- Eye Care
- Eyewear
Contact Lenses
While some people enjoy making a fashion statement with eyeglasses, others prefer their appearance without them. Contact lenses can achieve this without irreversible refractive surgery. Today’s contact lenses are more healthful, fun, and convenient than ever. Contact lenses can also provide a full field of unobstructed vision, which is great for your active Wyoming lifestyle.
If you were told in the past that you couldn’t wear contact lenses, odds are that’s not true today. There are more convenient and healthy contact lens options than even a few years ago.
At Frontier Eye Care, we fit contact lenses of all types – soft contact lenses, astigmatism-correcting contacts, bifocal contacts, rigid gas permeable lenses, continuous-wear (overnight) contacts, daily disposables, and more. A no-risk consultation is included in your eye exam. Just ask Dr. Alden.
To schedule a contact lens fitting, call our Casper office at (307) 472-2020.
Astigmatism / Toric Lenses
Bifocal Contacts
Contact Lens Fitting
Continuous Wear Lenses
Rigid Gas Permeable
Astigmatism / Toric Lenses
Astigmatism is a term that describes the shape of the cornea being curved more in one direction than the other, more like a football than a basketball. It is common, benign condition, and is often hereditary. If uncorrected, the patient will experience blurry images.
If you have a high degree of astigmatism, traditional spherical soft lenses may not be adequate. Instead, “Toric” contact lenses are available to correct astigmatism. These custom-made soft lenses are specially designed to position themselves to correct your astigmatism and give you exceptional vision.
There are many different types of toric contacts based on the curvature profile of your eye and your unique prescription. And astigmatism-correcting contact lenses are now available in the newer, more breathable materials that can keep your eyes healthier and feeling more comfortable.
Schedule your contact lens fitting today to see if astigmatism-correcting contacts are right for you. Call Frontier Eye Care at (307) 472-2020.
Bifocal Contacts
If you are over the age of 40 and wear contact lenses, you might notice that close-distance reading is more difficult than it was in your 20’s and 30’s.
Everyone develops “presbyopia” sometime after or around their 40th birthday. “Presbyopia” is the natural process that occurs when the lens inside your eye does not focus as efficiently, causing near items to become blurry. This can be quite frustrating for new presbyopes. Over-the-counter “drugstore” readers can solve the problem, and usually results in acceptable vision, but putting them on and off throughout the day can be annoying or cumbersome.
“Monovision” is a contact lens option that has worked very well for many of our presbyopic patients. Here, we use one contact lens for distance vision, and the other for near. It’s not for everybody, but works great for most of our patients.
Perhaps soft, disposable, bifocal contact lenses might be the answer for you. They can allow you to see equally well with each eye in the distance and at near. Both options can allow you to throw away your reading glasses (or at least need them less often) well into your 40’s and 50’s.
If you would like to discuss bifocal contact lenses or monovision with Dr. Alden, simply ask during your eye exam. She’ll be glad to demonstrate with trial lenses and discuss your options to help you decide which is best for you. To schedule an examination, call our Casper office at (307) 472-2020.
Contact Lens Fitting
Contact lenses are not “one-size-fits-all.” Each contact lens fit requires careful evaluation of the patient’s prescription, age, corneal curvature, hobbies/lifestyle, and any underlying ocular conditions, such as dry eye or allergies.
If you already wear contact lenses but they feel dry and uncomfortable, we’ll make sure you’re in the best contact lenses for dry eyes and discuss solutions for contact lens-related dry eye.
Contact lenses are always being updated, modified, and improved, so if you’ve been wearing the same brand of contact lens for the last few years, Dr. Alden will give you a free pair of newer, healthier contact lenses to try.
Our optometrist looks for three main goals in every contact lens fit:
1. Do the contact lenses give 20/20 vision or better?
2. Are the contact lenses comfortable to wear all day long?
3. Are the lenses moving and rotating appropriately?
If you’ve never worn contact lenses before, our friendly technicians will instruct you carefully on everything there is to know about your new contact lenses. Then, we’ll make sure you can successfully insert and remove the contact lenses by yourself before taking the lenses home. We’ll have you return in one week for our optometrist to evaluate the lens one more time before prescribing it.
If you’re having any problems after the first follow-up visit, we’ll re-evaluate your fit to make necessary adjustments and try different lenses. All follow-up visits are included in the initial fitting fees, so there’s no surprise costs. Ask about Frontier Eye Care’s Guaranteed Contact Lens Success Program! If you’re not completely successful with your contact lenses within 3 months, we’ll refund the cost of your lenses.
Dr. Alden will also recommend the appropriate multipurpose solution to clean and disinfect your contact lenses (except, of course, for “Daily Disposable” lenses, which are thrown away each and every day.)
At Frontier Eye Care, we are dedicated to you having a completely healthy and enjoyable contact lens experience! If you would like to discuss the use of contact lenses, schedule an examination or consultation by calling our Casper office at (307) 472-2020.
“But I Can’t Touch My Eye!”
Keep in mind that if you aren’t comfortable touching the white of your eye, it’s going to be a long process. Here’s a trick you can practice at home to overcome your fear of contacts prior to your contact lens fitting:
Place some distilled water or saline solution in a small bowl. Wash your hands, then get a drop of water on your finger tip by dipping your index finger into the water. Looking up, pull down your lower lid with your middle finger, and practice touching the drop of water onto the white of your eye. (It may help to reach over your forehead with your other hand to hold your lid open.) If you can get the water drop onto your eye without shutting it, you’re ready for contacts!
Continuous Wear Lenses
At Frontier Eye Care, our primary concern is your eye health, and we recommend taking out your contact lenses before going to sleep. This is least likely to cause problems.
We realize, however, that some patients lead an active lifestyle that makes sleeping in contact lenses very convenient. You may want (or need) to wake up with clear vision. Fortunately, a new generation of contact lenses – silicone hydrogel lenses – provide much more oxygen to the eye than conventional soft lenses. Not only do these materials make overnight wear safer than before, they deliver so much oxygen to the cornea that some brands of silicone hydrogel lenses are approved by the FDA for 30 days of continuous wear.
Many of our patients have adopted “flexible wear.” This means using extended wear contact lenses but still removing them each night before sleep. However, if you want to wear the lenses while sleeping – during a weekend camping trip, for example – you can do so safely.
Ask Dr. Alden about continuous wear contact lenses at your appointment. Call Frontier Eye Care at (307) 472-2020.
Rigid Gas Permeable
Some patients with exceptionally high corneal curvature or a corneal condition such as keratoconus may require RGP’s (rigid gas permeable) contact lenses for adequate vision.
Although soft contact lenses usually provide more comfort initially, patients with these conditions are unable to see clearly out of soft disposable contact lenses and require a more customized fit. RGP’s can offer clear vision and great comfort when fitted correctly, but extra care is needed to handle, measure, polish, and fit these specialized lenses.
Frontier Eye Care’s expert contact lens staff will do everything it can to make your RGP’s fit and feel perfect.
Dr. Alden will be glad to discuss RGP contact lenses, and whether they are right for you. Call Frontier Eye Care to schedule an appointment at (307) 472-2020.
If you have an urgent eye problem, please stop by our office during our regular hours and we will make every effort to work you in.
For less urgent concerns, call our Casper office at (307) 472-2020 to schedule an appointment.
If you have major medical insurance,
we may be able to file a claim for a visit related to medical eye care. We accept Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, and many others. (Please note that you are still responsible for copays and deductibles not covered by your insurance.)
