Disability Glare Increased by Hydrogel Lens Wear

Decreased tolerance to glare is a common complaint in hydrogel contact lens wearers; yet, to our knowledge, the effect has never been quantified. By measuring increment thresholds as a function of background luminance and glare source location in two experimental conditions, while wearing a hydrogel contact lens correction and while wearing the spherical equivalent of their contact lens correction in a trial frame, we were able to quantify a significant contact lens-induced increase in glare-related visual disability. The effect is maximal at low background luminance levels, increases as the angle between the glare source and target decreases, and becomes lost in noise at high background luminance levels.