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

Daily disposable here, and although I wash my hands before putting them in I rarely do before I take them out. I'm also pretty careful to remove them after swimming (if I bother wearing them ) after the optician warned me about the risks of infection from water.

I have monthly ones, but I've pretty much stopped wearing them because I got so many styes. I had an infected cyst in my eyelid as well - that was fun. I wasn't great with washing them - soaked them overnight then washed in the morning, but really I think I was just very run down after having my third baby in 3.5 years. I had a stye a couple of weeks ago despite not having worn my contacts since Christmas. I keep meaning to go to Specsavers and get my eyes tested and see about switching to daily disposables.

I forgot to wash my hands once and triggered an allergic reaction in my eyes to something. Had to have them irrigated in a and e.
When on monthlys could be a bit lax cleaning them. Just switched to dailys for this reason. Oh and with monthlys sometimes I might wear glasses for a few days and forget to change the lense solution.

I've worn soft contact lenses for about 25 years. Currently use the monthlys and although I'm good with hygiene with regards to hand washing and lens cleaning I do often forget when the 30 days is up.

I wear daily disposables. Sadly I always tend to remember to take them off when I get into bed. So I just take them off and chuck them in the bin

I have been wearing lenses for about 20 years and currently wear daily disposables. I tend to wear them more than I should especially now that the children are getting older and I have to drive later at night. I used to take them out about 6 in the evening but these days it's closer to 9 pm. I always wash my hands before use and dry them on a towel whilst pondering whether bacteria in water are more or less dangerous than the bacteria on my towels.
Lenses are discarded into the bin every night except I can't actually see without my lenses so quite often they land on the floor and I don't realise.
I used to wear extended wear lenses which I really loved but my eyes started reacting to them. I also react to all the cleaning solutions except hydrogen peroxide.

I wear gas permeables and have worn them for about 25 years. Prior to that I had soft lenses and had all sorts of problems with protein, solution allergies and tearing etc. Disposables hadn't been invented so I switched to GPs. . .

I am allergic to preservatives in many cleaners/solutions/that gloop soft lenses come in, so gas perms are best for me.

I clean them (most nights) with a lens cleaner, then rinse them under the cold tap in the bathroom (the one from the tank, not the mains).

I wear them from the moment I get up at 6.15 to whenever I go to bed. An optician once told me I could only wear them for 8 hours and I politely informed her that I intended to wear them as stated above and that it was pointless having them if I put them in at 6.15 and had to take them out at a quarter past two. She dropped the subject.

I don't carry a case or my glasses with me. If they irritate I stick one in my mouth for a few seconds. Yeah I know.

I have never had an eye infection from my Gas Perms. (I did from my soft lenses I had before them, but that was from not washing my hands after saying hello to the cat in the morning before I'd put my lenses in. After that infection I still didn't wash my hands when I got up but stroked the cat with my elbows until my lenses were in instead. Well, we had a downstairs bathroom and my lenses were in the bedroom, I really couldn't be arsed to go downstairs just to wash my hands.)

I recently realised my lenses were getting a bit cloudy and went to get some new ones. It turned out I had not had new ones for nine years.

The optician seemed to be hiding his disappointment that there was nothing wrong with my eyes. I think he felt I deserved to have some damage and he might well be right.

I have used continuous wear lenses for a long time, probably nnot far off 10 years. Had monthly disposables before that. I LOVE continuous wear, it's like having perfect eyesight again!
I take them out for 12 hours or so about twice a month, and I am religious about handwashing when I do so. My optician says my eyes are really healthy so it works for me.
I can take them out and put them in without a mirror, and often when it's time to chuck a pair I take them out in bed and leave them to go crispy on the bedside table...

I've worn GP lenses since I was probably too long. I used to have disgusting contact lens hygiene habits and amazed my eyeballs didn't turn to pus and fall out. Now I am meticulous....

I used to be really really bad in my youth and wear them non stop fir days. I even used to sleep with them for days on end.
Till I had an ulcer in my eye.
I now buy daily disposable and I am much more careful.

I wear forthnightly disposables on a package deal and am generally very good with lense hygiene - always wash my hands before handling them, throw away unused solution, change the lens case regularly etc etc.

I have over-worn them in the past and got my knuckles rapped and the fear of any number of gods put into me by the optician who refused to prescribe me any more lenses the bastard until my eyes had healed. Now I am a lot better at making sure I have a couple of lens free days each week.

What I didn't know until very recently (30-odd years after I started wearing lenses) is that you're not supposed to wear them swimming or in the shower - so something else on my 'not to do list'

I wear daily disposables. I take them off last thing at night and leave them in a tub on my bedside table although sometimes they just get flung in the general direction and end up on the table or the floor.

I usually wash my hands before putting them in, except when I've had to put in my emergency lens when I'm out and about and a lens has split or fallen out. I've never had any eye problems related to hygiene. I've been known to fall asleep wearing them but they feel awful and dry in the morning so I don't do it deliberately.

Glad I'm not the only person to get a corneal ulcer, though glad isn't quite the right word. Was very lucky not to loose sight in eye as it was initially misdiagnosed. Have been scrupulous about contact lenses hygiene ever since.

I'm shocked that people lick their lenses and don't wash their hands!
I used to wash hands and not dry them but I now know that's not good so I wash them, dry them on something not fluffy and put them in or take them out. My are changed fortnightly. I clean them every night and don't wear them in the shower. I don't rub them enough really and apparently your meant to leave the case open in the day to dry out. I didn't know this, is that right? Seems like it would attract dust.

Oh, balloonslayer, I wonder if you were the person I saw on the train platform? There can't be many people who lick lenses, can there?

Oh yes! falling asleep with them in is awful- once the initial 'oh wow, it's a miracle, I CAN SEE' first seconds have worn off, (and I realise I've just left lenses in) the gritty dry feeling is not pleasant at all.

I've been wearing them for 30 years, total life changer for me as I have a very strong prescription and hate wearing glasses. I wore gas permeables with no problems for 20 years then moved on to continual wear monthlies about 10 years ago. I was a bit naughty with my GPs, I tended to rinse with tap water as I hated the gloopy feel of the rinsing solution but I have been very strict with myself since switching to soft. It was quite a rigmarole back in the old days with separate cleaning, rinsing and soaking solutions plus saline and protein remover tablets periodically, so much easier with the modern all in one solutions. I always wash my hands. Have to confess to having had to lick in an emergency once or twice but that's not bad over 30 years.

The continuous wear ones were brilliant when I was getting up in the night with babies, however my optician advised that although my eyes were still perfectly healthy, if I wanted to wear lenses for the rest of my life I would be improving the chances by taking them out overnight. I do that now, maybe sleep in them once or twice a month at the most. I try never to swim or shower in them either, that's another problem with sleeping in them, you risk getting them wet when you wash. And yes to always leaving the lids off your case to dry, that's a must for good hygiene too.

Sleepytea I used to think the same but worry about the water not your towels. Acanthamoeba parasite is the big risk to contact lens wearers and is found in water. Do dry your hands just wash your towels frequently!

I don't lick them. I put them in my gob and give 'em a good old suck. I'd have to be desperate to do it on a train platform though. I'd be worried a train would whooosh! through and my lens would be gone.

I have been doing it for 25 years and in about the last 3 I have realised that 99.9999% of the population think it is disgusting and now I apologise when I do it. But I still do it.

I wear monthly disposables. I am terribly lax.

1. I don't wash my hands before putting them in/ taking them out.
2. I wear them for more than a month. I just wait til the texture of them is too bendy. I have about 6 months worth in stock.
3. I rarely rub/ clean them. Just stick them in saline solution overnight.
4. To dispose of them, I wash them down the plughole. Is this wrong?

I feel dirty now.

I wore contact lenses for 25 years or so til recently. Monthly disposables, and though I was careful with the washing/proper solutions/regular check-ups, I didn't change them monthly, more like 3 monthly. I used to have an optician room mate in one job and he told me that was ok as long as you are careful with the cleaning routine.

My worst crime is probably that I used to swim with them, using goggles on top, as I couldn't really see without them at all. I know that's a hygiene risk. But not being able to see anything around a pool or on the beach etc is too tricky.

I never had any infection though I have a few friends with horror stories.

I wear them going swimming and in the shower as well. I thought the reason you shouldn't wear them swimming was because they might get washed away if you swum underwater. But as I am one of those mustn't-get-my-hair-wet sedate breast stroke types I thought I was OK.

And I am not a good swimmer (see above) so I feel very nervous without my lenses as I am extremely short sighted and being in a pool with a load of splashing kids and unable to see makes me slightly panicky.

You ARE dirty, iwasyoungonce. You're a dirty cahhhh!

Like me.

I'm as blind as a bat, I have prescription goggles so I don't have to wear my lenses in the pool (I'm a full head under water swimmer). However when the DCs were younger I used to wear my lenses when supervising them as even prescription goggles aren't good enough for keeping an eye on two young children in a crowded pool. With hindsight I should have worn my glasses on instead. Luckily no harm was done.

Monthly disposables here.

My months are sometimes longer than an actual calender month.
I have pots in drawers from years ago.

This thread has inspired me to set a monthly reminder on my phone!