Are Contact Lenses Right For You?

Maybe you’re getting corrective lenses for the first time, or maybe you’ve had glasses for a while and you’re curious about contact lenses.

Either way, you’re trying to figure out if contacts are right for you. After all, they work for 45 million people in the United States. There seem to be various choices and options, and you aren’t sure how to figure out what you need. You like the way you look in contacts as opposed to glasses, but how do you know if they’ll be good for you?

The expert team at Eye Q Optique is here to help you determine if contacts are the best choice for you. Here are a few guidelines to follow.

Why wear contacts?

Contact lenses sit right on your eye and move with your eye, so they’re a good choice for people who lead a more active lifestyle, such as athletes — you don’t have to worry about your glasses falling off and breaking, or getting in the way.

When contacts were first developed, they were only available as hard lenses. Hard lenses today are much more advanced — they’re gas permeable, which means oxygen can still reach your eye through the lenses. If you take care of them, gas permeable lenses will last up to a year.

Most people, though, opt for soft lenses, which are thinner, lighter, and more comfortable. They also allow oxygen to still reach your eye, and they come in a couple of different varieties.

• Monthly disposable lenses: Take them out every night, and store them in disinfectant solution. Do this for a month, and then throw them away and open a new pair. 

• Daily disposable: You throw away each pair at the end of the day and open a new pair the next morning.

Because people have various vision needs, manufacturers have developed lenses to fit many of those needs. A few types include:

• Spherical lenses — standard lenses that correct near- and far-sightedness

• Toric lenses — prescribed for people with astigmatism, these lenses are weighted so they rotate to match the shape of your eye.

• Multifocal lenses — allow you to see both distance and close up. These may require some trial-and-error to get acclimated to them. You can also opt for single-focus lenses and then wear reading glasses to see well up close.

Why contacts might not be best for you

In some cases, glasses might be a better solution than contacts for people with vision issues. If you suffer from dry eye syndrome, wearing contacts might make your eyes feel scratchy and gritty after just a few hours. If you have dry eye but still want to make contacts work, soft lenses will work better than gas-permeable lenses.

Wearing contact may also be challenging if you have allergies that cause redness, itchiness, and even discharge from your eyes. If this is the case for you, consider wearing glasses during the time when your allergies usually flare up. (You should also make sure the contacts themselves aren’t causing an allergic reaction.)

When you’re ready to get fitted for contacts, reach out to Eye Q Optique to schedule an appointment. Just call one of our three offices, or use the convenient online scheduler. You’ll be amazed at how much better your vision can be!