Hard Contact Lenses

Legacy_user

I have worn hard gas-permeable contact lenses for many years now and was wondering if there are any people out there in MSE land who still wear these too and whether there are any tips or ideas as to how to improve costs and services for them. All the recent messages regarding contact lenses by post refer to the soft type of contact lens. From my experience I do not need to replace a lens or a pair of lenses very often - only when I lose one or 'break' one. I do have the on-going cost of solutions though. I did subscribe to a contact lens insurance plan with an optician until about a year ago, which gave a good discount off a replacement lens (up to a maximum number in a given period of time I think) and also a smaller discount off the solutions. I do not wish to change to soft contact lenses because quite simply I would not be able to afford the cost of constant replacements. I am also quite happy with the hard gas-permeable ones, the cleansing routines etc. are second nature now and do not cause me any problems. Any comments welcome.

millie

I too have been using them for 50 years with no problems, have only had about 3 replacements the ones I have now are multifocal for reading and distance. I don't find the solutions that expensive the cleaning solution and soaking solution are less than £5 each from Asda (they are cheaper still at Costco if you know someone with a card) I use Asda saline solution which is about £2.00 they last for a couple of months. Much cheaper than soft lenses.

GlasweJen

millie wrote: »

I too have been using them for 50 years with no problems, have only had about 3 replacements the ones I have now are multifocal for reading and distance. I don't find the solutions that expensive the cleaning solution and soaking solution are less than £5 each from Asda (they are cheaper still at Costco if you know someone with a card) I use Asda saline solution which is about £2.00 they last for a couple of months. Much cheaper than soft lenses.

Please tell me you also use a cleaning solution in addition to the saline? Saline should just be for rinsing and storing? Asda used to do a 2 step RGP cleaner for £8.

millie

I use Asda optician and he told me a few years ago that Asdas solutions were not very good, he recommended using Boston conditioning solution to soak them in and Boston cleaner for cleaning them. They are about £5 each from Asda> The saline solution is £2, I tend to use the Boston Simplus too and you don't need the cleaner when using that. Its cheaper in Costco if you have a card for there.

kirtondm

Hard contact lenses are much cheaper than soft lenses anyway unless you are losing loads.

The cost of solutions is not excessive but nessary

SunnyBunny

Hi

I've also worn hard lenses for some years - I pay approx £9 per month on direct debit and get a new pair each year and my sight test is free. I am quite short sighted. I understand gas-perms are better for the eyes as they allow more oxygen in as they do not cover the whole pupil.

Millie - do you mind me asking how much were your bi-focal lens? Did they take some getting used to?

JFYI: The Amo wetting solution I use is approx £3.50 in Tesco/Asda and nearly £8 in the large household name chemists! The cleaner is between £6.50 to £8.50 depending on store. I use any brand saline £2 supermarket own brand or £3 a named brand.

SB

GlasweJen

millie wrote: »

I use Asda optician and he told me a few years ago that Asdas solutions were not very good, he recommended using Boston conditioning solution to soak them in and Boston cleaner for cleaning them. They are about £5 each from Asda> The saline solution is £2, I tend to use the Boston Simplus too and you don't need the cleaner when using that. Its cheaper in Costco if you have a card for there.

That's a strange thing for him to say, they're both made by Bausch and Lomb. I remember B&L had a huge issue where their lines were contaminated and their solutions were recalled and I had to pull all our Asda stuff off the shelves too because it was the same stuff in a different package.

sillyvixen

GlasweJen wrote: »

That's a strange thing for him to say, they're both made by Bausch and Lomb. I remember B&L had a huge issue where their lines were contaminated and their solutions were recalled and I had to pull all our Asda stuff off the shelves too because it was the same stuff in a different package.

There have been a couple of instances of solution recalls from B&L over the last decade, but I thought it was soft lens solutions that had the problem. I remember removing bottles of Renu for recall, and using whatever cash we took to drive around local supermarkets buying other brands of soft lens soloutions so as we has somthing to offer our postal lens wearers who didn't get solouton delivered with their deliveries. We used repackaged Boston as gas perm own brand solution as this was not affected.

GlasweJen

sillyvixen wrote: »

There have been a couple of instances of solution recalls from B&L over the last decade, but I thought it was soft lens solutions that had the problem. I remember removing bottles of Renu for recall, and using whatever cash we took to drive around local supermarkets buying other brands of soft lens soloutions so as we has somthing to offer our postal lens wearers who didn't get solouton delivered with their deliveries. We used repackaged Boston as gas perm own brand solution as this was not affected.

This would have been at some point between 2006 and 2008. I remember as I worked at 2 different Asda stores but I was at my second store and the optical department was in one area and we had RGP solution but there was also RGP solution in the pharmacy and in aisle 3 (health and beauty). I was on shift with the laziest colleague ever and had to traipse round all 3 areas myself looking for boxes to pull off shelves and as we were pulling Boston and our own brand I had a lot of really annoyed customers as we didn't stock AO or totalcare, just Boston one step, Boston 2 step and Asdas own equivilents so we were leaving our rgp patients up a creek. Meanwhile colleague sat on the phone to her boyfriend whinging about how she hated working Mondays as there was nothing to do because we didn't do any eye tests on a Monday!

millie

SunnyBunny wrote: »

Hi

I've also worn hard lenses for some years - I pay approx £9 per month on direct debit and get a new pair each year and my sight test is free. I am quite short sighted. I understand gas-perms are better for the eyes as they allow more oxygen in as they do not cover the whole pupil.

Millie - do you mind me asking how much were your bi-focal lens? Did they take some getting used to?

JFYI: The Amo wetting solution I use is approx £3.50 in Tesco/Asda and nearly £8 in the large household name chemists! The cleaner is between £6.50 to £8.50 depending on store. I use any brand saline £2 supermarket own brand or £3 a named brand.

SB

I think the multifocal contact lenses were £180 pounds, (from memory I have had them some years) I would not have even known they were any difference to my old mono focal ones. Apparently the reading part is just all around the rim.

BananaRepublic

I wore hard (non gas permeable ) lenses for ten years but stopped 30 years ago. A year ago I started using disposables for sport (ice hockey) but I hate them as they are a nightmare to get in, and the vision correction is not good. I also find them weird to wear as I sometimes feel like I have a bubble of liquid on an eye. They take ages to settle in too. I had to argue quite forcefully with my optician to change to RGP ones, which I collected last Sunday. I’ve worn them three times now for ice skating, and the quality of vision is so much better. They are easy to put in, fairly easy to get out, and much cheaper. I used to waste loads of disposables trying to get two in, and it took at least five minutes. RGP go in almost immediately. No faff.

I am cynical and believe that opticians pressure customers into using disposables because they are much more profitable. My optician really tried very hard to convince me to try other more expensive disposables. I’m quite shocked at how much better RGP are. The only benefit of disposables is that RGP must be cleaned and stored correctly for health reasons.