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Since the invention of contact lenses in the second half of the twentieth century, the advancements in the quality, feel, and actual look of lenses have come a long way.

Great strides were made in contact lens development during the last few decades. The first major development occurred when manufacturers introduced soft contact lenses with their extra comfortable fit, their low cost, and their unmatched reliability. The next major develpment came with disposable contact lenses and toric lenses, which has enabled more and more people to enjoy the benefits of corrective contact lenses.

The latest and wildest fad to hit the contact lens market came with the introduction of colored contact lenses. With colored lenses people get a chance to enhance or completely change the color of their eyes. You have the option to give yourself a permanent look change, or you can frequently change it to match the clothing you are wearing on that particular day.

Colored contact lenses are available to be worn by people who do not need contacts lenses to actually correct their vision. These lenses are referred to as plano lenses, meaning lenses with no corrective power that are worn for cosmetic purposes only. But they are also available for those people that actually need contact lenses for vision problems like astigmatism or for vision correction with bifocal lenses. You can also use them if you require frequently replaced disposable contact lenses.

Contact lens users can choose from four types of colored lenses. The choices include visibility tint, enhancement tint, opaque-color tint and then also light-filtering tint lenses.

When using Visibility tint colored contacts you look for comfort of use. These lenses come with a light green or blue tint that is solely added to the lenses to make them easily locatable when out of your eyes, for example when they are accidentally dropped. The light blue or green tint is not visible to the wearer of the lenses and will also not change the color of their eyes.

Colored contacts with enhancement tint, on the other hand, has a see-through tint that is much darker. These lenses are not used to completely change the color of the eyes, only to enhance the existing color. Doctors usually recommend these contacts for people who feel that the natural color of their eyes is too light and they just want to deepen the color for cosmetic purposes.

The last two types of colored contacts can dramatically change your natural eye color or enhance your vision. They are not solely worn for cosmetic purposes but the cosmetic effect may form part of the motivation to purchase these lenses. A contact lens prescription is still required in some cases to order these lenses, even if a power of 0.00, i.e. no corrective action, is selected. Opaque color lenses can completely change your eye color from brown to blue and blue to purple. Even brown eyes can be changed to blue. These lenses can be used as a fashion statement or just to reflect your mood.

Light-filtering contacts are used to enhance your vision. These lenses can also alter the outward appearance of the eye, however they actually alter what the wearer sees as well. They can give amazing enhancement to certain colors in your field of view, so that for example a golf ball or tennis ball stands out more clearly, making them easier to hit. The light-filtering tint enhances the chosen color such as yellow by dulling the other colors in the visual spectrum.

High performance colored contact lenses have matured and now truly represent the next generation in corrective eyewear.