Manufacturers have attempted to use silicone in contact lenses for
nearly thirty years.  While silicone has great oxygen transmissibility,
it has a feature that makes it a difficult material to make contacts
out of.  That specific feature is a hydrophobic tail on the end of the
molecule that repels water.  The science of creating "surface
treatments" has involved the coating of that hydrophobic tail to make
it water-loving.  Then a treated lens is scratched or abraded, the
hydrophobic surface can be exposed, causing dry spots on the lens.  The
CIBA products (Night & Day, 02Optix) are proprietary surface treatments
that are the best treatments yet.    But, Johnson & Johnson "attacked"
the problem differently.  They created a proprietary molecule, which
they are calling "Hydroclear".  The Hydroclear is added to the
silicone, and it binds to the hydrophobic tail and replaces it with a
hydrophillic (water-loving) one.  Supposedly every single silicone
molecule in the lens has this new tail, hence there is no way to
"scratch" off a coating and expose a naked hydrophobic tail.
The concept behind "Oasis" is that the Oasis is "Acuvue Advance" with
twice as much Hydroclear.  That's a bit of a stretch, but Oasis learns
a totally different material name than Advance does, as each exposed
hydrophobic silicone tail is now replaced with not one but two
hydrophyllic tails.  This makes the lens "softer" and more water
loving.  It was noted in another thread here that the optics of the
Oasis "seemed worse" to some of the posters.  Well, as the lens gives
up its strength when all these water-loving tails become the slimey
"backbone" of the lens.  A stiffer lens masks or hides small amounts of
astigmatism, a really soft lens can't mask those small distortions.
Hence, the Oasis is incredibly confortable but you better have a
spherical cornea to wear it.

The development of "Hydroclear" as an additive has brought two
interesting issues to the world of contact lens design.  First, a
company has to be filthy rich with a huge R&D budget to even consider
locking a bunch of chemists in a room and leaving them there until they
change the periodic table and reinvent silicone.
Secondly, this has opened the idea of new molecules to be added to
those newly bound-up silicone tails.  I recently joined a discussion
group in which the major topic was whether or not Johnson and Johnson
should market a new idea...putting silver in the matrix of their next
Acuvue.  Silver, as a naturally occurring metal, has been known to have
bacteriostatic properties for over a hundred years.  What kid hasn't
left the delivery room without silver nitrate in his eyes to avoid
infection after a vaginal delivery.   Or how about silver-based nose
paints that surfers use to help protect from sun and windburn?  The
possibilities are endless.  If a soft contact lens actually can be
created that is toxic to bacteria but  100% safe to the cornea, the
idea of truly safe contact lens wear will be reached.