Soft contact lenses are made of soft, flexible plastics that allow oxygen to pass through to the cornea. Soft contact lenses may be easier to adjust to and are more comfortable than rigid gas permeable lenses. Newer soft lens materials include silicone-hydrogels to provide more oxygen to your eye while you wear your lenses.

Rigid gas permeable contact lenses (RGPs) are more durable and resistant to deposit buildup. They tend to be less expensive over the life of the lens since they last longer than soft lenses.

They are easier to handle and less likely to tear. However, they are not as comfortable initially as soft contacts and it may take a few weeks to get used to wearing RGPs, compared to several days for soft contacts.

Continuous wear contact lenses are available for overnight or continuous wear ranging from one to six nights or up to 30 days. Continuous wear contact lenses are usually soft contact lenses. They are made of flexible plastics that allow oxygen to pass through to the cornea. There are also a very few rigid gas permeable lenses that are designed and approved for overnight wear.

Length of continuous wear depends on lens type and your eye care professional's evaluation of your tolerance for overnight wear. It is important for the eyes to have a rest without lenses for at least one night following each scheduled removal.

The majority of soft contact lens wearers are prescribed some type of frequent replacement schedule. "Disposable," as defined by the FDA, means used once and discarded. With a true daily wear disposable schedule, a brand new pair of lenses is used each day. Some soft contact lenses are referred to as "disposable" by contact lens sellers, but actually, they are for frequent/planned replacement (for example, 7 days to 30 days) and then thrown away.

Astigmatism. Toric contact lenses are designed to correct the vision issues that arise from having a different curvature of the cornea. This is possible because a toric contact lens is shaped like a ring doughnut rather than a standard spherical lens. This creates different vertical and horizontal refractive powers that increase or decrease gradually as you move around the lens.

Multifocal. Multifocal contact lenses have been designed to correct the visual issue of presbyopia (Near and Farsighted). They blend together two or more prescriptions to allow your eyes the ability to focus on objects at all distances, giving you the freedom from wearing multifocal eyeglasses

Some contact lenses do not correct vision and are intended solely to change the appearance of the eye. These are sometimes called plano, zero-powered or non-corrective lenses. For example, they can temporarily change a brown-eyed person's eye color to blue, or make a person's eyes look weird by portraying Halloween themes. Even though these decorative lenses don't correct vision, they're regulated by the FDA, just like corrective contact lenses.