In July, Johnson and Johnson Vision Care will launch its' first ever monthly disposable contact lens, Acuvue Vita.  For years Acuvue has enjoyed great brand recognition for providing comfortable contact lenses, but their benefits have been limited to 2 week and daily disposable contact lens wearers.  Roughly 40% of all contact lens wearers in the USA wear monthly disposable lenses, an arena where until now Acuvue has never had a lens to offer.  But with so many monthly contact lenses on the market, many wonder how will Acuvue Vita differentiate itself?

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What's Different:
Acuvue Vita is made from a brand new silicone hydrogel material called senofilcon C.  Compared to Acuvue Oasys, the company's popular 2 week disposable lens, Acuvue Vita contains 30% more polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP).  How does a contact lens stay hydrated and comfortable all day long? That's the job of PVP.  This molecule binds to both the lipid layer of our tear film (top coating) and the aqueous (water or middle portion) to help the contact lens integrate into our normal tear film matrix.  Many other monthly contact lenses are designed with coatings to block tear film lipids from adhering to the surface of the eye; Acuvue Vita doesn't block lipids, but instead integrates the lipid tear film layer into the lens itself so that it doesn't build up on the surface. That means less friction as your eyelid blinks over top of the contact lens, better vision as your contact lens stays clean of debris and build-up, and more comfort for you because the lens feels less like something in your eye and more like a layer of your own natural tear film.

This is a visual representation of how Acuvue lenses with PVP sit within the eye's natural tear film.  PVP in the lenses actually binds with both the lipid surface layer and the water aqueous layer of the tear film so that the contact lens is fully combined within your eye's natural tear film layer and not exposed to the open air or your eyelid as it blinks across the eye.  via

Is This Lens for You? 
According to internal research done by Johnson and Johnson Vision Care, 50% of monthly contact lens wearers experience discomfort with their contact lenses before the end of the month.  Their goal with Acuvue Vita is to introduce a lens that is initially comfortable, and doesn't deteriorate as quickly through week 3 and 4 as other lenses currently on the market.

Who is the ideal candidate for this lens? Acuvue Vita is designed to compete with other monthly lenses on the market, so if you wear monthly lenses and aren't happy with the comfort you are getting, this lens may help.  If you are a happy 2 week or daily disposable contact lens wearer, this lens is probably not for you.  A fresh lens every 2 weeks, or even better, every single day is always going to out perform disposing a contact lens just once a month.

Do you sleep in your contact lenses? Acuvue Vita is not approved for overnight wear and Johsnson and Johnson has no plan to submit to the FDA for this approval.  This lens is made to be taken out and cleaned every night.  If you want an overnight wear lens, the only Acuvue family lens currently approved for sleeping in is Acuvue Oasys with a 1 week disposal frequency.

The Details:
Base Curve: 2 options! 8.4 and 8.8 available
Diameter: 14.0 mm
UV-Blocking: Class 1 (> 90% UVA and > 99% UVB protection)
Oxygen Transmissibility (Dk/t): 147
Handling: Blue visibility tint and 123 inversion marker
Powers: +8.00 to -12.00 (half steps over +/-6.00)

Have you tried Vita yet?  I'd love to hear your opinions below!

The product has launched in Europe, but not yet in America.  Via

We are merely months away from the American launch of another new daily disposable product, this time courtesy Ciba Vision!  Daily disposable products are the major forces on company's pipelines these days, with Bausch and Lomb's new Biotrue daily launching earlier this year, and Cooper Vision's Proclear 1-Day Multifocal launching last fall.  For contact lens wearers suffering from dry eye, the new daily materials offer a reason to hope!

What makes the new DAILIES TOTAL 1 product different?  Ciba reports that this lens is the first "water gradient" technology on the market.  The daily is made from a new silicone hydrogel material called delefilcon A.  At the central core the lens has only a 33% water content, allowing for record high oxygen transmissibility (a stunning 156 Dk/t!).  But this relatively low water content would have meant questionable comfort as the lens drew water from the eye during the course of the day.  The solution?  The water content of the lens increases gradually towards the front and back surface of the daily lens.  At the surface of the lens, the water content reaches 80%, which matches the water content of the cornea.  The theory is that if the contact lens and the cornea have the same water content, there will be less drawing of water from the eye into the lens, meaning better end of day comfort.  Another plus?  The lens has an 8.5 base curve, whose closer fit to the eye can offer better initial comfort to the average myopic lens wearer with steeper corneal curvature.

We are hoping to see these lenses available in our office later this fall, and can't wait to see the results.  As with any product, this lens may or may not work for your particular needs, but it is great to see companies focusing so much on combating dryness and switching concentration to daily disposable products which offer the best in comfort and safety to all contact lens wearers!