David Cantor founded the original company back in 1964, with the Cantor & Silver Partnership being created in 1973. In August 2000, the company acquired Nissel. The Brackley, Northants-based company is now jointly run by managing directors David Cantor and Garth Barnard and I was lucky enough recently to be shown around their state-of-the-art headquarters.
[CaptionComponent="2032"]Barnard tells me that Cantor and Nissel is the largest independent contact lens manufacturing company in Europe and has distributors in most European countries. Its finished lenses and artificial eyes are being prescribed by eye care professionals in more than 60 countries worldwide.
He adds: ‘Our independence enables us to respond promptly to the specific needs and expectations of customers.’ I was reminded of the company’s pedigree by a display of some of the prosthetic shells that have been produced over the decades.
Most of the company’s production centres on specialist lenses for hospital patients, with the prosthetic range available to cover any eye disfigurement or trauma, such as corneal scars, congenital iris coloboma and aniridia. The firm has also been at the heart of the resurgence in scleral lens use and is a major producer of these lenses. Cantor prosthetic lenses are available in a wide range of corrections, including torics, and many employ a patented chemistry to ensure the pigments match perfectly the required endpoint appearance.
The firm has seen the evolution of manufacturing techniques, from the earliest days of manual lathing of PMMA right up to the present use of the latest automated Optoform machines and a wide spectrum of lens materials.
[CaptionComponent="2033"]Special effects
Cantor and Nissel’s special effects work is also a very important part of their company portfolio with lenses being produced for film and television performers. These include Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Cillian Murphy (pictured below in Peaky Blinders), Josh Hartnett and Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful) and the white walkers from Game of Thrones.
[CaptionComponent="2034"]All of the prosthetic/cosmetic work is carried out in house by technicians and artists. Among the staff I met, several were educated in fine art and had, through a dedicated training programme at the centre, become specialists in producing any desired appearance on a lens or shell.
Creature comforts
A range of bandage lenses is another speciality with lenses also being produced for the treatment of damaged eyes on animals. Cantor and Nissel designs and makes custom soft contact lenses for use on animals including cows, dogs, horses, birds of prey and big cats. David Cantor has also fitted a mouse and an elephant with an ulcerated cornea, as well as a lion that had received a scratched cornea in a fight with another lion.
He also had fitted a photosensitive horse with a heavy tinted lens which greatly improved its running performance.