Contact Lens Clinic

Most prescriptions can be corrected with contact lenses, including astigmatism and presbyopia. Suitability depends on your prescription, the health of your cornea and tear film, and how you want to use the lenses. A fitting consultation assesses all of that before any lens is ordered.

Soft lenses are flexible and drape over the cornea, and suit most everyday prescriptions. Rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses are small, firm lenses custom-shaped to your cornea, which gives sharper vision on high or complex prescriptions. Scleral lenses are large-diameter rigid lenses that vault right over the cornea and rest on the white of the eye, so they suit irregular corneas and severe dry eye.

Keratoconus is one of the most common reasons people are fitted with specialty lenses. Because the cornea is irregular, glasses and standard soft lenses often cannot deliver clear vision, whereas RGP and scleral lenses create a smooth new optical surface over it. We also work with pellucid marginal degeneration, post-corneal graft, and post-LASIK or post-PRK ectasia.

The fitting runs across three stages. First, keratograph corneal topography mapping, a tear film assessment, and a review of your history and goals, after which we place your first trial lenses. Second, hands-on insertion and removal training until you are confident, then a period wearing the trial lenses at home. Third, a follow-up to check fit, vision, and corneal health, with adjustments as needed.

A new soft lens fit consultation is $100. A specialty fit for RGP or scleral lenses is $1,500, which covers all fitting consultations, trial lenses, your final lenses, and aftercare visits within the fitting period. Medicare rebates apply, up to $160.60 on a specialty fit depending on your prescription and history, and private health extras with optical cover can be claimed on the spot.

A spectacle prescription describes the power your eyes need; it does not describe the shape of your cornea, which is what determines whether a lens will sit correctly, move properly, and let enough oxygen through. Fitting measures that shape and verifies the lens on your eye, which is why contact lenses are fitted rather than simply prescribed.