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DISCLAIMER: I am not an eye doctor and I don’t really know anything about eyes so do not take any of my posts about contact lenses as having any scientific validity. These are purely my non-scientific observations as a typical contact lens consumer.

As you know from one of my recent posts, I’ve been experimenting with different contact lenses. My trials up to this point have been focused on these three lenses (in current order of preference):

- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys

I saw my eye doctor friend again last night and she had three more brands of contact lenses for me to try out! Before I try those out, I should try to figure out if I like the O2 Optix or Acuvue Advance more, so I’m going to try the Acuvue Advance for a week. After that, I’m going to try the following:

- CIBA Vision Air Optix Aqua
- CooperVision Avaira
- CooperVision Biofinity

My eye doctor friend thinks that the higher frequency replacement lenses are better in terms of eye health, since it’s getting a clean lens into your eye more often. Daily lenses are way too expensive for me to wear every day, so it’s really down to the 2 week disposable vs. the monthly disposables. I’ll most likely go with a 2 week disposable, which from my lists above are:

- CIBA Vision O2 Optix
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Advance
- Johnson and Johnson Acuvue Oasys
- CooperVision Avaira

There are a lot of factors into selecting a contact lens but the most important should probably be fit and comfort. These silicone hydrogels have varying levels of oxygen permeability but in the end, the differences between silicone hydrogels are minimal compared to the leap in oxygen permeability from conventional hydrogels (e.g. Acuvue 2), I don’t think it’s important to choose one silicone hydrogel over another based on oxygen permeability.

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I went to the eye doctor recently for an eye exam. One of the nice things about having an eye doctor who is a friend is that she is willing to indulge my obsession with trying out different consumer products.

I’ve always worn Johnson and Johnson Acuvue lenses. I started out with the Acuvue 2 lenses then upgraded to the Acuvue Advance. When the Oasys came out, I tried them but didn’t think they were different enough from the Advance to justify its higher prices. However, with the current rebate promotion that Johnson and Johnson is doing now on the Oasys lenses ($100 rebate on 8 boxes for new Acuvue Oasys wearers), I was willing to give the Oasys a shot, since after the rebate, it would actually make them cheaper than the Advance.

Also, whenever I go over to my friend’s place, I read through her optometry magazines; they’re actually really interesting! They have reviews on different contact lenses and lens solutions. I don’t know if Consumer Reports also does these sort of reviews, but it’s sort of a shame that more people aren’t aware that these types of reviews exist. Anyway, that’s how I found out about the Ciba Vision O2 Optix. Johnson and Johnson is like the Microsoft of the contact lens industry — most people feel no reason to try anything other than Acuvue lenses. However, I’m always willing to give the little guy a shot, so I told my eye doctor friend that I wanted to try to O2 Optix, even though I was pretty happy with the Advance.

I started wearing the Acuvue Oasys last week; for some reason, my eyes felt dryer than when I wore the Advance. I don’t know if that was a result of air conditioning or some other external factor. At the end of the week, I started wearing the O2 Optix sample that my eye doctor friend gave me. My eyes definitely felt less dry with the O2 Optix, so I think my eyes definitely must not have liked the Oasys for some reason.

Between the Acuvue Oasys and the O2 Optix, the O2 Optix wins for me. However, I’m not quite done. As I was looking for more information on the O2 Optix lenses, I discovered that Ciba Vision seems to be more heavily promoting their Air Optix Aqua lens, which is a monthly replacement silicon hydrogel (as opposed to the O2 Optix, which is a two week replacement lens). It’s really hard to find any information on what the differences are between the O2 Optix and the Air Optix Aqua — I wish Ciba Vision provided a comparison chart on their website, but they don’t.

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