Tell me about contact lenses

**Replicon** · 03-25-2011 07:05 PM

I'm reaching a point where I need new glasses, and I've been thinking about trying out contacts. I know nothing about them, though. I know there's hard ones and soft ones, and I know there's disposable ones and ones and non-disposable ones, and I guess you need to be real careful with the non-disposable ones and clean them a lot, etc.

What do I need to know? Why would anyone go with hard contacts when the soft ones seem so much more comfortable (and less likely to break while in your eye - ouch!) How annoying is maintaining them? How easy is it to get used to putting them on and taking them out? Do you have to try some on before you find a set that fits your cornea perfectly? Is irritation frequent? Should I also have a pair of eyeglasses handy, so that when I don't feel like contacts, I can just fall back to them?

**Arra** · 03-27-2011 11:16 AM

(Very tired, sentence structures are not well thoguht out.) I don't really know much about them but I do wear them, the soft ones. I've been wearing contact lenses for 9 years, since I was 12. I've never heard of anyone these days wearing hard ones, I don't know why you would do that.

Of course one deciding factor is the money. Glasses are of course cheaper. You pay once and can keep them forever as long as they don't break. Contact lenses can be quite expensive in comparison.

The two that I'm aware of are the daily and the monthly ones. I used the daily ones for a while. The advantage to those is that if one breaks, it isn't a big deal. But if one that's supposed to last for an entire month breaks, it's a big deal. Another advantage of the daily ones is that you don't need to worry about storing them overnight, you just throw them in the garbage. But from my experience, the monthly ones are less likely to irritate the eyes. There is nothing more irritating than a contact lens breaking while it's in your eye and you having to get it out somehow. They're extremely difficult to get out when broken. That happened to me quite a lot while wearing the daily ones, but it rarely happens with the monthly ones.

You are supposed to clean them every day, but once you get used to it, it isn't a big hastle. To be honest, I stopped cleaning mine the way I'm supposed to be and they still seem to last. Every night, you're supposed to get a little container, one for each eye, fill it with contact lens solution, take the contact lenses out of your eyes and put them on your hand, put some solution on them and rub them for a few seconds on each side. I started to skip that step and I don't see a problem with skipping it, as they still last for about a month. I just squirt the contact lenses with the solution before putting them in their cases filled with more of the solution for the night. In the morning, you're supposed to do the same ritual, but I instead shortcut it as well.

The first time I put in contact lenses, it took me about half an hour just to get them in each eye. But after a couple weeks or so of practice, I could do it easily. It only takes about 10 seconds to get both in my eyes in the morning, and less time to get them out at night. So if at first you find it's frustrating to put them in and too much of a hassle, don't give up too quickly. Get used to it before you decide it's a hastle. Usually, unless they're irritating because they're broken or have a piece of dust or something stuck in them, I can't feel them in my eyes at all. It's like they aren't there and I have perfect vision.

If you do get them from an optomatrist or something, see if you can get them cheaper anywhere else, like Costco (I think you have that there). I order mine from Costco and use the brand ProClear and am happy with it. You could try a few different brands, maybe a different one every time you order them, until you decide which one you like best.

Keep your glasses, because it's a good idea not to wear contact lenses during the hour or so before bed.

Unless you have astigmatism (as far as I know), contact lenses don't need to be specifically fit to your eye. All that's needed to make them is your numerical prescription.

I'm really happy with my contact lenses and glasses seem a lot more bothersome to me. They don't cover your entire vision and are physically there touching your face. To me it's just annoying. With contact lenses, besides having to take them out and put them in, it seems like I'm a normal person with 20/20 vision.

**tommo** · 03-27-2011 01:14 PM

Dianeva is mostly correct.

However some people do need different shaped ones. I did because my eye had changed it's shape because of straining to see.

I tried them many years ago and really couldn't be fucked. The optometrist said she could actually see my eye receding backwards when she tried to put it in. That's how much I didn't want that shit on my eye lol

I also spent several hours altogether trying to get them in (I tried for about a month probably). I just couldn't do it. They feel cold when you put them in, which is uncomfortable. You also get the solution going everywhere because of how you have to clean them. And if you get even one spec of dust in one of them, forget it, you'll have to wear glasses until you get home.

One time one of them fell out and I thought it had, but I wasn't sure because it was in my better eye, so things only looked a bit blurry. When I went to the optometrist to remove them she realised she was trying to take my cornea out lol (not really though, she tried once and then checked with the fluorescent light thing).

I'm biased as hell, because I had weeks and weeks of agony, pain and frustration trying with these stupid bloody things.

But they are a hassle for some people and you'll have to go to the optometrist quite a few times while you get the correct ones, learn how to do it yourself etc.

Basically try it out. But some people are suited to glasses, some aren't.
Counter to what Dianeva said, I never got annoyed by glasses, except while playing sport coz they fell off alot, but my vision is good enough that I could take them off most of the time. In day to day life I never even noticed them. So much so that sometimes I would walk around getting perpetually more angry looking for my glasses only to realise I was wearing them lol

Definitely get your new glasses as well. Coz you'll need em when your eyes get irritated. Which is almost inevitable.
And the hard ones aren't really used anymore afaik, that's what my optometrist said, which was a few years ago now. So dunno if they're made at all anymore.

You'll most likely end up having to pay more than just having glasses.

**Taosaur** · 03-27-2011 01:16 PM

Google, and you shall receive: Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP or GP) Contact Lenses There are still different kinds of contacts, but true 'hard contacts' have been obsolete for a couple generations.

If you need visual aids 100% of the time, you probably do want to have glasses as well as contacts. I definitely like having both. I don't know if it's common, but I find I'm more susceptible to eyestrain while reading or using a computer when wearing contacts vs. glasses, but for being outdoors, driving, running errands and the like, contacts are much better. The best thing for me is the quality of vision--obviously you get better peripheral vision, but I find spatial orientation and depth perception improve with contacts, too. You also don't have to worry about them once they're in your eyes. Maybe you'll want eyedrops now and then, but otherwise no fogging, no dust or spatter, no streaking in the rain (you can, but your lenses won't), no pushing them up the nose or resettling them behind the ears or dropping them if you lean over too far to flush the toilet.

If you decide you want them, you'll probably want to discuss what kind to get with your eye doctor. If you get the right solution for monthly/6-week disposables, you can just spray them off and put them away, without the rubbing. The only discomfort I get with them is if I'm sleep deprived or suffering eyestrain, the dryness and itchiness are somewhat exacerbated. Also, disposables beyond their shelf life can be less comfortable, but I've found 'monthly' ones are often good for six weeks, and eye doctors have said that's fine as long as it's not uncomfortable.