Contact lenses - need help!

DEmeant0r

Hi,

This is my first post in the fashion/appearance forum.
I have gone to the optition about contact lenses, I have tried to put them on, but after about 30 mins of fiddling I just couldn't, I seem to have very tight small eyelids that won't open wide. Is there any way of opening it bigger even if it causes pain for a little while. Also I heard that gas permeable lenses are smaller than the dailies I've been trying to put on, how much smaller are they and would they suit my kind of eyes?

K!LL!@N

I don't have contacts, but don't they fit you for them when you go the consultation?

Killian

trio

Gas permeable are indeed smaller than soft lenses. They barely cover the coloured part. They are hard and rigid, and some people find they "feel" them in their eyes more at first. The curvature of your eyes is measured, and the lenses are tailor made for you, so they shouldn't irritate unless your eyes are super-sensitive. My sister has super-sensitive eyes and had to switch to soft ones, which are slightly thinner, and for some easier to wear.

I don't though - I've tried soft ones and find them far too big and wide. Terribly finicky to put in (its hard to tell which is the right way out) and just covered too much of my eye. I went back to my wee g.p.'s. I find them easy to put in - they tend to help you out by sucking themselves to your eye when you put them against it, so you don't have to keep prodding and prodding.

Possibly your eyes aren't the problem, but if you are tense, your eye will try to close like a steel trap. This could be why you were having trouble. I've seen first-timers barely able to open their eyes at all when confronted by a lens for the first time.

Specsavers are good - it'll cost about 120 or so for the pair.

7Angel7

Yeah . . they should have fit you for them.

I had the same problem when I first got contacts. It would take me almost 45 minutes to finally get them in. Each time I would try, my eyes would water more, making it even harder. Finally I figured it out. If I keep my index finger and thumb dry I can keep my eyelid open. Then rather than looking down, or looking at the contact, I would just watch the contact go in my eye in the mirror. Rather than keep blinking because you're focusing on the contact. Hope this helps

Dar

Trust me you get used to putting them in. My first time trying to lenses in at home lasted 2 frustrating hours. After a week or two you'll find yourself putting them in in less than 5 minutes. After a month or two you'll have them in in seconds without even thinking about it.

CathyMoran

Gas permeable lenses are better for your eyes if you can stick them, but you can develop a sensitivity over time. All lenses take time to get used to - wear them for increasingly longer times until you reach the recommended maximum time. Always ensure that you hands are very clean when you put in your lenses and clean them if you do not use the daily disposables. At first you will automaticaly tense up when you are trying lenses - just give it time.

seamus

I can remember fumbling baout for 25 minutes before going to work trying to get lenses to go in. Until you get really used to them, you'll run into issues.

Your eyes will always be sensitive when you first start. Reflex will want to shut your eye, and regardless of how much you hold them, they may just shut. This is the cause of most problems at the start.

Use two hands. With your left hand, pin your upper eyelid upwards as far as it will go (seriously, it'll feel weird, but the better grip you can get without doing damage, the better). Then balance the lense on the tip of your middle or index finger (whichever is easier) of your right hand, and use your ring finger to pull down your lower eyelid. There's much more give in the lower eyelid - you may find it easier to push from just underneath the eyelid, at the top of your cheek. Even if it blinks, it shoudl stay well out of dodge.

Then relax. Take a deep breath and slowly put the lense in. Feel what you are doing. Don't just stick your finger in your eye and hope that it pops in. Eventually the reflex action won't happen anymore. I could stick in lenses without holding my eyelids if I didn't have such freakishly long eyelashes.....

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i just throw the lenses in without thinking about it at this stage, but I have the nice big soft ones. I tried the harder gas permeable ones (i think all of them are actually gas permeable.. but the smaller ones more so..) but they just felt like sand in my eyelid the entire time, and they fogged up after an hour of wear.. and being such a messy bastard it was alot of effort to have to clean/store them properly eveyr god damn time I took them out.

I much prefer dalies I just tear em out of my eye and throw em into the bin/ash tray when i'm in bed.

DEmeant0r

Lol, tried on the harder gas permeable ones today, the effin' thing got stuck to the corner of my eye, felt like something was eating my eye, but the opticianist helped me take it out. Never again!
But luckily the opticianist said she can get small year long soft lenses, so maybe I'll have more luck then.
It's been a long day!

ishnid

Demeant0r wrote:

Lol, tried on the harder gas permeable ones today, the effin' thing got stuck to the corner of my eye, felt like something was eating my eye, but the opticianist helped me take it out. Never again!
But luckily the opticianist said she can get small year long soft lenses, so maybe I'll have more luck then.
It's been a long day!

That'll happen on occasion alright. And if you think that's bad, try fishing for the two pieces of a monthly disposable that's just split in two on you, or trying to take out a lens that you've forgotten you've taken out already (admittedly there had been drink taken on that occasion - still kind of painful though!).

Really, it's all a matter of practice.

K!LL!@N

ishnid wrote:

That'll happen on occasion alright. And if you think that's bad, try fishing for the two pieces of a monthly disposable that's just split in two on you, or trying to take out a lens that you've forgotten you've taken out already (admittedly there had been drink taken on that occasion - still kind of painful though!).

Really, it's all a matter of practice.

That's a weird state of drunkeness.
Not drunk enough to forget to take your contacts out, but drunk enough to forget you already had?

Killian

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

K!LL!@N wrote:

That's a weird state of drunkeness.
Not drunk enough to forget to take your contacts out, but drunk enough to forget you already had?

Killian

it took me 2 hours one morning to realise that I could see perfectly as soon as I got out of bed, and to think that was strange...

seamus

K!LL!@N wrote:

That's a weird state of drunkeness.
Not drunk enough to forget to take your contacts out, but drunk enough to forget you already had?

Killian

Yep, I spent about a minute one night rubbing my finger across my eyeball. It was when it started stinging that I remembered ther was no lense in there

elbee

Try grabbing your eyelashes and yanking them open that way! It worked for me.

Also try slowly getting used to your fingers in your eye. With no lens, try touching the eyeball slowly a few times and work up to trying the lens.

But if your optician didn't fit them, GET A NEW OPTICIAN! When I got mine, they made me put them in and take them out twice in the shop before I could take them home. Even then I had trouble, but I knew I could do it because I'd done it before, so all through the two hours it took to get it out, I knew it'd work eventually.