In manufacturing a contact lens, a contact lens mould arrangement in which the engagement between the mould halves is unconstrained and at least one mould half is sufficiently pliable or flexible that during the curing of the contact lens composition at one mold half may move or flex relative to the other to define a post-cure mould cavity of smaller volume than the precure mould cavity and during which the curvatures of the first and/or second mould surfaces are allowed to change provides a significantly more efficient manufacturing process and enables one mould half to be readily utilized as a blister cup for contact lens packaging.

The invention is related to a method for producing soft contact lenses comprises a silicone hydrogel lens body and a composite coating thereon. The composite coating comprises: a plasma base coating which is chemically-attached directly onto the surface of the silicone hydrogel contact lens and functions as a fail-proof measure for ensuring the hydrophobic silicone hydrogel lens material to be shielded from any exposure to ocular environments even after at least 30 days of daily uses including daily waring and daily cleaning/disinfecting; and a relatively-durable lubricious hydrogel top coating for ensuring wearing comfort. A method of the invention comprises forming a plasma-reactive hydrophilic polymer hybrid base coating having reactive functional groups on a silicone hydrogel contact lens and heating the silicone hydrogel contact lens with the hybrid base coating in an aqueous solution of a water-soluble and thermally crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material to form a stable lubricious hydrogel coating thereon. This method has a minimized adverse impact on the mechanical properties of silicone hydrogel lens body.

The present invention discloses a method for making an aspheric vision correction lens with controlled peripheral defocus. The present invention also discloses a vision correction lens worn outside the eye, an orthokeratology lens and an intraocular lens made according to the method. The present invention further discloses a diagnosis and treatment method that utilizes myopic peripheral defocus to control and retard myopia growth.

The invention provides a contact lens manufacturing method for cast-molding of silicone hydrogel contact lenses having enhanced oxygen permeability without adversely affecting desirable lens mechanical properties (e.g., modulus). A method of the invention comprises adding a small amount of a radical scavenger (e.g., H-TEMPO) in a polymerizable composition for cast-molding of SiHy contact lenses) to provide the resultant polymerizable composition with a bi-phase curing profile at a curing temperature of from about 45° C. to about 100° C. With such a bi-phase curing profile, the resultant polymerizable composition can be thermally cured at the curing temperature to form a SiHy contact lens having an oxygen permeability higher than that for a polymerizable composition having the substantially identical composition excepting being free of any radical scavenger.

The invention provides a method for determining whether a coated contact lens is completely covered by a covalently bonded coating, comprising the steps of (1) providing a coated polyvinylalcohol-based hydrogel contact lens wherein the polyvinylalcohol-based hydrogel lens body is composed of a polymer comprising at least 50% by mole of repeating units of vinyl alcohol, comprising a lubricious coating covalently attached to the lens body, (2) contacting the coated polyvinylalcohol-based hydrogel contact lens with an aqueous solution of a hydrophilic marker polymer for obtaining a treated contact lens, the hydrophilic marker polymer having reactive groups of ##STR00001##
in which R.sub.1 is methyl or ethyl and R.sub.2 is hydrogen or a C.sub.1-C.sub.4 alkyl and a dye tag moiety, at a pH of 4.0 or less for a contacting time to covalently attach the marker polymer onto the coated polyvinylalcohol-based hydrogel contact lens through 6-membered acetal rings, (3) determining whether marker polymer is (covalently) attached to the surface of the treated contact lens.

The invention is generally related to a method for producing coated silicone hydrogel contact lenses each of which has a hydrogel coating thereon and a relative high resistance to uptakes of polycationic antimicrobials as characterized by having a polyquaternium-1-uptake of less than 0.40 micrograms/lens. The hydrogel coating is formed by covalently attached a hydrophilic polymeric material onto a base coating of a polyanionic polymer on a SiHy contact lens. In this method, lower polyquaternium-1-uptake is achieved by using a rinse solution with a higher pH and/or a higher ionic strength (higher salt concentration) for rinsing a treated silicone hydrogel contact lens with a base coating of polyanionic polymer.

A method for making a hydrogel, photochromic contact lens including supplying a first lens composition comprising a contact lens monomer and a photochromic material to a front contact lens mold and supplying a second lens composition to said contact lens mold wherein the viscosity of said first composition is at least about 1000 cp greater than the viscosity of said second contact lens composition, and the makeup of said second composition matches the of said first composition to reduce strain between said compositions of the resulting lens.

The present invention discloses a method for making an aspheric vision correction lens with controlled peripheral defocus. The present invention also discloses a vision correction lens worn outside the eye, an orthokeratology lens and an intraocular lens made according to the method. The present invention further discloses a diagnosis and treatment method that utilizes myopic peripheral defocus to control and retard myopia growth.

The invention is related to a method for producing soft contact lenses comprises a silicone hydrogel lens body and a composite coating thereon. The composite coating comprises: a plasma base coating which is chemically-attached directly onto the surface of the silicone hydrogel contact lens and functions as a fail-proof measure for ensuring the hydrophobic silicone hydrogel lens material to be shielded from any exposure to ocular environments even after at least 30 days of daily uses including daily waring and daily cleaning/disinfecting; and a relatively-durable lubricious hydrogel top coating for ensuring wearing comfort. A method of the invention comprises forming a plasma-reactive hydrophilic polymer hybrid base coating having reactive functional groups on a silicone hydrogel contact lens and heating the silicone hydrogel contact lens with the hybrid base coating in an aqueous solution of a water-soluble and thermally crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material to form a stable lubricious hydrogel coating thereon. This method has a minimized adverse impact on the mechanical properties of silicone hydrogel lens body.

The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a medical device including a substrate and a hydrophilic polymer layer, including the steps of: placing the substrate in a solution containing a hydrophilic polymer and a normal salt in an amount ranging from 1.0 to 20% by mass; and heating the solution at a temperature ranging from 50° C. to 140° C. The present invention provides a simple method of manufacturing a medical device having excellent durability and imparted with hydrophilicity.