Surface wettability and hydrophilicity of soft contact lens materials, before and after wear.

Surface wettability and hydrophilicity of pHEMA soft contact lenses were investigated utilising adherent liquid/laser method (ALLM) and adherent liquid/balance method (ALBM). The measurements were carried out before and after periods of 15 min to 2 h contact lens wear. Following the lens removal, the wetting angle of the contact lens of the left eyes and hydrophilicity (maximum force) of the contact lens of the right eyes of the five subjects were immediately measured, respectively, without cleaning (one value for pre-lens wear and eight values for post-lens wear). The wettability of soft contact lenses significantly increased after 15 min of wearing and stabilised at a maximum level after 30 min in vivo. Contact lens hydrophilicity was found to decrease as the lens was worn. The reduction continued for up to 1.5 h of wearing, for male cases, and for the female cases, the reduction continued until the end of the experiment.