Getting Contact Lenses: What To Expect
If you’ve always been someone who wears glasses, you might have recently decided that the time has come to swap to contact lenses. Today, contacts are an incredibly popular choice for people with vision problems. You can play sports in lenses, swim in them, walk in the rain without your eyes fogging up – glasses steam up in the rain. What’s not to love?
The only downside to contact lenses is adjusting to them. For many of us, the idea of putting something into our eye is too much to cope with. Then there’s the question of what lenses to get and how much each option costs. There’s a lot to think about when it comes to swapping from glasses to lenses. To help make the adjustment easier and less stressful, we’ve put together this guide to what you can expect.
You’ll need to see your optician
The first thing you need to do if you’d like to swap to contact lenses is make an appointment to see your optician. Even if you already know what your prescription is, it’s important to see your optician so they can recommend the best lens for you. It’s not as simple as selecting any old contact lenses. They need to fit your eyes and be suitable for what you intend on wearing them for. For example, if you plan on wearing your lenses all day every day, you’ll probably be recommended two-weekly lenses. This is because the quality tends to be higher, so they’re better for your eyes.
Two-week trial
The chances are, once you and your optician have settled on a certain lens, you’ll then be given some trial lenses to try for a couple of weeks. This will allow you to see how you get on with the lenses, test out how comfortable they are, and see if they’re right for you. After two weeks, you’ll need to go back to see your optician for another check up. Once you’ve been told that the lenses are working with your eyes, you’ll then be told to order a box of Acuvue Oasys lenses or whatever you’ve been using.
Looking after your lenses is important
Your optician will probably tell you how important it is to keep your lenses clean – listen to their advice. If you don’t look after your lenses as directed, you could end up with an eye infection or worse, going blind. (That’s the worst case scenario and very rare but you get the point.) If you want healthy eyes, you need to look after and use your lenses properly. Always wash and dry your hands before handling your lenses. Clean them every night if they’re two weeklies. And never sleep in them. If you do fall asleep in them by accident – it happens to all of us, don’t take them out when you wake up. Wait half an hour for your eyes to lubricate them – this will make them easier to take out.
Getting contact lenses is a big deal and can take a little getting used to, but once you’ve adjusted, you’ll never want to go back to glasses.
