To ask you about contact lenses and teenagers?

[GCSEmum1]

Posting here for traffic but also because I wasn't really sure if this is a style and beauty or health thing!

DD is 13 and recently started playing contact sport - she can't see a thing until it's right in front of her without her glasses on so we need to look at contacts...

I have no experience of contacts so what should I be looking for? Are they expensive? Do I need to get a prescription from optician?

13 years of parenting and sometimes I'm still flummoxed!

You can get them online if you know your prescription, but you should probably go to an opticians first as it differs from your glasses prescription.

If she’s not going to wear them all the time just for sports then disposables are probably way to go. You don’t have to worry about cleaning them. I have extended wear ones that are around £15 per month.

Speak to the optician for a contact lens. They will go through the options for DD and teach her how to use them. A lot more teens are wearing them at my school due to masks and glasses steaming up.

I pay £10pm for lenses. I wear them everyday.

My 13 year old is y8 and has been wearing daily disposables since beginning of year 7
We went to spec savers they have been pretty great

You need to get them from an opticians. They can make sure they fit properly (not all brands fit my eyes comfortably) also your contact lens prescription and glasses prescription can be slightly different.
She may also need regular contact lens check ups at that age.
I’d also recommend daily disposable ones. She won’t have to worry about cleaning them or losing them. Also it means that if she does many wear them frequently she’s not unnecessarily binning after a few wears

DD has had contact lenses since she was eleven. She is short sighted and they have been used whilst her eyes are growing to slow the rate of short sightedness which would have occurred as she grew. The contacts forced her eyes to grow in a different way. (I am very short sighted and wanted to try to avoid that for her). She is mid to late teens now and has always looked after lenses very well and been extremely careful about hygiene. She understood that it was part of the deal in having them. We do a payment plan so it costs £35 a month. Our optician is a contact lens specialist and recognised as expert in the field (researches and published etc )

@orchidsonabudget

My 13 year old is y8 and has been wearing daily disposables since beginning of year 7 We went to spec savers they have been pretty great

Can I ask how much they are?

There is lots of choice. Best to start with optician- they'll do checks and fittings. Think some offer free trials. You could get some daily disposables only to wear for sport (but she may want to wear them all the time!) I have had monthly disposable ones from Specsavers. They include a yearly check and an eye test every two years and discounted glasses (hers should be free until 16?) They come in the post with solutions every 3 months. Think they're about a tenner a month.

There are different types and she may need to try a few to decide which are most comfortable. The optician will give her a couple trial pairs.
Depending how good she is about taking care of them you can get daily disposables or monthlies or longer. She may get a discount being a child (like with glasses).

I have a 15 year old she's been wearing contact lenses for about a year. They cost £18 per month and she gets lenses solutions and cases with this .We just made an appointment for a contact lense trial at our opticians .

My now 19 year old DD has been wearing daily contacts for around 6 years.
Her prescription is very strong, she canoes a lot and needs to wear sunglasses in the summer.
Disposable lenses and cheaply shades removed the fear of losing her prescription sunnies which cost around £400!

If you go for a contact lens trial then the opticians will talk you through all the various options and find out what works for her eyes, then you and she can decide whether she fancies switching to contacts all the time or if she just wants a few pairs of disposables to wear for sport but stick with glasses the rest of the time. There's lots of options and they'll talk through all the pros and cons and help you find the best fit for your eyes, circumstances and budget.

I got contacts in year 6, back in the day where the cleaning routine involved all sorts of tablets and different liquids and faffing around plus expense! It's so much cheaper nowadays, I now wear extended wear so for about 12 quid a month I get to pretend to myself that I can see like everyone else, and just have a few days a month where I have to face the reality of my blindness to give my eyes a break! I go in every 6 months for an eye check because I have extended wear, so they do keep an eye on your eye health too in case you're worried about that aspect.

Whatever genius came up with contact lenses deserves a medal in my opinion.

@Mydogisagentleman

My now 19 year old DD has been wearing daily contacts for around 6 years. Her prescription is very strong, she canoes a lot and needs to wear sunglasses in the summer. Disposable lenses and cheaply shades removed the fear of losing her prescription sunnies which cost around £400!

This is what we're thinking- she has designer frames but needs sunglasses this year- weighing up £200+ on sunglasses vs. Contacts and cheaper £4 Primark specials!

You definitely need to see an optician first -- contact lens prescriptions have a number of additional measurements that aren't part of a spectacles prescription.

The optician will advise/find out what your daughter would be most suitable for. Most people wear disposables these days but there are other options. I wear RGP rigid gas permeable lenses, which are taken out and cleaned each day. I don't find it a hassle, personally, although some do. The lenses cost about £150 and last around two years (although I've had longer out of a pair) and it works out less than £10 a month for the solutions, which I can get from Boots or Sainsbury's.

My ds started wearing contacts at 15 because of sport . He has daily ones because frankly I wouldn’t trust him with ones which gave to be cleaned etc . He wears them roughly half and half with his glasses . They have been a godsend with masks though .

The optician should also be able to give her some lessons about how to put them in. From memory specsavers give you a weekly trial too.

Once your daughter is confident I would move onto another cheaper brand - e.g. day soft as the ones directly from the opticians can be expensive.

As others have said go to a reputable opticians and discuss the options fully.

At that age I would go for the (more expensive) daily ones unless you can be sure she will take proper care when cleaning monthlies etc.

I was about 13 when I started wearing them. They've always been amazing for me. I've never had any issues with them.

I would suggest going to an opticians, having a test for them and then they should give a demonstration on how to put contacts in. Your DD will probably then need to have a go and show she can do it.

The daily disposables are definitely the way to go. So easy. Once your DD's had a few packs from the opticians and is confident with them, I would then order some online.

You will have to go to an optician for a through check/test for lenses, they will go through the options and whats available, not all lenses are suitable for all.

I would also say disposables are the way to go for now, not having to clean them and they are easy to look after. If monthly/weekly are to be used and are hydrogel lenses (you will be told) please dont use supermarkets own brand cleaner, most are not suitable for this type of lens to clean. As much as I think lens cleaners are way to expensive its not worth skimping.

Your daughter will be shown how to insert/take out the lenses and they really should not be given them until they are happy doing that.

Once you have a copy of the lenses you can buy them online, sometimes cheaper than from a optician, but you must have an prescription to order, I have used Asda for a few years now and find them great and price wise the big manufacturers have a monopoly on the cost so really it only varies a little.

Thanks all. Will make an appointment with opticians!

@GCSEmum1 just a tip that if you get contact lenses via boots, if entitles you to 50% off glasses too which helps if new ones needed in future!

If you get them from Specsavers they do a glasses offer - I think it’s a free pair every 2 years. Obviously children’s glasses are often free anyway so I don’t quite know how it would work but maybe you’d get a discount on designer ones. We pay £13 a month for dds monthly lenses with them. She is 17 and been wearing them for 4 years now, no issues.

When I was a teenager I wore contacts. £30pm for monthlies. As part of deal got cheap deals on designer frames every 2 years and free eye tests. Specsavers.

Lots of places do offers — I pay for mine via standing order at my local opticians which includes free eye tests and contact lens checks (usually yearly and six monthly, but I wouldn't have to pay if I went for an extra ones) and gives 15% off any glasses (frames and lenses). They're also very good at giving me different contact lenses or solutions to trial for free.

When I was younger though, after an initial trial of different types, we just bought boxes of lenses (daily disposables) as and when and I wore my glasses most of the time. That worked well because my prescription was still changing, so it meant we could buy the right ones and not have too many spares.

I wear fortnightly lenses now, which suit me well. They're technically licensed for extended wear, but I don't really like the idea, although I do like knowing if I nod off in them it isn't a problem!

I started wearing contacts in my teens (I'm now 36). Started with specsavers, still with them. They are fantastic and I highly recommend

I've been wearing contacts since I was about 18..now 38. As someone else said, whoever invented them deserves a medal! I go to Specsavers, wear dailies and have an eye test and contact lens test every year. I pay £42 per month. I would certainly recommend them, you just have to be very aware of hygiene.

As it happens I had a consultation for laser eye surgery on Wednesday and having the op on the 21st. Eyes have settled now and I cannot wait to wake up and just SEE!