A Comparison Of Contrast Sensitivity Of Light And Dark Colored Enhancing Contact Lenses.

Background: Previous studies have investigated the relationship between soft contact lenses and contrast sensitivity, and it is known that contact lenses in general reduce contrast sensitivity (CS). 1-5 It is also known that opaque cosmetic lenses reduce CS to an even greater degree, but our goal is to determine whether the lightly tinted enhancing contact lenses cause a significant difference in C9S. Methods: Twenty-six optometric students were fit empirically with both a light and dark blue version of CIBA Focus Softcolors. Visual performance was evaluated via monocular and binocular CS and monocular and binocular visual acuity measurements. Results: The data and analysis with t-tests show that there was little effect on CS when wearing enhancing contact lenses. Conclusions: Enhancing contact lenses do not adversely affect CS. Furthermore, there was no difference between the lighter colored enhancer contact lens and the darker colored enhancer contact lens. Further study into this issue could include a larger sample size, however, clinicians should not hesitate to offer patients this option for contact lens correction.