The Best Contact Lenses for Dry Eyes, According to Doctors

We examined published recommendations from 15 optometrists to see which contact lenses they suggest for dryness, where their advice overlaps, and where it differs.

If your contacts feel comfortable in the morning but gritty by the afternoon, choosing another pair can feel like guesswork. Product descriptions promise moisture and comfort, but what do eye doctors actually recommend?

Our review found recurring mentions of DAILIES TOTAL1, ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe, PRECISION1 and Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day. ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day and MyDay also appeared.

There’s no clear winner for everyone, in fact there can’t be as contacts are highly individual. The findings do give you a shortlist to discuss at a contact lens fitting, with a better understanding of the advice behind each option.

How did we research doctors’ recommendations?

We reviewed 14 published articles and interviews containing recommendations from 15 named optometrists, or doctors of optometry. Sources included hospital interviews, professional eye-care publications and doctor-authored articles.

Each doctor counted once per exact product. Recommending the same lens in several places did not earn extra mentions. We kept daily, two-week, toric and multifocal versions separate. A medical-review byline alone did not count as a recommendation.

This was a review of selected public advice, not a survey of the profession. The doctors were not all asked the same questions or given the same lenses to compare. More mentions mean a product appeared more frequently in our collected sources, not that it will work better for your eyes.

Which contact lenses came up most?

The following counts cover standard daily disposable lenses for nearsightedness or farsightedness. Lenses for astigmatism and reading-related vision changes are discussed separately.

A doctor could recommend more than one lens. These counts are not clinical scores or the results of a head-to-head trial. See the doctor-by-doctor source list.

What did doctors say about each lens?

Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day

6 doctor mentions

INFUSE had the most positive mentions in our review, but also the clearest disagreement. In a Contact Lens Spectrum interview, Thomas Finley, Roy Kline and Jessica Yu described favorable experiences relevant to dryness. All three disclosed financial relationships with Bausch + Lomb.¹²

Euin Cheong reported a different experience in her 2022 article: some older patients with pre-existing dry-eye symptoms found INFUSE uncomfortable for all-day wear.⁵

The takeaway is that INFUSE belongs in the discussion, with an individual trial doing more to guide your decision than its position in this table. Six positive mentions should not obscure a published account of patients who struggled with it.

DAILIES TOTAL1

5 doctor mentions

Five doctors recommended DAILIES TOTAL1 in our collected sources. Umangi Popat included it among her preferred daily lenses for dry eyes, while Crystal Brimer described it as a personal go-to option.^{2, 4}

The lens uses a water-gradient design, meaning the water content increases toward its surface. Alcon describes that outer surface as nearly 100% water. This describes the lens material; it does not mean the lens is a treatment for dry-eye disease.²³

Its repeated appearance makes it a reasonable product to ask about during a fitting. Whether it suits you still depends on how it fits, your prescription and your response during wear.

ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe

4 doctor mentions

Four doctors recommended this exact daily lens. Molly King selected it in her advice to Vision Center, and Courtney Dryer described it as a preferred daily option, with particular relevance to people experiencing dry eyes.^{1, 9}

Make sure you distinguish it from two-week ACUVUE OASYS and OASYS MAX 1-Day. Similar names do not make them the same product, and our counts did not combine them.

This lens also has published refitting research, discussed below. The distinction matters: a doctor’s recommendation and measured patient outcomes answer different questions.

PRECISION1

3 doctor mentions

PRECISION1 received three positive mentions. Cheong described it as an option for mild dryness. In a separate interview, Christa Hunnicutt specifically recommended it for patients experiencing contact lens discomfort and dryness; she reported no conflicts of interest in that interview.^{5, 11}

That gives readers a practical reason to include it in a fitting conversation, particularly when symptoms are mild. It does not establish that PRECISION1 is suitable for more severe dry-eye disease or that it will outperform another lens on your eye.

ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day

2 doctor mentions

Kristyna Lensky-Sipes described MAX 1-Day as a preferred lens in her dry-eye practice, citing patients’ reports of end-of-day comfort. Wes McCann also included it in his recommendations.^{3, 10}

It received two mentions in this review. That smaller number is not a poor-performance rating: older products have had longer to accumulate published recommendations, and this was not an equal comparison of every available lens.

MyDay

1 doctor mention

Lensky-Sipes also named MyDay as an option in her discussion of dry-eye management and contact lens fitting.³

One qualifying recommendation gives it less support in this particular collection, but says little about your individual result. MyDay Toric is a separate product with separate recommendations; we did not add those mentions to the standard MyDay count.

What if you have astigmatism or need multifocal lenses?

Your prescription can change the shortlist. Toric lenses correct astigmatism. Multifocal lenses help with vision at more than one distance, including the near-vision changes associated with presbyopia.

Kochar’s article specifically addresses dry eyes with astigmatism. Corte discusses balancing multifocal vision and comfort. These are different fitting problems, so a recommendation for one version should not automatically be applied to another.^{8, 6}

Are daily contacts always better for dry eyes?

Daily disposables were prominent in the advice we collected. You start each day with a fresh lens, and there is no nightly cleaning or storage routine. They must be discarded after use.²¹

But daily lenses are not automatically the most comfortable choice for every person. Popat points out that some patients with dry eyes do better in monthly lenses.²

Reusable options in our review included two-week ACUVUE OASYS, ACUVUE VITA and Biofinity Energys, all attributed to King. They received fewer qualifying mentions, so our findings do not establish a leading reusable lens.¹

If a daily lens does not work for you, that is a reason to reassess the fit and the source of the discomfort with your doctor.

What does clinical research tell us?

In a 2022 analysis combining three studies, 107 symptomatic contact lens wearers switched to OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe. After two weeks, about 82% had a clinically meaningful improvement on a questionnaire measuring lens-related dryness and discomfort. All authors were Johnson & Johnson Vision employees.¹⁹

That is useful evidence that a refit can help some wearers. It does not establish that this lens is better than every alternative in our shortlist.

Material claims also need perspective. A 2023 Cochrane review of seven randomized trials involving 1,371 participants found insufficient evidence to recommend silicone hydrogel over hydrogel lenses for comfort. The certainty of the evidence was very low.²⁴

“More breathable” is not, by itself, proof that a lens will feel less dry. Product specifications can inform a fitting, but they cannot predict your comfort on their own.

How can you find the right lens for your eyes?

Start with the cause of the discomfort. Dry-eye disease can involve too few tears, tears that evaporate too quickly, or tears that do not work properly. Contact lens wear can also contribute to symptoms. An eye examination can help identify what is happening.²⁰

Bring your current lens name and describe when symptoms begin. Are your eyes uncomfortable immediately, after several hours, or even when you are not wearing contacts? Does your vision clear temporarily after blinking? These details help your doctor assess the problem.

Ask which trial lenses suit your prescription, how to compare them, and whether the dryness needs treatment alongside a new fitting. If you use eye drops while wearing contacts, check that their labeling permits it and ask your eye-care professional which product is appropriate.²

Remove your lenses and contact your eye doctor immediately if you develop eye pain, unusual redness, light sensitivity, sudden blurred vision or discharge. Those symptoms can signal a problem beyond routine dryness.²²

Use the shortlist to start a more informed conversation. The useful outcome is a lens you can wear comfortably, with clear vision and a fit your doctor has checked.

About this review

Research cutoff: October 6, 2026. This exploratory review used selected English-language sources, including US and Canadian commentary. Dated recommendation pages span 2020–2025; two pages lack a confirmed publication date. We recorded specific product recommendations, deduplicated doctors and noted commercial disclosures. We did not interview these doctors, test the lenses or conduct a representative survey.

Online visibility, product age and commercial publishing can influence which recommendations are available. Some sources discuss diagnosed dry-eye disease; others discuss dryness during contact lens wear. The counts should be read with those differences in mind.

Doctor-by-doctor source list

Each doctor and exact product is counted once. The full ledger includes spherical, toric, multifocal and colored products, although the article focuses on the most useful categories.

Doctor	Qualifying positive recommendations	Sources and disclosure references
Molly King, OD	ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe; ACUVUE OASYS (two-week); ACUVUE VITA; Biofinity Energys; ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day for Astigmatism; Biofinity XR Toric; Bausch + Lomb ULTRA for Presbyopia; AIR OPTIX COLORS	1
Umangi Popat, OD	DAILIES TOTAL1; PRECISION1; ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe	2
Kristyna Lensky-Sipes, OD	DAILIES TOTAL1; ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day; MyDay	3
Crystal M. Brimer, OD	DAILIES TOTAL1; Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day	4, 15
Euin Cheong, OD	DAILIES TOTAL1; PRECISION1; DAILIES TOTAL1 for Astigmatism; PRECISION1 for Astigmatism	5
Ryan Corte, OD	Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day Multifocal; DAILIES TOTAL1 Multifocal; MyDay Multifocal; ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day Multifocal; Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day	6, 14, 16
Nicholas Lillie, OD	MyDay Toric	7
Neety Kochar, OD	ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day for Astigmatism; MyDay Toric; PRECISION1 for Astigmatism; ACUVUE OASYS for Astigmatism; Biofinity Toric; Biofinity XR Toric; Bausch + Lomb ULTRA for Astigmatism	8
Courtney Dryer, OD	ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe	9, 17
Wes McCann, OD	DAILIES TOTAL1; ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe; ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day	10, 18
Christa Hunnicutt, OD	PRECISION1	11
Thomas P. Finley, OD	Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day	12
Roy Kline, OD	Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day	12
Jessica O. Yu, OD	Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day	12
Osama Said, OD	Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day; Bausch + Lomb INFUSE One-Day Multifocal	13

Sources and disclosure references

1. Vision Center: Best contacts for dry eyes (Updated 2025-01-30)
2. Hollywood Presbyterian: Expert advice on contact lenses for dry eyes (2024-07-10)
3. Optometry Times: The right fit (2023-10-23)
4. Optometry Times: New ways to keep dry eye patients comfortable (2020-12-11)
5. Optometry Times: Reviewing the latest contact lens launches (2022-08-26)
6. Optometry Times: Setting expectations with presbyopia-correcting lenses (2024-05-21)
7. Verywell Health: Best contact lenses for dry eyes (Updated 2024-07-15)
8. Eyes On Eyecare: Best contact lenses of 2022 for dry eye and astigmatism (2022 title; exact date not established)
9. Eyes On Eyecare: How I made my practice 90 percent daily disposables (Undated; references accessed May 2025)
10. Woodstock Vision Care: Best contact lenses for dry eyes (2024-11-15)
11. Contact Lens Spectrum: PRECISION1 product focus (2020-12-01)
12. Contact Lens Spectrum: INFUSE product focus (2021-02-01)
13. Eyes On Eyecare: What ODs need to know about INFUSE (Undated; references include 2023)
14. Ryan Corte: INFUSE contact lens review (2023-06-15; updated 2023-07-04)
15. Brimer: Public financial disclosure, Vision Expo handout (Date not confirmed; later than recommendation)
16. Corte: Financial disclosure, Modern Optometry (2023-11/12)
17. Dryer: Separate historical sponsored article (Historical; exact date not established)
18. McCann: Practice biography and consulting disclosure (Current page; date not stated)
19. Bishop et al: Symptomatic wearers refitted with senofilcon A daily lenses (2022)
20. National Eye Institute: Dry eye
21. CDC: About contact lens types
22. CDC: Contact lens-related eye infections
23. Alcon: DAILIES TOTAL1 design
24. Cochrane: Lens materials and eye discomfort