explain to me about contact lenses!

[PineappleDanish]

DD is 14 and has been wearing glasses since she was about 3 or 4. Her problem is seeing things close up (can never remember if that's shortsighted or longsighted). Her eyes aren't so bad that she's blind without her glasses, she has always taken them off for things like swimming and soft play without an issue.

She's now said she quite likes the idea of contact lenses, not for everyday, and not for school, but for a different option when she's out with her friends or doing something special and doesn't want to wear her glasses. Neither DH nor I wear glasses apart from for reading and we haven't a clue what her options are?

She has her annual optician review in Feb so we can discuss it then, but I suspect they will try to sell me the most expensive solution which maybe isn;t the right one for her needs, given that she doesn't want to wear them every day.

Depending how many days a month she wears them, daily disposables are probably better value than monthly ones

www.specsavers.co.uk/contact-lenses

And contact lenses and their packets can be recycled, details of collections/drop off points here www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/acuvue )

There are lots of different types and the optician will advise which are suitable.

If she only wants to wear them occasionally, then you should probably go for dailies. These are worn once, then thrown away. You can get them in bulk packs and she can just open a pair as and when she wants to wear them.

If she was going to wear them everyday, you might go for monthlies, where you store them overnight in a little case and put them in each morning. You get a new pair every month.

Not sure which is more cost effective, I’ve only ever had monthly ones. I pay about £12 a month and that includes all the solution and the aforesaid little case etc.

They can take a little while to get used to, especially the putting in and out. She will need to maintain good hygiene, hands washed and dried before putting them in, not wearing them in the shower etc.

I pay about the same for the daily disposable lenses. Your daughter could try the dailies and if she prefers them she could swap over to the monthly lenses.

I need glasses/ lenses for distance so can't comment on that aspect - but I would say you need to be confident she has high attention to hygiene and the ability to form good habits quickly.

I started wearing lenses at 18 which was perhaps a bad age as I was often out getting drunk, sleeping at random people's houses, lack of routine etc and ended up with a few infections, once in A&E etc.

Those few disasters aside however, I found lenses totally liberating. Getting them in and out was no bother at all, nailed it first time - though the optician will want to see her do it a few times just to be confident she's got the hang of it.

One thing I would say is don't scrimp on cheap solution, get the decent ultra moisturising stuff.

We had thought that disposable ones might be the way to go, I would say that knowing how she is now, she'd probably want to wear contacts 5 or 6 days a month max.

She will definitely cope with the hygiene aspect of it, she's just finished with 2 years of braces and never had to be reminded about cleaning teeth properly, wearing her retainers or avoiding certain foods. She's fairly sensible and switched-on anyway. (Unlike her older brother),

With the daily ones - do you still need to clean them and soak them in fluid or is it just open the packet, use them, throw them away when you go to bed? (quite a lot of plastic waste though...)

I guess you don't need solution with dailies, I've only ever had monthlies, I started wearing them at 17 but am extremely shortsighted and need them or glasses full time. I love them, can't imagine not having them.

Just read they can be recycled - that's a good thing. I am also assuming that the NHS won't cover the cost of lenses, only glasses?

There doesn't have to be plastic waste, the lenses and the little packets they come in can be recycled, often by just dropping them off at the optician

www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/acuvue

Crossover

Daily ones, you just open the packet and wear them, then throw them away when they are taken out no need to clean them or use any solutions. As far as plastic waste goes, the packets are very small 5/6 packets a month will not add up to much

Contact wearer here for 39 years

I've been wearing contact lenses regularly since I was 22 (42 now) and I started wearing them every single day when I stopped work to have DC when I was 30.

I wear silicon hydrogel lenses which let more oxygen into the eye, but I've tried many types.

In my opinion the optician won't just try to sell you the pricey ones, but may try to get you to buy them from the optician.

They are much cheaper online. I pay 36 a month as I am limited by the shape of my eye, there aren't many choices for my eye size, but if I was the buy the same Ones through the optician they would be c50.

Once you have a prescription you can just go online and buy them to be posted out to you. Much more flexible than being tied to a shop$

I've never heard of the NHS covering the cost of contact lenses, mine cost about £15 a month for monthlies plus solution and all checkups. You can get them cheaper online but you then have to pay for checkups separately and you must always have those, lenses are very safe if worn correctly but things can go wrong.

Should have said, mine are daily disposables, I put them in about 5am and take them out at 9 or 10pm

Yes, dailies are the way to go, you don’t want lenses sitting around in solution for long periods between wear. you can return them to any optician who is part of the tetracycle programme for recycling.

There is a higher infection risk when you do wear contact lenses as you’re putting something into your eye. Important things to remember are:
Wash your hands thoroughly before insertion and removal
Regular check ups
Don’t re-use dailies
Don’t sleep in lenses
If the white of the eye turns red, remove the lens immediately and seek medical help if no better within a few hours.
Don’t lick lenses or wash with tap water.

Getting mine online would actually cost more once I factored in checkups but you can get al the price info from your optician and then compare. I pick mine up from the shop once every three months, its automatic ordering and I get a text when they are ready, pay by direct debit. I did my own online for a few years but the shop system is actually a lot easier.

My daughter at 15 found out she needed glasses, we got her both contact lenses and glasses but she didn't think she would wear lenses very much. A year later she pretty much wears her contact lenses all the time - we’ve gone through the hygiene aspect not sleeping or getting water in etc & it’s all worked fine so far! We went for the dailies ones.
The only time she didn’t wear her lenses was over doing her GCSE exams in the summer!

I've worn my lenses pretty well full time for 35 years now, I do have glasses but love my lenses so much that I very rarely wear glasses for more than an odd hour before I have my shower.

I won't be buying them online even if it's cheaper to start with! Will see what the optician says when we see her. Lenses were mentioned to DD a couple of years ago but at that point she was horrified by the idea of them in her eye. £15 per month isn't out of the box, I had no idea now much it would be and assumed maybe £1 a day.

Don’t lick lenses

People would DO that????

Wow I've been wearing dailies for years and never knew they were recyclable. There's a location near me so I will now make sure I recycle!

I've had lenses since I was 14. Started with a pair you had for a year or so then as things changed moved to monthlies then bid dailies. I love the hygiene of using them every day.

Your daughter is longsighted. I have worn them from about her age and I am now in my 40s, there are a lot more options now.

I have been on dailies since starting work (~20ish years and have good eye health) but I had recently been feeling bad about the waste, so I am glad I opened the thread to find out about recycling. I had a check up recently with a major optician chain and they didn’t mention this - they should be pushing it at every opportunity.

I have monthly ones I can sleep in (officially). They are £15 a month and include all check-ups plus I get money off the glasses I buy - last lot were free. I’ve worn them for 20 odd years and pretty much never wear glasses.

I wear dailies. I get ten pairs a month from Specsavers (I use them for sport and when it's really sunny). I have toric lenses for both eyes as I have astigmatism in both. I don't get the most expensive lenses but not the cheapest either and it costs me £14 per month. Non toric lenses are cheaper.

I think back in the days of hard lenses it was quite common for people to lick them! It would be tricky to lick a soft one without swallowing it I think!