Daily disposable lenses - advice please

[Binker]

I am wondering about switching from gas permeable hard lenses to daily disposables - can anyone advise me on the best kind,will it work out cheaper than maintaining my hard lenses (buying the solutions etc)and is your vision as sharp with soft lenses as it is with hard ? Many thanks!

Hi Binker - I've never worn hard lenses, so I'm afraid I can't compare comfort and vision. How much do your lenses and solutions work out at? I currently use daily disposables, but only because I don't often wear my lenses - just socially - and this was the best way to do it. I recently bought sixty pairs, and they cost about £70.00 from a large opticians (I know you can get them cheaper on the internet ets, but didn't have the required prescription), so I think they work out fairly expensive if you do wear them daily. I bought the Vision Express own brand, which are fine - crystal clear vision. I've since seen them on sale cheaply at the Asda optician, working out at about £50 for sixty pairs (Bausch and Lomb, which my husband uses, and also good)
Have you thought about monthly lens plans? I know most opticians offer them, and they do work out more cheaply. I used to pay £10 per month, and for this I would be supplied with soft lenses every six months, and all the solutions. My sister currently goes with the Dolland and Aitchison 'post' scheme - she pays £15 per month, and is posted soft lenses every three months, along with all solutions - she just has to go for her yearly check ups.
Another quick word of caution - when my dh first tried the daily disposables, he was given a particular brand he just could not get on with, as they kept falling out of his eye (slightly larger than previous lenses) - can't remember the make tho'. Just to make sure you have a trial period before commiting yourself.

I wear daily disposables but I am naughty and put them in saline overnight and wear each pair for about 3 days. It makes them last longer!!

I use those ones you keep in for a month and then throw away (£25 a month) - blissfully simple but to be honest, vision is not quite as sharp as it used to be.

Binker, I wore gas permeables for years and the running costs were minimal; granted I was stingy with wetting solution, and cleaning, and never used protein tablets, but even if you are generous with all 3 I don't think it would cost you more than £10 a month. (And have you come across Post-Optic mail order? www.postoptics.co.uk Much cheaper than the usual places. They supply lenses too.)
My son (13) uses daily disposables, only on the days he needs them (for football etc); from our optician they are over £1 a pair which is fine for occasional use but for daily use it's over £30 a month. (And you have to actually put both fingers in your eye to kind of squidge the lens out, ew! And you can't always tell if you have the lens the right way out.)
I once tried ordinary soft lenses and found the vision not as good and also weird - I think because the lens is bigger than than the iris - but you would probably get used to that.

Binker, I wore gas permeables for years and the running costs were minimal; granted I was stingy with wetting solution, and cleaning, and never used protein tablets, but even if you are generous with all 3 I don't think it would cost you more than £10 a month. (And have you come across Post-Optic mail order? www.postoptics.co.uk Much cheaper than the usual places. They supply lenses too.)
My son (13) uses daily disposables, only on the days he needs them (for football etc); from our optician they are over £1 a pair which is fine for occasional use but for daily use it's over £30 a month. (And you have to actually put both fingers in your eye to kind of squidge the lens out, ew! And you can't always tell if you have the lens the right way round.)
I once tried ordinary soft lenses and found the vision not as good and also weird - I think because the lens is bigger than the iris - but you would probably get used to that.

ooooops!

I have to say, i love my daily disposables because I am so lazy about cleaning and felt I was a danger to myself with my grimy old lenses Now they are always clean. But they are very fragile and sometimes tear or practically fall apart in the eye - it doesn't hurt at all, but is a bit uncomfortable and then I have to put in another lens, which can get expensive - also, because of this, I always have to have spare pairs in my bag/car etc. In fact, I have to will myself not to think about how much they cost otherwise I'd probably go back to monthly lenses. They are definitely a luxury item.

I'm glad someone else "cheats" - I also put my "daily" disposibles in saline overnight - but only wear them for two days! (....unless I'm running out and am late ordering more from the optician!).

I was encouraged to move onto the daily disposibles by my opticians as my eyes "grew" calcium and protein spots very quickly on my lenses, so I was having to replace them frequently anyway. (It probably also explains why I have good teeth!) Plus, like Aloha, I was lazy about cleaning them, so I liked the convenience.

I never noticed any appreciable difference in vision between soft and hard.

Which? had something in this month about Johnson & Johnson Acuvue (which I use) going up in price becasue they have made the easier to find (a blue tinit) and easier to put in. It suggests lloking around at other brands - but warns that some of them are slightly thicker, so be sure to try them first.

Binker, I have never worn gas hard lenses so can't compare, but I use the monthly disposables normally & have a store of daily disposables for holidays to save carrying all the bottles of cleaners & vials (I use 10:10 solution which is a bit old-fashioned). It works out cheaper that way, especially if like me you forget when you're supposed to change your lenses & wear them for 6 weeks or so.
The only drawback I've found to daily disposables is that they sometimes feel greasy after a long day.

Binker, I moved from rigid gas perms to monthly disposables last year and (excuse the pun) haven't looked back! I found my hard lenses completely dried out all the time after dd's birth (apparently a common change post-natally) and I was only able to wear them for a few hours a day. I would get daily's if I could afford them but at the mo I'm on a £11 a month scheme but need to spend another £6-8 a month on storage solutions...

As other's have said I too don't find them as 'sharp' as my hard ones but not to a very noticable difference (I still have 20:20 when wearing them.) Apparently this is because of an astigmatism in one of my eyes that can't be corrected by the ones I wear - if I paid more for another brand then it would be just as good... Shame its all about the money really isn't it??!

Whatever you decide to do, Binker, don't do as I did: I have worn hard lenses, then soft, then monthly disposables. All along the way I skimped a bit on the cleaning here and there ie using saline overnight instead of a proper soaking solution, wearing my monthly disposables for six weeks, not four, becasue they were still comfortable etc.

Now at the age of 44, I find myself with irepairable damage to the veins in my cornea. My lenses were drying out and scraping them. It's not a lot and it's not visible, but it's enough to affect my sight a little, and no lens can rectify it totally.

I can still wear contact lenses - disposable ones that let in lots of oxygen - but have been warned by my optician that in a few more years these will not help me, unless lens technology continues to advance. If not, I am stuck with specs!

Oooh that's a bit scary Tigermoth! Think I'll be a good girl from now on as regards changing lenses - thanks for the warning. It's no fun when your sight starts changing; I've already got floaters which is bad enough.

tigermoth, apparently this problem is very common among all people that wear lenses. The problem arises mainly due to length of wear, rather than cleaning them or not (dirty lenses can give you nasty ulcers on your eye though - as I know to my cost!). ALL lenses restrict oxygen to the corneal veins. You're right, the problem is irreversible but to stop it worsening the advice should have been to wear your lenses with less frequency and only for a few hours per day, supplementing them with glasses.

If you do need to do this (as I do) and only wear contacts for a few days each week, then dailies work out to be fairly economical.

Yes, Enid, you're right. The optician did also say it would help to wear my lenses for less time each day - logically the less I wear them the longer I can go on wearing them. I wish I had known this 10 years ago, then I would have made more of an effort to wear my specs around the house.

However, he did also say that some of the damage to my eyes was self inflicted ie if I had done things to the letter, my eyes would be less damaged now

Tigermoth - thanks for the warning ! I do try to clean properly and do all the right things,but I've been wearing lenses for 25+ years (eek !) -perhaps I need to cut down wearing time. The only problem is that if I take them out and wear my specs then it takes ages for my eyes to adjust.Also I find my vision noticeably fuzzier when I do wear them compared with contacts. I suppose because I wear my contacts all the time then disposables wouldn't make economic sense...thanks to everyone for the helpful advice.