The truth about toric contact lenses and why you need them
Toric contact lenses are made from the same materials as regular contact lenses. The only main difference is that they are made for people with astigmatism, which is one of the leading eye conditions that affects people’s eyesight. Today’s toric contact lenses offer astigmatism sufferers far more selection and freedom than was available in the past. Unlike regular contact lenses, toric contact lenses come with two powers in them. They are created with different angled curves. One is for the astigmatism, while the other curve is for either nearsightedness or farsightedness. Toric contact lenses also come with a mechanism that helps the contact lens stay relatively stable on the eye. That way, when you blink or move your eyes, you don’t have to worry about the lenses shifting around. This guarantees that your torics provide you the clearest and most comfortable vision correction possible. On the other hand, if the lenses could move around when you blinked or your shifted your eyes, the lenses would rotate and prevent you from seeing as crisply as possible. For this added clarity and comfort, though, toric contact lenses can cost a bit more. The main reason for their bigger price tag is because of their time intensive prescription process. To properly fit a toric lens, eye doctors need to invest more time. Because of their added curves, torics also require more expertise from the eye doctors to get the fitting correct. That makes not only your fitting fees a bit higher, but the lenses themselves will also hit your wallet more than usual lenses. People with mild astigmatism, such as between zero and 1.00 diopter (either +1.00 or -1.00), can get away with wearing a regular spherical RGP or even a spherical soft lens instead of toric contact lenses. The regular RGP lenses are rigid enough that they can create another lens behind the lens created by your own tears. This hides the fact that your eyes are slightly misshapen. With regular soft contact lenses, you may be able to use a higher stronger prescription. This does not work for everyone. Your doctor may need to put you through a trial and error process to find the right prescription and fitting for you.
