Have you been wearing the same contact lenses for the last few years? If so, it might be time for a change.

Contact lens manufacturers constantly work on improving contact lenses. The goal is to produce lenses that you can wear all day long without any danger or discomfort to your eyes. Contact lens quality has seriously improved over the last few years. See how modern contact lenses can help your eyes to feel and see better.

30 days wear contact lenses

How would you like to put your contact lenses in your eyes in the morning and not worrying about them for the next 30 days? Sounds almost too good to be true, but there are contacts that you can safely wear for a month.

Most contact lenses can be worn for no longer than 8-10 hours in a row because the lens blocks the flow of oxygen to your eyes. This can cause irritation and promote bacterial infection.

However, the new generation of lenses, made from a different material (silicone hydrogel lenses), have much higher oxygen permeability. For example, Focus Day and Night lets through 6 times more oxygen than conventional contacts. With more oxygen reaching your eyes, wearing contact lenses for 30 days becomes a safe option.

There are two lenses that are FDA approved for continuous wear for up to 30 days - Focus Night and Day by Ciba Vision and Pure Vision by Bausch & Lomb.

The downside of extended wear contacts is that if you live or work in a dusty or smoky environment, tiny particles will get into your eyes, so the lenses wont feel comfortable for several days.

Silicon-hydrogel contacts

Discomfort and dry eyes are constant complaints among contact lens wearers. Contact lens manufacturers worked very hard on developing lenses that dont dry your eyes, even by the end of the day. The result of this research is silicon hydrogel contact lenses. You can wear them from the early morning till midnight and they feel comfortable all day long.

One of the most successful silicone hydrogel contacts is new Acuvue Oasis. It is made of senofilcon A, which is a new silicone hydrogel material that - according to the manufacturer - is 50 percent smoother than other silicone hydrogel contacts. There is also a special moisture-rich wetting agent, called Hydraclear Plus, for additional comfort. Another comfortable silicon hydrogel contact lens is O2Optix. It is a 2 week disposable lens which you can occasionally leave in overnight. O2Optix is also quite affordable - especially if you buy it online with a discount.

1 day disposable contact lenses

Even though cleaning contact lenses takes only a minute, many people find it a hassle. Now, when the production costs of contact lenses has significantly decreased, daily disposable contacts have become affordable and very popular.

Daily disposable lenses have a number of advantages:

• the lens is fresh and sterile every morning, when you put it in
• there is no hassle with cleaning and storing your contact lenses
• no storage or cleaning solution is required, so you save on contact lens caring products
• there is no protein build ups on the lens
• they are ideal for people with allergies

The majority of contact lens manufacturers have lines of daily disposable contacts. The most popular disposable lenses are 1 Day Acuvue and Focus Dailies.

If you are generally happy with the lenses you wear now, but wish for even more comfort and less hassle, ask your doctor if he or she can switch you to daily disposable contacts from the same brand.

Color contact lenses - the most popular contacts on the market

Did you ever think that you can kill two birds with one stone, and change your eye color while correcting your vision? If you have to wear contact lenses anyway, try color contacts. Recently developed color contact lenses can give you a vivid, yet natural, look.

You can get two types of color contacts - enhancement color lenses, which are half transparent and designed to enrich your natural color; and opaque lenses, which can change your color completely, even if you have dark eyes.

Modern color contacts even come as 2 week and 1 month disposables.

The most popular color lens collections are:

• Freshlook Colorblends to change color of dark or light eyes
• Freshlook Radiance - enhancement lenses to make your eyes sparkly
• Acuvue 2 Color opaque and enhancement lenses
• Focus Softcolors (2 weeks and monthly disposable) - enhancement lenses to brighten light eyes and give them a tint of blue, green or aqua