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How to Find the Best Contact Lenses for Your Lifestyle

April 6, 2013

Contact lenses are an excellent alternative to glasses. Contacts are easy to wear, feel virtually weightless, and can correct your vision with minimal interruption to your daily life. Contact lens technology has come a long way, and today’s contact lens wearers have more options than ever.

However, sometimes too many options can make it difficult to find the best option. Many contacts are formulated for specific uses, such as for sports or office environments.

contacts


Use this handy guide to help you find the best contacts to wear for whatever you do in life:

Swimming: Swimming with contacts can be dangerous, because bacteria can get behind the lenses and damage the eye. However, some people are unable to see at all unless they wear contacts while swimming. If you must wear contacts for swimming, use soft lenses that are designed for one-time use. As soon as you leave the pool, dispose of the glasses and rinse your eyes with water to remove any traces of pool water and potential bacteria from your eyes.

Long days or Nights: The best soft lenses for extended contact wearing have a high oxygen and water content. This will help keep eyes hydrated through long hours of wear.

Indoor environments: Indoor wear requires lenses that can provide moisture throughout the day. Choose soft or ridged lenses that have a high moisture and oxygen content.

Outdoor Environments: Outdoor wear has a few requirements in addition to the lenses for indoor wear. If you will be outdoors for extended periods, wear lenses that are ridged, and have a high oxygen content. You can also wear tinted lenses to make it easier to see in daylight.

Exercise and Other Sports: Depending on what feels more comfortable for you, you can either wear ridged contacts that you wear 24/7, or you can use one-time use disposable contacts during exercise. Either option provides excellent performance through sweating, bouncing, and moving. Try tinted contacts for outdoor sports to block bright sunlight and UV rays. Wear amber for tennis, running, baseball, skiing, and soccer. Try grey-green lenses for golf, running, or biking.

Constant Wear: Some contact wearers like to wear their contacts for several days or weeks at a time. If you want to wear your contacts for extended periods, try ridged contacts. They feel strange at first, but are better for your eyes over extended periods.

Dry eyes: If you suffer from dry eyes, ridged lenses will only make the issue worse. Generally, a soft lens with a low water concentration is best for dry eyes. This seems counterintuitive, but the materials used to make lenses hydrating tend to pull moisture out of the eye and into the lens, which can make dry eyes worse.

Contact lenses are not all one size fits all. The activities that you engage in and lifestyle that you lead will necessitate a variety in lenses. In some cases, it may even be beneficial to have multiple styles of lenses that you wear depending on the situation. This is the best way to protect your eyes and preserve your vision.

This is a guest post by Samantha Priest, a part-time blogger and a full time health expert.

 

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