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Contact Lenses Direct

Why pay high prices for contact lenses? We have been supplying replacement mail order lenses since 1996.

Lenses are shipped from an Australian wholesaler directly to your mailbox, within Australia, or by insured airmail to New Zealand or worldwide. All lenses are new and first quality and will be replaced if found to be defective.

Delivery is $AU 13.50 insured airmail, normally 10 days from order to NZ, or 2 weeks to other overseas countries. Within Australia 2-5 days delivery for $AU 6.00.

Enter here for our full price list and order form for all lenses, with a secure page following for the credit card details. Visa, MasterCard or Amex are accepted for all orders. Look for confirmation within 24 hours by email.

For more information about coloured lenses check out Ciba Freshlook. (in a new window)

Don't use Contact Lenses, but would like to?

You need to visit your local optometrist or optician, who will measure your eyes, supply you with a prescription and your first pair of contact lenses and teach you how to fit and care for the lenses. This also applies if you want plano (non corrective) lenses, such as tinted lenses.

You can then save on replacement lenses by ordering through Contact Lenses Direct. Keep the packages that the lenses came in, or ask for a written copy of your lens prescription. These details are required with the order.

Note that we offer a replacement lens service, we do not advise on the suitability of different lenses as all lens fitting requires aftercare visits to check on the fit and to ensure that you don't harm your eyes. We recommend an annual eye check at your optometrist for all lens wearers.

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The new Acuvue Define Lenses.

J&J's 1st daily disposable cosmetic contact lens designed to enhance the beauty of eyes in a subtle and natural way. Makes the eyes look bigger, brighter and more beautiful so naturally that nobody will know your secret.

Features a unique and defined dark ring that enhances and darkens the iris (the coloured part of the eye) thereby making the eyes bigger, brighter and better defined. These lenses particularly suit dark eyes and don't work well for light eyes. Product information.

What are those extra numbers on Toric lenses?

Toric lenses correct for an eye condition known as astigmatism. Normally, a spherical contact lens can correct a focussing problem and only the lens power is specified, such as -1.75 or +2.50. (A base curve BC is always specified, so that the lens matches the curve of the cornea). A lens that will correct vision in someone with astigmatism requires an additional curve, aligned at the correct angle. These are the cylinder power and axis numbers. To work correctly, the lens must stay aligned in the eye, and the lenses may be weighted or thicker at the bottom. A dot or other mark will usually show the top of the lens when inserting them. The lens design will ensure that the lens stays aligned.

Here is a typical toric lens prescription:

name: Acuvue Advance for Astigmatism 6-pack
manufacturer: Johnson & Johnson
attributes:
Tint: Light blue handling tint
Diameter: 14.5
Base: 8.6
Cyl Axis: 140
Cyl Power: -0.75
Power : -1.50

As these toric lenses are more complex to manufacture, they cost more than regular lenses.

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Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses

Silicone Hydrogel contact lenses are the newest lens materials now on the market. These super-permeable materials allow the transmission of unprecedented amounts of oxygen to the cornea. Previous lens wearers have found these lenses more comfortable and wearable than their previous versions. Silicone Hydrogel has made contact lenses available to people that could not comfortably wear contact lenses in the past.

Because the silicone allows so much more oxygen to pass through the lens, these lenses breathe up to seven times more oxygen than previous contact lenses.

The current brands of silicone hydrogel lenses available are:

Ciba Focus Night & Day which is approved for 30 day continuous wear. (The biggest seller at www.lensesnz.com).
Ciba’s O2 Optix which is approved for 6 days continuous wear or 2 weeks daily wear. These are to be renamed 'Air Optix' during 2008.
Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision which is approved for 30 days continuous wear.
Bausch & Lomb's PureVision Toric is a silicone hydrogel toric lens approved for 30 days extended wear use.
Johnson & Johnson’s Acuvue Oasys which is approved for 2 week daily wear use or 6 night extended wear and is designed to be more moist than the others and is therefore beneficial for people who have dry eyes.
Johnson & Johnson’s Acuvue Advance is a 2 week disposable.
Acuvue Advance For Astigmatism – currently approved as a 2 week daily wear lens.

If you would like to try different types of lenses, ask your optometrist for a trial fit at your next eye checkup. Note: with these continuous wear lenses it is important to remove them as instructed by your optometrist or if your eyes become red or irritated. Swimming and smoking are risk factors. Also note that wearing a contact lens overnight gives a 20-times higher risk of a serious eye infection compared with wearing contact lenses during the day and removing and cleaning them at night.

Bifocal Contact Lenses

Once you reach 40, it will soon become apparent that you can no longer focus on close objects or text, and unless your arms are going to grow longer, some sort of close vision correction is required, such as reading glasses.

Here's a tip, if you already wear contact lenses to correct your long distance vision, you may well be able to use some +1.50 reading glasses from the $2 shop! Leave a few sets around the house in handy locations!

There are three different types of bifocal contact lenses.

Concentric Contact Lenses e.g. Acuvue Bifocal. These contacts have a series of rings with different prescriptions in a bulls eye pattern in which they alternate in strength from near to far.
Aspheric Multifocal Contact Lens e.g. Focus Monthly Progressives, Proclear Compatibles Multifocal, Purevision Multifocal, Soflens Multifocal. (Purevision is the only silicone hydrogel lens at present). This design works more like progressive eyeglass lenses, with different prescriptive powers located across the lens in a smooth transition, giving clear vision at all distances. The lens prescriptions all have a 'add' parameter which specifies the strength of the closeup correction.
Translating Contact Lenses, mostly gas permeable rigid lenses. These allow your pupil to alternate between the two powers as you look upward and downward, just like bifocal spectacles. They rely on a weighted section to stop them rotating, and need to be free on your eye so that the lens shifts and you look through the lower part of the lens if you look down.

There is also what is called monovision, where one eye has an 'underprescribed' power and is not so sharp in long distance. This eye works better for close vision and your brain cleverly compensates and gives you sharper close vision as well as acceptable long vision. Monovision has quite a high success rate and is worth trying first.

The best way to try these lenses is with trial lenses from your optometrist, as they all seem to have some undesirable side effects such as less sharp long distance or night vision, haloes or ghosting.

Contact Us

DA & JM St George, 33 David Ave, Manurewa, Auckland 2102, New Zealand, Ph +64 9 266 9593.

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