Contact Lens - which type to get?

Oriel

Folks,
I currently wear gas permeable contact lens, but I'm looking to change my lens type to soft.
There are so many different types out there now - can anybody recommend what type I should try first? I'm thinking of trying the monthly ones that you keep in 24 hours a day, but I've heard reports about them being very uncomfortable.
So maybe the normal monthly that you take out at night?

Help!

Cheers,
S.

dundalk cailin

i wear the monthly one's (take em out at night), they're grand, but ive never tried the semi permanent one's or disposables. my friend wears disposable one's but she tends to leave them in for days on end..she will not listen to me warning her that that CANT be good for her eyes, they're not designed to be worn fulltime. she reckons, its saving money and hassle! i reckon you dont mess woth you eyes like that, they're too precious!!

Nala

dundalk cailin wrote:

i wear the monthly one's (take em out at night), they're grand, but ive never tried the semi permanent one's or disposables. my friend wears disposable one's but she tends to leave them in for days on end..she will not listen to me warning her that that CANT be good for her eyes, they're not designed to be worn fulltime. she reckons, its saving money and hassle! i reckon you dont mess woth you eyes like that, they're too precious!!

You're not supposed to leave them in for longer than 12 hours a day. I nearly lost the sight in my left eye because of wearing them 16 hours a day.

Tell your friend that all the money and hassle saved will be well spent on the long white cane she will probably need soon enough.

koneko

Tell your friend she's an idiot. It can and will damage her eyes over time. I couldn't wear the daily disposable ones for longer than a day, my eyes would start to feel dry and sore after wearing them too long.

Daily disposables are a good start, they're quick, easy, and it doesn't matter if you drop and lose one.

I'm using lenses now that are soft, but I can wear day and night (every day) for a whole month before changing them, they're great.

Oriel

Thing is, I'm wearing hard ones now, which are quite small in comparision. Then I'm thinking cost will be a factor as well. I paid £165 for my current contacts, and what was about 5 years ago. So the soft ones are obviously a more constly option, and I'm sure that's the only reason why it's a lot harder to get hard lens now.
Has anybody tried all of the types of lens?

S.

grumpytrousers

I've got the normal monthlys (you take 'em out at night) having attempted the gas peremeable, and there's certainly no comparison in terms of comfort - the soft ones win hands down. The slight trade off in my case is that I suffer from a slight astigmatism and thus the soft ones don't afford the same level of vision as the hard ones - you'd be talking 90-95% as opposed to what the gas permeables give you. On the other hand, and as I pointed out to the optician who advised me, I'm not flying jet aircraft or anything...

I went to vision express for the fitting - they let me try them for a week after the initial fitting to get used to 'em and then they'll try and get you into a contract. The sensible thing to do, I suppose, is - once you're satisfied that they suit your eyes, and you reckon you can handle the day and night ritual, is get the details from the side of the box and order your future supplies from t'internet for a fraction of the cost...

pal of mine has the 24 hour ones and says they're okay, but sometimes give him a bit of gip.

dundalk cailin

i have told her but she wont listen, she says her eyes are fine. whereas im a freak bout takin my contacts out, no matter how drunk i am, i religiously put them in fresh solution i guess cos i have monthlies, i cant just take them out anywhere, i need to make sure they're in the bathroom ready to put in next morning!

dundalk cailin

oh and mine cost 35 stg for 3 months supply, so 140 stg a year

Nala

dundalk cailin wrote:

she says her eyes are fine

What does her optician say?

DrIndy

Get the ones that your optometrist/ophthalmologist recommends and follow their advice for care of the lenses and your eyes.

Eyes are easy to damage, and corneal scarring can result in blindness.

Töpher

dundalk cailin wrote:

i wear the monthly one's (take em out at night), they're grand, but ive never tried the semi permanent one's or disposables. my friend wears disposable one's but she tends to leave them in for days on end..she will not listen to me warning her that that CANT be good for her eyes, they're not designed to be worn fulltime. she reckons, its saving money and hassle! i reckon you dont mess woth you eyes like that, they're too precious!!

I sometimes end up wearing mine for about 36 hours without taking them out (monthly ones, meant to take out at night), but thats if I get stuck out with nothing to put them in. I make up for it by only wearing them when I go out, if I'm kicking around the house the glasses will suffice!

irlrobins

I started out with monthly disposible ones. But since I can't wear them to use a computer (something to do with the monitor refresh rate) and I work in IT I generally wear glasses mon to fri 9 to 5 and wore the lenses for sports, going out etc. But since the monthly lenses were sitting in solution for long periods between uses, I felt that they weren't all that clean going into my eyes.

So I switched to dailies and they're much handier. Plus I can wear a pair for 12 hours and then take them out and put in a fresh pair.

And since I'm not using them everyday a months supply lasts a lot longer for me. I also buy them online from opticiansonline.ie. Alot cheaper than buying from my optician.

dundalk cailin

yea i leave the oul specs on sometimes cos i cant be bothered puttin the contacts in. but id never sleep in them, unless i fall asleep durin the day for hr or two..the longest i wore them was when i was flyin to france, and didn actually go to bed properly that night, but i took them out when i got to the house.

well she hasnt had her eyes checked since she got them, (4 months approx) cos all she has to do is go in n order a new set.. i had one or two probs with mine there last month (only got them in aug), i didnt wear them for 5 weeks, only started wearin theml again when i got eyes tested again, the optician said u can easily scratch the surface of your eye which causess discomfort with lenses, but it heals pretty quickly if you leave them out for a day or so. now what is she doin to herself if that happened me and im way more careful??

nesf

I've tried most kinds of soft lenses. Personally I think it's a cost/usage issue. If you wear contacts daily then the permenant or semi-permenants are the best bet, ie monthly and above in life. If you wear them only on nights out or weekends you're better off with daily disposables.

I find daily disposables the most comfortable. A fresh pair of contacts each time is a nice feeling. Plus since I rarely use contacts (maybe once or twice a month) it makes sense financially too. But if I was wearing them every day, it would work out very expensive. When I was doing a lot of hill walking/climbing, where glasses are a real annoyance, I used monthly disposables/semi-permenants because of the cost.

finlma

I only use mine for going out and playing sport so I'm on the Focus Dailies. 90 pairs cost me €85 and usually last me half a year so it works out pretty cheap. They're very comfortable too - I used wear monthly disposable but these are much better.

el tel

A good friend of mine is an optician and he refuses to dispense the one-month 24hr a day lenses as he believes they are untried and unsafe with regards to infection and potential long-term eye damage. I have seen the manufacturers literature regarding the clinical trials of these lenses and must say it does not inspire confidence at all. I also know a few ophthalmologists who also wouldn’t touch them with a barge-pole and advocate not wearing them at all.

TheBigLebowski

If you know your strength of contact lenses, you can buy them here a lot cheaper...Save yourself bigbucks!

http://www.visiondirect.com

dundalk cailin

my friend ( a diff girl) has that astigmatism thingy in one of her eyes, so she has to buy a special set of left lenses, she only wears them the odd time, but she said theyre quite expensive if you have to buy the special set ??

dundalk cailin

TheBigLebowski wrote:

If you know your strength of contact lenses, you can buy them here a lot cheaper...Save yourself bigbucks!

http://www.visiondirect.com

wow that is a big saving! might get them there so!! cheers!!

nesf

TheBigLebowski wrote:

If you know your strength of contact lenses, you can buy them here a lot cheaper...Save yourself bigbucks!

http://www.visiondirect.com

Tbh your prescription needs to be checked regularily anyway. It can change quite a lot in a relatively short period of time. It's not static for a lot of people (in their youth?).

irlrobins

I think its Toric lenses she needs to wear. I have them and yea they're a bit more expensive than non toric ones. :-(

irlrobins

nesf wrote:

Tbh your prescription needs to be checked regularily anyway. It can change quite a lot in a relatively short period of time. It's not static for a lot of people (in their youth?).

True, but i get my prescription checked by optician when i get new glasses (every 12 months or so, I like to be fashionable, ). I just refuse to pay 70e for something I can get online for 50e or even cheaper if I bulk buy.

TheBigLebowski

nesf wrote:

Tbh your prescription needs to be checked regularily anyway. It can change quite a lot in a relatively short period of time. It's not static for a lot of people (in their youth?).

True, but just cos you get a prescription don't mean you have to buy the contacts there. I mean you're paying enough for the eye test. From my own personal experience it doesn't change very often anyway.

dundalk cailin

she just mentioned it last week to me bout that

nesf

irlrobins wrote:

True, but i get my prescription checked by optician when i get new glasses (every 12 months or so, I like to be fashionable, ). I just refuse to pay 70e for something I can get online for 50e or even cheaper if I bulk buy.

True, I'm thinking people could get lazy about getting their eyes checked if they didn't have the need to pop in to re-order lenses every so often. If you still get your eyes checked when needed then getting lenses online is a good option

TheBigLebowski wrote:

True, but just cos you get a prescription don't mean you have to buy the contacts there. I mean you're paying enough for the eye test. From my own personal experience it doesn't change very often anyway.

Again, true. I'm only thinking of people, like me, that tend to forget about things like check ups when you don't have to get lenses etc. My prescription has changed a lot over the past few years though. Maybe it's not the case for most people, but it does happen.

Cake Fiend

I've been wearing continuous-wear lenses for several years now and they are clearly the win. I switched back to daily disposables for a while because I was worried about the fact that I work with computers might be bad for my eyes with continuous-wear lenses, but my optician advised that the continuous-wear lenses would actually be healthier than the daily disposables (especially seeing as I was wearing the dailies for far longer than the recommended 10 hours).

When you first use the continuous-wear lenses they can be a little uncomfortable for the first week or two (the lenses are slightly thicker than regular disposable lenses), but after that, you'd forget they were there (so much so that I've often gone over my 30-day limit). I quite liked the daily disposables (regular monthlies are far too much hassle, especially when you come home hammered), but the continuous-wears work out cheaper and I don't have to worry about how long I have them in. The only hassle with these lenses is the fact that they'll call you in for a checkup every 6 months as opposed to every year.

Very occasionally one of my eyes might get irritated, and I'll leave the lens out overnight, but it's pretty rare. It's recommended that you take them out as little as possible during the month, to reduce the possibility of infection.

grumpytrousers

nesf wrote:

My prescription has changed a lot over the past few years though. Maybe it's not the case for most people, but it does happen.

And have you noticed hair growing on the palms of your hands?

Seriously - the point above about dailys making more economic and hygenic sense for occasional use is a good 'un...can one get the toric/astigmatism-friendly ones in the daily type?

tk123

Hey does anybody wear the acuvue ones - are they any better than other brands?

dundalk cailin

my optician said that once your bout 18-19 then you eyesight doesnt change much after that, but it still is necessary to get tested

irlrobins

grumpytrousers wrote:

can one get the toric/astigmatism-friendly ones in the daily type?

Yea i use Focus Daily Toric lenses.

nesf

grumpytrousers wrote:

And have you noticed hair growing on the palms of your hands?

*checks*

Hmmm.... maybe...


It wasn't so much the power that changed much, it's varied about .25 in the past 3 years. It was that I needed to have a prism added to one lens to correct a muscular issue. I had to cut down on my use of contacts then, apparently they can't put the prism I need on a contact or something. If I wear contacts while reading/similar I get a constant dull headache, but with glasses I don't suffer that anymore.

I went for ages blaming loads of things for the headaches before I went to a doctor about it and got told to have a chat with my optician about it.

Hydroquinone

I wore the gas permeable/hard ones for the best part of 20 years and never had any problems with them, but everyone was raving about the daily disposables so I gave them a go when I broke one of the gas permeables by accident one day.

As has been said, if you have any astigmatism the vision with the daily disposables is not as good as you get with your glasses. But it's definitely good enough for me. If you are used to plonking in and flicking out your gas permeables in about two seconds flat, like I was, you will be infuriated at the amount of faffing about you have to do to get the daily disposables out of your eyes for the first while. Well, you will if you're like me!! It drove me mental for a while, and on one delightful occasion I managed to tear one in my eye and a fragment of it - unknown to me - stayed there for a few weeks (Yuk) It eventually worked its way out but it gave me the creeps.

On balance though, I'm glad I've got them now and I would recommend them to anyone who was used to gas permeables.

Cake Fiend

dundalk cailin wrote:

my optician said that once your bout 18-19 then you eyesight doesnt change much after that, but it still is necessary to get tested

Actually, your eyes are one of the last parts of your body to finish developing, and your eyesight can easily change into your twenties. Also, modern life's copious use of VDUs (often at far too close a range) means that your eyes are put under even more strain than ever, causing them to finish developing even later. My eyesight has worsened by over 2 points since my teens.

dundalk cailin

oh right i see!! that does make more sense, but doesnt give me much faith in my optician the glasses i wear are not quite as strong as lenses so me sight obv has changed, be it only a few 100ths (??)

Scruff

irlrobins wrote:

I started out with monthly disposible ones. But since I can't wear them to use a computer (something to do with the monitor refresh rate) and I work in IT I generally wear glasses mon to fri 9 to 5 and wore the lenses for sports, going out etc. But since the monthly lenses were sitting in solution for long periods between uses, I felt that they weren't all that clean going into my eyes.

So I switched to dailies and they're much handier. Plus I can wear a pair for 12 hours and then take them out and put in a fresh pair.

And since I'm not using them everyday a months supply lasts a lot longer for me. I also buy them online from opticiansonline.ie. Alot cheaper than buying from my optician.

almost exactly the same as what irlrobins said.
have a very slight astigmatism but can wear normal daily disposables as opposed to toric ones.

sure if ye dont want to wear glasses or contacts anymore there always laser surgery. few of my friends have had it done and swear by it.

CrimE

I wear soft monthly lenses and couldnt do without them. I find them comfortable if at times a little dry when worn the whole day. I wear mine for about 10 hours a day and its absolute madness to wear them any longer than that, I mean you are risking your sight and its just ultimately not worth it.

Never had any experience of any other lenses though so cant give an objective response but from what I know id say go with soft lenses as they are the best, most comfortable option.

faceman

I wear toric (for astigmitism) day and nights meaning i can sleep in them. They're fecking great n wud highly recommend them. Altho they are slightly more expensive than the other kind.

Someone mentioned ur eyesight levels off around 18-19. Thats not correct, ur eyesight can detoriate indefinitely but more commonly levels off in mid to late 20's.

As for astigmitism, well the puncture wounds on my palms are starting to heal..... (sorry cudnt resist!)

D

I was told that they stopped making the hard lenses because they had long-term side-effects and caused deformation of the lens(natural eye lens not the contact lens).

Oriel

Thanks for the replies folks.
I'm going for a full eye test, then I think I'll try the monthly ones where you take them out each night. The thing is, like Hydroquinone said, I'm used to just flicking my lenses in and out is a matter of seconds, so for that reason, I might go for the ones where you don't have to take them out at all. My only concern would be the long term health issue.

S.

DrIndy

Follow your opticians advice and all should be well. it does no harm to buy online, but make sure the prescription is right as the terminology especially with toric lenses are quite complex.

robinph

DrIndy wrote:

Follow your opticians advice and all should be well. it does no harm to buy online, but make sure the prescription is right as the terminology especially with toric lenses are quite complex.

Dont the online places have to contact your optician directly anyway before they are allowed to send you out any lenses inorder to get the exact prescription?

irlrobins

yea, or you can fax a copy of your prescription too.

koneko

I know with GetLenses.com (IIRC), I gave the details of my prescription and optician, and they contacted them to verify it. Prescriptions are only valid for a certain period, if it's expired and you need to go in for a test, you won't be able to buy lenses online either. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as buying in a store/optician, except it's cheaper (and takes longer).

Siogfinsceal

I one 100% recommend dailies. I had the permanent ones that you keep for a year and a half. I had to take them out every night and clean them and it drove me crazy. I was also always terrified that I would lose them (and I did once which cost me lots too replace).
the worst thing of all was trying to remember to bring my container and solution with me anytime I was sleeping somewhere else. If I decided to go for a drink and stay over somewhere that put a big spanner in the works too!
the dailies are great because you dont have to worry about losing them,cleaning them or anything like that its a relief

dundalk cailin im stunned by what you have said about your friend she will do some fierce damage to her eyes shes crazy. id never leave mine in past 12 hours - id sooner pop in a fresh pair if i was staying out that leave an old pair in - they can rip or get stuck in your eyes im shocked that hasnt happened to het already