Glasses vs Contact Lenses

Unfortunately, I am one of the millions of people who are unable to say that they have perfect vision. In fact, mine is far from perfect. You get used to it – it’s just one of those things. But although my vision may be pretty awful, my options for rectifying it are most certainly not.

I’ve had to wear glasses since my high-school years, and in more recent years I tried (and found that I loved) contact lenses too. I like that I have the freedom to choose which I would prefer to wear on a daily basis. However, I have found through my own personal experiences, as well as from the knowledge gained by working in an opticians, that there are positives and negatives for each.

Glasses:
I used to hate wearing my glasses. I remember cringing at my high school reflection with the braces and glasses combination that I far from rocked. Glasses were the height of un-cool, especially in the heyday of Ugly Betty, which with perfect timing aired between the years of 2006 and 2010 – my secondary school years. Today, thankfully, glasses are seen as more of a fashion item and accessory, with thousands of styles to choose from. And more and more often we see young people come out of their sight tests with 20/20 vision looking seemingly disappointed that they won’t be heading downstairs to try on the latest offerings from Balmain.

There are so many styles of frames: some are big and bold, some are delicate, some are round, some are square, some are brightly coloured and some are just plain black… and one pair we have at work is covered in a floral pattern, which I very nearly bought. I only changed my mind when one of my colleagues helpfully pointed out that they made my eyes look far too close together… what?!

Unlike contact lenses, glasses don’t require frequent repeat purchases. Unless of course like me you get an enticing staff discount rate and think a pair for every season is a good idea. But, if I were a frugal person (as if!), and without a change in my eyesight, one pair could last years. Having said that, off-the-peg sunglasses aren’t any use when you can’t see, so you’d need a prescription pair of those too – sorry!

Another reason for a replacement purchase would be damage to either the frame or lenses. Although (touch wood) I’ve yet to have this happen, glasses aren’t infallible. There are definitely precautions you can take to avoid this and to quote my favourite saying at work (lovingly plagiarized from a colleague of mine): “If they’re not on your face, put them in a case”. Cheese.

Contact Lenses:
From what I recall, it was around the time of my year eleven prom when I first tried contact lenses. You know – that big shindig at the end of secondary school where someone spikes your drink and you end up throwing up for the rest of the night  everyone dresses up to enjoy one last evening with the people you pretended to like called friends and with whom you experienced the peaks and troughs of high school. Wearing glasses that night was simply not an option, because unlike my glasses at the time, contact lenses go with everything! Mind-blowing!

As I mentioned before, they do unfortunately have to be purchased more frequently than specs, and depending on your prescription and the quality of lens you wear, the amount you’re spending annually on tiny pieces of throw-away silicon can get pretty extreme. Although that pair of ridiculously cute – and only £3! – sunglasses you saw in Primark last week? Yeah, you can buy those, because you can simply wear your contact lenses underneath. A lot of contact lens providers do now offer monthly direct debit schemes, which can have some great benefits including free sight-tests, home delivery of your lenses, and even free or at least discounted glasses!
As well as being potentially costly, contact lenses may also require time for the cleaning and upkeep of them. This doesn’t necessarily apply to daily use lenses where they are thrown away after a single use, but for a monthly lens everyday cleaning and storage is required.

They are, however, great for sports where you would usually have to remove your glasses. And (obviously) for throwing glances at the hot guy at the other end of the pool when you’re at the gym, without the worry of not-so-seductivey screwing up your eyes and squinting at him.

For me, there will always be a place on my dressing table for both my glasses case and contact lens case. Although contact lenses may give me that little extra boost of confidence on a night out, it’s always nice to spend the following day hiding tired eyes behind my favourite tortoiseshell specs!