I originally wanted to find a new eye doctor because I moved.
Once I started the search, though, I thought I would prefer one who knew firsthand what wearing contact was like.
I especially was interested in what brand he uses, becuase I’ve had varied success. (Hate B&L, love Acuvue, but I don’t have their latest type yet)
Now I can’t locate such a doctor. Am I being too fussy?
Did you get an eye doctor that had them? And is it worth searching for?
I wore contact lenses from 1970 until about 1990. I wore hard lenses, soft lenses, extended wear lenses etc.
Never noticed/cared if my eye doctor wore 'em.
But that’s me.
I DID change eye doctor’s recently because my former one is doing a lot of laser surgery these days. Why is that important? well, having been an established patient (10 years), I called to make my routine annual exam appointment.
I have a “pre-glaucoma” kind of thing going that needs close monitoring, plus a “freckle” on the inside of one eye they have to check annually, in addition to the sever myopia. For this guy, you had to call ** 6 months ** in advance for a routine appointment. So , I was calling in April to get an October appointment.
I was told “I’ll have to take your number and call you back, 'cause we’re not scheduling routine appointments today” As in, they would CALL me in several days to schedule an appointment for 6 months from now. I told her not to bother, asked for my files to be prepared and I’d pick them up.
I would wear contact lenses from ‘anyone’ that would prescribe them for me (I just hate wearing glasses). I have (an?) astigmatism and the eye doctors always tell me that contact lenses won’t really help, and if I could get them, they would be very expensive.
[hijack]
I have a cyst in the front of my neck that got badly infected and swelled to the size of a (half a) golf ball. As I lay on a table in the emergency room, the doctor came in and, just before putting a scalpel to my throat, started fumbling around with the overhead lamp.
“Uhh, how do you work this thing?”
Didn’t exactly instill the greatest of confidence.
I’ve been wearing contacts for over 10 years now and I can’t say I’ve ever noticed or even thought about whether my eye doctor wore them or not. (However, I do very much resent it when an eye doctor tries to insert or remove my own lenses – why do some of them do that?!)
A little off the subject, but a friend of mine works in a high-max security prison and he was told that he couldn’t wear contacts to work because the chemical munitions that they use there would melt the lenses onto his eyes if he ever got hit with the spray.
Service, my good man. Whenever I go to a certain shoe store and want to try on new shoes, the shoe-salsesperson always removes my shoes for me and places the new shoe on my foot. It used to irritate me, but now I sit back like I own the place, and allow the sales people to treat me like a queen. Your Dr. may just be working on the same principle: pamper the customer, or in this case, the patient.
Belle: I also have severe astigmatism and I wear contacts. They are more expensive (at least twice the price), but I love them!!
As far as the OP goes, I don’t really care if my eye doctor wears them or not. After all, my regular doctor has never given birth, but he delivered my kids just fine.
The main problem I’ve had is getting a straight answer recommendation about what’s the best contact brand.
All the eye doctors I’ve had wore glasses, and simply didn’t want any trouble. They’d say comforting things, like it all depends, or different people like different brands.
Brands are very different.
The B&H were constantly gumming up and feeling “sticky”, and needing enzyme washes to remove “protein lipid deposits”.
The Acuvue never need cleaning and I leave them in 30 days at a time. They especially aren’t vulnerable to getting irritated by smoke (I smoke a pipe).
But are they the best? When I ask, they all say “Stay with what you know”. Just to save themselves problems, I’m sure.
The “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” of Ann Landers fame.
But I think there is data, there are tests that have been done and reported, and an eye doctor with a personal interest would know and divulge this.
I’ve tried to find test reports at medical libraries at the local university, but find I can’t read them.
I’m not an eye doctor, but I had astigmatism for glasses, and always had “wedge” shaped lenses to cure it. (They were called that, but I think they would be better described as having a sort-of “football-shaped” curvature - more curved on one axis than another.
But the never really were great. Looking straight ahead was fine, but anything to either side was distorted. When I looked at a door, it was always slightly barrel shaped, bowed on the sides.
Anyway, the soft lenses (and hard before that) simply made the problem go away. I don’t have astigmatic contacts, and don’t feel the need for them.
I know you can’t tell that to a doctor and expect him to listen, but you might find him/her amenable to helping you get that key first pair if you insist you need them for “special times”, like performing on stage, or for your wedding photos, so you won’t get shadows.
Any excuse. But once you get the first pair, the rest are easy, because they love to give you what you already have. (see my previous post).
I disagree. I’m pretty sure that if you took a poll of everyone who wore a certain brand of lenses, you’d get a wide variety of responses. There probably are a lot of people who do like the lenses you found gummy, and others, like yourself, that don’t like them. I don’t think there is a “one brand is best for everyone”.
People have different eyes, different lifestyles, and different cleaning/wearing habits with their contacts. Not to mention different levels of astigmatism.
For example, I LOVE my toric lenses. I get no distortion when looking to the side, and I do have severe astigmatism. You didn’t like yours. Therefore, if your doctor wears contacts, there is a good chance that whatever brand he or she prefers might not be the same brand that will work best for you. Once you get beyond the basics, such as prescription, it’s basically trial and error.
And please tell me, if it’s not broken, why DO you want to fix it anyway? Sounds like you already have contacts that work well for you.