Abstract
Purpose: :
Correcting the peripheral field is potentially important for vision, for influencing refractive development, and for diagnostic imaging of the retina. We used a new technique called ocular wavefront tomography (OWT) (Wei and Thibos, Opt. Express 2008) to optimize the design of aspheric contact lenses to correct the eye’s optical refractive errors over a wide field of view.
Methods: :
OWT is a technique for customizing a multi-surface model eye to mimic the expected off-axis wavefront aberrations for an individual eye. This technique was adapted for contact lens design by establishing clear design goals for the eye + contact lens system. To demonstrate the method we optimized the shape of an aspheric contact lens to correct a wide angle model eye (Escudero-Sanz et al, JOSA-A (1999)) with three possible levels of foveal myopia (-2D, -4D, and -6D). Two strategies for correction reflected alternative design goals: (1) to fully correct central vision while also improving optical quality peripherally to enhance vision and retinal imaging, or (2) fully correct central vision while introducing a degree of peripheral myopia relative to central vision in order to slow myopia progression.
Results: :
The OWT technique successfully produced different contact lens designs to achieve different refractive states for the eye over a wide field of view. In addition to correcting foveal vision, the optimized contact lens designs either (1) improved the retinal image quality across the whole visual field significantly to obtain a visual performance benefit or (2) produced the desired level of myopia in the peripheral field to obtain a refractive development benefit.
Conclusions: :
OWT is capable of optimizing the design of contact lenses to achieve a desired level of peripheral refractive error and optical quality over a wide field of view.
Keywords: contact lens • aberrations • optical properties