What’s Better, Glasses or Contacts?
WHAT’S BETTER, GLASSES OR CONTACTS?
Let’s weigh out the pros and the cons between wearing contacts versus glasses. We will go over things like the cost, the difference in powers, as well as which one gives you better vision. Glasses versus contacts can be a little bit tricky because they both have many benefits to them. The benefits of glasses include being able to easily take them on and off that's sometimes really helpful for some people compared to contacts which are a bit more maintenance heavy. The lenses for glasses have amazing optical quality. If you want to see as sharp as you can, glasses are probably the easiest solution to seeing better. Glasses also allow you to express your style, whether you want a basic frame or if you want something more unique. Your lenses can be customized based on what type of lens material and features you want. You can go for safety impact resistance, or a transition lens that changes into sunglasses, there are a lot of different options out there. Blue light filtering material is available for your prescription glasses lenses, but it is not mainstream for contact lenses quite yet. You can get cheap bargain glasses if you want, but expect the quality to follow suit.
If someone sees double vision or get prism in your glasses, however that's not possible with contacts. If you have trouble seeing up close you can even get bifocals, trifocals, progressive no-line bifocals, you can even get a bifocal put on the top of the lens if you need for occupational use.
Contact lenses give you the freedom of not having to wear anything on your face. Especially helpful during sporting activities. It’s not always easy to play sports with glasses. Wearing contact lenses allows you to wear non-prescription sunglasses. Contact lenses take away some of the motion sickness and kind of distortions that you can get from wearing glasses lenses. When you’re wearing glasses your glasses sit about 12 millimeters in front of your eyes. When you shift your eyes and look through a peripheral part of the lens, this can have a prismatic effect that we call Prentices Rule. That prismatic effect can kind of give people a sense of motion or distortion in their vision. This is more noticeable for people with high amounts of power or astigmatism. Since contact lenses themselves are physically touching the eye, when you shift your eyes you're always looking through optical center of the lens and you don't get the prismatic effect. Another benefit with contacts is you don't have to deal with seeing a frame in your vision.
Contact lenses are available for people with astigmatism and with multifocal options. Contact lenses for astigmatism, often called toric lenses, may shift around throughout the day causing fluctuations in your vision. Multifocal contact lenses tend to yield reduced vision compared to glasses because the size of the contact lens is so much smaller compared to glasses lenses.
Glasses power is not necessarily going to be the same as a contact lens power. Your glasses are positioned about 12 millimeters in front of the cornea. If you've ever picked up your glasses and move them closer to your eyes and away from your eyes, you'll notice that the power seems to change. The closer you bring the lenses to your eye the more negative power you're adding to those lenses. For people who have a stronger prescription we often reduce the amount of negative power (or add more plus power) to correct for this.
Purchasing contact lenses is like shopping for a new cell phone. If you want something with the newest technology that is healthiest for the eye and most comfortable to wear, expect that you're gonna pay more. This could cost around $1,000 for a year supply when wearing the contact lenses every day. Now you could find options that are super cheap, but it is likely really old and probably not really healthy for your eyes. Some colored contact lenses available from online retailers can cost even as low as five dollars, but they are made from old technology patents from the 1960s. They are generally quite unhealthy for the eye. The standards for health of the cornea and the surface of the eye with contact lens wear weren't really even established until the mid 1980s. In general, for most people looking for a healthy newer technology of contact lens expect that for a yearly supply they'd be paying about the same price of a new pair of glasses. One of the biggest downsides of contact lenses is that they do pose a higher risk for eye complications and infection. It does take some level of responsibility to take care of contact lenses and to wear them properly, that includes cleaning them correctly and discarding them according to the replacement schedule. Contact lenses can also feel dry and uncomfortable for some people, especially if you already have some form of dry eye disease. Some people have difficulty getting contact lenses in and out of the eyes. If you do choose contact lenses are your primary vision correction, it is important to still have glasses. Wearing contact lenses all day, from wake to sleep, is hard on the eyes because it limits how much oxygen can reach your cornea. It is best to remove your contact lenses after a maximum of 12-14 hours and wear glasses for the remainder of the day. Also, if you get any eye infections you should never wear your contact lenses and you will need glasses to be able to see during the healing period.
In glasses versus contacts what gives you better vision? That's a tough debate and it really depends on a couple of factors. For most people glasses are probably gonna have a higher optical quality and will give you sharper vision as long as your glasses are clean, the prescription is up to date, and fitting right. For contacts, the optical quality is not quite as good as glasses but most people should be able see fairly similarly to their glasses. Now there are some people who actually see better with contact lenses versus glasses and those are usually individuals who have a really high glasses prescription. With the higher prescription they will notice more distortions in the glasses lenses. Someone who has a high amounts of astigmatism or some type of corneal disease ,such as Keratoconus, they may see better with specialty contact lenses. Specialty contact lenses can mask over defects on the surface of the eye and help with aberrations and distortions. In conclusion, the choice of glasses versus contact lenses is definitely dependent on the individual person. In general, most people see a little bit better with standard glasses versus wearing contact lenses.
Whatever your preference, we are here to help talk you through the advantages and disadvantages for your specific needs. Everyone has a different situation. Our job is to be here for you and to help you be the one with great vision.
