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

My sister is as tight as a gnat's chuff and one of her money saving wheezes is to make a pair of monthly disposables last 6 weeks . . .

I wore focus dailies for years.

I was good at keeping hands clean etc to insert but how I didn't get an eye infection after a night out- rummaging around in my eye drunkenly- is beyond me.

I was lucky. I ended up getting laser surgery though as I didn't like not being able to swim and see!

Not sure if anyone else has said this but I wear monthly ones and I find the amount of solution supplied by specsavers lensmail is never quite enough, not to clean them really well. Towards the end of the 3 month pack I always end up buying a bottle of the all in one from tesco which is quite annoying!

I've worn monthly disposables for over 20 years. I'm pretty good with hygiene, I always wash my hands and I change them on the first of the month (that's how I remember to change them). My friend told me today that she keeps hers on the go for at least six weeks to save money, but I've always been strict about changing them.

I've been tempted to get coloured ones before but never done it, I assumed they'd look a bit fake.

I wear continuous use lenses so only need to change them every 3-4 weeks. If I rub my eyes and one pops out I've been known to keep it 'safe' on my tongue until I can put it back in again!! And I do sometimes forget to wash my hands before removing them.

I use dailys, found the cleaning of monthlies too much of a faff and the next morning I could never get it the right way round! Would spend ages putting it in and taking it out again.

I always always wash my hands before putting in my lense, I can only wear one so am very conscious of protecting my one good eye. I keep a roll of kitchen roll in the bathroom to avoid fluff fingers.

Not so good on disposal though, if I've made it into bed and then realise I haven't taken it out I cba to get back up and just put it on my bedside table (or floor I can't see when it's out)

Fairylea you beat me to it, with the comment about not having enough solution to do the cleaning of each lens, the overnight soak and to rinse the case out.

I told a member staff this about 12 years ago and he had no answer! I have in the passed made myself my own bottle of cooled, boiled water to use for rinsing the case out.

I remember the days of protein remover tablets, used to use them once a month which was less than recommended but the optician commented there wasn't a build up so I guess I was lucky! And who remembers not neutralising them before putting them in? Ouch! Total agony!

I'm pretty square about lens care - wear two week soft lenses, always wash hands before inserting or removing (I dry them on kitchen roll), regularly change lenses etc. I have always managed to do this no matter what state I've been in... and I've been in some states

There are few things more simply pleasurable than taking contact lenses out after a full night's clubbing. It's a proper end-of-the-night signal, along with wiping off the faceful of grimy slap.

For the purposes of truth, I should point out that the nearest I get to all-night raving these days is taking two paracetamol while listening to Radio 2.

Have been wearing hard lenses for nearly 20 years ( didn't think it was that long!) and I wouldn't be without them. I find glasses very restrictive and I hate wearing them.
I am lax about hygiene I'm afraid, another tap water user here. I know I shouldn't but I do. Also lick them .
I do wash hands before putting them in and clean them every day. I wear them a lot less than I used to too. I have in the past slept in them. Also, have had them move and 'suction' themselves onto my eyes which was fun .

Not sure if anyone else has said this but I wear monthly ones and I find the amount of solution supplied by specsavers lensmail is never quite enough, not to clean them really well

This happens to me too. I don't know if Specsavers are the same, but I just go into Vision Express and ask for another bottle - they just give me one free of charge. I do this fairly regularly, so either it's not that unusual or they just cba arguing with me

I switched to daily disposables in my mid twenties. Perfunctory cleans, the lens that fell out and I popped back in, overwearing them then taking them out in a rush at work...it was heading for a disaster I didn't want. The children are used to finding shrivelled up lenses on the floor when I miss the bin . Probably the lesser of many potential evils

Do they expect one bottle to last 3 months? I used to get mine from Dollond and Aitchison (now Boots) and got a bottle a month, which was too much, especially as I used to sleep in them quite often. I used to Freecycle them. I buy the lenses on their own now and just get a bottle in the supermarket when I need it, reckon it lasts about 6 weeks with daily use.

Whoknows - you get three bottles per 3 month pack. But I do find that if I'm cleaning the lenses with solution, rinsing it off (with the solution) and then soaking the lenses I tend to get through a fair bit (I'm not going mad with it!)

I'm pleased I'm not the only one on here that's said it

Daily disposables here. Very diligent about clean hands (put them in after a shower) and tend to put lenses in/take them out in the bedroom with a clean towel on lap to prevent dropping them (more habit than a necessity). I've been wearing lenses for 24 years - what a godsend soft dailies are!

Ah the days of monthly disposables or having new lenses only when prescription changed - jeez they were relatively expensive! Every month, a serious hole in the budget from a Boots shop with a carrier bag of solutions and gloop. Those AWFUL protein tablets!

There have only been a few occasions (as a student) I didn't bother to take them out. It's so great that young people these days dig wearing glasses. Some of my colleagues mix and match between wearing glasses/lenses.

My mother had hard lenses and never used solutions (I don't think they even sold them then - she was an early adoptor). She always used to suck her lenses to clean them. Once, memorably, it fell out of her eye and as we were getting ready to go on holiday (and she never bothered with a back up pair of glasses), we were told that we couldn't go. The lens was found in my sister's potty (I was 7, she was 2). I never found out whether it had fallen in or been ingested...

I started wearing contact lenses nearly 25 years ago. Had yearly ones then monthly and now I have fortnightly disposables. Given the amount of lenses I seem to have lying around the place, it seems I do not always change them every fortnight . I put them in solution every night but don't necessarily do the rubbing solution into the lens first.

I always wash my hands before I put my lenses in. However, when I take them out I tend to put them in the old solution that's still in the pot rather than cleaning them and putting them in fresh solution. I know I should, I'm just lazy. I clean them just before I put them in which i believe is the wrong way round to do it as they must sit in the old solution. Writing that has made me realise I need to change my slobby ways. I promise to change my habits from this point onwards!

Long term contact lens wearer here. Always rigid gas permeables. Tried dailies in shop once, couldn't get it out of my eye.
Always scrupulous re hygiene though - wash hands before insertion and removal which I do over a paper towel on closed sink (lost a lens down plug hole once, bitter lesson learned), daily cleaning with solutions and saline, regular protein removal. I also have about 10 cases on the go which I clean after every use with tap water and lens cleaner, then rinse and sterilise in the microwave in baby bottle steriliser. (DC no longer a baby!)

Daily disposables, I wash my hands before touching my eyes. I tend to wear them too long but try to have half a day off per week

I use daily disposables and did have a few occasions when younger of falling asleep in them drunk but am pretty good now and tbf only use them a few times a month when glasses would be inconvenient, theme parks, swimming etc

I use dailies, and only at weekends for that. I put them on after my morning shower so no worries about hygiene. I'm a lot more hit and miss with washing my hands to take them off though, depends when it happens. I tend not to touch my eye, just the lens, and I've thankfully never had an infection.

I wear monthly disposables. I live the freedom of them not falling off or getting rained on or getting steamed up. I wash my hands before putting them in and use a cleaning solution every night. I wear them until I lose a lense because I keep them clean. I've worn lenses over 20 years and love them.

I used to wear gas permeable and if I had a cheeky, unexpected sleepover somewhere, I would wrap them in a bit a tissue and store them in my handbag. The next morning, I'd give them a lick and stick them back in.

I now wear daily disposibles so can be as slack as I want. I usually take them out and leave them on the pile of dried up lenses on the dresser or give them to my 5 year old to squidge until until they fall apart.

My ex-MIL wore gas permeables and would occasionally give them a freshening soak in gin