What are contact lenses like these days? Any good?

[TheDoctor]

I use toric contacts - just in one eye. I've tried daily disposables and monthly, both work well.
The main reason I also use glasses is that I'm afraid of jeopardising my one remaining 'good' eye!
If you PM me your address I'll post you a couple of lenses.
The prescription will be all wrong, but at least you can see how they feel.

 

[Time Waster]

We see with our brain, the eyes and retina just gathers the signal. A phone on high end cameras have depth sensors I believe that are basically underpowered camera sensors. The phone sorts depth out for focus with one "eye" and we've got a more powerful chipset to do the processing. So it's not surprising the different lens thing works.

 

[potsy]

I used fortnightly toric lenses, have done for years.
Mine too are geared so that one eye is more for reading and the other for distance, works well with both eyes open.
Am currently waiting on a trial of the daily version but Boots seem to be on a go slow 🙄
More expensive but also more convenient as I wouldn't need to take a case or solutions every time am not at home, just a pair of lenses for the next day.
Comfort wise I find them very good, wear them for 10 hours or so most days.

 

[Legs]

I had laser eye surgery (LASEK) in January 2017 for myopia and mild astigmatism, and it's been amazing. I love the freedom of not having the faff of contact lenses or specs. There's been no subsequent deterioration in my eyesight since (I'm 43).

 

[Electric_Andy]

In my experience it's not the lenses themselves that cause issues, but the routine maintenance/hygiene. I wore monthlies 25 years ago with no problems; I got drink and slept in them almost weekly. I also tried dalies and had no isses.

about 15 years ago I tried to cut costs and ordered them online without solution. I then bought cheap saline solution (which was wrong but I didn't know it). I was doing that for over a year until my optometrist said it's quite dangerous.

Then a few years after that I must have had grit in my eye, it was rubbing but I was driving to work so just let it rub all day. The next day I developed an ulcer on my eyeball which was very painful.

I did try them again a few years after, without issue, but just stopped due to cost and can't be bothered with cleaning them every day.

So, I'd guess that when they irritated you you had some sort of foreign body in them. This can happen even with clean hands. It can also go the other way - I've put them in with dirty hands before and had no issue! Very lucky I guess

 

[presta]

It just seems to work fine. Before getting them I thought the same but brain adapts very quickly and very effectively. I can't explain what or how the brain does what it is doing but I can judge distance fine, read a book close fine and glance up fine and everything in focus and it all just works.

So can I, but can you thread a needle?

That was when I suddenly realised I'd got one good eye and one duff one. If I stopped trying to get the cotton in the hole I could see both the eye and the thread pin sharp, but as soon as I tried to put one in the other I couldn't do it, my vision just felt completely 'doolally', like I was cross-eyed. I couldn't fathom why at first, until I closed one eye at a time and found that the pin sharp view was in the right eye only, and I couldn't see a damn thing with my left eye. My brain had adapted just as you say: by learning to ignore my left eye altogether. It can get away with doing that because the majority of the time I'm not threading needles.

Even now, with glasses, my left eye isn't good enough to do what I used to do with ease. If I were still at work I wouldn't be able to do my job, because I can't align two halves of a joint, a soldering iron, and a piece of solder all in 3D, a task similar to threading a needle, but with four objects instead of two. If I try to do this sort of thing, I get a screaming headache within a few minutes. I keep telling opticians that, but, just like you, they think there's nothing wrong as long as I can read the finest print on their test card, which is a 2D task, not 3D. My current set of glasses aren't good enough, but they are a noticeable improvement on anything else I've ever had, so there's obviously a large element of fobbing off been going on at the opticians for the last 20 odd years.

 

[presta]

The phone sorts depth out for focus with one "eye" and we've got a more powerful chipset to do the processing. So it's not surprising the different lens thing works.

Aligning things in 3D is about parallax, not focus, and you can't perceive that without two eyes. Focus can't contribute anything if both objects are the same distance from the eye.

 

[Psamathe]

So can I, but can you thread a needle?

Yes, without even thinking. Don't do it that often but happen to have done so recently to repait my tadpole bent flag where the flag had become detached from the pole and sewing back on is the best fix I've found.

Ian

 

[Time Waster]

I had laser eye surgery (LASEK) in January 2017 for myopia and mild astigmatism, and it's been amazing. I love the freedom of not having the faff of contact lenses or specs. There's been no subsequent deterioration in my eyesight since (I'm 43).

Partner had it done decades ago overseas where she lived on her private medical, with extra charges. Only £300 per eye iirc!

She now needs reading glasses only. Ones for reading and another pair for computer work. Your eyes are likely to change, like most short sighted people our eyes start to struggle to change from close work to distance. It stops being an instant switch and that eventually leads to reading glasses. Laser correction cannot cope with that so expect some correction to be needed eventually. For me it was at 50 yo. For my partner it was early to mid 40s.

Oh and do you get dry eyes? A common side effect apparently and could leave you needing some expensive eyedropper in summer.

 

[Lanterne Rogue]

I have to wear rigid lenses for my keratoconus and have done for decades (there are now more options for treatment, but the lenses work and nobody is overly keen to mess about...).

Bit painful if anything gets under them (dust, protein build up) and occasionally they go wandering off, but compared to not being able to see I'd take them every day. Glasses don't really work when your vision is really screwed...

On the binocular vision thing, my left eye is far worse than the right. It took me a while to realise what was going on, but my brain simply ignores the left eye unless it has a lens in - at which point everything goes wide-screen. Really odd thing to have happen...

 

[Lanterne Rogue]

Should also have said that poking myself in the eye has never been difficult, and building up wear from just half an hour increments to start with meant it was never really uncomfortable - everything had time to adapt. If anybody else is ever recommended rigid lenses for some reason, there's no need to dread them.

 

[faster]

I've no experience of toric lenses, but I believe lenses have improved a lot over the years.

When I first started wearing contacts about 30 years ago, I remember being desperate to take them out by early evening. Now I wear mine every waking hour (18+ hours a day) and just don't notice them.

If you can get them in your prescription, I can recommend accuvue oasys lenses. These should last 2 weeks, but in practice I often keep them much, much longer with no ill effects. They are designed to be left in constantly for up to a week at a time, and whilst I almost always take mine out to sleep in, sleeping in them isn't a problem.

Corneas have no blood supply, so rely on oxygen being directly absorbed from the air - as such, one of the main drivers of contact lens comfort is how permeable they are to oxygen. Some lenses slowly suffocate your corneas - hence the discomfort. My optician tells me the oasys lens lets through more oxygen than your eyes will ever need and not all lenses do. Possibly a sales pitch (!), but works for me!

I think they do a daily version too.

 

[Time Waster]

Do understand that the issue with how long you were lenses isn't about how comfortable they are but how long they are safe to use. By this I mean infections and eye disease can be caused by lenses worn too long. It doesn't matter how well you sterilise them neither.

You're not having issues but do be aware that you are creating a higher level of risk than the manufacturer was ok with. The optician who supplied my lenses 20 odd years ago told me about her mother who lost a degree of function of her eyes due to a condition brought on by contact with domestic water. So many ways to lose sight.