To think that Asda opticians have neglected their duty of care?

[Charliefarlie1192]

I have been wearing contact lenses for approx 6.5 years, using Asda opticians. I have had consultations free of charge and had to pay only for my lenses - I never thought it would be any different elsewhere.

I have now moved 30 mins away and found a new optician for convenience. I was at first shocked to discover a consultation is £30 (covering you for 2 appts a year)

I now realise why ASDA dont charge - I have been advised by my new optician that I have damage to the surface of my eye due to misuse of my lenses, doing things I never knew were potentially dangerous to my eyes and in some cases sight threatening. Have ASDA neglected their duty of care?

I just read the acuvue website linked by gordy. It does warn about infection risk in pools and shower. So I think it's reasonable opticians should tell you about it. And then you can decide if it's worth the risk.

I have been wearing lenses for more than 25 years from a variety of opticians (not Asda), I have been told repeatedly about keeping water out of my eyes, but have never heard the bleach advice. I do wear them in the shower, and for swimming (-10 prescription means needs must) but do my best not to get too much water in (never put face under shower for example).

They do absorb vapours though, once I chopped masses of onions up, the next day when I got my lenses out of their case they smelled of onions.

my optician at asda never advised me about anything except not to sleep in lenses

Ooh... learning stuff.... didn't know about these kinds of issues.

Like many before me though, have been found waving at strangers in the swimming pool, assuming I knew them because I couldn't see them. Damn my family's myopia. I ought to sue my parents frankly.

Seriously though, would like to know more.

Have never been told about the bleach thing either in many years of wearing contacts.

I need to wear my specs when swimming or am at risk of grabbing random blonde children.

I'm always suprised by how sharply in focus swimming pools are. I grew up swimming without my specs on and thought they were soft fuzzy places where people wouldn't really notice if I hadn't shaved my legs or not.

I don't use contacts, or bleach, so am just musing.

Just caught up with this and I'm very relieved to find you don't clean your contact lenses in bleach!!
I've worn contacts for years (the type you leave in for a month at a time) and not once have I been given any of the above advice and I'm with specsavers.

The water thing is for acanthamoeba kerititus (claim to fame here / 2nd person in England to get it ) but the new cleaning fluids protect against this now. I had it nearly 20 years ago and been ok since.

I've been lens wearing for (gulp) 20 years and have never heard about not using bleach.

I knew that water carried a small risk of infection but my risk vs. benefit analysis is that the benefit far outweighs the risk as I swim, sail and scuba dive and wearing glasses to do these hobbies is tricky.

I'm sorry, Charlie, this advise is terribly out of date, in fact it is now a load of bunkum. Please feel free to clean your kitchen as and when. Same with swimming etc.
Just checked with the three opticians that live next door and are all in stitches at this.

Another contact lens wearer of 20 years plus - Specsavers and a local cheaper chain opticians - and I too have never been told about not using bleach. I was advised not to wear them whilst swimming but being a hater of swimming - apart from splashing about when on holiday - that wasn't a problem.

I was warned though that the worst damage contact lenses can cause to your eyes, apart from nasty infections from not cleaning the non-disposable versions properly, is wearing them for too long every day. Even the best gas permeable ones can cause lack of oxygen - I think - and you can start getting new blood vessels developing on the cornea/eye surface. My colleague had to stop using them because of this.

I only use daily disposables these days a few times a month. Much prefer my specs at the moment.

I wore contacts for over 15 years and while the optician might have mentioned something about water in the eyes when I started wearing them it wasn't mentioned at every checkup... and why should it be? I would be more worried about the Asda optician not noticing damage to the surface of your eye but before you consider avtion you should get a second opinion. It's entirely possible that your new optician is ranting at what he sees as an inferior optician.

I've worn contact lenses since I was 11 years old (18years!) and I've never been told this. Without the lenses I can't see anything as my prescription is -14.25. Glasses cost me £400 with the cheapest frames.
Never mind about water, has anyone ever fallen asleep with lenses in? The pain when you wake up and try and take them out when they have dried to your eyes! But my eyes are not damaged, thankfully!!

I used to wear lenses and fell asleep in them. I woke up blinking in awe thinking for a fleeting moment that I'd been cured of my short sightedness!

Ditto Jolly! more than once

I did that Jolly

I went to specsavers asking for lenses for swimming And I've had lenses for a couple of years now and unrelated eye specialist consultations at t'hospital who have never found any damage.

I second the second opinion.

My ASDA optician has told me about the shower/water risks before.