Comfort, visual acuity, visual fields, daytime corneal edema and corneal staining were evaluated on 22 subjects wearing opaque tinted and non-opaque control hydrogel lenses. CooperVision Permaflex Mystique (38% polymacon) and Wesley-Jessen Durasoft 3 Colors (55% phemfilcon A) opaque lenses were compared to non-opaque lenses from the same manufacturers (CooperVision CV Classic and Wesley-Jessen Durasoft 3). Subjects were randomly assigned one type of opaque lens and one clear lens on each of two days, and two opaque lenses on another day. All lenses yielded similar results in terms of comfort, visual acuity, visual fields and corneal staining. The only visual problem with the opaque lenses was the reporting of "haziness" (usually peripheral) in 72 percent of Mystique and 59 percent of Durasoft 3 Colors trials. The greatest daytime corneal edema, 4.7 percent, occurred with the Mystique lens compared with 2.7 percent with CV Classic and 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent with the opaque and clear Durasoft 3 lenses respectively. These levels of edema were associated with a 40 percent incidence of striae with Mystique (17/43), 14 percent with the CV Classic (3/21 eyes), 5 percent with Durasoft 3 clear (1/22 eyes) and 2 percent with Durasoft 3 opaque lenses (1/44 eyes). Corneal swelling correlated with the measured Dk/L of the lenses. The Durasoft 3 Colors lens was the opaque tinted lens of choice based primarily on corneal physiology.