Bausch + Lomb Ultra Monthly Lenses: Engineered for the Modern Digital Professional

Bausch + Lomb has been one of the foundational companies of the modern contact lens industry—a brand whose history of optical innovation stretches back to the earliest days of commercial soft lens development in the 1970s. The Ultra monthly contact lens, introduced as the brand’s premium monthly replacement offering, reflects 150 years of accumulated optical expertise applied to the specific visual demands of the twenty-first century professional whose working life is defined by continuous digital device interaction.

The MoistureSeal Technology at the Ultra’s core is Bausch + Lomb’s most advanced moisture management system—an achievement that quantifiably extends comfort beyond the performance benchmarks of the preceding generation of monthly silicone hydrogels. For professionals who cannot afford the distraction of uncomfortable lenses during critical work sessions, the Ultra provides a reliable, high-performance solution that maintains comfort from the morning commute through the evening’s digital unwind.

MoistureSeal Technology: Redefining Monthly Moisture Performance

The central performance claim for the Bausch + Lomb Ultra is that MoistureSeal Technology retains up to 95% of moisture for a full 16 hours—a specific, quantifiable claim backed by clinical measurement rather than general comfort description. This moisture retention performance represents a significant improvement over earlier silicone hydrogel monthly lens materials, which typically showed substantially greater moisture loss over comparable wearing periods in comparative testing.

The clinical significance of this moisture retention is that the Ultra maintains a consistently hydrated lens surface throughout the wearing day, reducing the progressive increase in surface friction and dryness sensation that leads to end-of-day discomfort with less advanced materials. MoistureSeal Technology achieves this performance through a polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) moisture management agent that is incorporated throughout the samfilcon A lens matrix in a proprietary formulation. The PVP molecules are structurally compatible with the silicone hydrogel network and remain distributed throughout the material’s full thickness throughout the wearing period, continuously releasing moisture to the lens surface as surface hydration is depleted by evaporation and blinking.

This continuous replenishment mechanism ensures that the lens surface remains wettable even after many hours of wear, when surface agents in coating-dependent lenses may have been depleted. The 95% moisture retention claim provides a useful basis for comparison with competing products: a lens that retains 95% of its moisture over 16 hours loses only 5% of its initial hydration to environmental conditions and the mechanical action of blinking. This represents a much smaller reduction in comfort-supporting hydration than older silicone hydrogel materials that retained significantly less moisture over comparable wearing periods, often showing moisture loss of 20% or more by the end of a typical wearing day.

Samfilcon A: High-Oxygen Silicone Hydrogel for Demanding Wearers

The samfilcon A material of the Bausch + Lomb Ultra achieves a Dk/t of 163 Barrer/cm—one of the highest oxygen transmissibility values available in a monthly replacement contact lens. This exceptional oxygen performance supports FDA approval for up to six nights of continuous (overnight) wear under the supervision of an eye care professional, making the Ultra one of a select group of monthly lenses with demonstrated safety at extended wear durations.

For professionals who travel frequently across time zones, who work irregular hours that disrupt normal sleep-wake cycles, or who simply want the option of sleeping in their lenses occasionally without the risk of corneal complications, the Ultra’s extended wear approval provides valuable flexibility. The high oxygen transmissibility reflects the relatively high silicone content of the samfilcon A formulation—silicone being the component of silicone hydrogel materials responsible for their oxygen permeability. Achieving high silicone content while maintaining adequate wettability and comfort is the central materials engineering challenge of silicone hydrogel lens development, and the MoistureSeal system provides the moisture management required to make the Ultra’s high-silicone formulation comfortable in sustained daily use.

The combination of high oxygen transmissibility and sustained moisture retention makes the Ultra an ideal choice for professionals who wear their lenses for extended hours and who demand uncompromised corneal health alongside all-day comfort.

Optical Design and Visual Performance

The Bausch + Lomb Ultra’s optical design incorporates aspheric front surface geometry that reduces the spherical aberration that conventional spherical lens designs introduce into the optical system of the contact lens-corrected eye. Spherical aberration is a type of optical error in which light rays passing through the periphery of the lens focus at a different point than rays passing through the center, creating a halo or blurring effect that reduces image contrast. Spherical aberration is particularly relevant for scotopic (low-light) vision and for wearers with larger pupil diameters in dim conditions, where the peripheral portions of the lens contribute significantly to the retinal image.

By controlling the curvature of the lens front surface to compensate for the natural spherical aberration of the eye’s cornea and crystalline lens, the aspheric Ultra design delivers improved image sharpness and contrast, particularly under low-light conditions such as nighttime driving, restaurant dining, or working in dimly lit environments. For professionals who frequently drive in the evening, who work in environments with variable lighting (such as control rooms, theaters, or outdoor settings), or who simply value optimal visual quality in all lighting conditions, this optical refinement provides a perceptible improvement in visual clarity that enhances both performance and comfort.

Toric and Multifocal Extensions

The Ultra platform extends to toric and multifocal designs that apply MoistureSeal Technology to the specialty correction populations. Ultra for Astigmatism uses Bausch + Lomb’s AquaForm Comfort Science stabilization approach to maintain consistent rotational stability in the toric lens, delivering the clear, stable vision that astigmatism patients require from their contact lenses.

The stabilization system uses a combination of prism ballast and thin zone design to maintain consistent lens orientation across a range of fitting conditions and activities, ensuring that the cylinder correction aligns precisely with the patient’s corneal astigmatism axis. Ultra Multifocal addresses the presbyopic population with a center-distance design that provides clear vision across near, intermediate, and distance ranges, using an aspheric progression that provides a smooth transition between focal zones. Both specialty extensions maintain the MoistureSeal Technology and samfilcon A material of the standard Ultra, ensuring that patients with astigmatism or presbyopia receive the same comfort and oxygen performance benefits as spherical wearers.

Six-Night Extended Wear Protocol

For appropriate patients under professional supervision, the Ultra’s FDA approval for up to six nights of continuous wear enables a wearing modality that eliminates the daily insertion and removal routine. This extended wear capability is particularly valuable for patients with conditions that make manual contact handling difficult (such as arthritis or Parkinson’s disease), for travelers who find daily lens management inconvenient, and for emergency responders and others whose professional schedules make predictable daily routines impossible.

The extended wear protocol requires careful patient selection, as not all patients are suitable candidates for overnight lens wear. Factors such as baseline tear production, eyelid anatomy, history of ocular infections, and smoking status all influence the risk-benefit calculation for extended wear. For appropriate patients, however, the Ultra’s high oxygen transmissibility and MoistureSeal comfort provide the physiological foundation for safe and comfortable continuous wear.

Conclusion: Professional-Grade Performance

The Bausch + Lomb Ultra represents the mature expression of a brand’s century-and-a-half of optical expertise applied to the contact lens challenges of the modern digital era.

The MoistureSeal Technology delivers quantifiable moisture retention advantages that translate to measurable comfort improvements over the wearing day and month, the samfilcon A material provides exceptional oxygen transmissibility that supports both daily and extended wear modalities, and the optical design refinements deliver visual performance appropriate for demanding visual environments. For monthly replacement lens wearers who demand the best available performance from their lenses, the Ultra belongs at the top of the evaluation list.