Contact lenses for teenagers?

[Knitwit99]

Considering contacts for 13 yr old. He plays a lot of sport and his glasses are getting in his way. I know how that feels, I'm really short sighted, so I'm happy to consider all options to avoid him having the same issues.

So we've been given 3 options.

Daily disposables he just wears for rugby or swimming or whenever and his glasses the rest of the time

Overnight lenses that reshape your eye while you sleep so your vision is perfect for the next day

MiSight lenses which you wear during the day and over time they slow down the progression of short sightedness over time, so instead of ending up -9 like me you might end up -5 which is a lot more manageable.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience of these lenses. I know adults can wear the overnight ones too so if you've used them can you tell me how you find them please?

We've got an appointment in a few days with the optician but it would be good to hear some first hand experiences. I've been looking online but all the reviews seem very positive and glowing, suggests to me they're maybe not so independent?

Thank you

I'm an optometrist - All are good options.
I'd personally initially go for the ones that have the potential to make him less short-sighted over the next few years - so MiSight.
If he goes have issues with the handling (some teenage boys - including my son do), consider ortho-k.

Sorry, ortho-k are the hard lenses that re-shape your eye overnight.

I’m an optician and would recommend the daily disposables to start with. Personally I’m not convinced by MiSight but there is nothing wrong with them.
There is always the option to switch to ortho-K or monthlies etc after he has got used to daily lenses, but to start with just go for dailies so he can get used to handling/wearing lenses.

Our DD has been using daily disposables since the age of 13 due to doing different sports and her glasses falling off and getting damaged. She initially had problems putting them in but I think it was down to the technique she was shown. I wear contacts and showed her how I put mine in and she had no problems so just play around with different techniques if need be. I liked the ideas of dailies as no issues with solutions etc.

My 13 year old DS has started using MiSight recently and has got the hang of them really well. I figure if you’re planning to get him contact lenses anyway it’s well worth considering the potential benefit of slowing the progression of his short sight. I wish they had existed when I was that age - then maybe I wouldn’t have ended up being 9.5 in both eyes.

I am in my 50s and I got hard lenses (yes I know!) when I was 13. I think I was reasonably responsible with keeping them clean but I did go through a spell of leaving them in way too long, if you think he might do that maybe a type that is OK to do that (i don't get on with soft lenses so I'm not sure of the types - I have GP now)

My DC started with daily disposables at 13. At first it took 3hrs to get one in. The hardest part is training yourself to not blink as you insert them. But after a week of practice it became second nature.

I wanted to add we did not choose MiSight because they’ve only been shown to slow near sighted progression on children under age 12. So some thing to consider since your DC is 13.

I started wearing contacts most days when I was 15, so a bit older than your DS. I wore monthlies, not sure why they're not an option for your DS? Always found them fine and easy to manage, I was wearing them nearly every day and dailies would have worked out a lot more expensive for that amount of use, my parents paid for the subscription for me. Never had any issues or eye infections. I gradually stopped wearing them when I was about 18 and moved to occasional use of dailies instead which I still do now. They're easier in the sense you just bin them and don't have to do the keeping/cleaning of monthlies. It might be a good start and see if he gets on with them?

We decided to start off nice and easy with daily disposables. He's had 2 appointments so far, half an hour each, and still hasn't managed to put a lens in his eye. So I'm glad we haven't committed to anything too pricey. Back again next week for a 3rd attempt.

I was going to say I'd definitely recommend dailies. I had hard lenses when I was 15 and found them uncomfortable whereas the daily soft ones are so comfy.

@Knitwit99 OP, My DD is 12 and has recently started asking about contact lenses as she is a full time glasses wearer. I had never heard of Misite before your post and have now googled them and think they look really good. However I can't find a price anywhere... Are you able to tell me how much per month these are please? Thank you!

Knitwit99 don't worry too much about the lack of success at the appointments. My DS got contact lrnses when he was 14 and was quite downhearted when he hadn't managed to get a lens in at the opticians after 2 visits. But they reassured him that this was quite common and at the third visit he did eventually manage. I was still worried when he brought them home though as I was imagining ending up in A&E in the middle of the night if he couldn't get them out! However, once he was doing it every day he got the hang of it pretty quickly. He also plays a lot of sport and finds it a great deal easier with his lenses in compared to glasses. With hindsight I wish we'd got them sooner, but I had some bad experiences with contact lenses myself (a long time ago!) which put me off a bit.

Daily disposables being thin are sometimes more tricky putting in and out. Some brands especially so.
You can ask the optometrist if you can try with a thicker lens whilst learning in the practice and then swap to the thinner lens when he's got the hang of it.

@onthinice the couple of places I work for charge £45-£49/monthly.

@onthinice we’re paying £35 a month for 30 pairs

@underneaththeash it seems to be getting his finger near his eye that's the problem, not the thickness of the lens. He's been sent home to practise touching his eyeball

DS has had ortho k lenses since he was 13 and they have been fantastic. He quickly adjusted to them and not having to wear or worry about anything during the day is a huge bonus.
He's now 23 and his prescription has barely changed in 10 years though of course we don't know what his baseline prescription would be if he stopped ortho k, the fact that the strength has barely changed suggests ortho k has stopped his eyes deteriorating.
I have been a lense wearer for over 40 years and know how my eyes changed as a teenager.
So I would highly recommend ortho k but ensure your optician is an expert in contact lenses.

Perfect!!

It took me a few weeks to learn how to put them on. Then one day it just happened and it's now second nature. But my optometrist had me try it once, then made my mum try it, then sent us both home saying 'your mum will be touching your eyes twice a day, so you better learn quickly who to do it yourself'. It worked!

I recommend Ortho K.

My now almost 15 DS has worn Ortho K lenses since he was 11. It has been excellent - no progression at all (!) of his short sightedness.

The first night he found it very difficult to get them in, but I encouraged him to keep trying until they were in.

I’ve worn RGP (hard) lenses since I was that age. Took ages to get used to but completely stopped my prescription changing.

I’m a contact lens practitioner based in North West England. I’ve used OrthoK contact lenses for managing myopia in children since 2012 and fitted my first pair of MiSight in early 2017 and have an ever growing number of young clients using contact lenses to slow down their rate of progression.

In my opinion, age is not an issue; some of the teenagers are much more challenging to fit and train than the younger ones, but every one is different!

The attached images (I’m limited to posting just three) should be helpful if you’ve found yourself on this thread.

If you’re interested in taking to someone with the required level of experience with such products, that’s nearer to where you live, I’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

As a footnote, Hoya are about to launch MiYOSMART in the UK, which is an innovative spectacle lens that has shown to be similarly effective in managing myopia progression as the MiSight contact lens.

This is interesting @DGOptician, thanks.
I'm hoping we can get going with the daily disposables then consider MiSight. I don't think the overnight ones would work for us, he's terrible at getting off to sleep, he stays awake for hours and often falls asleep with his light on. So I think we've ruled those out for now. He would keep forgetting to put them in and I'm not paying all that money for him to not use them properly. Or staying awake past midnight most nights to check he's put them in.

Anyone still following this thread? Would love to hear more about how your children get along with Misight. My girl 9yo has been wearing Misight for 9months. 1st 3 months was good, no change in prescription. but the eye test 6months later showed an increase of -0.5. I am so worried and not sure if I should let her continue with Misight

I’d recommend you continue - we expect a slower rate of change with MiSight and it could have been a bigger change than 0.50D if a lens with traditional optics was being used.