Prescribing soft contact lenses for astigmatism.

There have been continued improvements in toric soft lens design over the past three decades. Data that we have gathered from annual contact lens fitting surveys demonstrate a commensurate increase in toric lens fitting as a proportion of all soft lenses fitted. The current toric lens prescribing rate (34% of all lenses when cosmetic tints, monovision and multifocal lenses are ignored) is roughly equivalent to the rate that would be achieved if all cases of astigmatism 1.00D or more were fitted with toric lenses. Toric lenses tend to be fitted more to males and prescribed for monthly rather than daily replacement.