The world practice shows that spectacles and lenses are not two opposite tools, but tools, complementing each other, and their joint use (in case of absence of contra-indication of their bearing) provide satisfaction of a patient (owing to his good eyesight and healthy eyes).
Generally, there is a growth of soft contact lenses market, especially growth of sales of multi-focal lenses and lenses for scheduled change. As to gas-permeable lenses market, the European countries need to be reviewed separately. For instance, in France, Spain and United Kingdom their sales have grown, while in other countries their sales have decreased.
New silicon-hydrogel lenses have gained approval for continuous use. It means that you can wear them for 30 days and nights without taking them off, and after that the lenses need to be renewed. Such lenses are safe for bearing and they are well known among those users of contact lenses, who need comfort and do not want to look after them.
Also new designs were developed for lenses, used in case of presbyopia and keratoconus. Many laboratories produce lenses with different kinds of multi-focal and bi-focal designs, which is easy to choose for patients, and which perform good results in many cases, providing the excellent eyesight for long and short distances.
For long time period hard lenses had been the only kind of contact lenses, available for customers. On appearing of soft contact lenses in the eyesight correction market, which occurred in the second half of XX century, hard lenses were forced off the market. The second birth of hard lenses happened with the advent of hard gas-permeable lenses, which now are called gas-permeable contact lenses (GCL). The development of soft contact lenses by "Bausch & Lomb" became turning moment in the history of optics.
The birth date of "Bausch & Lomb" Company is believed to be year 1853, when German immigrant John Jacob Bausch begun sale of frames. When he needed additional funds, he borrowed 60 dollars from his friend Henry Lomb. Their business had success and in 1853 they became partners. The "Bausch & Lomb" Company became well-known by 1878 owing to its microcosms. Taking into consideration the high demand on "Bausch & Lomb" production, ANAR OPTIK Company decided to become it's distributor.