Contact lenses - niche one

[PoachesPeaches]

Probably a bit niche. I wear gas permeable contact lenses and wear them for around 16 hours a day.

I've owned my current pair for maybe four or five years. Apparently they are meant to last one year. Usually I will either lose or break one if I drop it and it forms a suction that I can't remove without cracking it.

I clean them in the morning, with the correct cleaner, never at night, and overnight I just put them in saline not conditioning solution.

The reasons for keeping them so long and using saline is its all so fiendishly expensive. Gas permeables are about £120 each I think. Saline is £2 a bottle rather than £5+ for conditioning.

My eyes are fine, there is a slight redness under the bottom rim which the optician mentioned and gave me drops for which I didn't really use much as you can't wear contact lenses with the drops.

My prescription is very high and I don't like my current glasses. They are also too small, they do not fit over my ears! have a wierd shape head where my eyes are quite close but my head is wide. Bigger frames look too big and smaller frames don't fit my head well. Due to the prescription strength some opticians will be really restrictive in what they think will work i.e. fit the lens, so choice is limited. This means I never end up with a frame I love and want to wear, but I just need to make a decision and buy a next pair and make them a pair I will wear a little more.

How bad is the way I take care of my eyes long term? I sort of think there is no long term issue so I don't change it, and it's been a habit for 30 years so to change it will require a kick up my butt.

For the sake of £120, I wouldn't take the risk.

If you go blind, get dry eyes etc, I bet you'll say you'd pay any amount of money for it not to have happened

Random question - in the morning do you then use this again to rinse off the lens before you put it in?

I use Boston wetting and soaking solution, and have the cases with two separate sections. I clean them using tablets in a barrel case. I really wouldn’t mess around with the cleaning, it’s on my shopping list as equally as important as basic food!

And get a contact lens and vision appointment too, they can detect all sort of health things through your eyes, not just vision changes.

I also use lenses and glasses, as I’ve got older I had to choose between lenses suitable fFor reading, or suitable for driving etc, so I chose those plus bought reading glasses.

I soak mine in similar, and don’t rinse the lens as there’s nothing to rinse. I just fish the lens out and put it in my eye.

If I’ve cleaned with a tablet (overnight) then I’d rinse in wetting and soaking solution, yes.

This is the one I use, but I think they’re all the same really.

https://www.boots.com/bausch-and-lomb-boston-advance-formula-conditioning-solution-120ml-10002445?cm_mmc=bmm-buk-google-ppc--PLAs_HeroCompare---_-pmax_health__gg_shopping__hc___pmedia&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwl6-3BhBWEiwApN6_kq1T4WAS5EyE01NwPZgh4bY8zcsZHln6EPkyESBWqZ70LZY2xoOQzxoCODsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I have worn GP lenses for a long time. I get them from Boots on a scheme and pay about £10 pcm not including solutions which I try and get on offer. For that I get a new pair every year, free eye test, free contact lens check up and half price glasses which can save me more than the annual scheme cost with high density lenses ( also high myope). Don't need new glasses every year and choice of frames is limited as you have found. Not sure if it's still available for new patients. Don't risk your sight.

The fact you are posting on here means you have some concerns, but these really should be shared with your optician who can take a really good look at your eyes and advise you properly. You only get one pair of eyes. They're not like your teeth that can be filled or replaced. Please look after them!

I get the impression that you don't like spending money on your eyes; perhaps a bit resentful at your poor sight? But good eye care is so worth the money. I stopped wearing lenses when I started to become longsighted as well, and switched to varifocals but before that I had worn lenses for 25 years and for most of these I chose daily disposables, which are about £150 for 6 months (I think). I am surprised that you think £120 is expensive for lenses, my glasses cost me six times this because of the high refraction lenses (I don't buy particularly expensive frames) and I have them changed every two years.

Go and spoil yourself at the opticians and make some new choices for a new you.

That's a really interesting point about resentful, I never thought of it like that. It's more been my income historically which is better now, but now there is higher cost of living. Also the NHS complex lens voucher contribution for high prescriptions is very small, around £15. Will definitely love my eyes a bit more now though.

I wear GPs because they are much better for the eyes and give superior vision to soft.
I use AO Sept because I am allergic to the preservatives in normal cleaners. Buy a six month supply at a time. You really need to clean them.
I can make my GPs last 2+years particularly now I don't go on the tube every day and avoid them getting completely trashed by dust and wind.

I'm interested in those who have gone from GP to soft. I did try that once but the vision was no where near as sharp and the lenses moved around more.

@Pebbles16 that is true, it is crisper.

When I started wearing contact lenses years ago the optician recommended monthly disposables. They were great...or so I thought until I developed keratitis. The consultant I saw at Moorfields was scathing about soft lenses in general and monthlies in particular. In his view, soft lenses are like plasters - keep them in for too long and the skin underneath is often pale and moist - the perfect breeding ground for any bacterium which manages to get trapped between the lens and the surface of the eye. He said that apart from much sharper vision, the benefit of RGP lenses is they're "washed" every time someone blinks. He was a RGP lens wearer, so it wasn't a case of "do as I say, not what I do".

(Caveat: This was years ago; I'm not sure the consultant would give the same advice these days, given the advances made in the interim.)

I've worn RGPs ever since, although I do use dailies when I'm dinghy sailing just in case of losing an RGP if I capsize. It's a personal thing, but I find my RGPs very comfortable and definitely better than soft lenses in terms of sharp and distance vision.

Cleaning wise, I use Boston Advance cleaner when I take them out and soak overnight in Tesco saline (when did it double in price to £4?!). In the morning, it's another clean with Boston, rinse it off, and place a spot of saline in each lens before putting it in. Sounds a faff, but it takes very little time.

Gas permeables were my best friend for decades until my usual optician retired and I had to go elsewhere.

Now I have soft dailies, but I hate them. I just wear my glasses instead. I've been told 6hrs max with the contacts. They're a faff to put in and a nightmare to take out.

I hear you. OP, I hear you.

I've got a similar prescription and have worn gas permeables for over 35 years since I was 11 - I wear them literally as soon as I go through to bathroom in the morning until I'm about to go to bed, shower in them, everything. I do, however, get a new pair every 6 months or so, and a contact lens fit check every couple of years.

I've never had any issues and my eyes are healthy (apart from the prescription!!). I do use "proper" solutions overnight. I've got very proteiny eyes so use the protein remover tablets when a pair gets to about 3 months old.

I don't even remember what the protein things are! Clearly I'm going to have to ask for a fresh tutorial at the opticians.

I've actually never met a fellow GP wearer so it's strange to talk to so many in one place 😅

The £4 one isn't saline, it's all in one solution, so has that gloopoer feel.

Your routine is the same products I use but different order and less cleaning. I just put them in saline overnight, then clean them in the morning with Boston, rinse them well and put them in.

If I ever run out of cleaner and just put them in, after about 2-3 days they really start to itch and sting and eventually become unwearable without an extreme amount of eye watering. So I try not to run out.

@DancingFerret I have worn softs but was put off for similar concerns as to what happened to you.

I'm sure there were some scare stories when dailies came out about people not removing them and then they become very hard to take out, and infections. Also one optician I think told me they allow more oxygen to the eye which sounded like a good thing.

It makes sense to have some spare softs. I have a feeling I may even have a few somehow but they will be very old now. Typically though I will knock a lens out when I am doing the most random thing.

One negative of GPs is if you ever get a speck of sandy dust or an eyelash under it, you will know about it! In those cases and with nothing to hand I've had to take it out, lick it and put it back in! I should probably carry a spare pot at all times.

I wore RGPs for 20 years, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, no real issues, but then my optician suggested I try silicone hydrogel soft monthlies as they were so much more gas permeable than traditional soft ones. I was converted immediately, nothing on earth would get me back to the RGPs. I've now had 20 years in silicone hydrogels, also 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and have totally healthy eyes (I get them checked every 6 months because of my -10 prescription). They are comfier, don't ever move onto the whites of my eyes, don't hurt if dust gets behind them and best of all no issue at all if I fall asleep or have a nap in them as they are licensed for continuous wear (I do take them out at night). Falling asleep in the RGPs resulted in fairly severe discomfort pretty quickly.

I need to look into this scheme. Thank you.

I forgot to mention the protein remover tablets; I use Amiclair which I buy from eBay, and soak my lenses roughly every 10 days.

Please don’t wear them to shower. There is an amoeba that lives in water. It’s usually harmless unless it gets to grip onto something and it’s opportunistic. People have gone blind as it basically melts your eye and is irreversible, it’s rare but it can happen. My optician was really adamant not to shower with them in.

This was me, too.
Don't do it.

A lot of RGP wearers don’t like the switch to soft lenses.
RGPs can last years with proper care, but storing them in saline is not proper care. Over time the surface of the lenses get scratches and these will harbour bacteria if you are not cleaning them properly.
Best plan OP would be to find a reasonably priced RGP scheme. And make sure you see your optician regularly. A lot of eye problems don’t have any symptoms until they are quite advanced.

Def ask and try soft

Mine give lots of oxygen to the eye

And eyes never red or sore and I can wear them 7am /11/midnight

I do try and take out of home for the evening to give eyes a rest as know that's good for them

But as my daily soft are so comfortable I forget I'm wearing them sometimes

No I only really go when something breaks. Bad I know!

I don't understand how you can be so cavalier about something as precious as your eyes

I used to wear contact lenses, and now I can't. Please go and see an optician and get some proper advice on looking after your eyes.

I've noticed before that Mumsnet has a high number of RGP wearers. My optician says there is only me and another couple of people in her practice that do and some of the younger opticians have no experience of them