The Pros and Cons of Switching to Contact Lenses

If you have eyesight problems and you have worn glasses for any amount of time then you know that glasses do two things very, very well. First they provide your vision with more clarity than you have ever been used to in your life. Secondly they succeed in creating a major inconvenience. With eye glasses one is constantly concerned about breaking the lenses or bending the frames. There is also the endless cleaning of the lenses due to hair and dust which can obscure the clarity that the glasses are meant to supply.

These are some of the reasons that many glasses wearers turn to contact lenses. They require a little more preparation and careful storage and quite a learning curve but they pay off big when it comes to comfort, convenience and clarity without clunky eye glasses. However contact lenses are not for everybody. As a contacts wearer myself I want to give you the down-and-dirty details about switching to contact lenses and perhaps, if you are considering switching to contacts, I will be able to give you a clearer view of what is in store.

When you first talk to your optometrist about switching to contact lenses, he will want you to undergo a contacts fitting exam. This is a simple exam (that is not much different than your typical check-up) in which your doctor will determine the right prescription and type of contact lens for you. He will then order a sample pair in your prescription for you to try. This way you will not have the inconvenience of buying a six month or one year supply only to decide that contacts are not for you.

Typically it will take the sample contacts a day or two to arrive at your doctor's office and then you will be asked to come to see your doctor to be fitted with the trial contacts. This can be an extremely trying experience. In this session an assistant (or perhaps the doctor himself) will give you a short lesson in caring for, inserting, and removing your contacts.

Your first week of wearing contacts will truly try your patience. You will feel the need to constantly blink as though something is in your eye all the time. You will feel that your eyes are constantly dry and that you can not see as well or as clearly as you did with glasses. This sensation will pass. Before long you will not even feel your contacts in your eyes. They will become like a part of you. Just do not give up too soon before you have given them a fair chance.

Contact Maintenance and Potential Pitfalls

Now unlike eyeglasses, contact lenses require special maintenance and regular replacement (for disposables). First of all, contacts must be kept wet with saline solution. This solution can be purchased at any grocery store, drug store, Wal-mart, etc. Saline is used to wet your contacts prior to insertion and for storage. Your contacts will come with a case. Each night you will fill the case with saline and then remove your contacts and place them in the saline-filled case. This removes dust, proteins, or any other debris that has built up on the lens throughout the day and refreshes them so that they feel like new the next morning when you insert them again.

You may find that even after you have used contacts for quite some time that later in the evening your contacts begin to feel dry or your eyes tired. This is normal. That is just your eyes' way of telling you that it is time for the contacts to come out for the night. The next morning when you re-insert them they will feel good as new.

One of the pitfalls of wearing contacts is that contact lenses can tear. This is especially annoying because you are left with one good one and one torn one. However this is simply a part of the contact lens experience. It does not happen often but it does happen. The best way to prevent tearing is to handle them carefully and not allow a lens to get too dry when handling it with your fingers. Keep them wet.

Also you may, at first, need to keep some eyedrops with you in order to wet your contacts throughout the day. In the beginning your eyes will treat your contacts as a foreign object and will react accordingly. This too will pass. But to make the passing a little easier on yourself, buy some drops that are made especially for contact lenses. Visine makes such a product and will make the transition to contacts much easier on you.

The Skinny On Inserting and Removing Contacts

The best way to gauge how difficult inserting contacts will be for you is this: can you touch the white part of your eye without blinking? If so, things will go well for you. If you have a low tolerance for things getting near or in your eye then you will probably have a harder time though it will not be impossible. The trick to inserting a contact lens is to get it on your index fingertip face up (that is, the part that goes against your eyeball is facing up...the convex part is down). Squirt a small amount of saline solution on the contact (be careful not to let it fold over on itself). Then, using the middle finger of the hand that's holding the contact to pull down the bottom eyelid and using the other hand to pull up the top eyelid, gently press the contact (which should be on the index finger of the hand pulling the bottom eyelid down) against your eyeball. It helps if you look away with your eye. If you focus on the finger and contact coming toward your eye you will most certainly want to close it. Once contact has been made with your eye, pull your finger away and blink a few times. Repeat this procedure for the other eye.

Removing contacts is much simpler. Have your lens case ready with saline solution already in it. Hold your eye open with two fingers on one of your hands (thumb and index works best) and then with the other hand pinch the bottom of the contact and pull it away from your eye and drop into the saline-filled case. Be sure to put your right contact in the right side of the case and the left contact in the left side of the case.

These are steps that the optometrist or assistant will go over with you at your fitting with the trial pair of contacts. Do not get frustrated. Simply clear your mind, conquer your nervousness and just do it! It sounds strange but a large part of successfully inserting a contact is to overcome our natural tendencies (i.e. reflexes).

I could not be happier with my decision to switch to contact lenses. I have worn them for over two years and I would not switch back to glasses. I feel more like my old self prior to bad eyesight and I do not have to worry about losing or breaking any glasses. The upfront growing pains of contact lenses are worth the convenience that they provide later.

Good luck!