What are contact lenses like these days? Any good?

[Time Waster]

I have had contact lenses just over 30 years ago and 20 years ago. The first time I was 17 or 18yo and had no issues with them. Then 20 years ago or so I got more modern ones but by this time I needed toric ones and got monthly disposable ones purely for martial arts use. They were terrible and left me clawing my eyes out after a couple of hours so with the drive to the dojo, session and home I was absolutely frantic to get them out. I did two full day martial arts taining courses and I am still traumatised by this so have always said no to contacts when suggested.

I am sufficiently over that now to think again. I want to get sunglasses for light sensitivity periods (migraine related) and they need to be more enclosing of my eyes. SPorts glasses, wraparound are not possible with my high prescription. There is one but it looks like tinted safety overglasses. Out of curiosity I went into Boots oppticians as I was in the store anyway and it is the corner. I asked for preescription sports sunglasses and he took my strength from my glasses and said theey can not get anything. He then became an advocate for contact lenses. He has high preescription (not as high as mine) and he uses daily disposable for sports and he said he goes the extra mile to find the right lens option for people as he believes in contacts.

Me? I have the clawed out eye fear in thee back of my mind. So does anyone have experience of lenses past and present? Are they really so much better now??

The guy suggested daily disposable toric ones for £49 for 30 (full month), but they are sealed individually so you can wear each set of daily ass an when you want. I figure on week days I am at work and will not wear them so at most 2 times a week the month supply will last at least 3 months. Apparently they have a safe life of 2 years or more. He said my prescription will change before they go off!! do not believe that but you get the drift. At £1.67 each set I think that is not so bad an option. It will allow me to wear wraparound sports sunglasses which are cheaper without prescription lens capability.

So I really need to find out if anyone knows much about contact lenses or has experience with them over the years. If you do can you give me your opinions on this idea? Can they really find toric contact lenses that are comfortable for dry eyes??

 

[oxoman]

I tried them a few yrs ago but stopped as I was advised by elf and safety not to wear them as I weld occasionally at work. I also need to wear reactalite lenses as 1 eye is sensitive to bright light after an injury yrs ago. I've ridden with a few guys that used them and occasionally they'd have issues with them moving mid ride even though wearing sports glasses. Luckily my prescription isn't that bad so I can still use sports frames.

 

[roley poley]

Personally can`t do contact lenses as the approach of my finger to eyeball causes the natural reaction of NO ... had a trial of them in the opticians to replace bifocals and my "autopilot"said it was dangerous ...i will stick to spex as it works for me ...

 

[Spiderweb]

I’ve used monthly lenses for years. My eyes are a little drier than they used to be so the optician recommended these, they’re very comfortable.
https://www.lenstore.co.uk/ciba-vision/monthly-disposables/air-optix-plus-hydraglyde_p460

 

[Adam4868]

I have toric daily disposable lenses...I don't wear them everyday just when I feel like it.Never had any problems with them..pretty sure i bought my last lot online and was a fair bit cheaper.I know Scrivens did a pretty good monthly deal,even cheaper if you only wanted say five pairs a week.
I've worn them all day...slept in them when had a drink ! Im ok getting them in but sometimes struggle getting them out,usually get my partner to remove them for me.

 

[Feelgoodlost]

I have had contact lenses just over 30 years ago and 20 years ago. The first time I was 17 or 18yo and had no issues with them. Then 20 years ago or so I got more modern ones but by this time I needed toric ones and got monthly disposable ones purely for martial arts use. They were terrible and left me clawing my eyes out after a couple of hours so with the drive to the dojo, session and home I was absolutely frantic to get them out. I did two full day martial arts taining courses and I am still traumatised by this so have always said no to contacts when suggested.

I am sufficiently over that now to think again. I want to get sunglasses for light sensitivity periods (migraine related) and they need to be more enclosing of my eyes. SPorts glasses, wraparound are not possible with my high prescription. There is one but it looks like tinted safety overglasses. Out of curiosity I went into Boots oppticians as I was in the store anyway and it is the corner. I asked for preescription sports sunglasses and he took my strength from my glasses and said theey can not get anything. He then became an advocate for contact lenses. He has high preescription (not as high as mine) and he uses daily disposable for sports and he said he goes the extra mile to find the right lens option for people as he believes in contacts.

Me? I have the clawed out eye fear in thee back of my mind. So does anyone have experience of lenses past and present? Are they really so much better now??

The guy suggested daily disposable toric ones for £49 for 30 (full month), but they are sealed individually so you can wear each set of daily ass an when you want. I figure on week days I am at work and will not wear them so at most 2 times a week the month supply will last at least 3 months. Apparently they have a safe life of 2 years or more. He said my prescription will change before they go off!! do not believe that but you get the drift. At £1.67 each set I think that is not so bad an option. It will allow me to wear wraparound sports sunglasses which are cheaper without prescription lens capability.

So I really need to find out if anyone knows much about contact lenses or has experience with them over the years. If you do can you give me your opinions on this idea? Can they really find toric contact lenses that are comfortable for dry eyes??

I use Crystal Dailies from contactlenses.co.uk. I've used them for the last 10-11 years and had very few problems. I used to wear them almost every other day until I invested in a couple of nice pairs of glasses. I only wear them now when I'm out on the bike. I've yet to come across any stick on lenses that would do the job and prescription Oakleys etc. just seem ridiculously expensive. I buy 3 boxes (90 individual lenses) and they tend to last around 4-5 months.

I know loads of people have the fear about contacts but I think you just have to persevere until you find 'the knack' - When I'm putting them in, I hold my bottom eyelid down so that I physically can't blink (as is the natural reaction to coming so close to your eyeball with a finger) and gently release the eyelid and blink a few times. This will usually set the lense in place. I use the same method for removing the lense and just gently pinch at the lense with two fingers - You can usually see the ridge of the lense so you know you're not going to make direct contact with your eyeball. Lenses are directional though and you need to make sure they're flipped the right way round before putting them in. Sometimes when you remove them from the packaging, they're inverted. You'll soon know about it if you've inserted them the wrong way round as they'll feel pretty irritating.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I have had contact lenses just over 30 years ago and 20 years ago. The first time I was 17 or 18yo and had no issues with them. Then 20 years ago or so I got more modern ones but by this time I needed toric ones and got monthly disposable ones purely for martial arts use. They were terrible and left me clawing my eyes out after a couple of hours so with the drive to the dojo, session and home I was absolutely frantic to get them out. I did two full day martial arts taining courses and I am still traumatised by this so have always said no to contacts when suggested.

I am sufficiently over that now to think again. I want to get sunglasses for light sensitivity periods (migraine related) and they need to be more enclosing of my eyes. SPorts glasses, wraparound are not possible with my high prescription. There is one but it looks like tinted safety overglasses. Out of curiosity I went into Boots oppticians as I was in the store anyway and it is the corner. I asked for preescription sports sunglasses and he took my strength from my glasses and said theey can not get anything. He then became an advocate for contact lenses. He has high preescription (not as high as mine) and he uses daily disposable for sports and he said he goes the extra mile to find the right lens option for people as he believes in contacts.

Me? I have the clawed out eye fear in thee back of my mind. So does anyone have experience of lenses past and present? Are they really so much better now??

The guy suggested daily disposable toric ones for £49 for 30 (full month), but they are sealed individually so you can wear each set of daily ass an when you want. I figure on week days I am at work and will not wear them so at most 2 times a week the month supply will last at least 3 months. Apparently they have a safe life of 2 years or more. He said my prescription will change before they go off!! do not believe that but you get the drift. At £1.67 each set I think that is not so bad an option. It will allow me to wear wraparound sports sunglasses which are cheaper without prescription lens capability.

So I really need to find out if anyone knows much about contact lenses or has experience with them over the years. If you do can you give me your opinions on this idea? Can they really find toric contact lenses that are comfortable for dry eyes??

I've no experience with Toric but I'd always advocate lenses for most sports, I wear mine on the bike. I prefer a re-useable lens over a disposible purely out of comfort, though there is probably a daily out there I'd find just as comfortable. On holidays I do often take some spare dailies just in case. The vision is not as good as my glasses, say 95% compared to 100%, but as they are a purely casual use so I'm fine with that.

Go with the Boots guys advice, let him give you some to try and see how you get on. You do need a certain level of support when first starting but after a while I'd say you don't need to review your lenses any more often than having an eye test.

 

[Dadam]

Toric isn't a brand name it's just a type of contact lens to correct astigmatism, in addition to a normal prescription. I guess you just didn't get on with whatever brand you tried. They do vary, so it's worth trying different brands. Ask your optician if they will sell you a trial pack. If not, get your full prescription and buy online.

I use daily disposables occasionally, for martial arts mainly these days. Toric for the right eye, normal for the left. I get Focus Dailies from Costco opticians and a "3 months supply" of 90 lenses lasts me well over a year!

 

[Psamathe]

Brilliant.

My eyes need reading only correction and pre-contact lenses for years at each 1 yr check-up opticians said "you won't like them, not as good ..." but I got increasingly fed-up with a pair old reading glasses round my neck I thought 'd give them a go (trying doesn't const much).

As for reading correction only my pre-conception was the monovision sounded terrible (one eye reading correction, other distance and brain learns to switch) and I'd thought bi or vari focal would be what I wanted. But initial consultation specialist did her measurements and recommended monovision. So I thought she's the expert and my "preference" is just baseless pre-conceived thoughts so I followed her recommendation.

On 1st fitting no eye watering and drove home from the appointment wearing them. Told to build up time over a few days but no issues. Brain learnt to switch between eye for near and distance almost immediately and never really noticed what's happening and never noticed any issues with distance estimation or anything.

One eye had reading prescription, other has a trivial distance correction but with an astigmatism correction (without the astigmatism I'd be on just the one lens) but which eye is set to reading and which to distance is based on which eye is dominant.

I'm on daily disposable lenses.

They are quite expensive but I suspect it's the astigmatism that adds more cost than the straight prescription.

nb. the astigmatism has an "orientation" and there is a mark on the lens youy can pre-align when putting them in. I've found the mark just once but the lenses self align so I don't bother to look for the mark, just put them in and blink a few times and things are fine.

Overall vision much better with contacts than with/without glasses. Wish I'd started sooner.

Ian

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Tried a trial of daily contacts 25 years ago and eyes didn't like them.

Recently bought some wrap around Sunglasses with clear prescription lenses from Boots, for everyday and cycling.

 

[Psamathe]

Tried a trial of daily contacts 25 years ago and eyes didn't like them.

My understanding is that contact lenses these days are very different from those of 25 years ago.

Company whose lenses I use has a number of different lines at difference prices (covering the same power/optical ranges) and I scanned through their spiel of the different lines and main difference I could find was "comfort". No idea what the technical/meterial differences that affect this are but their more expensive lines was described as being more comfortable.

Ian

 

[Time Waster]

I never had an issue putting them in or taking them out. You kind of learn how to put them in quite quickly. Although I found that when I was rushed for time I had problems putting them in so I learnt to put them in slowly and give myself time so I am not rushing to put them in and get out to MArtial arts session.

Toric lenses are not brands they are lenses that have a bit more material / weight to the bottom edge when installed in the right orientation or near it. You can see fine dotted lines fanning out in the bottom quarter of the lens. You put the lens on your finger so that you get the lines close to the right position on your eye and the weight spins it round the rest of the way to the exact angle of yourr astigmatism. The weight and construction used to create more irritation in the days before I got them 20 years ago. The ones I got back then were a new tech that supposedly was comfortable. However dailies were fairly new in non toric back then but toric was only available in monthly or the ones you wore then washed and that lasted for a long time.

Two issues for me, high prescription and high astigmatism. This means prescription inserts into sports glasses are impossible. I think -7 is the highest most brands can cope with, I am worse than that. The other thing is astigmatism. With some of the better contact lenses for comfort they only go up to -2 on astigmatism (I think the Boots guy said). Mine is worse than that so he had to doublee check I could geet the better lenses for comfort in a dailie disposable. Monthlies are open the packet on day then throw away day 30 no matter how many times you wear it. I think that is not good for me so I will just cope with what I have now. So far the Boots guy said dailies will work for me.

I think the Boots guy said I can get signed up for a 2 week free trial. He made a big sales pitch about comfort being his problem to ahieve and learning to put them in is his role to teach it to me. No matter how long he will get me to the point I can do it. I never had an issue even when 17 with my first go at contacts.

 

[presta]

As for reading correction only my pre-conception was the monovision sounded terrible (one eye reading correction, other distance and brain learns to switch) and I'd thought bi or vari focal would be what I wanted. But initial consultation specialist did her measurements and recommended monovision.

But how on earth do you do anything that needs stereo vision?

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

My eyes couldn't breathe apparently, while one lens split in two and the optician had to go fishing for the bits using yellow dye iirc.

When I got the sunglasses, I was told I was borderline for varifocals, now I need to wear no glasses for mobile reading and old specs for time on the pc.

 

[Psamathe]

But how on earth do you do anything that needs stereo vision?

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.

Put a hand over one eye and you can immediately tell eyes are different eg TV is blurred or can't read text in a book but both eyes and like having perfect vision. Brain is an amazing thing.

Maybe what was more of a surprise for me was before getting them I was convinced they wouldn't work and when I start with such strong "won't work" attitude it normally doesn't, probably because I'm so negative and focus on every glitch - but with these for me no glitches. I'd taken the attitude that trying them was free and I expected to go back aftrr a week and declare I needed bi/vari focal lenses. But they worked.

Ian