Contact Lenses

I have been wearing contact lenses for many years now. It took a lot of time and patience to find a system of lenses and cleaners that worked for me. Sadly, I can't use the disposables - my eyes are too wonky and they don't make them to fit. Mine are gas-permeable hard lenses which are made to order to fit the shape of my eyeball.

I use the "old fashioned", two-part, hydrogen peroxide sterilising solution. I'm quite happy about this. Firstly it's the only type we found would work for me, secondly it's quick - I can clean, sterilise and neutralise my lenses ready to wear again in twenty minutes if I need to. Thirdly my optician and my own research make me think that this is the safest way of sterilising lenses (with an overnight soak not a twenty minute turn around).

The current fashion is towards all-in-one cleaning and sterilising solutions that appear to be easier to use (one bottle instead of three) but sacrifices some safety for the perceived convenience. So much so that some months ago, the company that had been providing my lenses and solutions decided they would no longer supply the solutions I use. The official line was that I should switch to the "better" all-in-one type despite the fact that we had spent weeks proving that they would not work for me. So I switched to a supermarket own brand, saving a few bob in the process, and have been very happy since.

I was prompted to write this today because, yet again, I have managed to swap my lenses between eyes. I'm not sure how I manage this but I do fairly often. The last time I may have done it deliberately - feeling that both lenses were uncomfortable and thinking they were in the wrong eyes I swapped them a few days ago. Today they were really uncomfortable so I tool them out, cleaned them and checked for the "handling spot" the right lens carries. When I put them back in I could them be sure they were the right way round. There must be a better way than this tiny spot to identify the lenses - perhaps tinting them different colours.

Or perhaps it's time to go back to full time glasses for a while?