A new brand of contact lenses is emerging called Aveo soft contact lenses.
From Gloves to Contact Lenses
The maker of these Aveo contact lenses is SuperVision, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supermax. If Supermax sounds familiar to you, that’s because they have been around for a long time making several commonplace household products such as latex gloves, biodegradable sponges, earloop masks, tray and headrest covers, dental bibs, etc.
Contact lenses are not exactly in the same category as many of the other products Supermax is known for. So why did they decide to venture into contact lenses? Let’s allow Supermax’s managing director Datuk Seri Stanley Thai to explain:
Latex glove manufacturing will continue to be our main stronghold. However, I cannot guarantee that in the next 30 years, the glove industry would have the same growth as the last 30 years.
It is highly important for us to find another sustainable revenue stream to complement our glove manufacturing segment, which will remain as our primary top line contributor.
The contact lens business is the one.
Read more quotes from Mr. Thai here.
Contact lenses is an industry that is projected to do nothing but grow over the next decade, so getting into the game now is not a bad decision at all by Supermax.
Aveo Contact Lenses
SuperVision has put out 3 different brands of Aveo contact lenses. They are:
Aveo 1-Day
Material: Omafilcon A
Replacement Schedule: 1 Day
Water Content: 58%
Base Curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm
Center Thickness: 0.07 mm (@-3.00D)
Power (Sph)
-0.50D to -6.00D (in 0.25D increments)
-6.50D to -10.00D (in 0.50D increments)
+0.50D to +4.00D (in 0.25D increments)
+4.50D to +6.00D (in 0.50D increments)
Oxygen Transmissibility (Dk/t): 36.7
UV Blocking: Yes
Visibility Tint: Light Blue
Aveo 2-Weeks
Material: Omafilcon A
Replacement Schedule: 2 Weeks
Water Content: 55%
Base Curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm
Center Thickness: 0.079 mm (@-3.00D)
Power (Sph)
-0.50D to -6.00D (in 0.25D increments)
-6.50D to -10.00D (in 0.50D increments)
+0.50D to +4.00D (in 0.25D increments)
+4.50D to +6.00D (in 0.50D increments)
Oxygen Transmissibility (Dk/t): 27.5
UV Blocking: Yes
Visibility Tint: Light Blue
Aveo 1-Month
Material: Omafilcon A
Replacement Schedule: 30 Days
Water Content: 50%
Base Curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm
Center Thickness: 0.075 mm (@-3.00D)
Power (Sph)
-0.50D to -6.00D (in 0.25D increments)
-6.50D to -10.00D (in 0.50D increments)
+0.50D to +4.00D (in 0.25D increments)
+4.50D to +6.00D (in 0.50D increments)
Oxygen Transmissibility (Dk/t): 23.8
UV Blocking: Yes
Visibility Tint: Light Blue
Where Are Aveo Lenses Sold?
So far, Aveo lenses are only sold in South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Hong Kong. But that’s just the beginning. Later this year (2017), SuperVision plans on spreading their lenses to the UK, United States, Canada and Mexico, and by 2018 they plan to spread to Japan.
Why Care About Aveo Contact Lenses?
Once Aveo contact lenses become available in the North American market, they promise to be a high-quality, low-cost alternative to the more conventional mainstream contact lens brands.
Supermax wants their contact lenses to be competitive with the big-4 contact lens giants: CooperVision, Alcon, Johnson & Johnson, and Bauch + Lomb.
From the point of view of the contact lens consumer, the more competition there is, the better, as competition is the primary driver of lower prices for contact lenses.
Particularly, the Aveo 1-day lenses should be a pretty cheap daily disposable alternative in a market full of overpriced daily contact lenses.
Quality of Aveo Contact Lenses
The Aveo website doesn’t offer up many details about the manufacturing process of their lenses, but here’s what we do know.
They are made with the material omafilcon A. This is a good quality contact lens that has been used by many other brands, most notably in the Proclear family of contact lenses.
Omafilcon A is a conventional hydrogel, as opposed to a silicone hydrogel. That means that although it may not be as breathable (but still considered safe) as most other newer lenses on the market, contact lenses made from these materials are considered more comfortable by most.
What’s the Dk/t Values?
A question that I had while reviewing these lenses is in regards to their Dk/t values. The Dk/t is a measure of how breathable contact lenses are. The higher the Dk/t number, the more breathable the contact lenses are.
Typically, the longer a contact lens is worn before it is thrown out, the higher the Dk/t should be. Monthly contact lenses should have higher Dk/t than bi-weekly contact lenses, and bi-weekly contact lenses should have a higher Dk/t than daily contact lenses.
Curiously enough, it seems that in the case of Aveo contact lenses, the reverse it true. For some reason, it seems that their 1-day lenses have the highest Dk/t, and their monthly lens has the lowest Dk/t. If anybody has any idea why this would be, please let me know in the comments below.
The Importance of UV Protection
All 3 versions of Aveo contact lenses have built in UV protection This is an important feature for any contact lens brand, and one that you should your contact lenses have before you choose them.
Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how UV rays from the sun affect the long-term health of our eyes, but it doesn’t take very long to realize just how important it is.
Prolonged exposure to UV rays will increase your risk of several eye conditions, most notably cataracts and macular degeneration, both of which significantly affect your vision.
Additional negative effects of UV rays to your eyes include various corneal dystrophies, pterygiums, pinguecula, wrinkles and cancerous growths.
It is highly recommended that all who wear contact lenses choose a brand that absorbs and block dangerous UV rays from entering the eyes.
Summary
If you haven’t heard much about Aveo soft contact lenses yet, don’t worry, you will soon. This is a brand that is poised to grab a significant share of the soft contact lens market in the years to come.
Even if you don’t end up ever wearing Aveo soft contact lenses, their presence alone in the contact lens market may end up benefitting you if they manage to give the big-4 contact lens giants a good run for their money.
Only time will tell, so stay tuned!
If you have any questions or experience with Aveo contact lenses, please share your thoughts below!
13 Responses
heng
The packaging really look less attractive. It is does not look like a premium product. Hope they can improve it.
Julie
Yes, I completely agree! Although packaging doesn’t impact the wearing experience, it absolutely impacts the overall user experience. After all, we have to keep those boxes in our homes somewhere. Why not make them look appealing, right?
Cecile
Thanks for your review of our Aveo contacts, Julie!
I wanted to address your question about the Dk/t values of our lenses. As it relates to hydrogel lenses, oxygen permeates through the water content in the lens. Our dailies have 58% water content for optimal comfort, and our monthlies have 50% water content for optimal strength (so that they do not easily tear and actually last a month with proper cleaning). Since our dailies have higher water content than do our monthlies, the Dk/t value of our dailies is higher than that of our monthlies.
The opposite may be true for silicone hydrogel lenses as oxygen permeates primarily through the silicone material in the lens. In the case of silicone hydrogel lenses, higher water content means less silicone material and a lower Dk/t value.
I hope this provides more clarity (pun intended) about the high levels of comfort and quality of our Aveo contacts!
Julie
Hi Cecile!
Wow, thank you for such a great explanation :)
I have another question for you if you don’t mind!
Since writing this article, I have started seeing ads for Aveo contact lenses on YouTube. In that ads it says that Aveo contact lenses are only available at Parana Lentes. Will this always be the case or will we eventually see them sold on websites based in the USA?
Cecile
They will be available in the US soon. Stay tuned!
Chris
On the aveovision.com website, it says the brand for the two-week and one-month lens is Filcon II 2, not Omafilcon A. As mentioned by Cecile, that would explain the difference in water content and dk/t.
Julie
That’s a great observation Chris, thanks!
tony
What is the difference between a hydrogel and silicone hydrogel contact lens? especially in terms of comfort?
Julie
Hi Tony, thanks for the question.
This is a difficult question to tackle because the presence or absence of silicone in contact lens materials is just 1 of many different components of what makes up a contact lens.
If we ignore everything except the presence/absence of silicone, we can make a few general statements. A silicone hydrogel allows more oxygen to freely flow through the contact lens compared to a conventional hydrogel. On the other hand, the presence of silicone in a contact lens makes the contact lens stiffer and less comfortable on the eyes.
However, what contact lens manufacturers have figured out since the development of silicone hydrogels is how to keep the advantages of silicone while diminishing the negative effects. For that reason, newer silicone hydrogel contact lenses tend to be more comfortable than older silicone hydrogels. Whether or not newer silicone hydrogels are more comfortable than the conventional hydrogels is very subjective.
Hope this answer helped :)
Pam Asmus
Work for astigmatism?
Julie
At the time of writing this article they did not have a product for astigmatism, but they do now! I will try to do an updated review of this company soon!
Torn Lens Reviewer
Only 3 months of usage, I’ve disposed more than 200 pieces of blister pack. Do the maths and you will wonder how I came up with the number. Here’s the reason why:
Many (more than 30%) of the lenses were folded in blister packs. I suspect this is due to the shape of the pack (like a dialogue box) that allows excessive movement of the lens (during process of distribution/delivery to end users).
During the unfolding process, the chances of damaging those lenses are very high. Imagine it’s 5:30am in the morning just got out from bed to perform this.
Next, there is another situation where damaging the lenses are almost guaranteed. Some of the lenses (folded or unfolded), were stuck at the bottom of the pack. Removing these lenses will instantly tear them into 2 pieces.
I’ve spent a bit of time studied the stuck lenses. It seems like when the blister pack was stored at certain angle, a big area of the pack wasn’t cover with solution. When the lens was left touching with the dry area of the pack long enough, portion of the lens “stick” to the pack. Once again, it’s related to the design of the blister pack.
Other than torn lenses, another notable point to mention will be the sticker on the blister. All blisters are covered with a sticker with “Hello Aveo” brand on it. When removing it, you will notice the printing of the original blister is different. This make me thinks that the product is just a repackaging of old stocks.
As an ACUVUE Daily user for more than 7 years myself, this lens is considerably thicker for the same optical power. Comfort wise, I would say it is better than ACUVUE for extended wear (to be fair).
To sum it up, yes, it’s cheap. Even with high percentage of torn lenses, the average price is still low compare to other established brands in the market. But if this is rolled out in North America market, I think the company will be busying handling complaints and lawsuits.
Julie
Thank you for your in-depth review!