Medically reviewed by Dr. Michael Nodland, OD · Updated August 2026
Call (561) 799-3932 or book an appointment.
A contact lens exam is a separate procedure from a routine eye exam. The routine exam measures the health of your eyes and the prescription you need to see clearly; the contact lens exam measures your eye’s surface and matches a lens to it. Because they answer different questions, they are performed separately and billed separately.
Why is a contact lens exam billed separately?
A contact lens fitting is a distinct service with its own billing code, separate from a routine eye exam. A routine exam determines your glasses prescription and checks the health of your eyes. A fitting measures the curvature and diameter of your cornea, evaluates your tear film, selects a lens design, and confirms how that lens sits and moves on your eye.
Those are different measurements taken with different instruments, and a glasses prescription cannot be converted into a contact lens prescription. A lens sitting directly on the eye needs its own power, curve, diameter and material.
This surprises a lot of patients, and that’s fair — nobody explains it up front often enough. If you plan to wear contacts, expect two charges: one for the eye exam, one for the contact lens service.
Vision plans often treat these as separate benefits too, sometimes covering the exam fully and applying a separate allowance to the fitting. When your fitting is booked in advance, we check what your plan allows and send you an estimated copay beforehand, so neither charge is a surprise. If you want the difference between a vision plan and medical insurance set out in full, that is on the insurance page.
What happens during a contact lens fitting?
A fitting is a measurement, trial and follow-up process rather than a single set of readings, and it runs in this order:
- Measurements. We measure the curvature and size of your cornea and assess your tear film, since dry eye changes which lenses will be comfortable and is worth treating before a fitting rather than after it.
- Lens selection. Based on your prescription, corneal shape and how you use your eyes day to day, a lens design and material is chosen.
- Trial lenses. You wear a diagnostic lens in the office so the fit can be evaluated: how it centers, how it moves when you blink, how clearly you see through it.
- Insertion and removal training. If you’re new to contacts, you practice before you leave.
- Trial wear at home. You wear the lenses through a normal week, including work, screens and whatever else your days involve.
- Follow-up. You return so the fit and your comfort can be confirmed. Only then is the prescription finalized.
If the first lens isn’t right, the design or power is adjusted and the process repeats. That’s normal, not a setback.
Can I wear contacts if I have astigmatism?
Yes. Astigmatism is corrected in contact lenses with a toric design, and modern toric lenses work well for the large majority of people who have it.
Astigmatism means the front of your eye is shaped more like the back of a spoon than a basketball, so light focuses at more than one point. The result is blur or ghosting at all distances, not just far or near.
A toric lens has different powers in different meridians, which corrects that uneven focus. It also has to stay rotationally oriented on the eye — lens designers handle this with ballasting, thin zones or weighted edges that let the lens settle into position and return there after you blink.
This is why toric fittings often take an extra visit. The power can be correct while the orientation is off, and the fix is a rotational adjustment rather than a new prescription. If you were told years ago that astigmatism ruled out contacts, that advice is out of date. Toric lenses come in daily disposables, monthlies and multifocal designs.
What is a multifocal contact lens fitting like?
A multifocal fitting is a trial-and-adjust process rather than a single measurement, because the lenses have to be balanced against each other across both eyes before a prescription can be finalized. Whether multifocal contacts are the right correction for you in the first place — weighed against readers, bifocals, progressives and monovision — is a separate decision, set out on the presbyopia and reading glasses page. This section is what happens once you have decided to try them.
Multifocal soft lenses carry zones of different power inside one lens, and your visual system learns to draw on the zone it needs. That learning is most of the fitting:
- The near power is chosen conservatively. Fittings usually start with the lowest add that does the job, because a high add is what makes distance vision go soft.
- The two eyes are balanced. The design or the add often differs slightly between eyes so distance stays crisp while near becomes usable.
- You take trial lenses home for a normal week — your screens, your lighting, your driving, not an office chart.
- Adaptation takes time. Most people settle within one to two weeks. Judging a multifocal on day one is the most common reason people give up on lenses that would have worked.
- Changing the design is routine. A second or third trial lens is part of the process, not a sign the fitting has failed.
Said plainly: vision through a multifocal is a compromise against single-vision lenses. Fine print in poor light and low-contrast tasks at night can feel softer. Most wearers take that trade for being out of glasses through the day.
Monovision fittings run differently. One eye is corrected for distance and the other for near, and there is little adaptation curve — most people either take to it within a few days or do not. It costs some depth perception, which matters more if you drive at night. Trialing both approaches before choosing is reasonable, and a fitting is where you find out which suits you.
That choice has a local dimension. If your days involve golf or time on the water, glasses-free distance vision with workable near vision is usually the goal, and it steers which design gets trialed first.
Should I choose daily or monthly lenses?
Daily disposables are worn once and discarded; monthly lenses are cleaned, stored and reused for about 30 days. Both are appropriate for most people, and the right answer depends on how you wear them.
| Daily disposables | Monthly lenses | |
|---|---|---|
| Wear schedule | New pair each day | Same pair, ~30 days |
| Cleaning and solution | None needed | Nightly cleaning and storage |
| Infection risk | Lowest — no case or solution | Higher if care lapses |
| Best for | Part-time wear, allergies, sports and travel | Consistent daily wear |
| Water exposure | Safer to discard after accidental exposure | Should be discarded after exposure |
| Annual cost | Generally higher | Generally lower |
| Availability | Wide, including toric and multifocal | Wide, including toric and multifocal |
If you swim, boat, or spend time in pools and the ocean, dailies have a real advantage. Water carries organisms that can cause serious corneal infections, and a lens you throw away costs you nothing to replace.
What about scleral lenses and keratoconus?
Scleral lenses are large rigid lenses that vault over the entire cornea and rest on the white of the eye, holding a reservoir of fluid against the corneal surface. They’re used for keratoconus, corneal irregularity, post-surgical corneas, corneal scarring and severe dry eye.
Keratoconus is a condition where the cornea thins and bulges into a cone shape, distorting vision in a way glasses and standard soft lenses can’t correct. A rigid lens replaces the irregular front surface with a smooth optical one, which is why vision through a well-fitted scleral can be dramatically better.
Do you fit contact lenses for children?
Dr. Nodland sees children from age 6, and will tell you whether myopia management is right for your child. Two approaches are offered: MiSight daily contact lenses, the first contact lens FDA-approved for slowing myopia progression in children, and Stellest spectacle lenses, the first glasses lens to receive FDA authorization for it.
Which one suits a child depends on their prescription, their age, and whether they are ready to handle a daily lens — that is a conversation at the exam. There is more on the children’s eye exams page.
What does insurance usually cover?
Most vision plans cover a routine eye exam in full or with a copay, then apply a separate allowance toward contact lenses and the fitting. Medical insurance covers medically necessary contact lenses in specific conditions such as keratoconus, but the criteria are strict and plan-specific.
Eye Expressions accepts Medicare, VSP, EyeMed, Humana, Aetna, Anthem, Blue View Vision, MetLife, Superior Vision, Davis Vision and Advantica. Where a fitting is on the schedule, the benefits are verified beforehand and an estimated copay reaches you before you come in, so the fitting fee isn’t a surprise at checkout.
Plan networks vary — being covered by a carrier is not the same as your specific plan being one we are contracted with. Call (561) 799-3932 with your card and we will check before you come in.
Frequently asked questions
Can I order a year’s supply? Yes, and most patients do, because annual supplies are how vision plan allowances and manufacturer rebates are usually structured.
Do I have to make an appointment to reorder my contact lenses? No. Walk in, call or text — whether you’re reordering contact lenses, browsing frames or ordering glasses. You don’t need to have had your exam here either: bring a prescription from another practice and we’ll fill it. If you want an appointment rather than the optical, calling ahead is better — scheduled patients are seen almost always on time, so a walk-in may end up waiting behind them.
Can I sleep or shower in my contacts? Sleeping in lenses raises your risk of a corneal infection several times over, even with lenses approved for overnight wear. Keep lenses away from water entirely: no showering, no pools, no hot tubs, no ocean. Rinse and store only in fresh solution — never tap water, never yesterday’s solution — and replace your case every three months.
I’ve worn the same brand for years. Do I still need a fitting? Yes, an annual evaluation is still required. Corneal shape, tear film and prescription all change, and lens-related problems can develop without symptoms until they’re advanced.
Book a contact lens exam
Eye Expressions has been family-owned in Palm Beach Gardens since 2010, rated 5.0 stars across roughly 500 Google reviews. Dr. Michael Nodland has been fitting contact lenses here since the practice opened. Contact lens fittings are one of the eye care services here; a fitting is normally booked alongside a comprehensive eye exam.
Call (561) 799-3932 or book online.
7100 Fairway Drive, Suite 39, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418 — on Fairway Drive just off PGA Boulevard, with parking at the door. Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–6pm. Saturday 9am–2pm is optical only — frames, order pickups and adjustments. There are no regular Saturday exam hours with Dr. Nodland, and Saturday is not offered by the online scheduler, so a Saturday exam has to be requested by phone.