There are three distinct types of colored lenses: enhancers, opaque lenses, and
light-filtering tints. You may also have heard of Visibility Tints or "Visi-tints",
however, these tints are provided for locating a dropped lens or to aid with insertion
or removal of the lens - they do not affect eye color and are commonly available
in most soft contact lenses.
These lenses are available in a variety of prescription types including plano (lenses
without vision correction), standard
spherical and toric
lenses. Even if you intend to purchase plano lenses, you will still need a current
contact lens prescription and fitting. Color contacts are also available in all
wearing schedules and replacement schedules (modalities).
Enhancers
As the name suggests, these lenses act to enhance your natural eye color.
Enhancers are most commonly worn by patients that have light-colored eyes and simply
want to accentuate their natural eye color. These lenses are available in a variety
of colors.
Opaque Lenses
These lenses are what most people associate with the term "color contacts". Opaque
lenses have solid, dark tints that are capable of radically changing the color of
your eyes (e.g. changing brown eyes to blue or vice versa) and are designed for
people with dark eyes. These contacts are available in an ever increasing assortment
of colors including blue, brown, green, gray, and violet.
Light-Filtering Tints
These contacts represent the latest development in color contact lens technology.
Light-filtering lenses are primarily designed for enhancing sports performance and
for other recreational uses. They are tinted in a manner that enhances certain colors
(such as the yellow of a tennis ball) while muting other extraneous or distracting
colors. Because of this, an object like a tennis ball is viewed in greater contrast
with respect to the background and is therefore more easily focused upon. NOTE: These
lenses should only be worn for the intended use and not for driving or operating
machinery.
