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've been wearing contacts for years, I've got better over the years and now use daily disposables to help with hygiene.

I've only ever had one infection, a very long time ago and I think it made me take more care in the long run!

I originally had monthly disposables and only wore them about 3 times a week so would use them for about 2 months. I was very lucky and did not get any eye infections but did maintain a good hygiene routine. I now use daily disposables and discard them after one use.

I use daily disposables as they seem so much more comfortable, and there's less faff involved. I always wash hands before putting them in! Sometimes I'm a bit lazy and take them out when I'm in bed, and I end up with a little collection of dried-up lenses on my bedside cabinet.

no

I wear daily disposables and always wash my hands before putting a new pair in

I think I am quite good with the hygiene side, although I have on occasion forgotten to take them out as I have ended up staying out late (in my younger years).

I started with gas permeables age 16, I remember sucking them to get bits of fluff etc out and then putting them back in! I'm more careful now, use soft daily disposables as I had a bad allergic reaction to the gp ones one hayfever season so that's all I can tolerate now. Very convenient though pricey. I'm very careful about using a bath towel that is non-fluffy for drying hands prior to inserting, and also keeping this towel just for me and not for all and sundry. Don't wash my hands before taking them out, just chuck them away. Though I do find them in pockets and in kids room (I often take them out when giving them cuddles as they fall asleep.... and possibly me too...)

I used contact lenses for many years from my mid teens, starting with hard lenses, then soft lenses, then daily disposables. I always followed the hygiene regime recommended and it became as automatic as brushing my teeth, and even when "tired and emotional" I always managed to remove my lenses correctly. I always preferred contacts to glasses as the vision was much better, and daily disposables were by far the easiest to manage.
Another big advantage of contact lenses that people forget is that you can wear "normal" sunglasses. Prescription sunglasses are just not in the same league. I've stopped wearing them now as my prescription is such that even if I wore them I would need a couple of pairs of glasses to see at certain distances.

I wear Dailys, have worn Contacts for over 10 Years now. When I first had my Son I would sleep in them. Didn't like waking up and not being able to see Him straight away as we Co Slept, but don't anymore as you shouldn't!

Hygiene-obsessed daily disposable wearer here. I really only have functional vision in one eye, thanks to severe amblyopia. When I first tried contact lenses the optician put the fear of God in me regarding what could happen to my vision if I got an infection in my "good" eye, so I've always been really careful. On the bright side, only benefitting from wearing lenses in one eye means that a month's supply lasts me for two!

I use dailies very occasionally, sometimes just for a few hours on a night out. I used to wear monthlies every day and my wear time was probably a bit too long and hygiene a bit lax. I have had iritis recur a few times now and for me, it's not worth the risk of long term contact lens use. I know there's no evidence of a link but for me I think there is. I'm very conscious of not even wearing daily lenses for a whole day now. I don't really like wearing glasses, but suffering with iritis is much worse!

I have soft Toric annual replacement lenses (6.25 cyl in one eye for example).

I soap & wash hands thoroughly before touching my eyes for putting lenses in or taking them out. Always use fresh solution etc, I'd rather be careful than end up with a grim eye infection

Does anyone else wear their lenses to swimming? I used to but have had The Fear since hearing a woman on the radio talk about the loss of her eye due to a fungus in swimming pool water vom face -->

I wear two-weekly disposables, and have to admit I'm probably quite lax when it comes to hygiene - I use a no-rub solution, so tend to just store them in the solution and that's it. I do try to keep how much I wear my contacts to a minimum, though - I generally only wear them for special occasions/going out, and even then, will put them in at the last minute and take them out as soon as possible.

No, I find them too fiddly and am scarily squeamish about my eyes!

ALWAYS wash my hands before insertion - I use paper towels to prevent fluff hell. It freaks me out that people are so cavalier about their eyes and hygiene, because my sight is bad enough I would be scared to death of it getting worse through an infection. Contact lenses in my teens were a godsend, hellish though the cleaning regimen was. As I never had infections despite colossal over wear it must have helped. And disposables revolutionised my life all over again!

I wore daily disposable contact lenses for about 6 years on and off, and always washed my hands when inserting or removing them. However, I went out with my girlfriends one night and drunkenly forgot to remove them before going to sleep. When I woke up in the morning I was convinced I'd gone blind, and the pain while trying to get them out was immense. I ended up with a nasty infection for my troubles too. I haven't used lenses since, but I do think I might try the continuous wear ones at some point.

I don't wear contacts at the moment but when I did I was always very careful to clean them properly. My grown up son though wore "daily" contacts for 1-2 weeks and for ages wore his right contacts in both eyes because he ran out if lefts!! Kids!!

I used to wear fortnightly disposables but I've switched to daily disposables so I don't have to worry about cleaning (I was worried that my lax hygiene was putting me at risk and I did on one occasion have a bad eye infection which was agony when I looked at light). I now wear daily disposables about 5 days per week (and only about 8 hours per day) and I've had no problems (as I've grown older my eyes seem less tolerant to lenses so I wear glasses if I'm just in the house). I insert after my shower so my hands are clean anyway. But I take them out in any old place, so hands not particularly clean.

I haven't tried contact lenses. Glasses for me.

I wear daily disposable lenses. My hands are clean when I put them in, but there are times I take them out without thinking about it and forget to wash my hands.

I wear daily disposables

I didn't get on at all with contacts. My eyes used to hurt for too long after putting them in.

I should possibly try them again as I'm sure technology has moved on a lot since I last tried them.

I wear gas permeable & just had to send new ones back because they kept smearing :/

I'm reasonable with my hygiene but having to wash them 3 times or more a day isn't practical. I hope it was a rogue batch & not a new formula that 'dirty's up' more easily to make us slatterns wash more often

I tend to wear my glasses from day to day, but wear daily contact lenses if I'm off out. I personally find that they dry my eyes if I wear every day.

I have worn gas permeable lenses for about 11 years now. I always wash my hands well before taking them out or putting them in. I use Boots cleaning and conditioning solutions and soak them in all purpose solution. The main drawback (apart from the cost) is when I get a bit of dust in my eye and it is agony. I also have quite a lot of solution to carry when I go away from home. (This is one of the reasons why I've gone off camping). I must have also got through a huge amount of packaging over the years. Sometimes I drop a lens and they seem to vanish into thin air. I lost one in the bathroom recently (not down the plug hole as I always make sure that's got the plug in).

I started off with soft lenses but think I prefer GPs now (I HATE glasses). I had some monthly disposables when I went on the Inca Trail and it was a novelty to wake up in the morning able to see!