The New OD's Guide to Daily Contact Lenses

I know I don't need to convince anyone why daily soft contact lenses are often the best option for comfort and convenience for the average patient.  No solutions, no cleaning, no storage.  Sure you have a lot of packaging, but dailies are ideal for people who want to spend basically no time worrying about their contact lenses.  Here's a breakdown on how I have made dailies a large part of my practice:

THE BEST PATIENTS FOR DAILIES

• spherical or low toric patients (lenses like Focus Daily Toric can be ordered in up to -1.50 cyl)
• patients wanting top convenience
• high depositors, allergy sufferers, or dry eye patients
• young children (minimizes infection risk due to no cleaning and caring for lenses)
• infrequent wearers

Patients often talk to me about costs, but when you factor in the company rebates and the fact you won't be buying any solutions, a year supply of dailies is no more expensive than a year supply of a 2 week lens like Acuvue Oasys, and only slightly more expensive than a year supply of silicone hydrogel monthly lenses.  If you are only planning to wear lenses a few days a week, the price becomes even more affordable!  Remember, whether you wear your monthly lens 15 days or 30 days, it still substantially deteriorating by 30 days after opening the lens from the preserved package.  

DAILY BRAND OPTIONS

ACUVUE

• Acuvue 1-Day Moist:  a great option for patients who need a steeper fit.  This is the only lens in a 8.5 base curve
• parameters: +6.00 to -12.00 in a 8.5 (I pretty much use this exclusively) or 9.0 base curve
• they also have the new Toric daily in this material (up to -2.25 cyl!), but it costs about $1 a lens
• Acuvue TruEye: the only Silicone Hydrogel daily, expensive but in some patients it is the ONLY contact lens that can give them lasting comfort

CIBA VISION

• Focus Dailies: older material, but I have some patients that prefer this to the newer Daily Aqua Comfort Plus
• Daily Aqua Comfort Plus:  I like the idea behind this lens in that it has a great moisturizer for initial comfort, but by the end of the day, the lens is starting to lose its shelf life.  When you remove the lens at night, it should basically fall apart in your hands if you try to rub or clean it.  Remember, these are daily lenses, so you don't want your patients trying the stretch them longer.  They aren't made with that kind of oxygen level in mind.  This lens is designed to help patients avoid the temptation to abuse their lenses. It is comfortable for one day of wear.  And then it is a rock.
• parameters: +6.00 to -10.00 in 8.7 BC
• Focus Daily Toric: less expensive than the new Acuvue 1-Day Toric, but only goes up to -1.50 cyl

COOPER VISION

• Proclear 1-Day: the only lens FDA approved for dry eye (as the packaging so loudly announces).  The proclear daily is a great lens; remember the Daily Aqua Comfort Plus is going to start deteriorating at the end of the day on purpose, but the Proclear tends to keep comfortable longer into the evening.  They guarantee "12 hours of comfortable wearing time", which is quite a bit for some dry eye sufferers.
• parameters: -12.00 to +8.00 in 8.7 BC

• ClearSight Dailies: These are older dailies, and as such one of the most cost effective.  Not your first choice for dry eye sufferers, but a good option for dailies on a budget
• parameters: -10.00 to +6.00 in 8.7 BC

BAUSCH AND LAUMB

• SofLens Daily: to tell you the truth, I don't fit this lens often.  Some patients love it, but it isn't going to please everyone.  On the patients it works for, however, it works great.  They also have an astigmatism lens in up to -1.75 cyl (still about $1 a lens though)
• parameters: -9.00 to +6.50 in 8.6 BC