Contact Lens Services
Overview
Whether you are a first time contact lens wearer or have been wearing them for many years, we can meet your contact lens needs at Champlain Ophthalmology. We offer both soft and rigid gas permeable contact lenses; and can fit patients with astigmatism-correcting and multifocal contact lenses.
If you’re interested in contact lenses, call us at 301-493-9600 and make an appointment. We have an excellent contact lens specialist, Mary Pham, who will work with you throughout the process.
Contact Lens Types
Soft contact lenses – Most patients wear soft contact lenses. They are the easiest to tolerate in the eye and cleanest since they are replaced frequently.
There are different types of soft contact lenses, each with their own properties and wearing schedule.
Soft contact lenses come with different replacement schedules: daily disposable, biweekly, and monthlies. Daily disposable lenses are the cleanest for your eyes and require the least level of care. Biweekly and monthly contact lenses need to be cleaned every night with multipurpose solution or hydrogen peroxide based cleansers, but are cheaper than daily disposable lenses.
Rigid Gas Permeable lenses – These contact lenses are great for patients with irregular astigmatism or high prescriptions. They are custom made to fit each person. As a result, they are not disposable. These lenses are cleaned with special solution made for rigid gas permeable lenses.
First Time Wearing Contacts?
Congratulations! There is a two step process to getting you into contact lenses. First is contact lens fitting where we evaluate you for the correct type and prescription of contact lens to meet your visual needs. We have lenses for common prescriptions in the office, but we may have to order special lenses for trial.
The second part is insertion and removal training where we go over strategies to successfully put in and take our your lenses. We also go over correct contact lens hygiene and how to take care of your lenses at home.
Patients in biweekly or monthly replacement soft contact lenses need to clean their lenses every night. The typical wearer places their lenses in fresh multipurpose contact lens cleaning solution. If you suffer from excessive protein build-up on the lenses, we may recommend a hydrogen peroxide based cleaning solution such as Clear Care. Lenses must stay in the container for 6 hours before being placed back in the eye to avoid burning the eye.
We do not recommend anyone to sleep in their lenses.
Near Vision Options
After age 40, many people struggle to read fine print up close even if they have excellent distance vision. For patients who do not want to wear reading glasses on top of their contact lenses, we have 2 options that can help:
Monovision
One eye is set for distance vision and the other is set for reading. Some patients love this option because their brain is easily able to switch and back and forth between the two eyes depending on what they want to see.
Multifocal
Some contact lenses contain both near and far segments and rely on the brain to pick which image it wants to pay attention to. In this option, you can still maintain binocular vision if you have the multifocal in each eye.
Order Contact Lenses
If you’re running out of contact lenses, we can send them directly to you. Please fill out this form below and we will contact you to confirm your order. Please note, if it has been more than a year since your last eye exam, you will be required to come in for a repeat evaluation.
Working Hours
Monday 8am – 4pm
Tuesday 8am – 4pm
Wednesday 8am – 4pm
Thursday 8am – 4pm
Friday 8am – 4pm