contact lens discussion thread (merged)

wishiwasarichgirl

crockpot wrote: »

Just been having a look online and have found that I can buy GRP lenses from£19 each.

If I go for a contact lens fitting do they have to give me my prescription like they do with glasses?

Does anyone else do this?

D and A say it will be approx £20 a month to include soloutions and aftercare so £240 a year, if I buy a pair £40 plus £5a month solutions so £100 a year.

yes they have to give you your contact lens prescription once the fitting is complete but the fitting is only completed once you have been successfully wearing the lenses for approx 1-3 months.
I don't know of anywhere that will give you a completely free trial for RGPs, so you will probably have to buy the lenses or possibly pay a large fitting fee, as they are more complex to fit than soft lenses.

Brodel

Hi,

I was wondering if I could get some advice on continuous wear contacts.

I am going backpacking around Asia for 2 months and am considering buying some from the specsavers website as it'll probably be safer/cleaner than having to change contacts in and out every day. I already wear contacts but was wondering if it would be ok to use them even though I haven't before, or do I need a special eye test for them?

Also, if I was to order some today, when would they be likely to arrive?

Thanks.

wishiwasarichgirl

Brodel wrote: »

Hi,

I was wondering if I could get some advice on continuous wear contacts.

I am going backpacking around Asia for 2 months and am considering buying some from the specsavers website as it'll probably be safer/cleaner than having to change contacts in and out every day. I already wear contacts but was wondering if it would be ok to use them even though I haven't before, or do I need a special eye test for them?

Also, if I was to order some today, when would they be likely to arrive?

Thanks.

You'll need a prescription for them before ordering them online, any website which supplies them without a prescription is acting illegally.

Ask specsavers (or any optician) if you can have a free months trial of them. There are implications with wearing CLs continuously, some patients' eyes react badly to them, and they can have a higher rate of infection than "daily wear" lenses if not fitted correctly, so you need a trial with regular check ups during the first few weeks of use to make sure your eyes are suitable.

Brodel

wishiwasarichgirl wrote: »

You'll need a prescription for them before ordering them online, any website which supplies them without a prescription is acting illegally.

Ask specsavers (or any optician) if you can have a free months trial of them. There are implications with wearing CLs continuously, some patients' eyes react badly to them, and they can have a higher rate of infection than "daily wear" lenses if not fitted correctly, so you need a trial with regular check ups during the first few weeks of use to make sure your eyes are suitable.

Ah ok, thanks for the information. It looks like maybe I am better off sticking with the daily wear ones for now then as I don't have time for a months trial before leaving.

Jarvisma

Brodel wrote: »

Ah ok, thanks for the information. It looks like maybe I am better off sticking with the daily wear ones for now then as I don't have time for a months trial before leaving.

Just a note on continuous wear lenses, like you I wear daily disposable lenses almost every day and thought I'd give the continuous wear ones a try and I found they were much more uncomfortable and they made my eyes water no end.

They have to be more durable for obvious reasons but it felt to me as though they were noticably thicker and unlike my normal dailies that once they're in you can't really feel them, the continuous wear ones I could definitely 'feel' in my eyes and it was quite uncomfortable.

That was just my experience but you may have found them difficult to adjust to anyway, maybe it's a case of better the devil you know and at least you know your comfortable with your dailies!

dizzydux

Anybody tried Optical Express 'Mono lenses'?

Never had contact lenses, wear varifocals - and they've suggested as I am not keen on glasses that I could try these contact lenses.
I don't think my prescription is very strong, I need glasses to read, and to sharpen my long distance vision , presumably due to age.

Appaarently one lens has long sight and the other short, and when they tried them I was impressed. But no-one has mentioned them on here, and no-one I know has heard of this type of lens. Anyone used these?

And about contact lens generally - 2 people I know say they've had a scare with 'losing' a lens in the back of their eye - which sounded scary! If that happened would using an eyebath help to flush it out?

I'd be grateful for advice.

wishiwasarichgirl

dizzydux wrote: »

Anybody tried Optical Express 'Mono lenses'?

Never had contact lenses, wear varifocals - and they've suggested as I am not keen on glasses that I could try these contact lenses.
I don't think my prescription is very strong, I need glasses to read, and to sharpen my long distance vision , presumably due to age.

Appaarently one lens has long sight and the other short, and when they tried them I was impressed. But no-one has mentioned them on here, and no-one I know has heard of this type of lens. Anyone used these?

And about contact lens generally - 2 people I know say they've had a scare with 'losing' a lens in the back of their eye - which sounded scary! If that happened would using an eyebath help to flush it out?

I'd be grateful for advice.

Monovision is a fairly common way of correcting the vision if you need different prescriptions for long distance and close up vision (ie if you wear bifocals or varifocals, generally people over 45ish).

It is a compromise, you have one lens which is optimised for your distance vision, and one for close work, so the overall vision is never 100%, but it can work well for a lot of people, as long as you are not expecting perfection.
I never recommend it to fussy patients, it doesn't always work very well if you only need glasses for reading, and have perfect distance vision, as the close up lens in one eye will blur the distance vision slightly.

It doesn't require a special lens, so you can have pretty much any daily, monthly or continuous wear lens as monovision, at the same cost.

You can't actually lose a lens "behind" your eye, it can only get stuck underneath your eyelid at worst. If that happens an eyewash will probably get it moving, if not it will not damage your eyes to leave it there untill you can get to an optician (who will be able to whip it out in no time, I have to do this for patients every day or so - not always the same patients I hasten to add! )

edited to add - you can get monovision from any opticians

dizzydux

Thanks for that, wishiwasarichgirl. that's great.

Sorry to sound really thick, but I don't quite understand the following (bearing in mind that I know nothing about contact lenses etc! ):

'It doesn't require a special lens, so you can have pretty much any daily, monthly or continuous wear lens as monovision, at the same cost.'

Do you mean I would buy my prescription long distance lense for the left eye, and the short distance for the right eye? Bit like buying an odd sized pair of shoes?

wishiwasarichgirl

dizzydux wrote: »

Do you mean I would buy my prescription long distance lense for the left eye, and the short distance for the right eye? Bit like buying an odd sized pair of shoes?

Pretty much! Although the strength of the lenses will sometimes need to be tweaked a little to get the best compromise of vision.
It does sound as if it souldn't work, but many people manage quite well, it tends to work best if there isn't a massive difference between you distance prescription and your close work prescription.
As you get older the difference between the two prescriptions becomes greater and monovision can be less successful.

once you've worn them for a while and are happy with the lenses and the vision (give it a couple of months to be sure) you can ask for your contact lens specifications (prescription) and shop around for the best prices.

HTH

stars_bright

Both my children wear contact lenses, i was originally buying them from a local optician and was payiing £22 per month for my daughters and £12 for my sons. I only started buying them from Asda online because of the terrible delays in actually getting the lenses from the opticians but am delighted to find that I only pay £12 per pair for my daughters and £8 for my sons. Asda also sent a voucher for each of them for "free after care" and I am just wodering what that entails? They both get free eye tests on the NHS because they are under 18 and I plan to go to the old opticians for those but I just wonder what the "aftercare" which they can have free from Asda actually consists of?