Tips for Transitioning from Prescription Glasses to Contact Lenses

Wearing glasses no longer comes with a negative reputation like it did decades ago. The fashion world has made it incredibly stylish to wear spectacles by offering impressive frame designs. Along with this, style trends such as gee-chic and hot-nerd transformed the image of glasses as mere instruments for vision correction. But, despite this development, a lot of people still gravitate toward contact lenses.

A YouTube style guru says that as pretty as a lot of eyewear frames today are, it’s just more convenient to not have anything hanging on your face. Additionally, for women, they prefer not to wear frames when they have elaborate makeup on. If you feel the same way, perhaps you really should transition from prescription glasses to contact lenses.

For some, this is easy. However, for others, wearing contact lenses can be a tad intimidating, primarily because of the fear of poking their eyeballs. The most important tip to follow for the transition is to get a proper demonstration from your optician and practice right away while the information is new. In addition, here are a few other tips that may help.

1. Make sure that your hands are freshly washed before putting on contact lenses.

One of the best ways to prevent eye irritation when applying contact lenses is to clean your hands with water and soap. Water and soap are better to use than disinfecting alcohol because there’s no sting. Wash your hands thoroughly because eyes can be very sensitive. You may be able to put your lenses on with ease but still end up with red eyes due to irritation from the contact between your fingers and your eyeballs.

If you can’t wash your hands, a fashion magazine advises cleaning your hands with wipes and using the contact lens cleaning solution to rinse.

2. Keep your nails short.

Those fabulous makeup gurus make it look so easy to apply their disposable contact lenses wearing long acrylic nails, but never attempt it as a newbie. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Cut your nails short so you can completely avoid the risk of scratching your eyes with your nails.

3. Moisten your eyes.

A lot of people suffer from dry eyes, and wearing contact lenses can be trickier for them. If you’re in the same boat, moisten your eyes with eye drops first. You will find that this trick can help your contact lenses move into their proper place much faster.

Also, at first, you may suffer from this uncomfortable sensation that’s like you have sand on the surface of your eyes. To alleviate this, use your eyedrops (which means that you should never go anywhere without them).

4. Turn off the fan.

Another helpful thing to do when you’re wearing contacts by yourself for the first time is to turn off the fan if you use one. The breeze from the fan can dry eyes quickly. Plus, it presents the risk of blowing your contact lens off your fingertip before you can put it on.

5. Use your contact lens solution liberally.

Whether you have disposable contact lenses or extended wear contact lenses, you will need to clean and moisten them with contact lens solution. Use this product liberally to clean your lenses before and after use (for extended wear lenses) thoroughly. And naturally, if you have extended wear contact lenses, you need the solution as a bath for storing your lenses after removing them.

That being said, you need a lot of this product. If you want to get a good deal on your contact lens solution, keep in mind that online optical stores carry them at discounted prices.

6. If your lenses won’t hug your iris, flip it.

Typically, when contact lenses are too difficult to put on, they need to be flipped over. And, when you flip a lens over, treat it with more contact lens solution before putting it on your iris.

7. Give your eyes a rest from the contact lens often.

When you don’t have anywhere to go that you need to wear contact lenses for, let your eyes breathe and leave them off. Wearing contact lenses can be stressful for the eyes so if you don’t need to wear them, transition back to your eyeglasses for the time being. Your eyes will feel more refreshed afterwards.

8. Choose contact lenses with color.

A lot of contact lens veterans say that it’s better to choose colored lenses because they’re so much easier to find than clear ones. It’s best not to find yourself in a seemingly futile search for a lost clear contact lens. While it will still be challenging to find such a colored yet thin, gelatinous film that corrects your vision, it will be so much easier to find than a completely clear one.

Extra tip: When you lose a lens, search your clothes first. Most of the time, that’s where it gets stuck.

What not to do

Those are some of the best tips to follow when you’re switching from prescription glasses to contact lenses. Aside from those, though, it’s also imperative to learn the don’ts. Here are a few to strictly remember:

Don’t sleep with your contact lenses on. No matter how tired you are, don’t sleep in your contact lenses because they can move to the back of your eyeballs and may damage your eyes.
Don’t wear contact lenses anywhere there may be an open flame.
Don’t go swimming with your contact lenses on, even if you have tight goggles on.
Don’t wear contact lenses after applying your makeup. Again, clean hands are essential when putting on contact lenses. There shouldn’t be any makeup residue on your fingers when you do. Also, if you choose to put your contacts on after applying your eye makeup, it may come in contact with your mascara and eyeshadow and the contact lens cleaning will be useless.
Don’t wear oil-based makeup when you want to wear contact lenses. Don’t risk the contact, which will surely make your contact lenses cloudy.

With all of the tips shared above, you can find the transition from prescription glasses to contact lenses less daunting. These can help you create a contact lens-wearing routine that is most convenient for a newbie like you.

AUTHOR BIO

Firas Saab is the Training Manager at Al Jaber Optical in Dubai, the leading optical and eyewear company in the UAE that offers a comprehensive range of eyewear and optical services across the board, through a wide range of modern optical products and facilities. Firas is an enthusiastic trainer with more than a decade in the retail and optical industry and has recently acquired HND in Business and Management in addition to his Optical qualifications.

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