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.

I have soft lenses that I put in for 1 week at a time and wear them 24/7, including sleeping. They're amazing! Had them for years and no issues

They call any younger optometrists in to watch me taking mine out because they see so few!

I'm a wash in cleaning solution, rinse with saline then soak in the conditioning solution overnight - nightly routine. I had to go from hard lenses to RGPs when I started to grow veins in my eye, many, many years ago. I'm sticking with them because of my high prescription, astigmatism and the clear vision that they provide, which I need for sport

Thank you. Money and habit. I've been shortsighted since I was 5. When I left home I didn't prioritise paying for sight tests and such like, never felt I could afford it as was saving and so on. This will all change on the back of this thread though.

Same here, no one else I know in real life has stayed with RGPs and my optician says they have virtually no customers that still wear them. But if they work why change? I can understand them being better for astigatism than soft ones but I don't have that and the soft ones give me crystal clear vision, albeit there's a bit of compromise on both very close and very far now due to age (mid 50s), I have top up glasses for each end but don't need them very often. If I had them fully corrected for distance now I would need reading glasses all the time.

I’m -9, I wear daily disposables, silicon - really comfortable, also have an astigmatism. Wear readers over the top

I'm -16 and -13.5 plus astigmatism in one eye. Always worn softs. Nothing will give me 20-20 vision but am allowed to drive. Find night driving difficult but better in glasses. If eyes get dry can take out, re wet and put back in. Used to use saline for this but now have all in one solution. On a scheme from Specsavers including annual lense check up. Advised to go in between if any issues.
Heard mixed reports about Specsavers but my local branch look after me very well. All friendly and got interested in optics through their own prescriptions so understand our issues.
Now mix lenses with cheap readings glasses, can have more fun with those frames.

OP, try Asda for glasses. The frame choice isn’t as fancy as other opticians but the thinning is free so you’ll get a pair for £80 or less.

I use a mix of contacts and glasses.

The risks of weekly or yearly lenses seem terrifying. I pick the most permeable soft daily disposable ones I can.

That's the highest prescription I've ever come across. Is the reason you can't achieve 20/20 because of how high the prescription is or other issues?

Um yes this thread has terrified me but I need to know it!

I've successfully negotiated some employer support towards optician costs on back of this thread so thank you.

I will come back and update with what I do to sort it all out and my new routine.

It's because of how high the prescription is. My glasses don't look great but they make a change from lenses. I'm just grateful for modern optical care so it doesn't really affect my life though it can be a bit of a nuisance.

The reason I have glasses over contacts is because I have a big astigmatism in addition to a high prescription. The glasses just do the astigmatism bit. In terms of depth perception, it's like just wearing contacts. My contacts are quite expensive but they are dry eye ones -they have a shelf life of a couple of years though. Yes you can just wear them a couple of times a week.

My daily lenses go up to a -12 so you could just probably get soft lenses and not have to have glasses on top at all. Some monthlies go even higher.

I think the cost effective option for you OP though might well be to look after your GP lenses properly and not skimp on the solutions (also don't lick them ...).hen get the nicest glasses you can afford and try and take more breaks from wearing lenses.

Ah your reasons make perfect sense, I see.

I've found some possible glasses.

I was wondering if I find a pair online I like, but want to physically try them on first, how can I do that? I've seen that some allow you to try pairs at home, but they don't have the one I want to try (a specific Rayban frame). Boots do stock Rayban, but not this range, can they order it in to try?

I'm getting quite confused again as I tried so many pairs, found 3-4 I like.

I know I shouldn't care but my DF hates the one I was going to get. Sent them to a friend and she liked the two I sent. Then found a third and sent that to my DF and he liked them, and my friend said she preferred them. They are more £ but my DF said he would give me £50 (which may never materialise) for the nicer one.

NB I am a fully grown adult but single hence canvassing DFs opinion, plus he's in bed with a cold so been a willing audience.

I just never feel sure in my choice. How should you feel in glasses?? Should you have one pair for both work and casual (assuming you have no difference in prescription). Or two?

I wore rigid, non gas permeable lenses from 16 years old until last year when I had cataract ops on both eyes. That's over 50 years quite a long time. Went through 3 sets in all those years. Optician said my eyes were fine, no damage to the surfaces etc.
Frankly I don't understand why people don't still use them. I can only assume it's a con by lens manufacturers because they make so much more money from daily ones.
Nb. I am absolutely amazed by my eyesight now since the op!

Wow three pairs in 50 years!

I think soft are just easier so most people enter into lenses on those.

I always find softer harder to remove. I know there are different ways but you have to touch the eyeball albeit with the lens on the front! Whereas hard I find easier as you use the eye lid and rim to catch the edges.

I wore RGPs for many years but eventually found the comfort was getting poor after wearing all day. I had been reluctant to change to soft because they seemed much harder to get in and out, but that wasn't any problem at all.

I get my monthly disposable lenses from Lenstore, and make them last much more than a month, because I don't wear them every day (opticans don't like this, but that's what I do!), and I use an all in one cleaner/soaker from Boots/Sainsburys/whoever. Lenses are about £35 for three pairs (one eye is astigmatic, about -7 in both eyes aggregate), which last say 4-5 months, solution costs, I dunno, £6? and lasts for a good couple of months.

This works for me, that's all she wrote!

I've been considering lens replacement surgery, but have been advised to wait until I develop cataracts as that will offset some of the cost. Still considering, though, and damn the cost, but one of my friends had it done a couple of years ago and while she says her eyesight is amazing, she still needs to put in eye drops about three times day. May I ask if you had any problems following surgery?

With regard to soft contact lenses, a friend of a friend who is an optician says there are two reasons why they recommend soft lenses - ease of fitting and profit. I'm sure there are other reasons, but his lifestyle certainly backs up his cynicism.

Have you considered lasik? Game changer

We don't like it because it's incredibly sad when someone who we've repeatedly told not to do something has a visually devastating eye infection that means either their vision is impaired or their eye is disfigured or both.

Monthly lenses are quite thin, they're sterile when unopened, but the cleaning solution you store them and rub them with is active on the surface, which cleans and also degrades it. For the sake of about £10/month I can't believe you'd risk your eye health.

@PoachesPeaches you too, your eyes are red, which is a sign they're not happy. Your lenses need changing, just buy a new pair. RGP's don't bind microbes to the surface in the same way as soft lenses do, but when they pit or you get protein adhering to the surface they can too. Old, damaged lenses also damage the surface to the cornea, which can be a route for microbes to enter the eye.

But, generally if you're happy with RGPs, then stay with them.

Dd is -13 in both eyes, she wears specsavers soft dailies and wears them from 7am to 11pm every day with no issues.

This is my experience too. I had no idea people were still using RGPs!

Re the getting soft lenses in and out, I struggled when the optician showed me. But she was short of time and so asked one of the assistants in the shop to show me as well. She had a different method, which I found easier and now I do it no problem. So if you find it difficult, go back and ask them if there is another way of doing it.