schedule for you based on how you want to wear your lenses. Shopping with Coastal is also a great way to ensure you keep your lens cost down as much as possible.