Color Vision Deficiency Contacts
People with normal vision have special vision receptor cells called “cones” inside their eyes, which reacts to light of various hues and allow the visual system to process colors vision. These are missing or altered in people with color vision deficiency. Complete color blindness is rare; most people can see color but have difficulty distinguishing between some colors or shades of colors.
What causes Color Vision Deficiency?
Color vision deficiency does have a genetic component (see below), but it can also be acquired. Environmental factors such as industrial pollutants and sunlight have been linked to colorblindness. More commonly, acquired color vision deficiency is the result of eye conditions such as diabetes or glaucoma, or as a result of taking certain medications.
Genetic color vision deficiency is a recessive trait found on the X chromosome, of which women have 2 and men have 1. So, women with 1 healthy color vision gene and one unhealthy color vision gene can have fully functional color vision, but may pass on color blindness to half their sons. That’s why color vision deficiency is more common in men than women.
Contact Lenses for Color Blindness
X-Chrome Color Vision Enhancement Lenses are specialty contact lenses that alter the way color deficient people see and live. These revolutionary contact lenses are designed to significantly enhance color discrimination in color deficient users, allowing them to fulfill many occupational, leisure and educational goals, which were otherwise impossible with color blindness.
Will I Get Perfect Color Vision?
While the contact lenses do not provide perfect color vision, they allow people who have trouble distinguishing colors to see differences that previously looked similar. These new color enhancement lenses also allow patients to match colors better.
Make an appointment with our eye doctor at Galbracht Eyecare to discuss your options.
