The best contact lenses for you depend on many factors, including your visual needs and your reasons for wanting to wear contacts:

• If you want the sharpest vision possible, gas permeable contact lenses (also called RGP or GP lenses) are perhaps the best choice. Because GP contacts have a hard, polished surface, they typically have better optical qualities than soft contact lenses.
• If you have astigmatism, gas permeable lenses or special soft lenses called toric contact lenses are usually the best choice. These lenses have special features to correct blurred vision caused by unequal corneal curvature (the most common type of astigmatism).
• If comfort is your primary consideration, conventional soft contact lenses usually are your best choice. Most people find soft lenses are immediately comfortable, whereas gas permeable lenses usually require a period of adaptation (that can be several weeks) before the lenses are perfectly comfortable.
• If you don’t want to bother with lens care and contact lens solutions, daily disposable contact lenses probably are your best choice. With these soft lenses, you wear them just once and then throw them away. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
• If you are over age 40 and have presbyopia, the best lenses for you may be bifocal contacts or multifocal contact lenses. These lenses often can restore a full range of vision and reduce or eliminate your need for reading glasses.
• If you are comfortable wearing glasses and only want to wear contacts occasionally for sports or social events, soft lenses usually are the best choice. Most people can comfortably wear soft contacts on a sporadic basis, whereas gas permeable lenses usually have to be worn every day to maintain comfort.

Other factors also come into play when determining the type of contacts that are best for you. For example:

• You may want extended wear contact lenses so you can wear the lenses continuously and not have to remove them before sleep. But your eyes may not be able to tolerate extended wear, so daily disposable lenses may be a better option.
• You may need bifocal or multifocal contact lenses because you have presbyopia, but you find your vision with these lenses is not as good as you hoped it would be. In this case, maybe monovision, where your eye doctor uses regular (monofocal) soft lenses to fit one of your eyes for distance vision and the other for near vision, is a better option. Or perhaps a modification of monovision, where one eye is fitted with a monofocal lens and the other eye is fitted with a multifocal lens, is the best solution.
• You may want the sharpest vision possible, but you find you can’t wear gas permeable lenses comfortably. In this situation, perhaps hybrid contacts will satisfy your needs.

The first step in determining which contacts are best for you is to schedule an eye exam and discuss available options with your optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Keep in mind, though, that initial plans may change during your contact lens fitting. Depending on your comfort, your vision and how well your eyes tolerate the initial lens choice, changes may need to be made.

Getting makeup in your eye is annoying. But it’s even worse with contacts, because it can stick to the lenses instead of flushing right out. Follow these tips to keep your eyes looking and feeling good:

• Put your contact lenses on before applying makeup. And always wash your hands thoroughly before touching your contacts, so you won’t transfer any oils, creams or lotions to the lenses.
• Use only non-allergenic makeup. Almay and Clinique have eye-friendly products, but there are other brands as well.
• Cream eye shadow is less likely to get in your eye than powder. But creams can irritate your eyes more if they do make it into your eyes. Choose water-based rather than oil-based creams.
• If you prefer powder, keep your eyes closed during application. Then, brush off any excess powder before opening your eyes.
• Never apply eyeliner between your lashes and your eye. Apply eyeliner only on the portion of your lashes that is well away from your eye.
• To remove eye makeup, wash and dry your hands. Then remove your contacts, being careful not to bump them into any makeup. Finally, use your eye makeup remover.

• Replace your eye makeup frequently — at least every three months. Don’t use old eye makeup, because over time bacteria will get into the product and then into your eyes, where it can cause an infection. One way to tell if your makeup is too old is if it smells funny. Also, don’t share your eye makeup with others.

The way you clean your contact lenses will depend on the type of contact lens you have. Read on to find out more about proper care and cleaning for your contact lenses.

Soft Contact Lenses

Soft contact lenses are more likely than hard lenses to absorb pollutants in the air and in the environment including smoke, sprays, fumes and other substances. Simply cleaning your lenses daily will help remove build up from these substances and help reduce eye irritation. Any time you remove your soft contact lenses you will need to clean them. There are special lens cleaners designed for these types of lenses.

Here are some basic steps you can take for cleaning soft contact lenses:

· Wash your hands. If you clean your lenses with dirty hands you’ll just transfer the germs from your hands to your lenses.

· Remove one of your contact lenses and place in the center of your hand.

· Add a few drops of cleaning solution to the outer surface of the lens.

· Using one of the fingers on your opposite hands, gently rub the cleaning solution into the lens for about one minute.

· Rinse your lens with a cleaning solution then replace in the lens case.

· Fill the lens case with cleaning solution.

· Clean the opposite lens.

Some soft lenses require special cleaning processes. Your eye doctor or eye care provider may at times recommend a heat cleaning process that they can achieve in shop. Be sure to ask your optician what types of lenses may require this process.

Hard Contact Lenses

If you wear hard contact lenses you will need to clean and disinfect your lenses each time you wear them with cleansing solutions specially designed for your lenses. The type of lens you have will dictate the kind of solution you use and the frequency with which you clean your lenses.

Hard contact lenses are cleaned just like soft contact lenses only you need to rinse the contact lines in fresh tap water after rubbing the cleaning solution on the surface of the lens.

Self-Care at Home

If you experience irritation, pain, blurred vision, redness, or light sensitivity, immediately remove your contact lenses and re-evaluate your symptoms.

Because you should not wear your contact lenses when experiencing these problems, you should have an up-to-date pair of glasses for these times. With well-fitting contact lenses, you should be able to remove your lenses and see well with your glasses, essentially immediately. Blurred vision, lasting for hours, upon removal of the contacts is usually a sign of poorly fitting contact lenses. If your vision is blurred, with your glasses, when lenses are removed, notify your fitter.

You should examine your contact lenses for any defects. In the case of a torn soft lens or a cracked gas permeable lens, your eye should feel immediately relieved once you remove the lens. If soap or cleaning solution gets in your contact lens case and, in turn, on your lenses, irrigate your eyes with your rinsing solution or tap water. This can be extremely painful. Then, either discard the lenses or rinse them off multiple times in the storage solution to rid the lenses of the soap.

When the irritation is from something blowing into the eye, remove the lens and look for a foreign body. The foreign body may be removed with a cotton-tipped applicator or a rolled-up piece of facial tissue. Once removed, your eye should feel immediately relieved of the discomfort.If eye drops are prescribed for an infection, you should use these eyedrops, usually with the contacts out of your eyes. Ask your doctor whether you should remove your lenses when instilling drops. You should not wear contacts when your eyes are red or irritated.To instill eye drops, hold your head back and squeeze one drop out of the bottle. Do not touch your lashes or eyelids with the dropper. Close your eye for about 30 seconds after instilling the eye drop, and do not rub your eye.

First, you need to decide, is how long you will be able to soak your lenses each night. If you might need to put you contacts in at any time after you take them out, then you may need one kind. If you can let them soak longer, then you may want to choose another.

When you are unsure of the amount of time that you will soak, the best bet is to use a solution such as Opti-Free or ReNu. You don’t to leave your contact lenses in for a set amount of time, even though it is recommended that you soak your lenses over night. This way you can put your contacts in an hour after taking them out, or 8 hours after taking them out.

If you can let your lenses soak for at least six hours straight, then a solution like Clear Care can be just the right solution for you. Incidentally, my eye care provider told me that Clear Care is the best contact lens solution on the market, because it actually has a chemical reaction that actually causes the solution to scrub the lens. You have to leave the contacts in the solution for at least six hours, or you can burn your eyes.

So, now you can make a decision that will be the right decision for you, and for the lifestyle that you live.

1. Wash and dry your hands thoroughly. Be sure that the hands are free from fabric fibers.
2. Place the contact lens in your palm and drench it with contact solution. using the index finger of your opposite hand, slowly rub it back and forth.
3. Pour more lens solution to remove the oils coming from your finger.
4. Carefully place the lens in your index finger; left finger for left eye. Check the lens: if the edges curve outward, it means it’s the wrong side.
5. With the middle finger of your opposite hand, pull up the eyelid. Using the middle finger of the other hand, pull down the lower eyelid.
6. Steadily move the lens towards the eye. try not to blink. Sart inserting the buttom edge of the lens before the top. Using the finger, carefully move the contact in circles to check whether it’s fully in.
7. Blink slowly to avoid dislodging it. Repeat the whole process.

Care For Disposable Lenses

It is important you replace disposable lenses frequently. This helps promote your eye health and makes wearing contact lenses a lot more comfortable. With time substances including proteins and lipids may build up on your contact lenses, reducing the quality of your vision. These deposits are natural side effects of daily wear, and usually result from tearing in your eyes.

The more deposit build up on your lenses. However, the more prone you are to infection. While many people prefer traditional lenses, traditional lenses require more frequent sterilization and cleaning because of build up. This is one of the biggest advantages of disposable lenses. You don’t have to worry about removing build up. You simply throw out your lenses and use a new pair when they are too “dirty.”

Many consumers prefer daily disposables because they never have to worry about build up. These lenses are a healthy and convenient alternative to washing other contact lenses. While you can’t sleep in daily lenses, they help reduce risk of eye infection associated with build up and sleeping in contact lenses.

Will Disposables Offer The Same Vision Correction As Regular Lenses?

Disposable lenses are just as beneficial for your eyesight’s as regular lenses. New technology allows manufactures to provide consumers with the highest quality lenses in expensively. Most disposable lenses are crafted of materials similar to traditional lenses. They provide the same vision correction capability as regular lenses in most cases.

Benefits of Disposable Lenses

Aside from providing a healthier alternative to traditional lenses, disposables cost almost the same as traditional lenses. Many find disposable lenses are in fact, more affordable than traditional lenses because they don’t have to pay for cleaning products and daily care of lenses.

Disposable contact lenses are also available to correct almost any vision problem today, even astigmatism. Some people opt for disposables as a fun way of simply changing their eye color, eye whether or not they need prescription lenses. Not sure whether disposables are for you? Ask your eye doctor today. Most people will find they can wear disposables just as easily as they can glasses or traditional lenses.

Ever wanted to know how powerful and amazing your eyes are?

Well here are some amazing facts on the human eye.

• It uses 65% of your brainpower, the most out of any body part
• They can process about 36,000 bits of information an hour
• They are number 2 in the most powerful body parts next to the brain
• Only 1/6 of the eye if showing
• The actual eye is always working and never sleeps
• Controls 85% of all the knowledge you will ever get
• The reason why we blink is to lubricate our eyeballs so they don’t get too dry
• Don’t pull out your eyelids, they protect your eyes from dirt and bacteria
• The approximate weight of a human eyeball is about 28 grams
• Men can read fine print better than women
• You would normally read faster from a sheet of paper then from a computer screen
• The most crucial part of your eye is as delicate as a wet tissue
• The normal person blinks about 10,000 times a day
• The images that are sent to your brain are actually upside down and backwards
• Your eyes adjust in just milliseconds in order to keep balance whenever you move your head
• Your pupil changes in size in order to let in the right amount of light
• The only part of the body that doesn’t contain blood vessels is the cornea
• The average human eye is about 1 inch in diameter
• Blind people can see their dreams as long as they weren’t born blind
• Color blind doesn’t mean they only see black and white , but just that they just can’t see things in as many colors as people who have normal vision

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Contact Pros and Cons

Contacts are terrific alternative to glasses. Contacts offer many advantages over glasses. For one, you can wear contacts right on the lens, allowing more natural vision and preventing glasses from obscuring your natural look. Contact users often find their entire field of vision remains intact. This is particularly important for consumers involved in sports or those interested in driving and want to retain as much of their peripheral vision as possible.

Here are some other benefits of contact lenses:

· Contacts do not obstruct your view.

· There is no glare or reflection to worry about when wearing contact lenses.

· Contact lenses do not require a frame.

· Contact lenses do not fog or blur your vision.

· Contact lenses won’t alter your natural appearance.

Contrary to popular belief contacts are useful for correcting many vision problem including astigmatism, a condition that results in distorted vision. Contacts like glasses are also very affordable. There are some disadvantage of contacts. However, some users for example find contact irritating and prefer the ease of wearing glasses. Glasses generally require less maintenance when it comes to sterility as well, since they are not placed directly on the lens.

Glasses Pros and Cons

Many traditionalists prefer the look and feel of eyeglasses. Eye glasses do create some distractions that prove uncomfortable for some. Eyeglasses for example, generally allow less peripheral vision than contact lenses. Some users find the weight of glasses on their face or eyes uncomfortable. Fortunately newer technology including the advent of featherweight technology has helped decrease some of this discomfort.

Here are some of the little known advantages often associated with glasses:

· Eyeglasses come in multiple styles.

· You can buy featherweight varieties.

· Eyeglasses can complement or enhance your features or provide a unique twist to your appearance.

· Eyeglasses require relatively little maintenance.

· Glasses are very affordable.

· Glasses come in many different styles, shapes and sizes to meet every need.

· You can buy prescription sunglasses to match your eyeglasses.

]]> http://mycontactlens2u.com/2010/07/contacts-versus-glasses-the-inside-scoop-on-your-vision/feed/ http://mycontactlens2u.com/2010/07/tips-on-care-of-contact-lenses/ http://mycontactlens2u.com/2010/07/tips-on-care-of-contact-lenses/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:35:00 +0000 lilian http://mycontactlens2u.com/?p=94

• Wash and Dry Your Hands – Not once but every time you handle your contact lens. Even during removal. Use warm soapy water and a clean towel. Much of the dirt, grime and gunk comes from the wearer.

• Only use lens cleaners and drops that your eye care professional has suggested.

• Follow directions: the directions from the lenses, the lens cleaners, the drops and from your eye care professional.

• Clean your contact lens case after every usage. Let dry before use. Get rid of the lens case every month.

• Look at your contact lenses before applying them. If they flare out instead of looking like a cup, they’re inside out.

• Don’t change contact lens solutions or drops without clearing it with your eye care professional.

• Use makeup that is safe for contact lenses.

• Don’t use water to clean your lenses; even distilled water may have tiny varmints.

• This should be obvious – don’t spit on your lenses or put them in your mouth to clean them - cleaning your contact lenses isn’t like coming up to the plate in a baseball game.

• Don’t mix contact cleaning solutions.

• Take your lenses off before swimming or entering a hot tub.

• Don’t sleep in your daily or non-extended wear contacts. Even a nap could lead to problems. When you’re sleeping it is more difficult to get oxygen to your eyes. Your contact lenses may also become dry and stick to your eyes.

• Don’t wear any lenses past their expiration date. Dailies are for one day, not two.

• If you develop any eye issues - redness, itching or blurry vision – take the contact lenses out and call your eye care professional.

• Don’t wear someone else’s contact lenses. Even with non-prescription color lenses, you don’t know where their eyes have been.

• Contact lenses make a wearer’s eyes more sensitive to sunlight. Wear sunglasses or a nice hat when out in the sun.

• Keep eyes lubricated with a rewetting solution suggested by your eye care professional.

• Put in contacts before applying makeup. This will make it easier to avoid contamination.

• Remove your contacts before removing makeup.

• Don’t let the tip of the solution bottle touch anything, not even your fingers. If the tip of the bottle becomes contaminated the solution may become contaminated.