contact lenses newbie questions

jman0war

a long time ago a had some friends wear contact lenses.
They had the same pair for a long time, like way more than a year.
Is that normal?

Can I just take my eye glasses prescription and go online and buy them?

What if i only want to have contact lenses for 1 eye.
The other eye is pretty much 20/20 so why bother.
Is that do able?

Daisies

They likely had a rigid gas permeable lens if they had it for over a year.

Don't just take your spectacle prescription and order online. Go get fitted by an optometrist.

Ursus Horribilis

Eh? I don't want to sound patronising here but you don't seem to be all that well informed about contact lenses. Obviously you want to save money by just buying lenses online but your plan makes no sense.

For starters, a person's glasses prescription and a contact lenses one aren't always the same. Mine definitely isn't. I'm not even sure a glasses prescription contains the information needed for contact lenses but I'm open to correction on that. Everyone's eyes are different sizes as well. Even my right and left eye are a little different.

When it comes to the lenses themselves, you cannot assume that what suits your friend will work for you too. There are two types of contact lenses out there. The rigid gas permeable ones last for ages but not everyone can wear them. I certainly can't and I'm not unique in that. Then there are the soft ones. Even within that, there are so many types out there you'd be better off getting professional advice and finding out what works best for you.

Also crucial when it comes to contact lenses is the eye care itself. You need to be scrupulously clean and don't do things like rinse them in tap water. When you go for a check-up, the optician will put dye into your eye to make sure your eyes are healthy. Once at a check-up, the optician spotted that I was becoming allergic to the contact lens cleaning solution I was using and switched me to something else.

MaryMD

I wear contact lenses and I've never heard of that option, in this case since its a year long version i would not buy them online and go to a specialist