Would contacts be cheaper than my ridiculously expensive glasses?

[InterFactual]

I have a severe astigmatism, very short sighted (around -10) and this year I've just started wearing varifocals.

Current glasses cost £500 and absolutely gutted my tiny savings account. Would contacts be cheaper?

I tried contacts years ago when my vision wasn't as bad, before I needed varifocals. I didn't get on with the toric ones , I found them thick, scratchy and uncomfortable but this is nearly 20 years ago. Are they any better these days? Can they even prescribe them for astigmatism plus varifocal?

I wear lenses and looked into multi focal lenses recently and it came out at £50-£60 for 3 months.
However, I think you may struggle to get a -10 prescription.

Your glasses will be extra expensive because of the level of thinning required on top of the varifocal lens. Asda opticians thin lenses for free, it might be worth checking them out next time you need new ones.

I have severe astigmatism and need long range contacts. I am currently paying £25 per month for monthly lenses which include an annual eye check.

I stopped wearing lenses regularly when I started needing and adjustment for reading but opticians recommended adjusting the contact lenses so that my less dominant eye is not the correct prescription and it tricks your mind and corrects the vision so you can read close up. I can't remember what they call it!

I'm now back on contact lenses all the time. Bi focal contact lenses can be done but gets harder with all the other things and starts getting more expensive.

I don’t know about astigmatism but my Specsavers multi focal lenses are amazing and cheap. They are soft lenses and the different prescriptions are arranged concentrically rather than top and bottom as with varifocal glasses, and you look through both at once but your brain learns to tune out the image you don’t want. Worth finding out more.

My contact lenses for astigmatism are £26 per month from specsavers (but not varifocal).

However lenses can’t correct as well as glasses so I’m not sure if they’d be suitable for -10. It’s worth enquiring.

Bear in mind that you do still need glasses - for first thing in the morning and before bed. And if you ever have an eye infection you can’t wear lenses.

My eyes are around -7.5 / -8 and the better eye has an astigmatism.

Comfort wise lenses are miles ahead of where they were 15 years ago, I've got daily disposable ones and they are amazing.

However they're not as good as glasses for actually correcting your vision. I wouldn't drive at night in them and I wouldn't be able to focus on a laptop screen all day either. Maybe different lenses would be better, I'm not worried because I don't want to wear them everyday, but I think at -10 you are right at the limits anyway of what contact lenses can do.

I would try lenses, if you can't get multifocals at -10 with high astigmatism you can always get a distance prescription which they definitely should have in that range
and use cheaper reading glasses/cheaper prescription reading glasses.

My prescription is similar but not needing varifocal. I have astigmatism. My lenses are a slightly lower prescription and i can see far better through my lenses. I wear monthly (all day all night) from specsavers at £15 a month. They are very good. My prescription changes very little now so I make do with the same glasses as a back up and rarely change them. Asda don’t charge for thinning. You can have a free trial there so it’s worth exploring.

Alternatively put £20-26 a month away (as if you are buying lenses) and keep this as a glasses fund. Explore the cost of glasses at asda. I hate wearing glasses due to the poor peripheral vision and weight on my face. Also exercise is annoying wearing glasses. Running is okay but Hiit training is really frustrating as they move and fall off with press ups /burpees etc.

It's not either or though is it? every contact lens wearer needs a current pair of glasses too. also expensive for me as are my lenses

One welcome side effect of a cataract operation is it corrects your sight. Is this worth investigating?

My prescription isn’t as severe as yours but not miles off, astigmatism in both eyes and very short sighted. I almost always wear lenses, I’ve just moved from monthly to daily ones for various reasons so have gone from £20 a month to £53 but it’s worth it for me. I have the Oasy’s from Specsavers and they’re so comfortable.

You would still need glasses as well though, you can’t wear lenses 24/7. I get my lenses through Specsavers subscription though, so I get 50% off my glasses and free eye tests and lens checks.

I am -10 and -10.5 and have been happily wearing contacts all day every day for the past 30 years so I can confirm it's very possible! I can't help with cost as I don't live in the UK and get mine free due to my high prescription.

Contacts for minus prescriptions don't need to be as strong as your glasses as they sit on the eye so you will be able to get something.
Monovision which someone else mentioned could work for you. The dominant eye would be for distance and then the optician would adjust the other for near vision. It isn't always possible to get legal print size for near vision as the bigger the difference between the eyes the harder it can be to adapt. Most people will get enough to see their phones, menus, prices, newspapers etc. A pair of cheap ready readers can be put over the top if you needed to thread a needle etc.
Lenses to correct astigmatism for all day comfortable wear are £23 per month at specsavers. If you needed astigmatism above -2.50 it's an extra £5 per eye, these are made to order. Depending on how the lens settles it might not be the first pair that you try that is right for you. The prescription will occasionally need modifying to give you the best vision.

tallsmallsmum-
It can be either/or when you have to pay so much for thinning/varifocals. You can either have a £500 thin and light top quality varifocal and no lenses, or lenses and a £20 pair of distance glasses and reading glasses for emergencies/night but lenses and a £500 pair of swizzy glasses is too much for some

You need to ask a specialist optician, not a high street chain. You can actually get made to measure contact lenses, but they're not cheap. Off the shelf lenses come with standard astigmatism corrections so you may not be able to get an exact match for your prescription (though you might find that close enough is good enough).

If cost is the main issue, I doubt you'll find anything cheaper. If your glasses cost £500 and last for 2 years that's £5 a week. Have a look at some of the online providers like this https://www.feelgoodcontacts.com/contact-lenses. The only ones I can see on that page that are multifocal and toric are considerably more than £40 a month.

I’m an optometrist. With your prescription, varifocal contacts won’t give you the same level of vision as glasses, but they could give you another option, such as making it easily to wear sunglasses on holiday, or you could have distance one (which have got significantly better since you tried them 20 years ago) and wear reading glasses over the top.

Have you thought about lens replacement surgery, as a high myope you’ll probably get cataracts sooner than someone who isn’t and you may need to get a combination surgery done - so replacement lens, then LASIK over the top.

it may be that you’re not suitable. But might be worth looking into.

Just be aware do you work with computers? I can’t wear my varifocals for work. I frequently work with figures on the computer and the varifocals contacts do not work anywhere as well as glasses.

I have very similar prescription.

I couldn't get daily contacts in it, and my eyes struggled with any longer period. There is one brand now that has started doing astigmatism dailies at the right level, but only one brand, and they don't fit brilliantly well, so keep blurring on me. I'd been hoping to try those plus reading glasses, but they aren't comfortable enough or good enough for driving. I'm trying monovision (different prescription in each eye with them) but with the wrong fit, it'll never be a longer term solution.

So I've resigned myself to the £500+ glasses. The lenses were actually more like £700 I think, and I just used my old frames as I couldn't afford anything more. I think you get an NHS contribution of about £40 towards it.

I really really hope my eyes don't keep changing, so that I don't have to do that every year, but given that they still seemed to be worsening (the short sight, not just the presbyopia, though of course that too), I wouldn't be surprised if they do.

However, I have adjusted quite well to them, none of the swimmy feeling or anything, and with strong prescriptions, I think the really expensive ones do make a difference to that.

I struggled to get a varifocal lens that was also toric (= for astigmatism). There are only about three on the market; none of them would settle on my eyes. I toyed with the lenses + reading glasses option, but it was too much faff and have now settled with varifocals. Tbh, I think the glasses are a shade cheaper, assuming they last a couple of years.

Yeah mono vision was the term I was looking for.

I use toric long range usinig mono vision prescription. It's worked great for me, much better than glasses or using contacts with reading glasses. Although doesn't work for everyone.

I think they are Bausch and lombe toric long range. They don't cost more for the mono vision as the lens are just different strengths

I have worse prescription than you and wear gas permeable lenses with off the shelf reading glasses on top when needed. On contact lens scheme so normal glasses half price. Have single vision thin lenses in my glasses and currently just pull them down my nose so they are further from my eyes to enable reading. Optician did suggest a lower lens for my less dominant eye and may explore this in future.

To answer question in op not cheaper as paying for lenses solutions and glasses but similar cost and my distance vision is better with contact lens.

I wish they would increase the range of daily lenses available, as one thing you might find as you get older - same time as you start to need reading glasses - is that dry eyes can increse. Maybe HRT helps this but I haven't tried it yet.

But between dry eyes, and allergies to not-sure-what (maybe the preservatives), it makes it hard for me to wear contact lenses that are not daily disposables. And there are almost no options there - I don't think any do both varifocal and toric, in daily disposables. I have one daily-disposable option for my astigmatism and short-sight, the one where the fit isn't great, to maybe use for mono-vision. And that's it for lenses.

There seems to be such a market for it, but it still doesn't seem to be economic enough for the contact lens companies to do daily, toric, multifocal, in enough personalised options to really work. I hope that in time they will find cheaper ways of producing them and then they will be able to do it, regardless of prescription1

Go to Asda opticians, they will sort you out with decent glasses for about £80/pair inc high index lenses and all the rest of it.
Just try them, you have nothing to lose!

I pay£30 pm for mine but you still need glasses. I've got
Conjunctivitis (thanks kids) at the moment and can't wear lenses

Have you spoken to your optician about whether laser surgery would help?

A word of warning about cheap contacts. I used day soft brand for years- much cheaper than the big brands. BUT- your eyes can only cope with the cheapy ones for so long. Long story short, I needed up at Moorfields eye hospital and it was months before I could wear contacts again. The cheap ones didn't allow enough moisture or oxygen to the eye, so please don't buy them to save money.