Contacts or Glasses?

Is there a better option between glasses and contacts? Everybody seems to have their own personal preference and it ususally depends on their lifestyle. Here are the positives and negatives of each choice.

Glasses

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Positives

1. You can show your personality with your frames
2. Some people get slightly sharper vision
3. They are harder to lose
4. They are easy to take care of
5. You can sleep in them without destroying your eyes
6. They last forever and are not disposable like contacts
7. You can donate them when you are done

Negatives

1. They are not recommended for sports
2. They fog up when you change temperatures
3. They can go out of style easily
4. They can leave marks on your face
5. You have to buy prespription sunglasses
6. Poor vision when looking around the lens
7. Can be annoying if it is raining or snowing

Contacts

http://cat-eye-glasses.net/contacts-for-astigmatism/

Positives

1. Nobody has to know you have them
2. Almost anybody can get good vision out of them
3. They are comfortable
4. They can change your eye color
5. You can wear them while playing sports
6. You can buy any sunglasses you want to wear with them
7. You cannot look around them

Negatives

1. Sleeping in some kinds of contacts can really harm your eyes an vision
2. They take lots of care
3. You have to be taught how to use them and may not start out a pro
4. There is more follow up care
5. You have to buy contact solution
6. They create a lot of weight with bottles, cases, boxes etc.
7. Hard to care for if you are not in a sanitary area such as camping

-If you wear contacts or glasses please leave some feedback about your opinions to help out those who are struggling with the decision to wear contacts or not.

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Thanks for reading; check out the rest of our blog for more information regarding contact lenses, glasses, and your eye health.

Are you Tearing or Ripping your Soft Contacts Frequently?

Sometimes we have patients who have torn or ripped a contact once or more than once. They wonder what they did wrong. Here is some advice if this is you.

1. Avoid touching your contacts with your nails or pinching them too tight with the pads of your fingers.
2. If they are not approved to sleep in, don't. For more reasons than just tearing (see blog post about taking care of contacts), but sleeping in contacts dehydrates them, making them more brittle. When you take them out they are more likely to tear.
3. Dehydrated contacts are more likely to tear. If your eyes are dry or your contacts are dry by the end of the day you might want to try using rewetting drops throughout the day. They can be found in any pharmacy over the counter.
4. Put rewetting drops in 2-3 minutes before removing your contacts to make sure they are less rigid.

Picture from Bausch and Lomb Canada

1. Rewetting drops might be more important for our older patients who produce fewer tears and lower quality tears.
2. Always put your contacts in fresh solution every time you remove them and fill them up to the top of the lines in your case to make sure they are sufficently submerged every time.
3. Leave your contacts in the solution for 10 minutes before taking them out and rubbing them or rinsing them.
4. Always use good quality solutions such as OptiFree Pure Moist or ClearCare. The moisture particles in these solutions are small enough to fit in the pores of the contacts and stay with you throughout the day, opposed to wiping off as you blink.

If you consistantly have issues with tearing contacts and you are really good about caring for your contacts always check with your optometrist to see what your options are for replacing the torn ones, better care options for your particular lenses or trying a different type of contact lens.

Learn more about Opti-Free and taking care of contacts at: http://www.opti-free.com/

To learn more about our office visit our web-site at: www.visionsource-clarityeyecare.com

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Taking Care of Soft Contacts

So 10 years ago you came in for your very first contact exam. It went great! You got fantastic contacts that felt great on your eyes and you got great vision out of them. You got the whole rundown (hopefully) from your optician and from your optometrist on how to properly take care of your lenses and what could happen if you don't. Well, we realize this conversation might have been a long time for a lot of people, and due to their responses to our questions at their exams, they have probably faltered a little to a lot from their care regimine with their contacts, so here is a brush-up.

Keeping to your Schedule

• All parts of our body except for our eyes receive oxygen through blood. Our eyes on the other-hand get their oxygen through their surfaces. That is why we need to pay close attention to how often we are replacing our contacts since contacts block their oxygen flow. Each brand of contact lens has a specific amount of time you can wear them so your eyes can breathe comfortably the entire time you have the lens. This is determined by your optometrist and should be adhered to strictly to keep your eyes comfortable.
• Sleeping in contacts likewise reduces the amount of oxygen to your eyes. Therefore it is only recommended to sleep in contacts that your doctor allows you to. Even if you do sleep in your contacts it is recommended to take them out for one night a week to give your eyes a break.
• Helpful ways to remember are to take them out the same night every week, set a reminder in your phone, or go to accuminder.com to set up a recurring text or email to remind you when you need to take them out. You can customize the Accuminder for your specific regimine. I don't delete the Accuminder e-mail until I actually take them out.

A Clean Contact is a Happy Contact!

• Always wash your hands before handling your contacts. Another tip is that if your contact case is grungy on the outside and you wash your hands before opening it and then you open it, you will get the bacteria that was on the outside of the case in your eye! So a better option is to open you case and then wash your hands, or just keep a clean case on the outside and inside.
• Every time you put your contacts from your case to your eyes rinse them off with solution. This gets any debris off your contact before it goes in your eyes. Also, rub your contacts before putting them in your case. Always rub them in a cross design and not in a circle. Rubbing in a circle is more likely to cause tearing and ripping.
• Once you have your contacts in your eyes make sure to rinse your case with either solution or tap water and leave the caps off. This way it can be free of debris and it can air dry. Your contact lens case is similar to tupperware. It's beautiful in the beginning, but after a comple of months no matter what you do you can not get it clean. This is why a new case is definitely recommended every three months. All that buildup is bacteria that can eventually get in your eye and cause an infection.

Solution is the Solution

Not all solutions are treated the same. In our office we recommend Opti-Free Pure Moist and/or Clear Care. The difference between Opti-Free Pure Moist and generic brands is all in the moisture particles. In Pure Moist the moisture particles are nice and small. This allows them to find snugly in the pores of your contacts and keep them moist longer. If the moisture particles are bigger than the pores in your contacts then they will slide off with every blink, and sooner rather than later will be gone and of not use.
Clear Care is a great solution for people who need a deeper clean for their contacts. Make sure to read the instructions on the box very carefully. It is dangerous to your eye to use clear care solution as if it were a regular solution.

Yikes!

If you are allowing your eyes getting irritated to be a reminder to change your contacts you are waiting until the damage is done before you change them instead of preventing the damage in the first place. If you follow the above rules and tips you will be much more likely to be as happy with your contacts as you could possibly be and we won't see you in our office with an infection!



Let's get back on track!

Learn more about us at our web-site: www.visionsource-clarityeyecare.com

Follow us on Facebook at: Facebook.com/ClarityEyeCareOmaha

Learn more about OptiFree at: OptiFree.com

Learn more about Clear Care at: ClearCareSolution.com