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 mine when I take the children swimming, I am as blind as a bat (-8.50) and would not be able to see my children in the pool without them.

Noooooo - apparently, according to my very lovely optician, you should never, ever wear them swimming because the bacteria laden water can get in behind the lens and cause ulcers or something horrible, and your eyes drop off I may have made the last bit up

I wore the continuous wear lenses for a few years before I developed an allergy to them so now I use daily disposables. I always wash my hands to put them in and most of the time to remove them except when I get to bed and realise I've forgotten and I'm too lazy to get back up. I'm fairly prone to conjunctivitis though - I tend to have a few episodes a year. I hate wearing glasses so hope I've got a good few years of being able to wear contacts yet. I think the thing I do most 'wrong' is leave them in for too long - most days they are in from 8am until I go to bed.

Re the Lensmail service - I don't think it's as good as it used to be. I've had to phone up when my last few deliveries are due because I always used to get them around the 10th of the month and I still haven't received this quarters - the systems have changed apparently. I only have 4 pairs left, and wore my glasses all weekend because I wanted to 'save' those for work days. I phoned today and the call handler couldn't find any record of me even though I've been a customer for years, but bizarrely had dd1 (aged 6, has never worn contacts or even glasses in her life) on his system

I have used daily disposables for about 15 years. Before that I had monthly soft lenses for 5 years. I changed to dailies because I became allergic to the cleaning solution.

I usually wash my hands before I put them in but rarely before I take them out. Never leave them in at night.
I always have an extra set of lenses with me in case I need to take one out due to irritation/dust etc.

I started wearing GP when I was 13 (nearly 30 years ago!). Have tried monthly keep-ins but couldn't get on with them now just wear dailies I love them. I regularly drop them on the floor at night (then scrabble around looking for my glasses in the morning). Have regularly in the past put lenses in my mouth to "clean" them but have never had any problems. Also don't normally bother to specially wash my hands before taking out or putting in lenses.

I'm a very short-sighted minger.

Seriously the mouth! Can someone explain that, why?
If you are going to go swimming then you can get prescription goggles. If you must wear lenses swimming then have daily disposables especially for swimming. Chick the lenses immediately after swimming and put in a new pair.
When out and about I find the best thing to do is to carry glasses, spare lenses and single use eye drop vials. You can rinse lenses with these in a pinch and use them if you have something in your eye/dry lenses.

Daily Disposables here , once got an eye infection for wearing my monthly ones too long. Had to go for a job interview with bright red eyes - still got it though !

That's all very well, carrying glasses, spare lenses and single drop solutions in case of having to take one out, but it's a lot of extra stuff to carry around all the time for an event that happens to me on average once every 5 years or so. I'd never remember to take my glasses from the bathroom to my handbag and back every day, in fact I don't carry a bag out with me at all a lot of the time, I'm a keys, phone and a tenner in my pocket person. I do keep an old pair in the car though. And I do have prescription goggles, but I could only find them as strong as -10 and I'm -11, they are fine for swimming in but not a lot of use for keeping an eye on children as they steam up, have no peripheral vision as well as in my case not being strong enough. I used to wear contacts and blank goggles which I could take off straight away if I lost sight of a DC. The DCs are better swimmers than me these days though.

I use fortnightly disposable soft lenses. I wear them most days although I do try to have a day off in the week. Often I forget to change them for a new pair so use them for closer to 3 weeks. it means I have a little stock of spares though in case one splits.
I don't start a new bottle of solution every month either - just use the bottle until it's empty. And the lid is off my saline rinse bottle most of the time.
I wash my hands before putting the lenses in or taking them out.
Don't tend to wear them for driving at night as I find my depth perception is off.

I have a very high prescription and wear monthly disposals. sometimes place them in the wrong eye too but can tell pretty quickly. I always wash my hands before putting in or taking out but shake dry because towels just make my hands fluffy. I do get a bit worried about water-borne infections though doing this. Whenever I wash my case out I always then rinse it with the solution.

Interestingly, when I lived in Australia, the exact same monthly disposable lens was marketed as a fortnightly one. I just used it as a monthly lens and saved money.

I wasnt great at lens hygiene. I have had 2 Corneal ulcers as a result and cannot not now wear lenses other than daily disposables when needed for sport. Good hygiene essential with lenses.

I'm in the middle with hygiene I think after reading this.
Wash hands before both insertion and removal.
I wear monthly soft lenses but sometimes forget to change them so can go a bit over a month.
I use fresh solution every day and a new case with new lenses.
I was a bit rubbish at bothering to do the proper cleaning so now have the fizzy peroxide solution that I can just whack them in.

When I first got my lenses it was a right palava, rub with stuff from the small bottle, then rinse with the stuff from the big bottle. Then soak in the stuff from big bottle overnight before pouring that away and soaking in neutralising stuff for ten mins...

I used to wear the monthly ones which needed proper cleaning then soaking. Not only did I neglect the cleaning, but also kept using them well beyond their proper month.

When I went to Specsavers for a test and new prescription, the optician was appalled at the state of those I was wearing, gave me the bin and made me throw them away immediately. He then looked at my eyes and informed me that all the tiny glands along the eyelids were blocked, explained the danger of blepharitis, told me what to do (daily wiping with baby shampoo) and refused to allow me any lenses until I had sorted this.

Embarrassed though I was to have my appallingly poor hygiene revealed, I was very impressed that he valued the welfare of my eyes over Specsaver profits.

When I returned rather sheepishly a few weeks later, I was very pleased to be told that the shampoo routine had worked and my eyes returned to a state of health. Just to be in the safe side though, he changed me to daily disposables - no opportunity to neglect the rubbing and cleaning.

I used to use 14 day lenses but found I kept going several days without wearing them so they stopped being good value.

I use dailies now which are great. I wash my hands (almost always) and put a few drops if the solution in the inside corner of my eye to wet it which makes them easier to put in, particularly the very thin ones.

They aren't so good if I have to shower in them, and can be hard to take out after, but left s but are fine. Dispose in a bin.

I wear monthlies. Soft lenses with aio solution (ReNu). I am fairly lax really. Don't wash hands, only rinse quickly, can't be arsed to rub and rinse really. Often water longer than month, however long solution masts. Don't like them for night driving as they blur lights, take them out most evenings to rest. I don't have any problems really. I luffs them. I used to have the gas permeable sort and would never ever go back. Ouch. At the time I was told I couldn't get any else that would correct astigmatism and for my high prescription but a few years later was told I could and never looked back.

I just dispose of them in their little pots after a month or so.

lasts in both cases there, dyac

I wear daily disposables. I'm very lax about putting them in and taking them out. I get very dry eyes and if one falls out during the day I'll lick my finger and put it back in (someone once told me that saliva is the nearest thing to the moisture in your eyes...) I literally wear them from the minute I get up to the minute I fall asleep and because I take them out in bed there is a little pile of solid contact lenses next to my bed. Sometimes I find a stray one stuck to something - on the screen of my phone is particularly bad to remove.

My prescription is very bad and it is getting to the point where I doubt I will be able to wear them for much longer and I am starting to think about laser surgery.

I went for daily disposables because I found the cleaning regime for monthly disposables too much faff-the all in one solution never got them clean so I had to use the peroxide etc and have accidentally used that instead of saline to rinse them. It hurts!

Now I use dailies I admit the packets and lenses do tend to lurk on the sink until I get fed up with the mess

Also u do wear them more than I should but I hate wearing glasses (I have 2 small boys who love playing with them).

I am lax with mine - when I was a skint teenager I couldn't afford to buy extra solution that I always needed (not sure why?!) so reused the same solution for days on end to make it last.

I am ashamed to admit I still do this now sometimes, as I'm too lazy to go to the sink to empty it.

I have monthly ones, but can never remember when I changed them so probably wear them for a lot longer than a month. I usually swap to a new pair when I rip the old, or they become "gritty".

I do always wash my hands before taking them out and putting them in, and am still terrified of tap water getting anywhere near the storage case.

Oh, and I never rub and rinse, didn't know I was supposed to! I also wear them for far longer than I should, or admit to the optician, as my glasses give me a headache and are always smudgy.

I do wear mine swimming although I know I shouldn't - I take them out afterwards and disinfect but I don't really know if that's enough to get rid of the parasites in the water? I know it's a risk. I don't tend to wash my hands before putting lenses in for the towel fluff reason unless, for example, I have been using moisturiser or hair serum.

I've worn lenses since I ws 14, so coming up 29 years. I used to wear gas permeable ones, but my optician (Specasvers, as it goes) made me change to daily disposables as I had been wearing the same lenses for over 5 years and had scratched my corneas. I think it may have even been longer than 5 years, as I know I hadn't even had a check up or eye test in the preceding 5 years. I was terribly lax about eye health and hygiene as well, often rinsing them in tap water, or with my mouth, and sticking them back in my eye .

He was kind about it, but gave me a long lecture about how irresponsible I was being with my eye health.

I now wear daily disposables, am pretty scrupulous about hygiene (wash hands when putting in/ taking out).

I quite like saving the old ones. I had a plastic water bottle by the bed and used to put them in there. I'm not really sure why! After about a year DH told me it was gross so I chucked it.

I wear gas permeable contacts and always have done, apparently my eyes are too severe for anything else. I'd love to get refractive lens exchange but it's about £8,000 for my prescription :0(, if I had cataracts I'd get it for free.

I am terrible with hygiene don't clean them regularly, wear them far too long and on occasions used my spit instead of solution, I know, not good!

Having said all that, I've never had any trouble with them.

My 12 year old dd wears daily disposable contact lenses. I have to say she is very good with eye hygiene and always washes her hands before and after fitting her lenses.
She says they are so comfortable its tricky remembering to take them out that is the trouble!
She plays football and finds them safer to play sport in than conventional glasses.