3D printed contact lenses for the management of color blindness

Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD), a congenital ocular disorder, affects one in 12 males and one in 200 females. CVD currently has no cure; hence, patients opt for wearables that could enhance their color perception such as color filtering glasses and lenses. Herein, we report 3D printing of contact lenses for color blindness management. We utilized an in situ synthesized poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) resin and wavelength selective filtering dyes. 3D printing has advantages as compared to conventional techniques due to its ease of manufacturing and high dimensional accuracy, making it a suitable platform for the fabrication of customized contact lenses for colorblindness. Moreover, to filter out the undesired wavelengths, two dyes (i.e., Atto 565 and 488) were utilized to functionalize in the contact lenses. These dyes have absorption bands in the range of 550–580 and 480–500 nm wavelength. The tinted contact lenses successfully blocked 80–90% of the undesired wavelengths, where CVD patients find difficulties in distinguishing shades of certain colors. Furthermore, no dye leakage was observed from the 3D printed hydrogel contact lenses. The fabricated contact lenses were further characterized by optical and physicochemical methods. Contact lenses were tested on colorblind patients using Ishihara test, and evident enhancements in the color perception of the participants were obtained.