Contact Lenses Forum

A contact lens (also known simply as a contact) is a corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic lens usually placed on the cornea of the eye. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with describing and sketching the first ideas for contact lenses in 1508[citation needed], but it was more than 300 years later before contact lenses were actually fabricated and worn on the eye. Modern soft contact lenses were invented by the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle and his assistant Drahoslav Lím, who also invented the first gel used for their production.

Some soft contact lenses are tinted a faint blue to make them more visible when immersed in cleaning and storage solutions. Some cosmetic lenses are deliberately colored to alter the appearance of the eye. Some lenses now have a UV protection surface treatment to reduce UV damage to the eye's natural lens.

Contact lenses are originally intended for corrective purposes: Topic contact lenses for treatment of astigmatism. Now they make cool contact lenses that are also corrective and therapeutic at the same time.