After my thread on photochromic lenses for my glasses I’m not sure they’re really for me.

Who wears contact lenses, heard stories about them drying your eyes out/damaging them, any truth in this? How much a month/year do they cost? Got an eye test booked but they were reluctant to discuss contact lenses as I would need to book another appointment.

With the right lenses and regular check ups you won’t damage the eyes. Most infections are down to misuse and lack of check ups. That or dodgy lenses off ebay 😉

Dry eyes depends on what kind of lens, how long you wear them and just down to you really. Some people may find they dry out a lot, some don’t.

Get a consultation at a decent optician and they can see what works for you. And yeah, opticians tend to do the contact stuff separate from an eye test.

Generally you want a good soft contact lens with a high breathability to allow oxygen to the eye.

Personally I’d avoid ones you can sleep in. I use monthly disposable ones that I can wear for a day out and swap to glasses at the end of the day. Or just wear for bike rides (note, protective glasses are essential. Dust and flies in the eye are a nightmare with contacts).

Daily disposables might be worth a look if you’re getting dry eyes as they’re fresh every day, although I find fresh contacts need time to settle in and not sure I’d like them changing every day.

I pay £8.50 a month for monthly and that’s with one toric lens (if you have astigmatism you may need these). I buy solution separately. About £20 a quarter I go through. Opticians usually sell the solution with the lenses on a contract, but I found I was using them irregularly so I’d end up with too much or too few bottles of solution. Easier to just pick them up from Boots or wherever, plus you can try different solutions to see what suits.

I apply loads of solution prior to putting lenses in and ensure there’s some sitting in the lens so it moisturises the eye.

I’ve been using contacts for over 25 years with no ill effects and I wear them all day, everyday. They cost me £10/month from Specsavers.

Did wear disposable one’s for running and biking but after a bad eye infection and a trip to the A&E eye department I was advised to not wear them anymore as my eyes are not suitable for them. Thats why in your other thread I commented on getting the Oakley lenses.

But give them ago when they were okay I did like using them.

I have literally just started wearing them in the past week. I am looking at the dailys after my week trial then 20 lenses for around £24. Through specsavers, but my friend said you can get them online much cheaper.

At work my right eye is a little irritated, as the lens is slightly thicker due to astigmatism. Yet when I went out on a ride with them, did not feel them in at all, probably as my eyes were watering and not in a dry environment like work.

I may just use them for sports now and wear the glasses at work.

You can ask for the contact lens appointment while having the eye test done, that is what I did. They put some dye in your eye to look for damage. I did have to book the ‘training’ appointment in at a later date though.

Had monthly contacts for 30 years. Wear them 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Can’t recall any issues in that time. Had dry eyes when first working in an air-conditioned office but different moisture content in the lenses sorted it. Never had them dry out or list one cycling, though I usually have cycling specs on to avoid mud and bugs anyway.

Get mine through Specsavers, service has been great. Think it’s £10 a month. Can’t justify extra cost for daily disposables. Think they do a free trial.

MrsMC wore them for 25 years before getting her eyes lasered. Jnr will try them soon I suspect as he wants to get away from glasses.

I wear soft dailies when I ride. Wear glasses normally.

Started with them a couple of years ago and never had any problems. Sometimes I’ll not use lenses for a couple of weeks, then I’ll have them in for three or four days in a row (fresh set per day) for between 3 and 10 hours. Never had any problems.

I’ve got a stock at the moment after having a monthly contract and building up supplies, so not bought any for a while. Think the contract was about £12 a month for 15 pairs per month and included a bit of optician time if needed. You can get lens only contracts much cheaper, but I went for the “insurance” bit as a new user but never needed it.

Some friends use ASDA I think for lenses.

Extended wear here. Life changing, for anyone into sports or outdoor pursuits.

I have the leave in ones and I think they’re great. I usually wear them for 6-7 days in a row then have a day off, but I’ve worn them constantly for a fortnight before with no problems. I do take breaks from them for a few days when I can though, it seems like a good idea to give my eyes a breather every so often! I’ve had them about 5 years now, have regular check ups and my eyes are fine. I get them delivered from specsavers for about £15 a month but buy the solution separately as I found they were supplying way too much. I do buy moisturising eye drops too, I tend to need them towards the end of the month and working in an office staring at a screen all day doesn’t help. I wouldn’t go back to ones you need to remove and wash daily!

contact lenses vary immensely, even dailies in there ability to keep eyes moist.

I currenty use Alcon Dailies Total 1 which apparently are one of the best for keeping eyes from getting dry, something I have had issues with.

Very important to have regular checks.

I used to used extended wear lenses but have had odd issues & was reccomended to change. Due to being old (50+) & very short sighted (-8) I prefer glasses for work & use the contacts for holidays & sport.

Ive been using contacts for over 25 years, i currently get mine from vision express, they are monthly disposables, cost is £20 (i think) that includes all solutions and they are insured, so if i rip them they get replaced.
I wear mine 6 days a week, never had any problems.
I wouldn’t want to go back to glasses full time.

I wear daily disposable lenses from Boots. They cost about £30 a month. They’re fantastic. I love that there is no faffing about with cleaning or storing – just whip them out at the end of the day.

In my limited experience, hygiene used to be one of the man causes of problems folks generally had with contact lenses, and the daily disposable takes care of that, providing your hands are clean when you put them in.

When cycling, I do have to wear biking glasses – otherwise the lenses do dry out. But wearing glasses when you’re mountain biking is good advice in any case (in my opinion).

I’ve worn contact lenses for over 20 years. I’ve been wearing the extended wear type for about 6 years, and leave them in continuously for a month (and a lot more, depending on when I remember to change them). I found the monthlies got really, really dry by the end of a day, but the extended wear are much more “jelly-like” and don’t dry out at all!
I didn’t have a check up for probably about 14 years, but a recent one showed my eyes are fine 🙂

I’ve been wearing contacts for perhaps 15 years. Started with monthlies, then due to dry/tired eyes, went through a few different brands and ended up with some fairly expensive ‘leave in for 30 days’ jobs, but still found I needed to remove them after 8 hours at work, sometimes they would dry to the point where they wouldn’t glide over over the eye so would not centre correctly, leading to blurry vision.

I then had a bit of a break from them and back to glasses, now I have daily disposables, and only wear them for cycling, on particularly hot days/on holidays when I want to wear sunnies, or when its raining all day as I work outside.

My eyes do show signs of over-wear, as your blood vessels tend to grow further across the whites of your eye. I’m now considering laser as I’m getting royally fed up of scratched glasses, dry eyes and fiddling about with lenses. However, I’ve been scared off by the high street chains and a decent place looks to be about £4500 for both eyes.

Edit: No check-up for 14 years…you really aren’t taking your sight seriously! High street chains won’t supply lenses if you haven’t had a check for a year. Was your checkup a sight test, or a contact lens check, where they flip your eye lids, put a dye in your eyes, and do a detailed examination?

Contacts for 20 years and no issues.

For the last 6 years I have been getting my lenses from Daysoft, basically the direct to market company of the contact lens world. Dailys work out at £5.99 for 32 lenses so makes wearing dailys affordable.

Would never buy from the high street again.

Contacts for 20 years and extended for 10 of those at least. Fine. I pop them out at nights maybe once a week of if I get crap in my eye. Any suggestions for non high street suppliers

Go for a test and do the trial period most opticians offer, it’s the only way to find out.

I tried contacts back in the late 90’s and they were horrid, dry eyes after a few hours etc. The newer types are loads better so I gave them a try. I wear disposable dailies for riding and have done for a few years now, never had any problems. Get the very rare bit of dirt in my eyes and it’s no bother popping the lense out, washing it with water and popping it back in. I always carry an old pair of glasses and a spare lense (both eyes the same prescription thankfully) just in case but never had to use them. My eyes don’t like wearing contacts for 5+ days in a row so I don’t wear them all the time, on the odd occasion I’ve ridden 5+ days consecutively I’ve just used some eye drops each evening and that helps, not a long-term solution but fine for the once-yearly holiday with the bike. Definitely better than wearing normal glasses!!

Another long term user here, I pay £25 per quarter and have them delivered to home. Never had a problem with them at all, although I do give my eyes a ‘rest’ every now and then and use my glasses.

I use daily disposables for sport or a night out. Glasses the rest of the time.
I only wear one lense (for my rather short-sighted left eye). Couldn’t get on with the toric for my right.

If I hadn’t had Lasik (the effects of which were alas short lived) I’d definitely look at ortho k contacts (gas permeables which reshape your eye overnight)

£10 a month with Specsavers for monthlies/extended wear jobbies. Wear them continuously for 28 days, then give my eyes a day or so breather, then back on them.

Free check ups every 3 months.

Lenses are Bausch & Lomb Pure Vision 2, and have never had an issue with them in the 10 years I’ve been using them, or the v1s that I used before. They’ve allow me to play football/sports, which I never could as a kid due to glasses.

Been using contacts for work/riding duties for the last 20+ years , I used to get monthly ones but got bored of cleaning them (yeah I know 30 secs per lens per day). Now I get daily disposables from Daysoft.com for £12.50 a month ,my optician isn’t happy I get them from here but admits my eyes are in good condition so he can’t reccommend I buy the ones he sells for £25 😆

Acuvue for me when needing sun glasses, biking, sport or work when I need to be moving about lots.
I use my dailies more than once and clean them in-between.
This current pair are on wear 6.

Yes it’s against manufacturer advice but my optician wasn’t too concerned.

Bare in mind J&J were slapped with a class action lawsuit in the usa over different packaging (monthly and daily) for the same lenses product. So there’s a reasonable chance I’m not actually wearing the lens beyond its design parameters.
YMMV

I can’t be bothered with them most of the time but I love them for riding, and for gigs. I do mostly wear safety glasses over them otherwise I do dry up but frankly, I’d probably be wearing safety glasses even if I wasn’t shortsighted!

I wear acuvue moist dailies. I’ve been using those for years so probably should consider a change but they work…

no bother popping the lense out, washing it with water and popping it back in

Risky…if you want to put it back in at least use saline designed for the purpose. Any nasties in the water can be absorbed into the lens, same reason you are meant to wash your hands before handling them, and not wear them in the shower.

I also don’t really see the advantage of using dailies more than once…if you can be bothered with cleaning/storing them, just go for proper monthlies.

A set of monthlies can be £25. You can get ~20 daily lenses for that. Since they’re basically the same thing, I can definitely see why people want to do that.

I use contacts for anything sporty. Dailies – partly for convenience and partly because it doesn’t matter if you get something in your eye. After riding, I can just flick the lenses out and bin them. I suppose it’s a bit wasteful, but it’s easy. I order them online from getlenses who I’ve used for years and they seem very good. Easy, quick, and they come in a letterbox-friendly box.

As for wearing contacts – it’s far better than wearing my usual glasses when riding. But my eyes don’t tolerate them amazingly – I get dry eyes after a few hours. I’ve tried loads of brands but they’re all the same. My wife on the other hand seems to be able to wear contacts for all her waking hours 7 days a week.

Sometimes I’m tempted to get prescription lenses for my riding glasses, I suspect this would save money in the (very) long run. Sometimes I think I’d be better off with laser surgery, but I actually like wearing glasses in my normal life.

Problem with prescription riding glasses is that when it rains or things get sweaty and steamy you can’t take them off..

washing it with water

Never, ever, ever do that.

Well I did it once. Was unbearable to wear them. Out and flushed quick. For the potential results, google all the nasty things that can happen from contact infections.

Superficial – Member

A set of monthlies can be £25. You can get ~20 daily lenses for that.

?? Not sure I understand. How much in a set are you talking? 20 daily’s I assume is 20 days or around a month’s worth. That’s one month. I pay £8.50 for one month. Okay it’s £102 a year, but that also includes check ups (really are essential. Can’t believe people don’t get check ups for years when using contacts!), plus free sight test and free glasses (basic ones). This is with Specsavers.

molgrips – Member
Problem with prescription riding glasses

… is when I crash, it gets very expensive. That’s what pushed me to contacts. Now I use £7 Bolle safety specs. Much cheaper in a crash.

Specsavers here too. Service is superb, they make me get tests by withholding lenses, and I get free/cheap glasses. Actually like my £20 pair more than my fancy expensive pair 🙂 also they can usually give me a walk-in appointment within an hour or so.

Another long term contact lens wearer. I still vividly remember the first time trying them. They put them in for me and said to go and walk around the high street outside for a few minutes to see how they felt. I expected to feel them, that they’d be gritty and irritating but I was amazed….couldn’t feel a thing and I could see perfectly. I’ve never looked back and count the move to contacts as one of the best decisions I’ve made. Literally life changing as someone else said. I ride, play football, golf and all would be so much more difficult with glasses. I’ve never had any problems either. Perhaps I’m lucky as I don’t get dry eyes with them. Had my check at vision express yesterday and all healthy. Give them a try without doubt.

Thanks for all the info. Got a sight test and contact lense appointment booked for next Sunday.

A set of monthlies can be £25. You can get ~20 daily lenses for that. Since they’re basically the same thing, I can definitely see why people want to do that.

As mentioned above, I only pay £10 a month. Not sure if I have been grandfathered into an old price as been on the plan so long, but I think even new customers wouldn’t be paying that much.

Aqua comfort plus daily ones here, standard ones sort of dried out after 3/4 of a day.

No problem in more years than I can remember.

Only nightmare I had ( twice) was a lens breaking up on exit, leaving a bit in my eye that had no structure so floated around the back of my eyeball. Not pleasant.

As mentioned above, I only pay £10 a month. Not sure if I have been grandfathered into an old price as been on the plan so long, but I think even new customers wouldn’t be paying that much.

Fair enough. That’s a lot less than I was paying for monthlies a few years back. Still, you’re paying £10 for a set of lenses that may be identical to ones costing <£1. I’m not advocating people do this, but the point is that the discrepancy in price between dailies and monthlies has less to do with physical differences in the lenses you’re buying and a lot more to do with how much money the manufacturers need to extract from a single user per month.

my lads just started contacts after nearly 20 yrs of glasses. back in the day he was told they werent an option, but i spose technologys moved on and hes real happy to have them as an option now for his confidence.

couple of things…… firstly, hes paying £25 per month for them from specsavers, whereas i see most of you are paying around a tenner. i think he has stigmatism or whatever its called, it was described as seeing round things as oval. would this explain a cost of over double?

secondly, hes just dropped one on the carpet. found it and says its still in shape etc but wants to know what you chaps advise about wearing again? would you, or is it too risky to have microscopic bits of dirt on it? think it dried out but hes got it back in solution, and others who wear lenses have said itll be ok, but hey, its singletrack where the real knowledge is innit 😉

thanks

Ignore

Ignore

OK.

£25 per month for them from specsavers, whereas i see most of you are paying around a tenner. i think he has stigmatism or whatever its called, it was described as seeing round things as oval. would this explain a cost of over double?

If you have an astigmatism you need toric lenses, which are expensive compared to normal contacts (I wear torics).

Mine are about 30-40 a month from memory.

sadexpunk – Member
couple of things…… firstly, hes paying £25 per month for them from specsavers, whereas i see most of you are paying around a tenner. i think he has stigmatism or whatever its called, it was described as seeing round things as oval. would this explain a cost of over double?

and…

Hob Nob – Member
If you have an astigmatism you need toric lenses, which are expensive compared to normal contacts (I wear torics).

Mine are about 30-40 a month from memory.

Slightly more expensive, but not that much!

I have a toric lens for one eye. As said before, I’m still only paying £8.50 a month. And yes… that’s through Specsavers.

Okay I’m not getting the solution from them any more. When I did, it was £10 a month.

And this is considering buying through Specsavers you are also paying for the check up each year and an eye test plus a deal on glasses.

ok thanks, ill tell him about the possibility of buying solution elsewhere, see what he thinks. if youre paying £8.50 from specsavers, i spose theres a genuine reason hes paying £25 then as its the same company…..

secondly, hes just dropped one on the carpet. found it and says its still in shape etc but wants to know what you chaps advise about wearing again? would you, or is it too risky to have microscopic bits of dirt on it? think it dried out but hes got it back in solution, and others who wear lenses have said itll be ok,

anyone care to advise on this too please?