Two important factors should be considered when selecting
contact lenses – how often you are going to replace
them and for how long you plan to wear them every day.
The current trend in USA is a decrease of prescribing
conventional (annual replacement) lenses and monthly disposable
lenses in favor of daily
disposables.
The reason is obvious – even though dailies cost
more, they are the healthiest solution for your eyes.
Among the advantages of daily
disposable contact lenses is also the fact that they
don’t require any care or maintenance. So if you
aren’t prepared to devote time and effort to cleaning
your contacts properly – dailies are definitely
for you.
Healthy
lenses for extended wear
If you have to wear your contacts lenses for 14-15 hours,
you should go for the lenses
with high oxygen permeability. The best choice here
would be silicon hydrogel lenses like Acuvue
Advance contacts or Focus
Night and Day and RGP lenses. These are also great
contact lenses for dry eyes.
It isn’t recommended to wear ordinary 2 week or
monthly disposables for such long times. Nether should
you wear color contacts from morning till midnight. Color
lenses are inevitably thicker because of the color layer,
so they block oxygen flow to your eyes.
Some lenses like Focus Night and Day or Acuvue are FDA
approved for wearing several days without removing (up
to 30 days for Focus and up to 7 days for Acuvue).
However, some doctors still wouldn’t recommend
not taking your lenses at night. You should be aware that
even though the lens lets enough oxygen through to your
cornea, there might be other complications. Contact lenses
are magnets for pollen, dust and smoke. So if you smoke,
work in a dusty environment or swim in your lenses, it
might be best to take them off at night.
If you only wear contact lenses occasionally, we would
recommend daily disposable lenses. It is best to take
a sterile lens out of the package, than to wear one that
was collecting bacteria for a week in your contact lens
case. Also this way you will save a lot, because a box
of 90 daily disposable lenses can serve you for a year,
while 2 week replacement lenses should be replaced every
two weeks after first use whether or not you wear them
every day.
If you are prone to allergy, your best choice again is
daily disposables. Putting in a fresh lens every morning
you can be sure that nothing will irritate your eye. Also
this way you can avoid allergetic
reactions to contact lens solutions, which some contact
lens wearer’s experience.
Replace your contacts as recommended
Often people ask us: “how long can someone wear
2 week disposable contact lenses?”
Exactly 2 weeks, if the health of your eyes is important
for you. Of course 2-3 days delay in replacement, won’t
make much difference. But wearing 2 week replacement lenses
for a month isn’t recommended. Ask your doctor to
prescribe you monthly lenses instead.
Also you can get contact
lenses with UV protection that block harmful UV rays.
According to the replacement schedule contact lenses can
be classified as: