The History of

The notion of the contact lens has been around for centuries. In fact, the original idea of the a lens that covers your eye to help better focus light is associated with Leonardo de Vinci. Though their history starts with de Vinci, it would be some time before lenses as we know them were developed. The first actual contact lens, in fact, was a sclera lens that was made of glass and covered the entire eye. However, in the 1940s a lens was developed that simply covered the cornea making insertion and removal significantly easier. By the 1950s soft lenses made their way onto the marketplace and the history of the contact lens began to change at a rapid pace. In the next thirty years, soft lenses would catch on with the American population and rigid gas permeable lenses would be introduced.

All of a sudden the industry began to explode and by the 1980s and 1990s the world was ready for whatever the contact lens companies could manufacture and develop. The introduction of extended wear lenses made up for a large percentage of new lens wearers during the 1980s. Then, in the 1990s disposable lenses were introduced and wearing contact lenses got a lot easier and a lot cheaper. Include the development of colored lenses (which can dramatically change the color of your eyes) as well as lenses for astigmatism, bifocals, toric, and cosmetic lenses that can give your eyes a range of weird and wonderful looks, and you have the amazing history of the contact lens. However, it is not over yet because new technology and new inventions are being introduced regularly.