Contact Lenses Care

LOSS, SCRATCHING, CHIPPING, AND WARPING

A hard lens is more likely to pop off the eye than a soft lens. The plastic from which the lenses are made is liable to be scratched, chipped, and warped if not handled carefully. Almost every hard contact lens wearer has lived through this scenario, in a shopping center, a crowded restaurant, at a party, even in the street: She looks—too quickly—to the side. The lens pops out. She shouts “Don’t move!” and drops to her knees. Soon she’s surrounded by kneeling, groping good samaritans who’ve joined in the search. If she’s lucky, the welcome words “I’ve found it!” ring out, and the lens is unchipped and unscratched. If she’s not so lucky, her next move is a phone call, and later a visit, to her contact lens specialist. By the way, if you have lost or damaged one lens, you may still wear the other lens without fear of any adverse effect. Of course, you could wear eyeglasses until your new lens has arrived. I usually advise purchasing a spare pair of lenses to keep on hand in the event of just such an occurrence. Read the rest of this entry »

DISCOMFORT

Hard-lens wearers point out with a sense of irony that “they don’t call them ‘hard’ for nothing,” and suspect that the real reason their lenses are called hard has as much to do with the difficulty in getting used to them as with their physical rigidity. Initially a hard lens causes everyone some discomfort. (The amount varies, but at no time should you feel real pain. If you do feel sharp pain, either the contact lens has been improperly fitted or there’s something under it.) Read the rest of this entry »

“I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was when the doctor put in my contacts for the first time. A whole new world opened up for me—finally I could see what I really looked like. A miracle, because I hadn’t seen myself without glasses for as long as I could remember. I was the classic four-eyes: the studious, introverted, myopic kid . . . always ‘losing’ my specs because I hated them so. I was really unpopular in high school; by then my lenses resembled Coke bottles. I only wore the despised spectacles when I had to, which meant I never said hello to anybody. How could I? Read the rest of this entry »