You’ve just had your routine eye test and had your ocular health examination thoroughly completed. Your optometrist has discussed with you the changes in your spectacle prescription. You’ve always worn glasses for as long as you could remember. You’ve thought about having laser surgery some time ago and perhaps tried contact lenses when you were a child, and for whatever reason, you didn’t pursue it any further. When was the last time you’ve revisited contact lens as an alternative to wearing your glasses?
Understanding What Contact Lenses Are
When we have a vision problem not related to eye diseases, often, it can be corrected with glasses. The lenses are made individually to your prescription, so it has the adequate power to provide you with clear vision. You can wear these lenses with frames, which you look through using the spectacles.
Using this principle, we can put the lenses from our glasses directly on your eyes. Obviously, the lenses from your spectacles in most cases would be too big to fit in your eyes. And if it did, it wouldn’t be very comfortable! The lenses would need to reduce its overall size from 55mm in diameter to perhaps 14mm to make it fit. Reducing the size so the lens would just over the entire clear part of your eye or the cornea. The lenses are directly in contact with your eyes; hence the term contact lenses.
This still sounds painful and uncomfortable to have a bit of plastic in the eye compared to glasses. Therefore, contact lens companies have developed materials that are biocompatible with the front surface of your eyes. Over the last 20 years, and even recently, contact lens companies continue to develop lenses that are more comfortable to wear throughout the day and increase breathability to reduce the risk of any complications that may arise from extended contact lens wear.
What Does Wearing Contact Lenses Feel Like?
Not all contact lenses feel the same. Some contact lenses may feel and fit better, providing you with more comfort and better vision than others. Correctly fitted contact lenses should feel like every time you consciously blink; it doesn’t hurt when you blink, but you notice the light touch of your lids when you do. Wearing contact lenses isn’t a painful process like 20 years ago. Its technology, among all other things in life, has improved dramatically.
In Some Cases, Wearing Contact Lenses Are More Convenient
If you have an active lifestyle, then you would notice that glasses are not always that convenient. For example, a basketball player would struggle to keep his/her glasses on during the game. Or if you like to go skiing, your glasses may not fit within the ski mask; same goes with motorcycling helmets.
The optics of contact lenses are often a lot better than lenses from prescription glasses. This is because prescription glasses get scratched, and its coatings can degrade over time. Wearing contact lenses also reduces and in some cases eliminate distortions caused by prescription lenses, especially with lenses with a high prescription.
The Bottom Line
Contact lenses aren’t what they were used to be. Both the design and the contact lenses’ material have dramatically improved to be far more comfortable and fewer incidences of complications. Some of these newer contact lenses are even designed for patients with dry eyes, where previously, these patients couldn’t tolerate wearing contact lenses.
If you would like to discuss your options with contact lenses, consider making an appointment with us. We will walk you through which lenses would best suit your needs and teach you how to wear these lenses, along with appropriate care instructions. Contact us today to see if contact lenses are an option for you!