After thirty or so years of wearing Rigid Gas Permeable contacts, I have just switched to soft (two-week) lenses for comfort issues. Acuview Oasys for Astigmatism, to be precise. What should I expect from them? Any unknown problems or issues that I should be aware of? Do they get gnarly near the end of their life? Or can I push the two weeks to three if I’m feeling cheap? Can I shower with them? Can I nap with them? What’s the best cleaning/maintenance routine/product? Where’s the best place to buy them? I don’t even know what questions I should be asking. Please, enlighten me! Thanks, gang.
I switched from rigid gas permeable to soft about 2 years ago after wearing rigid for about 12 years. I began my contact experience with soft lenses and wore them 3 years before switching to rigid due to astigmatism, so I was actually switching back and knew what to expect.
Most of all, it was a great move. So much more comfortable than the rigid and you have to worry about them so much less because they’re disposable.
I think mine are weekly and I push them to 15 days - I switch them on the 1st and 15th. I kept them even longer at first, but I did find my eyes irritated and couldn’t wear them all day, so I decided to stick with 15 days. But after tracking my comfort level for 2 years I’m not convinced it varies with how old the contacts are that much. Sometimes a new pair is very uncomfortable and I think it has to do with the weather or allergies or whatnot.
I shower with mine. I even swim with them, which doctors say not to, but I’m completely blind without them so I risk it. I don’t personally like to nap with mine. They seem to get funky in my eyes.
I use an all in one cleaner/storage liquid/rinse. Way easier than when I first wore them a decade ago and needed different bottles for different uses.
That brand is what I’ve been wearing for about 4 years now, and they’re the best contacts I’ve ever had. I take mine out about once a week to clean them, but wear them constantly otherwise, including swimming and sleeping in them. I’ve never lost one or had a problem with them, and they tend to last about 6 weeks. I just keep them until they start to bug me, then replace. The cheapest I’ve found them is from webeyecare.com
I use Acuvue Oasys. I wear a pair for a month and don’t have problems. Much longer than that and they begin to get thin and tear. I take them out at night, but they’re fine for showering and napping.
Compare prices at online stores. 1800Contact is not the cheapest vendor.
I wear monthly Air Optix for astigmatism and they are seriously the most comfortable contacts I’ve worn (been wearing soft contacts since I was 14; I’m 48 now). I sleep overnight in them (up to five nights in a row), I swim in them (needless to say - close your eyes wen going underwater), shower, camp, etc…
I wear them a month and then change. When I do take them out overnight I just pop them into a case with Renu or BioPure solution.
Thanks for all the advice, gang! Great stuff. So far, I’m lovin’ the extreme comfort. I should have made the switch years ago.
I second this. Air Optix Night & Day lenses are excellent. I wear them for a month straight, and my eyes actually feel better when I wear them (less prone to being stung by smoke or exhaust). I go days or weeks at a time without thinking about them at all. They’re not cheap, but neither is lens fluid, and I need very little lens fluid with these contacts; one bottle lasts me years.
Can I push the two weeks to three if I’m feeling cheap? If you take care of them properly you can push them longer than that. By take care of them properly I mean rub them with the cleaning solution, even if you’re using a no-rub solution. I used to use no-rub solution and not rub my contacts, and they usually wouldn’t last two weeks. Once I started rubbing them, they’d last about a month. I once went to the eye doctor with month-old contacts in my eyes, and he said they looked like new because I had kept them clean.
Can I shower with them? Absolutely.
Can I nap with them? I know people that can go for weeks without ever taking their contacts out. Personally, one night’s sleep in a pair of contacts lenses will ruin them (they just don’t seem to suction properly after that, and they’ll irritate my eyes). I can usually get away with napping in them for a couple hours, though. But since so many people can sleep in their contacts without a problem, my advice would be to try it out once. Worse case scenario: you ruin a pair of contacts and you know not to make the same mistake again!
YMMV but I find that mine last longer when I rub as seldom as possible. Like I said in my first post, they start to get thin, tear, and develop holes–and once that’s happened they have to be thrown away. Less handling equals slower wear, in my experience.