Kevin Tuohy (1919-1968)
The Kevin Tuohy Story*
In 1948, Kevin Tuohy, a California optician who worked for Solex Laboratories, filed a patent for the first corneal contact lens, which was made entirely of PMMA. Although there have been many stories over the years on the origin of the lens it appears that either a
scleral lens was accidentally lathed in two or was broken by his wife resulting in a smaller corneal size piece of plastic. Tuohy tried the damaged lens on himself (or his wife) to see what would happen. After more experimentation, he filed his patent and published a fitting manual for the new lenses.
The Tuohy lens was a large, thick, flat lens with blunt edges that would hardly be considered revolutionary today. But in the late 1940's, it marked a major shift from scleral to corneal contact lenses.
The primary advantage offered by this revolutionary combination of lightweight plastic and a corneal design was the potential for increased tear exchange behind the lens, but patient comfort was still a limiting factor. Even so, Tuohy's innovation enjoyed great success and served as the basis for ongoing design changes to PMMA lenses that dominated the market prior to the introduction of soft contact lenses. The first and most important change was made by George Butterfield, who added peripheral curves to the posterior surface in 1950, introducing the modern concept of fitting the lens based on the Keratometry readings. During the 1950's and 1960's, corneal PMMA lenses made by Obrig Laboratories, Breger-Mueller-Welt in Chicago, and the Plastic Contact Lens Co (Wesley-Jessen), among others also became thinner and smaller.
* adapted from Contact Lens Pioneers Jack Schaeffer, O.D., and Jan Beiting https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/contact-lens-pioneers-15390
In 1948, Kevin Tuohy, a California optician who worked for Solex Laboratories, filed a patent for the first corneal contact lens, which was made entirely of PMMA. Although there have been many stories over the years on the origin of the lens it appears that either a
scleral lens was accidentally lathed in two or was broken by his wife resulting in a smaller corneal size piece of plastic. Tuohy tried the damaged lens on himself (or his wife) to see what would happen. After more experimentation, he filed his patent and published a fitting manual for the new lenses.
The Tuohy lens was a large, thick, flat lens with blunt edges that would hardly be considered revolutionary today. But in the late 1940's, it marked a major shift from scleral to corneal contact lenses.
The primary advantage offered by this revolutionary combination of lightweight plastic and a corneal design was the potential for increased tear exchange behind the lens, but patient comfort was still a limiting factor. Even so, Tuohy's innovation enjoyed great success and served as the basis for ongoing design changes to PMMA lenses that dominated the market prior to the introduction of soft contact lenses. The first and most important change was made by George Butterfield, who added peripheral curves to the posterior surface in 1950, introducing the modern concept of fitting the lens based on the Keratometry readings. During the 1950's and 1960's, corneal PMMA lenses made by Obrig Laboratories, Breger-Mueller-Welt in Chicago, and the Plastic Contact Lens Co (Wesley-Jessen), among others also became thinner and smaller.
* adapted from Contact Lens Pioneers Jack Schaeffer, O.D., and Jan Beiting https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/contact-lens-pioneers-15390
Kevin Tuohy, corneal lens patent