Do you wear contact lenses – are you truly revolting or a strictly hygiene only? Share with Specsavers – you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Specsavers would love to all about your habits (good or bad) with your contact lenses.

We all know hygiene and eyes is very important – so do you tend to toe the line and follow instructions to the letter? Or are you a bit {ahem} lax in that department? How about when you were younger – or had different lenses? How do you dispose of disposable lenses? Does your DP wear them and leave them lying around when they should be in the bin?

Specsavers say "Here at Specsavers we like to make is easy for contact lens wearers - wearing contact lenses gives you freedom and convenience. And at Specsavers, when you buy contact lenses you get more than just the lenses. Our all-inclusive package not only gives you some fantastic benefits but is also an easy way to pay for your lenses. We'll give you a pair of glasses from our £45 range or designer frames from just £35, full aftercare, future sight tests as recommended by your optician and we'll deliver your lenses and solutions, at no extra cost."

Share your habits – good and bad - and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 voucher from here

Please note Specsavers may use your comments - anon of course - on their pages on MN, on their social media or possibly elsewhere - please only post if you're happy with this.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

I wear monthly disposables - I clean them daily and store them overnight for 1 month (or so) and change them. It has been known for me to just continue using them until the 'monthly' bottle has emptied, as I can never rememebr when I started the bottle.

I don't wash my hands before I insert them, as if you do, you then have to dry them on a towel and that leaves bits of fluff on your fingers which are agony if they get behind the lenses in your eyes.

I wash hands and shake dry - as above towel fluff is agony.

Daily disp here so I'm not at all careful with removal- but I only touch the outside of the lens as it comes out so what ever germs there are get thrown away.

Only issue in many years was one breaking ( I have very dry eyes) and a v uncomfy journey to get it removed.

I used to also keep my monthlies longer than a month. And if I dropped them, I'd just pick them up and clean them and keep using them the next day.

I started to worry about the long term safety of contact lenses, particularly because my eyes were getting itchy and more allergic to things generally (including the preservatives in the one-step solutions), so I have pretty much given them up and gone to glasses all the time now. They are also easier for night driving, because they're better for glare. I do miss the freedom of lenses for sports and dressing up, but not the faff of cleaning and buying solutions and so on, which got expensive.

I sometimes got mixed up as to which eye was which, and realised I put them in the wrong eyes and just swapped them, which was probably a bad idea too.

I just binned them when I was done. i would have loved to have had daily disposables, but they weren't available for my prescription (very short sighted, as well a fairly strong astigmatism at odd angles). I feel they'd have been more hygienic, and convenient, and I'd have worn them more often despite the expense.

I use daily disposables, specifically so I don't have to worry about hygiene. I take them out standing over a bin and drop them straight in. I did nearly drink one in a glass of water once, God knows how it got in there. I once saw a woman pop a lens out of her eye, lick it and put it back in while standing on a train platform.

I have been a very occasional lenses wearer in the past (only for activities where glasses weren't appropriate/safe), and used daily disposables as I was able to buy a batch and then use them slowly. Very careful with hygiene always though.

I have worn gas permeable lenses for 30 years - cheap, work and not the nightmare hassle of trying to put a soft lenses in. i do have soft lenses for swimming and holidays bit usually take me about 30 mins to but them in and then I am likely to tear or break one which is just money down the drain.
Worst habit is if one gets knocked out and about I put it in my mouth and put it back in my eye - have also been doing this for 30 years ;-)

I use continuous wear lenses, which I love as I am very short sighted . I am terrible at remembering when the 30 days is up and they need changing and often have an extra pair left over when my new six month supply arrives. I may have fibbed to the optician on occasion about how long I have been wearing a pair. I rarely have a day off from wearing them as I hate my glasses, I did tell my optician that last time I saw her though and she said my eyes were really healthy and not to worry too much about it.

Despite my bad habits I do always carry a little bottle of solution with me so I can give them a clean if they feel dry or gritty, central heating plays havoc with them in winter and I horse ride which has led to mud in my eye when grooming more than once! I usually have my glasses and a lense case with me too, just in case I do need a break. I also never wear my lenses when swimming and use prescription goggles instead.

daily disposables here too. I don't risk my eyes, after 14yrs I still wash my hands when I put them in and take them out.

I wear fortnightly disposables. I am a lot better about hygiene than j used to be but I admit to days of being so tired at night just taking them out and putting them in solution without cleaning them first but I am getting better. I do always wash my hands before putting them in.
I much prefer my lenses to glasses as I feel I can see better (peripheral vision esp) plus I feel less vulnerable. If someone took my glasses I would be completely lost but with lenses in I know I won't break them or loose them when out and so feel more secure. Probably sounds daft but there you go !

Daily disposables for me too as I wasn't ver good about cleaning them when I wore monthlies. I am very good about washing hands before putting them in, but rarely do to take them out, and when I do take them out I invariably leave them where I was sitting-much to my husband's frustration as a little pile of dried up lenses accumulates.

Another monthly disposable wearer here - have been wearing lenses for 25+ years. I am very strict about hygiene - always wash hands before going anywhere near my lenses/eyes. I wear toric lenses as my prescription is really high and I have astigmatism and they are amazing; I'd virtually had to give up driving before I got them (was using ordinary soft lenses) but the difference in my vision was amazing! But I do forget how long I have had each pair in, though - I change them when they start to feel scratchy but I seem to use my left ones far more than my right ones!

I don't wear contacts now, but when I did I was terrible at lens hygiene. I would wear them all day and night when I went out-which was nearly every night. The cleaning solutions were also really expensive.

If I was to get some now (which I do consider now and again), it would definitely be daily disposables for me.

oh yes Cirsium - i tend to wear mine all day every day too! I do get told off by the Optician, as I'm supposed to take them out for at least 12 hours once a week.

I jsut can't stand wearing glasses - I can't even walk downstairs properly if I'm wearing glasses; the vision is just different. I can't drive with glasses on.
I'm very bad at not washing my hands before putting them in - though I wash my hands often often often in the day. (Good idea to wash and shake dry.) I always clean lenses before putting in and after taking out.

I do have some daily disposables for taking on holiday (instead of taking a bottle of solution) and this does away with the fear that I'd lose my lenses or tear one. Too expensive to use every day tho - and a bit irresponsible to chuck away bits of plastic every day.

I used to wear hard contacts and found them quite easy but I was always very hygienic (I had a friend who was left nearly blind after acanthamoeba infection) I stopped because of irregular work hours and travelling I think. Tried daily disposables (because of my caution about infections) but didn't really like them now glasses.

I use daily disposables as my lens hygiene was err a bit slack.

I love them, they are faff-free and I know they are clean.

I have worn contacts for 25 years now, and over the years have lapsed in the hygiene a bit, I don't always wash my hands before taking them out. I do often just take them out and put them in the case without using the solution to clean them first.

I use monthly disposables and just pop them in the bin when finished. I change them on the first of the month to make it easier for me to remember, and wear them for about 12 hours a day and give them and my eyes a rest on Sundays

I have daily disposables for occasional wear. Always wash hands well before putting in or taking out, I'm a rule-follower in general and not keen on the idea of eye infections or blindness! I used to wear monthlies and did once in my teens leave my lenses in overnight after being out at a concert and sleeping on someone's floor, but the horrid dry sticky feeling in the morning ensured I never did it again.

I wear daily disposables most of the time, in fact probably more than I should! I'm good in the mornings with making sure my hands are freshly washed before putting them in - mainly because having toothpaste or perfume remnants on your fingers and then getting that in your eye is sheer agony!

Taking them out I rarely wash my hands even though I know I should.

I've only ever fallen asleep with my lenses in once - so painful! I also had one fold up in my eye which was very painful to remove and my eye was swollen for days afterwards.

I wear monthly disposables which I am told I can keep in all month but I do take them out nightly and soak them in the solution - my hands are usuallly fairly clean as my routine is to go to the loo, wash and dry my hands, brush my teeth and then pop my lenses in - then I shower with them in.

I usually stick to the month but have gone a few days over. I flush the old lenses down the loo when i've finished with them.

I wore Hard GP lenses for many years but one broke in my eye which necessitated a trip to A&E to remove a piece of glass from my eye - i stopped wearing lenses for a few years after that.

Very long term contact lens wearer. I used to have gas permeables, which were horrid, so switching to soft lenses in my late teens was bliss.

Switched to daily disposables when they first came out (about 15/16 years now, I think?) and love them dearly. I always wash my hands carefully at home, but we all have those occasional moments when your lens pops out somewhere inappropriate/unhelpful and you have to do the best you can with the tools you've got!

Almost always re-use them for 2-3 wears, but clean them carefully before storing overnight.

Wash my contact lens case with tap water, to dh's immense disapproval. He says I should rinse it with one step fluid

Have occasionally slept in my lenses but it's just so grim afterwards that I only do that when there's no safe way to get them in/out my eyes (like when on overnight proper 'wild' camping trips).

Actually, just booked an eye test for tomorrow as my lenses have been playing up and I realised its about 2 years since my last sight test and 3 years since my last contact lens test, as these days I usually buy online.

I wear glasses and lenses 50/50.

When I wear lenses it's the daily disposable ones, always wash my hands before putting them in but bit more lax about doing so before taking them out but do so most of the time.

When I was a teenager I used to wear the coloured non-prescription monthly lenses for nights out and I rarely washed my hands before putting them in and always forgetting to take them out so sleeping in them. Much fussier these days!

I'm generally fairly good with lens hygiene, I've never had an infection (touch wood) so must be doing some thing right. I am also guilty of fibbing to the optician on occasion, but don't need to do that now I wear extended wear lenses. The only really grim thing I have done a couple of times is put a lense in my mouth then back in when I've rubbed it out into dust etc and don't have glasses with me to drive home.

I've worn monthly contacts for 13 years. I've never had a problem with eye infections or anything so I can't be too grubby. However, I don't always wash my hands before removal, I always put them in fresh from the shower (can't see to do eye makeup otherwise)! So hands are clean then.