# Disposable contacts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 11, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034 "2008-03-11T23:19:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034/1 "2008-03-11T23:19:08Z")

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I have two week disposable contacts. If I only wear contacts once a week, can I wear them for 14 weeks since that is equal to wearing them full-time for two weeks?

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034/2 "2008-03-12T03:16:34Z")

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If you do that, you’d want to make sure to wash them. If you only plan to wear contacts a day here and a day there, you’d want to get daily wears. The kind that you wear once and throw out.

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**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034/3 "2008-03-12T13:26:37Z")

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I only wear my contacts on the weekend. My current eye doctor has no problem with the fact that I stretch out their usage from two chronological weeks into two weeks of wear. This doctor is a contact lens specialist with over 30 years of practice.

I have, however, had eye doctors in the past tell me that it would be a violation of “proper” use, as based on the labeling, to tell me that I can wear them more than two weeks. He sounded like he was trying to cover himself from a liability standpoint. (he was young and worked at W_lm_rt - make of that what you will)

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disposable-contacts/441034/4 "2008-03-12T13:47:48Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I only wear my contacts on the weekend. My current eye doctor has no problem with the fact that I stretch out their usage from two chronological weeks into two weeks of wear. This doctor is a contact lens specialist with over 30 years of practice.
> 
> I have, however, had eye doctors in the past tell me that it would be a violation of “proper” use, as based on the labeling, to tell me that I can wear them more than two weeks. He sounded like he was trying to cover himself from a liability standpoint. (he was young and worked at W_lm_rt - make of that what you will)

Perhaps you recall the scandal from a decade or so back, where several contact lens manufacturers were caught selling _the same lenses_ as short-term and for long-term wear. They were put into different packages and labeled differently, but inside the lenses were precisely the same.

In other words, I don’t trust the labeling.

I don’t even know what difference, if any, there was supposed to be between short and lomng therm contacts. They’re both made of the same hydrated polymer. I’ve never heard of them putting any preservative or anything extra in them.