Principles leading to contact lenses date to 15th century

Contact lens use, as we know it today, began in the late 1940s with the introduction of the corneal contact lens, although sclero-corneal contact lenses were first used in the late 1880s. Even though use of contact lenses is approximately 120 years old, the basic concepts and the physiological optical principles leading to the clinical development of the contact lens date back to the 15th century.