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A WIDE SELECTION OF CONTACT LENSES

These include disposable soft contact, bifocal/multifocal, toric, and colored lenses. Whether you wear daily, weekly or monthly disposables, or conventional (vial) lenses, check out our selection of lenses at Eastern Shore Eye Care.

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Home » Eyeglasses & Contacts » Contact Lenses in Fairhope, AL

Establishing a Good Contact Lens Fit

It starts with a thorough eye exam to ensure the most up-to-date prescription and rule out any  pre-existing conditions that could interfere with contact lens wear.

Fitting lenses to your lifestyle
We will determine the best fitting lens based on your lifestyle needs and the shape and health of your eye. In most cases, you’ll have the opportunity to try lenses on the same day as your exam. You can even go home with a few samples before making a final decision.

Follow up fittings
We follow up the initial fitting and then make any necessary changes in fit or materials to get you the best possible fit. We teach all our patients proper contact lens care and also possible consequences if proper care is not taken. Then we continue with long-term follow-up to monitor the condition of the lenses and to ensure that proper hygiene is being maintained.

Question #1: At what age can someone start wearing contact lenses?

Dr. Schrock: a good age to start is age 12 or 13, but we certainly do fit younger children. I preface that with saying I go largely with the parent’s recommendation. Whey the parent feels that their child is ready and mature enough for contact lenses, we are absolutely willing and ready to give it a try. Every now and then I will successfully fit a 9 or 10 year old for contacts.

Question #2: Are “seniors” good candidates for contact lenses?

Dr. Schrock: I usually don’t push it on seniors, unless they ask me. The vast majority of contact lens fits are between the ages of 12 and 50 years old. I have fit a few older than 50 years old, but not many. This is the presbyopic age.

I will certainly fit you with contacts if that is what you would like. In my opinion, at age 55 most people will get overall better vision with eye glasses rather than contact lenses.

I used to wear contacts myself until my 40’s and then I started using the bifocal contacts. I could see OK, but it’s not the same clear sharp vision as when I wear my progressive eyeglass lenses. I get excellent binocularity and crispness.

I fit people all the time for bifocal contacts, and we’ve been very successful, but it’s not for everybody. The patient needs to be really motivated and want it, and understand that it won’t be as crisp and clear as glasses because of the simultaneous vision you will get with an aspheric or aspheric type of bifocal contact lens.

Question #3: Do you recommend glasses over contacts for everyone?

Dr. Schrock: Definitely far-sighted people, hyperopes, are good candidates for bifocal contacts and are very happy with them. People who have a +1 +2, or +3 seem to do better with the contacts. For anyone with a small amount of nearsightedness, we won’t push contact lenses. If someone is a -1 myope, we might give them a contact for one eye, but typically their near vision and intermediate vision is very good. They will get quite a bit of pushback if you try to put them into a bifocal contact lens.

Question #4: Who would you not recommend contacts for?

Dr. Schrock: I don’t recommend contacts for people with drier eyes or those who have a lot of irritation.

Question #5: Do you fit contacts for people with astigmatism?

Dr. Schrock: Astigmatism is not a huge hurdle. If it’s too much, we might need to go to a rigid or bitoric lens, but most of the time we fit our astigmatic patients into a toric lens very successfully. It gets a bit more trickier once they get presbyopic simply because I am not real thrilled about the astigmatism lenses that are coupled with bifocal type lenses. They are available, but we’ve tried them and haven’t been so successful with those.

Question #6: What about people who are very active in sports?

Dr. Schrock: Sure. Contacts are a great option for people who play sports and or have an active lifestyle. I recommend soft or soft toric lenses over the rigid lenses for people who play sports since the hard lenses (rigid lenses) are more likely to pop out during sports.

Question #7: What if I was told I was not a good candidate in the past for contact lenses?

Dr. Schrock: Contact lens technology has certainly improved and we’ve seen some better stability with the toric lenses than in the past. When I started 25 years ago and we fit people in toric lenses, especially the smaller prescriptions, we weren’t very successful. Now we are much more successful with the smaller prescriptions, which is encouraging. We also have the silicon hydrogel contacts which increases the oxygen permeability. We are also slowly using more and more daily disposables for better eye hygiene.

Question#8: If I had an eye exam a few months ago, do I need a separate exam to get contact?

Dr. Schrock: If it has been more than six months then we will need to do another full eye exam. If it has only been six months or less, we probably won’t require a full eye exam, but we will need to check the refraction at least. I won’t need to dilate you, but we need to make sure we are starting with a reliable refraction before we put you in contact lenses.

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Our Recommended Brands:
  • Contact Lens Brand- Acuvue
  • Contact Lens Brand- Bausch & Lomb
  • Contact Lens Brand- CooperVision
  • Alcon

Our Contact Lens Services:

  • Thumbnail contact exam
    A routine exam won’t provide some of the measurements and testing that are required to determine if your eyes are suitable for contact lens wear, and to generate your contact lens Rx.
  • Thumbnail dispoasable
    Disposable contact lenses are a convenient alternative to hard lenses of the past and rigid gas permeable lenses of today, and considered to be far superior in comfort and wearability.
  • Thumbnail contacts senior
    If you need correction for presbyopia but dislike the idea of bifocal eyeglasses, you have many contact lens options.
  • happy teenagers 640.jpg
    Contact lenses are very popular with teenagers for a variety of reasons. For some, it's a matter of convenience. Others are more fashion conscious or just worried about their overall appearance and prefer contacts over glasses.
  • Thumbnail contacts 1
    These rigid lenses aren’t as popular or well-known as soft lenses, but they offer the advantages of durability, crisp vision and high oxygen permeability.
  • Woman Putting in Contact
    Challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, keratoconus and dry eyes needn’t be a barrier to contact lens wear, but they do require more time and patience.
  • Thumbnail contacts astig
    “I can’t wear soft contacts; I have astigmatism.” This once-true statement is now simply a myth.