SpecSavers Lenses

As so many people in the United Kingdom, I have been unfortunate enough to have poor vision from the age of 10 realising I have progressive short sightedness so throughout High School. As many people in my situation have long time realised, it is a massive pain in the backside having to wear glasses as they get dirty, can sometimes be awkward and can be broken, leaving some of us as good as blind. Myself being quite an active person, I face all the for mentioned on a daily basis.
Thankfully the magical science type people have come up with Contact Lenses which eliminate the hassle of glasses all together. As soon as I could afford the minor premium (which I will discuss later on), I soon got onto Contact Lenses with my local glasses dealer to provide me my monthly fix off Contact Lenses.

What Are Contact Lenses?

Contact Lenses are basically very thin bits of ‘plastic’ lens which are placed onto your eye, and with correct application, will stick to your eye providing either corrected vision similar to spectacles or the desired cosmetic effect (varied pupils as an example).

Corrective lenses which are provided by SpecSavers come in either Daily Disposable or Monthly Disposable, the ones available to you will vary depending on your vision, your budget and preference, however during your consultation in SpecSavers, it will all become clear to you.

Advantages of SpecSavers Contact Lenses

I’ve been getting my contact lenses from SpecSavers for about 2 years and there are many advantages to having their ‘subscription’. Depending which lenses you opt in for and of course if you need specialist lenses (like me due to a stigmatism in one of my eyes), the monthly price could be as low as £5, however I pay £15.50 per month and the following is included in my package –

- My prescribed Contact Lenses.
- Solution to use with the Contact Lenses for Storage
- Containers to keep them in
- Aftercare, which allows you to see the Local Specsavers Contact Lens Opticians

The packages are delivered every 3 months so you get a bulk of 3 of everything. I found that you hardly every use all 3 bottles of Solution, and I personally have a good few just collecting dust in a cupboard. However I am not complaining, always good to have spares.

The main thing which has helped me out over the last year is the Aftercare. Unlike with Glasses I have been able to schedule an appointment and see the Optician whenever I need to and not when I can afford too. This is especially good as being quite young, my eyes adapt quite a lot over a few months, so I get the latest prescription of lenses. I also had some trouble with my eye being infected (talk about it further down), and I was able to see the optician on a regular basis with no additional cost.

Caring For Your Contact Lenses

If you have Daily Disposable contact lenses, you are paying a tiny premium to have the convenience to simply get them out of your eyes (with clean hands) and throw them. Not so simple for the Monthly users, as you need to care for them to insure that they don’t pick up any bacteria and develop into a potential infection when they are on your eyes.

But all you do with the Monthly Lenses, is take them out each night (or whenever you feel they aren’t needed), and store them in a special container (provided) in the solution. When taking them out of your eyes, insure that your hands are CLEAN.

Comfort Wearing

It does take some taking used too, especially with Monthly lenses. When you finally manage to get them within your eyes in the correct position, you may experience discomfort throughout the day for the first week, manageable , but did my nut sometimes!

However after getting used to them, you don’t even notice them. It becomes a regular routine each morning and night. I do find that near the end of the day, your eyes get a ‘dry’ feeling, so best to take them out.

I often have taken naps with the lenses in, and waking up can leave with a dry feeling, however soon fades. But do ask your optician if you can sleep in your lenses.

Disadvantages of Contact Lenses

Although there are many advantages to being glasses free, they are some risks you do take when dealing with contact lenses. Like the for mentioned discomfort issue on some occasions, there is a big risk of infection as I found out during Christmas last year. I somehow managed to develop a viral infection in my right eye, although not certainly down to the lenses, I am sure it was a contributing factor. The Aftercare was fantastic in arranging hospital appointments and I recovered and wore lenses again. But this left a minor scar on my cornea which may have later negative effects.

My best advice is do not skip on hygiene dealing with lenses.
Cost can be a bit high if you have a special ‘condition’ like myself, having one eye with a stigmatism (weaker than other eye basically), I need to pay more. I wouldn’t want to imagine the premium on someone with a more serious condition.

Summary

As I’ve said, there are many positive aspects of having contact lenses as the freedom of not having glasses, especially if you’re an active person. Specsavers offer a very competitive price, I found that the staff explain everything to you in a simple manor and insure that you are 100% happy with that you are buying, all the risks of infection and eye soreness are explained and you will walk out happy with the product. I personally can’t say anything negative about Specsavers Contact Lenses and the service of Specsavers as from a young age, I have had a fantastic service from them and I will continue using them as they are well worth the money.