Glasses or Contacts?

[Ben Trout]

I'm resolutely ignoring friends and family telling me I want to get contact lenses. I've worn glasses since I was seven.

What do those of you who have use, day to day and out and about?

 

[ecks]

I've always had good luck with contacts. But I've been thinking about getting a good pair of shooting style prescription glasses that turn into sunglasses. The reason being it's tough to put contacts in and out in a tent while camping.

 

[addyb]

I have both. I tend to wear my contact lenses when I go to my college classes, because I just think I look better in them. When I used to compete in biathlon, I'd wear them then too because I had problems with my glasses becoming iced up and I was unable to shoot.

I like my glasses too, and I usually wear them at nights because I can't wear my lenses more than about 8 hours at a time.

But, I get more girls when I'm wearing contacts. That's always a plus!

Adam

 

[sgteldridge]

Ive wore contacts for about 15 years and have always had good luck. I even wore them for 11 months in Iraq mar 2003 feb 2004 .(and know not the same pair)

 

[Ahjno]

Much the same as Adam overhere - including the better looking & more girls bit.

I've worn contacts for about 6-7 years now, never had any problem with infection etc. Just keep them clean, follow the procedure and don't cut corners with hygiene. Even wear them when I'm out and about. A bit of a hassle, but I do find them more comfortable than a pair of glasses on your nose ...

My contacts are the soft ones: can wear them all day. But beyond the 20 hours they start to become a pain. Probably they clog up or my eyes get tired.

Also have a pair of glasses ... which I've seldom worn ... It's a "just in case" pair, or for when I'm travelling long distances by airplane. Need some adjustment as it looks like they weigh a ton when I wearthem

I'm thinking about laser (refraction) surgery, there's a thread about that on the forum (IIRC by Spacemonkey) - but that's something for the future. Pretty expensive and there are some risks ...

 

[Stuart]

I have worn contacts for about twelve years now, I wear them all day everyday and rarely use my glasses.

in the UK I wear monthly disposables that need to be removed and left in solution over night, when on expedition I wear night and day lenses that I wear continually for one month sleeping with them in at night, this does away with all the faff of cleaning solutions and containers and I find them very comfortable etc

apart from the obvious benefits of contact lens use, they also greatly reduce the irritation caused by the smoke from your fire.

don’t buy your contacts from the highstreet though, have a contact lens specific eye exam then ask for your prescription (which they are required by law to give you) and order your own online

 

[Motorbike Man]

I've worn daily disposables for years now and love them to bits. When you're out in the rain there's no drops on your glasses to spoil your view and when you come in from the cold they don't mist up. As well as that, one of the biggest bonuses for me, both out and about and on the 'bike is that you get your peripheral vision back and it makes a surprising amount of difference. If you've never worn contacts, you'll need to get a special check up done as the prescription will not be the same as for your glasses, but most opticions will give you a pair to walk around in for a bit to see if you get on with them. I'm also looking at getting some of the ones you can sleep with as they would be a lot simpler when out and about.


And yes, it's true, more women when I have contacts in

 

[scruff]

I've been wearing contacts (monthlys) for about five years too and again no probs. I always follow the hygene ritual. Its not reallly that much of a trauma. On many an occasion I've even slept in them when I've not made it home and there not too bad in the morning as long as I don't leave it too long (2-3 hrs) before I take tem out. This being said sometimes I wish I had taken them out when I wake up next to something scary!

Strangely I was thining about the need to get a pair of specs today, so that things will be a bit easier when i'm 'outing'. But I've been thinking what kind of specs would be best, ie. frame and lens materials?

Stuart - Have you got any sites you can recommend for online contacts esp. these day and night ones, I'm intrigued.


ps. sorry for brief hijack Ben

 

[Stuart]

Stuart - Have you got any sites you can recommend for online contacts esp. these day and night ones, I'm intrigued.

of course

www.getlenses.com

www.postoptics.co.uk

www.contactsuniverse.co.uk

www.bargainoptics.com

simply look at the plastic packaging for your current contact lenses to see who made them and what model they are (sometimes they are rebranded for people such as specsavers but you can usually find the maker and model by removing the sticker covering the original packaging or failing that look at the instructions)

contact your optician and get you prescription

then seach the aforementioned sites to find out which one does your make and model in your prescription cheapest

 

[scruff]

Excellent stuff

 

[innocent bystander]

Glasses only for me...

Having had to wear them from age 9, and enduring the school years with all the silly 4 eyed speccy **** jokes, there is no way I am taking them off now...

And after 26 years I'd feel butt naked without them.

 

[Spacemonkey]

http://72.36.134.230/community/showthread.php?t=9807&highlight=laser+surgery

I'm going for INTACS in a month or two. Pricey, but better than the laser surgery, which i can't have anyway.
Nowadays, I go for daily disposables when out in the field or shooting etc. These are quite easy to use in the bush, but i like Stuarts idea of the day/night lenses.

 

[Doc]

I had glasses from age 9 to 15, hard contacts from 15 to 37, and then had LASEK (not LASIK) surgery a year ago.

Addyb is right -it is impossible to run and then shoot in glasses, as I found out on the range with the TA. They steam up instantly.
Glasses suck in the rain.
Falling out of a canoe in glasses results in you losing them.
Difficult to swim with hard contacts, and they are a nightmare camping.

I currently see 6/4 (bottom line on the chart) unaided after the laser surgery. It is not risk free and you should do your research carefully. However, if you have mild to moderate myopia of less than 6 dioptres, it is certainly worth considering, especially surface treatments like PRK and LASEK that avoid cutting the cornea.

 

[CLEM]

Ive had to wear glasses myself since I was 16 and ive never really liked doing so,Ive allso thought of going for the laser surgery but I am too scared of things going wrong.To be able to see again like I once could would be fantastic,but Iam too scared

 

[sam_acw]

i'm just doing the trial for lenses now. Apart form the vanity issue I find that when you're in temperatures of -15 or below glasses just become a royal PITA. They steam up from breath and then freeze leaving you like Mr Magoo. Even worse if you have to go in and out. I always wear wide brimed hats in the rain to keep water of my glasses now but that's a habit i'm unlikely to change - wish me luck with the trial!

 

[Emma]

I've worn glasses since I was about 10. I've tried contacts (soft dailies) for sports, and I hate the things.
The bad:
They often dried my eyes out, I was constantly blinking. My optician gave me some (really really sterile) saline, I think, to drop in my eyes, and though it was effective, it was annoying and not something I wanted to be carrying around the the whole time. The necessary hygiene when staying away from home (in huts with no water for example) often proved difficult, if not impossible. I never even tried camping with them for this reason. Having even a slight wind in my face cooled the contacts and they felt like ice in my eye. I could very often feel them in my eyes even when warm, which was not good, and I had to train myself not to rub my eyes because the contacts would ruck up round the back of my eye. Similarly sleeping in them was right out, so when I had to be up for a match or something I had to get up even earlier, to put the sodding things in. OK, normally they go in OK, but early in the morning I'm not particularly coordinated and had to put them in slower than usual to avoid poking my eye out. I found that contacts made the stinging from smoke worse. Often in the evenings after wearing them all day they seemed to go blurry and even drier. I occasionally managed to get bits underneath the contacts when wearing them, how I don't know, but if that happens you somehow have to make sure that either you can take it out, wash it, and put it back in with all the necessary hygienic considerations, or you can take both out and put your glasses on. That means always having your contact lens kit with you, or always having a spare pair of glasses with you.
Once I was driving, poked the corner of my eye, and caused my contact lens to fall out. I was on a motorway, without spare glasses or my contact kit. I stopped as soon as I could, but the lens had completely disappeared. Luckily I know it's legal to drive with only one eye, so I did. (And actually it made things a little easier as brake lights, being huge great blurs, were so much more obvious. I was very careful about depth perception though...)

The good:
When playing sport / getting smacked in the face by doors/branches/rounders balls etc, your glasses don't get bent or scratched or bruise your nose. You do have much better peripheral vision. They don't steam up or collect rainwater. You can sleep face-down with contacts in.

Other stuff:
When I started wearing contacts I realised how much I used my glasses as safety goggles. I was also forever jabbing myself in the nose/forehead out of a pushing-my-glasses-back-up habit.
For contacts you need a cleaning kit, for glasses you need a screwdriver. When misplaced, glasses are easier to find, being bigger and all that.
I haven't found my glasses steam up when running, or when I've stopped... but perhaps I haven't run as much as the other guys.

 

[Kirruth]

I wear daily disposables and they work great outdoors. On the rare occasion something gets in your eye, you can remove the lens and put a new one in.

I do think people should have back up eye wear with them, though. Any kind of eye irritation means people need to switch from contacts to glasses; conversely its very easy to knock your glasses into a river or down a cliff.

And sunglasses, prescription or not, are a must for snow fields and hot sandy places.

 

[Stew]

I was also forever jabbing myself in the nose/forehead out of a pushing-my-glasses-back-up habit.

I know that one! I still do it now.

Stuart - what do you do for "health checks" for your eyes if you're buying them online? Will an opticians take appointments for contact lense checks without buying lenses from them?

 

[gunnix]

I just want to say something about healing your eyes, I tought about saying it in this topic but haven't yet, so sorry for getting an old topic back.

There was a doctor called Bates who found that bad eyesight is due (except when your eyes were stung out ) to the external muscles being stressed or/and stiff. To get better eyesight again you need to do excercices to relax the eyemuscles and follow a healthy natural diet (like the paleolithic diet or the foundation diet).

Some exercices include:

Palming -- This is the primary technique of relaxation. Though many conventional ophthalmologists are not learned in the Bates Method, many are familiar with this technique. It is a classic for optical relaxation. And the mind relaxes easily too. Palming relaxes the eyes by closing all light out. One rests the head on the hands with the heels of the palms against the cheekbones. No pressure should be placed on the eyeball. The result, Bates noted, is a complete relaxation of the eyes and the optic nerve. After just a few minutes, Bates teachers measure an immediate, usually temporary, visual improvement. Palming remains in the repertoire of the student throughout.


Sunning -- This one is easy. Bates recognized that our relationship to light is essential for seeing. Not only that, but he intuited that some form of nourishment not entirely understood came from sunning. Just recently, research has upheld his ideas. The sun is good for us. In the exercise of sunning, the head is turned toward the sun with the eyes closed, of course. Gently rocking the head back and forth, the mental image of bathing the eyes in light is encouraged. The eye regains a trusting relationship with light.


Swinging -- Not related to the late musical trend by the same name, swinging is the exercise of gently swaying the whole body back and forth while focusing on a fingertip held out in front of the eyes. The shifting back and forth, when done as directed, helps integrate the peripheral sight input and the point of focus input.


Blinking -- Yet another way to relax and massage the eyes. Combining this with breathing exercises is a good way to integrate the senses of the entire body.

http://www.heartlandhealing.com/pages/archive/bates_method/

(google some other info)

I did buy a book from someone who improved on the Bates method and found that everyone got better eyesight (mostly perfect) trough these methods he used. If someone's interested I'll find the title of the book (it's small and cheap and good).

This seems a good website too (with a list of books on the subject):
http://www.i-see.org


Me myself I have -1,5 since, I think, my 14 years. I only used my glasses when I really had too and now I'm trying to get my eyes in perfect condition again using these methods. I think my eyes are getting better, but I will ofcourse have to go on with these methods for a longer period (I only did for some days) to get them really good again.

I hope this was interesting info, I found it great news when I first read about it.

greetings,
gunnix

 

[belto]

I have worn glasses for short sightedness since last October. My frames are made from carbon fibre so i don't realise i am wearing them.
I would have considered contacts up until my bf's gran told me that it is possible that they can slip right to the back of your eye socket!