With a contact lens prescription in hand, it’s possible to buy discount contact lenses from stores, the Internet, over the phone, or by mail. The easiest way for most people to buy is online. Among the many kinds of contact lenses, you can buy are a novelty, colored, crazy, Halloween, special effects, theatrical, costume, scary, glow in the dark, wild eyes, mirrored, black, white, and red. Now it’s easy to order the perfect contact lenses online at a great discount.
You’ll want to take simple precautions to make any lens purchase safe and effective. There are 75 million contact lens wearers worldwide and 31 million in the U.S. alone.
If you plan to wear lenses for more than 18 hours for the purpose of eye color change, then buy colored soft lenses. Newer soft lens materials include silicone-hydrogels to provide more oxygen to your eyes. Rigid gas permeable contact lenses are more durable, resistant to deposit buildup, and generally give a clearer, crisper vision.
People who have good distance vision but need help for reading can get a monovision reading lens for one eye. While the ability to hold water increases the oxygen permeability of soft lenses, it increases their fragility quotient as well. Some doctors prescribe disposables as planned-replacement lenses, which are removed, disinfected, and reused before being discarded.
Disposable lenses don’t come with instructions for cleaning and disinfecting, while those labeled specifically for planned replacement do. Rigid lenses generally give you more clear vision. The length of continuous lens wear depends on the lens type and your doctor’s evaluation of your tolerance for overnight wear.
Extended wear lenses are usually soft contact lenses; made of flexible plastics that allow oxygen to pass through to the cornea. You can become adjusted to soft lenses within just a few days, compared to several weeks for rigid ones.
Wherever you buy, shop for quality and value and don’t forget you want to do what’s best for your eye health. Check to see if you have a health insurance plan that includes vision coverage. When you place your contact lens order, request the manufacturer’s written patient information for your contact lenses; it’ll give you important risk and benefit information as well as for instructions for use.
Compare prices – get quotes from two or three online and offline suppliers. Always buy from a reputable company; you can buy contact lenses without a prescription, but the company is selling you a prescription device as if it were an over-the-counter device violating FTC regulations by selling you contact lenses without having your prescription. You can buy contact lenses from an eye doctor, on the Internet, from an optical store or a warehouse club.
There are many good contact lens retailers now on the Internet making their lenses available at a good discount for prescription and non-prescription lenses. Carefully check to make sure the company gives you the exact brand you ordered, the name of the lens, the power, sphere, cylinder, if any, axis, if any, diameter base curve, and peripheral curves, if any. Beware of attempts to substitute a brand different from the one you want when buying contacts.
Daily-wear lenses are removed daily for cleaning and are a safer choice, provided they aren’t worn during sleep. Don’t wear lenses any longer than they’re prescribed for, nor when sleeping unless you are otherwise directed. Always throw away disposable lenses after the recommended wearing period.
If your eyes become red or irritated, remove the lenses immediately and consult with your doctor. The use of homemade saline made by using salt tablets mixed in water is one of the biggest contributors to Acanthamoeba keratitis in contact lens wearers: the FDA no longer condones the use of salt tablets. One sight-threatening concern is the infection of Acanthamoeba keratitis, which is caused by improper lens care; this difficult-to-treat parasitic infection’s symptoms are similar to those of corneal ulcers.
Shopping for contacts online will save you a lot of money; contact lenses are deeply discounted. If you haven’t had a check-up in the last one or two years, you may have problems with your eyes that you’re not aware of, or your contact lenses may not correct your vision as well as you’d like. It’s becoming easier and easier all the time to shop online and often the shipping is free.