Gas permeable (GP) which are also known as (RGP) rigid gas permeable and oxygen permeable lenses are literally light years ahead of the old hard contact lenses.
When you get right down to the bottom line truth about RGP contact lenses, you are getting down to some really serious medicine for people with vision difficulties.
Let's first talk about the old style hard contact lenses. Remember those! These contacts originally came out in 1945, and were made with a material known as polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA), boy that was a mouthful.
Now as I was saying, PMMA which is an emorphous thermoplastic with good optical qualities was used in just about all contact lenses prior to the soft lenses hitting the market in the 1970's.
Which unfortunately for contact lense wearers back then was very uncomfortable and very difficult to get used to if you could.
But not only that! PMMA lenses was just not healthy for your eyes because they did not allow oxygen to pass through. Now this is one of the main reason's scientists invented soft lenses and looked into the future about RGP contact lenses.
Ok, out with the old and in with the new.
Let's talk about RGP contact lenses now. Gas permeable lenses first came out in the 1980's. Now instead of PMMA, RGPs were made from silicone, which is more flexible than PMMA and more importantly they also allow oxygen to pass through the lenses to the eye.
This is vitally important for healthy eyes.
Now keep this in mind also, RGP contact lenses even allow more oxygen to get through to the eye than many soft contact lenses.
So the bottom line is, not only are RGP contact lenses more comfortable to wear but they are healthier for your eyes. This makes your eyes happy on all counts.
Now if that wasn't enough here is another benefit of RGP contact lenses that doctors and contact lense wearers are excited about and that is RGP contact lenses are more durable and resistant to protein deposits than soft lenses.
Plus, they can actually help you see better. You’ll also find that they are easier to clean, cheaper to buy, and last longer.
But...there always has to be a but somewhere doesn't there...
Still as beneficial as RGP contact lenses are, they are still not for everyone.
They are best for people who have trouble getting great results from regular soft lenses. These could include people who are just very picky when it comes to their vision.
Or for people whose eyes have certain disorders that makes vision correction more difficult. This includes sufferers of astigmatism, who often find soft contacts lacking when it comes to vision correction.
