What Is the Process for Making Contact Lenses?
“My name is Doctor Alan Watson. I’m an Ophthalmologist in St. Joseph, Missouri and we’re here today to talk about eye problems. Contact lenses are changed over the years. The first contact lenses were seen in pilots of German bi-planes back in World War I. People that were flying planes back then had trouble with using their goggles because their glasses would fog up and they couldn’t see how to fly their bi-plane. And so, some German ophthalmologist back in World War I developed a lens that the pilot could put on their eye and provide correction for their near sightedness or astigmatism. Those first contact lenses were actually made out of glass, they were quite large, and as you can probably well imagine, very uncomfortable. But it did get the pilot to where he could wear his goggles and protect his eye and see in adverse situations. Over time, that material became replaced by what’s called polymethymethacrylate or PMMA. And that was the hard contact lens that was very durable, but i
