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Disposable Contact Lenses in General
by catrocks03
I remember when I had to start wearing glasses, I was around 9 or 10. I hated them. I only really needed them to see the blackboard/whiteboard at the time but I was so self concious that 2 weeks on in parents evening when my parents mentioned my glasses the teacher had no idea what they were talking about! Thing is I was brought up with ... cartoons where the geeks wear glasses and get called "four eyes". I eventually wore them more often without caring as much but as I became a teenager I hated them.
Standing in the rain waiting for a bus was ridiculous as i had to keep wiping my glasses every 2 seconds, walking into a building when it was winter they would instantly steam up, not to mention when they broke I was screwed.
Some people suit glasses. I am not one of them. At all. Have you ever seen a film called the girl next door? Theres a geeky boy in it- kleedus I think hes called or something similar. Well that is what I looked like. Even my Dad told me I was ugly.
I was thrilled when I was 16 for my step mum to persuade my Dad to set up a direct debit for me to have contact lenses. My step mum said as soon as I got them I was a new person, I wouldnt look at the floor when I walked and I became more of a "leader" in my group of friends.
Things havent changed. Ive been with my boyfriend for 3 and a half years, he is yet to see me in glasses, I think I got put down so much when I got them they just make me feel completly ugly now.
That was a really long winded way to tell you how much my confidence changed. Ill get back to the review now!
STARTING OUT
I first got contact lenses 8 years ago so things may have changed a little now. I had a consultation where we discussed the best type of contact lense for me and covered putting them in and so on. I was given a free trial of them to see how I got on and then had to go back.
Putting them in for the first time was a bit of an issue for me. I had very long, sharp nails at the time and kept poking myself in the eye. Can i just stress its not normally as hard for most people! I just wasnt very good at things coming near my eye. I got there in the end but had to use a mirror for a few months!
After putting them in I had to go away for a little while then come back to see if they were still comfortable. As they were I started my trial.
BUT HOW DO I GET THEM IN MY EYE?
Starting out I had to use one hand to hold my eye open (top lid and bottom) and the other to place the lens in (whilst looking straight ahead). I had to use a mirror for this. Now i just need to pull my bottom lid down and stick them in no mirror needed so you do get used to it!
It does take a little practice, just like tying shoes or putting on mascara.
PROBLEMS?
You can encounter a few problems with lenses especially when you first start wearing them. I had a couple occasions where upon taking them out Ive scratched my eye or my nail had caught my lense and theyve ripped in my eye. This isnt too serious you can usually get them out. A good tip if you're struggling is to get another contact lens (preferably if you're using dailies!) and stick it in your eye & then take it out. This helps make the contact stick.
TYPES OF DISPOSABLE
Daily disposable: This is the type of lens I tend to use now. As the name suggests they are just for one day. When you take them out you cannot store them away and put them back in later. Different brands have different suggested wear time. I tend to choose lenses that are more breathable, allowing wear for the majority of the day.
2 week disposable: These are contact lenses that you keep for... You guessed it 2 weeks. When you're done wearing them you clean them and put them in a pot of soloution. 2 weeks after opening them its time to get rid of them and move on to the next packet.
Monthly disposable: These are usually the cheaper option. Just like the 2 week disposables you clean them before and after use and leave them to soak in a cleaning soloution when not in use.
-Note: You can now get coloured lenses aswell. Ive seen dailies & monthlies of these. They come in a huge variety of colours from natural eye colours to strange effects (e.g. red/white/swirly).
WHICH CONTACT LENSES ARE FOR ME?
Anyone whos thinking of switching to contact lenses I strongly urge you to go to an optician. I now buy my lenses off the internet for ease and cheapness, it also means i can swap around what type I use when I want to (when my son was newborn I tried out continous wear lenses as I was up every couple of hours). I still do go for checkups and I only started doing this a couple of years ago.
Dailies for me are the most convinient. With long nails I have ripped the monthlies before and if thats my last pair I'm screwed! The downside to them is theyre a little expensive.
2 week disposable is probably more for someone who likes monthlies but thinks 4 weeks is a little long to use them.
Monthlies is the cheaper option usually but for me sometimes they were just too much effort! Especially after a night on the town.
PRICES
Prices really do vary so shop around. Im currently going through a pack of DaySoft Dailies which cost 5.99 per pack of 32 lenses. These are very popular, it used to only cost 4.98 per pack.
Contactlenses.co.uk is where I go if I dont want to use Daysoft, theres tons on there.
If your starting out your local optician can advise you on the costs as they do vary from place to place.
I do apologise for my long review but this is a product I couldnt live without so I have a lot to say!
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Murine Dry & Tired Eyes Eye Drops
by rji0907
Thanks to my genetics, I suffer with eye irritation on a regular basis which is thanks to both my mom and nan who suffer with the same. It has got worse as I have gotten older and for that reason, I always keep a couple of eye treatments in the house for when the need arises.
I have tried and tested many different eye ... solutions and my most recent one is Murine dry and tired eye drops. I am not loyal to a specific brand as I find that eye drops are much of a muchness and I ended up with these as I asked my mom to get me some when I was in town & she explained my issues to the chemist in our local Boots and they recommended that I try these. The solution comes in a small plastic bottle with a screw top and they are really easy to use.
These are specific to dry and tired eyes (hence the name!), and that is the problem I suffer with. My eyes are really sensitive and often feel dry and when I am tired, my eyes suffer quite badly and they become dry, itchy and really irritable - almost like hayfever but I know it's not.
When the need arose, I used these eye drops and I have to say I was pretty impressed with them. As per the instructions, I carefully dispensed two drops of this solution into each eye. Dispensing eye drops into your own eyes can be a bit tricky as you can't see what you are doing, but I managed quite well with these.
The bottle is very easy to control and a couple of gentle squeezes dispenses just the right amount of solution into my eyes so I don't end up with the solution running down my face as the right amount is dispensed and the solution doesn't dispense from the bottle too quickly.
As for the effect it has on my eyes, again I was impressed. When the drops hit my eyes, there is an immediate cooling effect as the solution has a naturally cold feel to it which is perfect for me as when my eyes are irritated, you do get a slight burning sensation so the cooling feel on my eyes is extremely soothing.
Almost immediately my eyes feel relieved and soothed and I have found that just using these drops once is enough to last me the rest of the day. The solution doesn't seem to wear off and I don't feel the need to re-apply the drops at a later time of the day. One go with the solution is enough to sort the problem until the problem occurs again at a later date. No, these drops don't cure the problem, but then I don't think there is a cure for it but they provide some much needed relief and soothe my eyes nicely so I can carry on with the day.
These aren't cheap at £4.50 for a 15ml bottle but as you only need a couple of drops in each eye each time you use them, the bottle does last a while so its not like you need to replace the bottle every week, though as with every other form of medication, these drops do have a use by date that you need to be aware of.
Overall, these are really good eye drops that are easy to dispense into the eyes and they do the job really well so therefore they come with a recommendation from me.
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Bausch and Lomb Screw Top Lens Case
by Tolteca
I am seriously short-sighted. Glasses at seven. Bi-focals at fifteen - and what teenager wants those. The first thing I do when I wake up is reach for my glasses, which have to be in hands reach or I trip over things on the way to the bathroom to put my contacts in. The lenses in said glasses had to come all the way from Japan as Nikkon ... were the only ones able to do thin enough lenses at the power they had to be. Specsavers is unfortunately not an option for disposable contact lenses and my optician keeps not answering the question on how high a prescription level my hiighly astigmatic ridiculously high powered contact lenses go.
So, as you can see, I am stuck with the need for a contact lens case rather than being sent disposables through the post.
I do love to travel. But both my glasses - which have their own metal and well cushioned case - and my lenses have to travel safely with me, or I go all that way and see blur - and not the band, just blur. I would consider moving to just the glasses but to drive I need the lenses for the fully funtionalg peripheral vision I get from lenses over my trendy but narrow field glasses. Plus, having the back-up of the lenses was essential when one lens fell out of my glasses and it needed an optician to get it to stay where it belonged.
So, I do have an absolute requirement for a contact lens case which will keep my contacts hydrated, not leak and will also take some serious punishement traveling without taking it out on their precious and horribly expensive but vulnerable contents.
I have used both the cases which you can get with new bottles of contact lens solutions and more permanant cases. Back in the day I had little choice but to use Baush and Lomb cases as they were the only ones which went in the boiler unit which I had to use to disinfect the leses. When better solutions came along, I kept the same brand as they were sturdy and did not leak.
I was unfaithful with the lens case included with solution cases, which did have the advantage of having different coloured tops for lefty lens and righty lens. This may be just a design element for those with only a small level of short-sightedness but when your focal point is just past the end of your nose a blue blur is much easier to differentiate from a white blur and makes it so much easier to put the lens in the right place. This is especially important when you are even more short-sighted in one eye than the other - putting the wrong one in does make one eye seriously blurry.
Unfortunately Bausch and Lomb does not tend to colour differentiate and it is a case of peering very, very closely to make sure lefty and righty - which are both extreme prescription level but differ in just how strong the prescription is significantly - go in the right place. The case does look sleeker all one colour but I think the different colour option is one they should adopt a lot more widely to help their most short-sighted customers.
So why do I keep using this case?
Because it is very, very sturdy and very, very secure. It is harder work to use this case but it has never leaked on me, never broken - despite being dragged up mountains, across rivers and being thrown around in my luggage. I have taken this case with me to every extreme of conditions there are and from the top of mountains to the tropical rainforest it has never let me down.
It let me see those things.
The plastic is just that strong. The seal is that good. The screw top stays shut but opens easily. And it cleans without warping ensuring your leses remain hygenic.
It can be a pain finding these, with places like Boots pushing their own brand, but Lloyds and especially the internet will provide between £1.49 to £4.99.
So I will continue to use these, even if I will spend a little longer next time I replace the case looking for one from this brand with some colour differentiation as peering is a nuisance.
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