Contact Lenses - Who wears them?

[Fuggan]

Sorry for bumping, my question didn't seem to warrant a new thread. I'm going through a contact lens trial at the moment, trying to find the right balance between comfort and vision quality. Think I'm nearly there, apparently I have a slight astigmatism in my eyes so the lady wasn't sure whether I'd need tourex (sp?) lenses or not. She opted with no and the lenses I have in now are very comfortable, can hardly notice them in, but my short vision is a bit compromised - is this normal or should I expect 100% same vision as with glasses?

Also, can you shower with them in?

Cheers.

 

[tom_e]

Sorry for bumping, my question didn't seem to warrant a new thread. I'm going through a contact lens trial at the moment, trying to find the right balance between comfort and vision quality. Think I'm nearly there, apparently I have a slight astigmatism in my eyes so the lady wasn't sure whether I'd need tourex (sp?) lenses or not. She opted with no and the lenses I have in now are very comfortable, can hardly notice them in, but my short vision is a bit compromised - is this normal or should I expect 100% same vision as with glasses?

Also, can you shower with them in?

Cheers.

Yes you can shower with them in and I find contacts to be a slight compromise the same as you my short vision such as when I'm using my laptop isn't great and I much prefer to wear my glasses, I've always put this down to the fact that you can't get an exact prescription match with contacts it's just a case of getting as close as possible (although I'm probably wrong )

 

[Sunbed]

my short vision is a bit compromised - is this normal or should I expect 100% same vision as with glasses?

I have astigmatism too and I would expect similar vision as with glasses. Not sure why you would have a compromise for short range vision. Edit: actually tom_e is right, contacts are less accurate prescription so I think mine are all-round not quite as good as glasses.

Also, can you shower with them in?

There is probably a reason not to but I think everyone does.

 

[Fuggan]

Cool, well being able to shower with them in saves a bit of hassle. Yeah I thought it might be a case of getting as near as you can. I am more than happy with my vision atm wearing these, it means I can gym, play sport and wear sunglasses freely, something that I've had to dick around with before. Loving them so far!

 

[Fuggan]

I have astigmatism too and I would expect similar vision as with glasses. Not sure why you would have a compromise for short range vision.

There is probably a reason not to but I think everyone does.

Cool thanks. I'm probably being a bit dramatic here. I mean my long range vision (anywhere further than this laptop screen) it's exactly the same as with specs. Even short range is near enough the same, just a tiny bit of blurring round the edges of text, etc. Definitely bearable for the freedom it brings.

 

[tom_e]

To be fair I swim in my lenses as well and that's apparently a big no no.

 

[EggMan123]

I wear monthly disposables from Boots as the daily disposables do not come in a prescription high enough for my right eye as I also have astigmatism and it's much worse in the right eye than the left. Perfectly comfortable although I only really wear them on rainy days and when doing some form of sport. And they don't seem to have much of a difference from my glasses despite the opticians telling me there would be difference.

 

[Saviola]

I use Yates and Suddell (online opticians) for my lenses. I have monthly's (-0.75 -1), it works out at about £9 a month.

 

[Xire]

To be fair I swim in my lenses as well and that's apparently a big no no.

Really? why is it a big no no? I do this.

 

[tom_e]

Really? why is it a big no no? I do this.

Something to do with bacteria IIRC.

 

[BDEE]

Regarding showering / swimming - You can shower with lenses in but you should keep your eyes closed and NOT let the water go in your eyes.

It's the same reason why you should not swim with them in without goggles - Water is filled with nasties that will cause eye infections if they get onto your lenses. This is why you have to store lenses in saline or peroxide solutions and not water.

 

[Fuggan]

Sound. Yeah I figured, with dailies, if I just keep my eyes closed, it's only going to be a few hours if some foreign bodies did make their way into my eye.

 

[Xire]

Regarding showering / swimming - You can shower with lenses in but you should keep your eyes closed and NOT let the water go in your eyes.

It's the same reason why you should not swim with them in without goggles - Water is filled with nasties that will cause eye infections if they get onto your lenses. This is why you have to store lenses in saline or peroxide solutions and not water.

Oops. I quite often rinse mine with tap water.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Really? why is it a big no no? I do this.

Generally speaking it's because it's relatively easy to scratch your eye as a contact wearing, in general non contact wearers don't put a piece of plastic on their eye every day nor jam their fingers in their eyes trying to get a contact out. scratch + swimming pool bacteria = bad combination. Eye infections can be nasty and really just in general contact lense wearers will be more susceptible to picking them up. I think the other issue is bacteria getting caught between eye/contact lense becomes a good breeding ground for bacteria again increasing the chance of an infection.

If you do ever scratch your eye, if you get any redness, don't hesitate and get straight to your optician or doctors and get antibiotic eye drops, do not **** around with your eyes.

In terms of eye vision, my contacts always give me significantly BETTER vision than glasses I've had. But as someone said it's a bit of a crap shoot as theoretically glasses can be made to ultra accurate prescriptions while contact lenses tend to be a bit more like off the rack prescriptions. For whatever reason daily focus toric "fit" my prescription great, even as the power has changed they have always given me better near, medium and far distance clarity compared to glasses.

There are other possibilities like, have contact lenses but if they don't suit near distance/computer distance perfectly, you could get a pair of very low prescription glasses just to bring the nearer range into better clarity. Hopefully you can find contacts that match you well though. I would though absolutely ask your optician if you could try the next power up or down to see if they better match your needs. You might lose a little far distance but gain at close up distances which may or may not work better for you.

I think things like, the blurry effect outside the edge of my glasses, the general comfort of not wearing glasses all make contact lenses hugely better.

In 15 years of wearing them I've had one eye scratch, one infection and while it was particularly painful and nasty for a few days... it doesn't put me off contacts in general... though it does make me lean towards finally getting laser surgery as it makes you realise both contacts and glasses aren't risk free. I've had the classic ball to face with glasses, eye infection from contacts, both have risks and so does laser surgery, upside is so huge though.

 

[MonsterMoshi]

If you get them fitted properly, there is no reason why you should be making any compromises with your lenses

I first used dailys from Specsavers for the odd occasion I didn't want to wear my glasses. These were horrendously uncomfortable.
I then tried supposedly better quality 30 day non sleep in lenses. Same issues with them being really uncomfortable
It turns out that "Off the shelf" lenses from Specsavers and the like are one fit meaning they come in a small selection of prescriptions and only one lens curvature.

Then I gave up with Specsavers and went to have lenses fitted properly. After 2 hours worth of actual tests and consultation with an actual optician who knows about contact lenses, I now wear overnight lenses. These lenses are genuinely the best thing which ever happened to me!

If you find most lenses uncomfortable then I would highly recommend going to a real contact lens practice then you will see there is a huge variety of different types of lenses and if you have abnormal eyes (which most people do including myself) then they will sort you out with lenses which fit properly

The main reason your told not to swim in lenses is because it is easy for them to fall out if your goggles fill with water. If you wear sleep in lenses then you should swap them for dailys just in case you loose them as they are normally custom made and therefore hard to replace.

 

[Caged]

I wear these, https://www.acuvue.co.uk/1-day-acuvue-moist-astigmatism, they are the most comfortable lenses I've ever had. Great optical quality too.

 

[Fuggan]

Generally speaking it's because it's relatively easy to scratch your eye as a contact wearing, in general non contact wearers don't put a piece of plastic on their eye every day nor jam their fingers in their eyes trying to get a contact out. scratch + swimming pool bacteria = bad combination. Eye infections can be nasty and really just in general contact lense wearers will be more susceptible to picking them up. I think the other issue is bacteria getting caught between eye/contact lense becomes a good breeding ground for bacteria again increasing the chance of an infection.

If you do ever scratch your eye, if you get any redness, don't hesitate and get straight to your optician or doctors and get antibiotic eye drops, do not **** around with your eyes.

In terms of eye vision, my contacts always give me significantly BETTER vision than glasses I've had. But as someone said it's a bit of a crap shoot as theoretically glasses can be made to ultra accurate prescriptions while contact lenses tend to be a bit more like off the rack prescriptions. For whatever reason daily focus toric "fit" my prescription great, even as the power has changed they have always given me better near, medium and far distance clarity compared to glasses.

There are other possibilities like, have contact lenses but if they don't suit near distance/computer distance perfectly, you could get a pair of very low prescription glasses just to bring the nearer range into better clarity. Hopefully you can find contacts that match you well though. I would though absolutely ask your optician if you could try the next power up or down to see if they better match your needs. You might lose a little far distance but gain at close up distances which may or may not work better for you.

I think things like, the blurry effect outside the edge of my glasses, the general comfort of not wearing glasses all make contact lenses hugely better.

In 15 years of wearing them I've had one eye scratch, one infection and while it was particularly painful and nasty for a few days... it doesn't put me off contacts in general... though it does make me lean towards finally getting laser surgery as it makes you realise both contacts and glasses aren't risk free. I've had the classic ball to face with glasses, eye infection from contacts, both have risks and so does laser surgery, upside is so huge though.

Good post, Sir. Thanks for that!

 

[zoomee]

pay £22pm to specsavers for daily disposables. I don't like going to their 'omg we have to check your eyes RIGHT NOW' appointments that they try to rope me into until they actually stop supplying me lol. Seems everytime I go they give me some crud about how the last lot of lenses stop being made, now its time to 'upgrade' to something more expensive, funnily enough.

Last time I went they acknowledged I have an Ast-whaja-ma-call-it in one eye - so they got me to trial some more expensive lenses suited to these sort of wearers - In all honesty I didn't think it warranted £12 more pm so after a couple of days told em where to go.

Always worthwhile trialing all alternatives as they will try to sell you whatever gives them the most profit - don't listen to the zomg only wear them for so long - i've spent the past 20 years wearing them everyday 7 or 8 till 5 or 6 - no problems. Defo recommend Daily disposables over monthly ones as you don't need to worry about cleaning them and can just chuck em and stick in a brand new pair each day without worry about nasty diseases.

 

[grumpysculler]

Sorry for bumping, my question didn't seem to warrant a new thread. I'm going through a contact lens trial at the moment, trying to find the right balance between comfort and vision quality. Think I'm nearly there, apparently I have a slight astigmatism in my eyes so the lady wasn't sure whether I'd need tourex (sp?) lenses or not. She opted with no and the lenses I have in now are very comfortable, can hardly notice them in, but my short vision is a bit compromised - is this normal or should I expect 100% same vision as with glasses?

Could be the compromise you get with not using a toric lens. I have astigmatism and (until recently) used spherical lenses. Could always tell the difference between my vision with glasses and with contact lenses, but it wasn't enough to worry about.

I did try torics back in 2009, but the damn things wouldn't stay put.

It's now reached the point where I need one toric. Fortunately, they have come on a bit and don't move around like the older ones did (for me, YMMV). I used to wear fortnightly lenses, but have moved to dailies for comfort. Torics are thicker and the cylinder means one axis of the lens is thicker, so I have a much thicker lens than the sphericals I'm used to. Dailies are noticeable now, but perfectly tolerable. Reusable lenses are more like sticking a double glazed window on my eye.

I used to be with D&A who were great. Then Boots bought them and (because my old D&A branch is due to be demolished) I moved to a proper Boots. Service is generally pants now. The "optical assistant" that I usually see is both a hot and lovely, but there only seems to be two optometrists (out of five) that actually give a damn. That and I have been waiting 12 days for a contact lens trial to arrive (D&A always kept these things in stock and it should be next day at worst even if they don't!).

I'll be moving to a local independent soon!

 

[tom_e]

Could be the compromise you get with not using a toric lens. I have astigmatism and (until recently) used spherical lenses. Could always tell the difference between my vision with glasses and with contact lenses, but it wasn't enough to worry about.

I did try torics back in 2009, but the damn things wouldn't stay put.

It's now reached the point where I need one toric. Fortunately, they have come on a bit and don't move around like the older ones did (for me, YMMV). I used to wear fortnightly lenses, but have moved to dailies for comfort. Torics are thicker and the cylinder means one axis of the lens is thicker, so I have a much thicker lens than the sphericals I'm used to. Dailies are noticeable now, but perfectly tolerable. Reusable lenses are more like sticking a double glazed window on my eye.

I used to be with D&A who were great. Then Boots bought them and (because my old D&A branch is due to be demolished) I moved to a proper Boots. Service is generally pants now. The "optical assistant" that I usually see is both a hot and lovely, but there only seems to be two optometrists (out of five) that actually give a damn. That and I have been waiting 12 days for a contact lens trial to arrive (D&A always kept these things in stock and it should be next day at worst even if they don't!).

I'll be moving to a local independent soon!

Now you mention it the last time I went for a check up they did mention I have very mild Astigmatism in one eye but not enough to bother with the toric lenses so it could well be that that causes my short vision to not be as good when I use my lenses.