iRO Lenses™
If you’re color blind, a condition called color vision deficiency (CVD), you know how frustrating it can be. Depending on the type and extent of your color blindness, you may find it difficult to distinguish red from green at traffic lights or to fully appreciate a sunset.
Although there’s no cure for CVD, it can often be corrected with iRO lenses.
Over the past decade, research optometrists have developed a lens with specialty coatings that can provide color vision to nearly all people with CVD. These iRO lenses have been shown to be highly effective at correcting the most common forms of CVD, including red and green color confusion.
Color vision deficiency isn’t a form of blindness at all. It’s simply the inability to distinguish between distinct colors and shades of two specific colors — usually red and green.CVD affects around 8% of the male population and 0.5% of females. It’s caused mainly by genetics: women can be carriers of the CVD gene and pass it on to their sons even if they themselves have no signs of CVD.
Some medications as well as medical conditions like diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia, Alzheimer’s disease and chronic alcoholism can also result in problems with color differentiation.
How do iRO Lenses Work?
iRO lenses alter the spectrum of light that stimulates the cones, the color-sensitive part of the eye located in the retina — the nerve layer at the back of the eye. Normally, when light strikes the retinal cones, they secrete chemicals that create electrical signals transmitted through the optic nerve to the occipital cortex in the brain. This allows a person to see various colors.
The cones of people with CVD don’t send the correct nerve signals to the brain. That’s where iRO lenses can help.
iRO lenses alter the wavelength of light striking the retina and then allow the cones to send the correct nerve signal to the brain. The result is the ability to distinguish between colors and differentiate between shades and colors that were previously confused.
What Tests Are Required for iRO Lenses?
iRO lenses are made with special coatings and reflective membranes specially designed to treat specific types of CVD. To determine whether you could benefit from iRO lenses, and if so, what design is needed, your eye doctor may run several types of tests, including:
- Ishihara test – to assess if you can distinguish between various colors
- Computer-based CVD tests
- If any CVD is detected, a full eye exam to determine if you have any eye health problems
Just one or all of these tests may be needed to diagnose CVD and to prescribe iRO lenses.
What Types of iRO Lenses Are Available?
If your eye doctor diagnoses you with CVD and decides that iRO lenses are right for you, they will order iRO eyeglasses to help correct your color vision.
For those who usually wear prescription eyewear to correct refractive errors, clip-on iRO lenses can be attached to eyeglasses. People who wear contact lenses can wear iRO glasses in addition to their contacts.
If you have CVD and yearn to fully experience color vision, ask your eye doctor whether iRO lenses can fulfill your dream.