This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
If the annals of pseudoscience were ever to be recorded, a large section would have to be set aside for the unsupported pronouncements of manufacturers and others in the field of corneal lenses. At this early stage it is already possible to sift some fact from much fancy, and a new textbook has clarified many issues in this relatively new area of eye practice.
Repeated assertions have culminated in the general assumption of a need for routine use of a wetting solution before the insertion of contact lenses. So firmly has this idea become established that the sales of contact lens adjuncts, including wetting and soaking solutions, may this year exceed the multimillion-dollar proceeds from the sales of contact lenses themselves.
In view of the fact that methyl methacrylate absorbs water to a small degree, one may wonder why it is necessary to use a wetting solution at all. To