There are a number of factors to consider when choosing between glasses and contact lenses. When choosing, it boils down to personal preference depending on aesthetics, convenience, comfort, lifestyle, budget and whether or not you want to wear glasses.
Both glasses and contact lenses have a list of pros and cons that can weight in heavily depending on the type of person you are. Where one person might find glasses to be the perfect solution, another might realize they are not going to work and will therefore choose contacts. Neither is necessarily better than the other, so it’s a good idea to consider each of the following pros and cons.
Glasses
Pros:
• In general glasses are going to be a cheaper solution than contacts. They don’t need to be replaced too often, unless broken, and the frames can be refitted with new lenses if your prescription changes.
• Depending on your choice of aesthetics, glasses can contribute to your personal style nicely. There are thousands of frames to choose from including all shapes, sizes and thicknesses for any occasion. You can wear subtle frames, or use them to make a statement about who you are.
• Wearing and removing glasses is much easier than applying and removing contact lenses. There is no need to touch your eyes with your fingers, which can possibly cause infections if your hands are not clean.
• Glasses can be more comfortable because they allow the eyes to breathe naturally, and could be a better choice for people with dryness and sensitivity problems.
• Glasses also provide more protection, acting as a barrier between the environment and your eyes. In the event something were to damage your eyes, the glasses could take the hit instead.
Cons:
• Glasses accumulate dirt, and vision can be severely reduced by the elements such as rain and snow. Regular cleaning with appropriate sprays or alcohol wipes is necessary to maintain good vision. During the winter they also get very foggy once you come in from the cold.
• They can be uncomfortable depending on the frames you choose and your daily activities. Sometimes indents will appear around the nose and behind the ears where they rest. They might not work very well for intense activities like sports and wearing over-the-ear headphones can cause painful pressure points.
• Depending on the strength of your prescription, the edges of the lenses may appear very thick and protrude from the frames. Visual distortion can also occur, causing your eyes to appear either larger or smaller, or even one large and one small if your eyes require different lens strengths.
• The lenses on glasses sit about a half inch away from your eyes and can cause distortion in the peripheral vision. Depending on the frames, your peripheral vision might be blocked or out of focus entirely. You may have to turn your head more often to look at your environment.
• Glasses may not look good on your face depending on your genetics and the style of the frames you choose. It’s possible that they will mask your facial features in a negative way.
Contacts
Pros:
• Contact lenses do not interfere with sports or other physical activities that require helmets, and wont be knocked out of place by impacts.
• They form to the natural curvature of your eyes, which provides a wider field of view than glasses, meaning there is less distortion in peripheral vision. You wont have to turn your head as much while driving.
• Weather conditions generally wont have a negative impact on vision. Rain and snow doesn’t collect on them like glasses, and they won’t get foggy in the winter.
• You don’t have to worry about whether or not your glasses frames will clash with your wardrobe. You can wear any kind of sunglasses with your outfit without needing an expensive prescription. Novelty contacts can be worn to change the colors of your eyes.
• There are nightly orkokeratology contacts available that will help reshape your eyes and correct myopia while you sleep, temporarily leaving your vision in focus the next day without the need to wear contacts or glasses.
Cons:
• More maintenance is required than with glasses. Contacts need to be cleaned in solution and safely stored each day when they are removed. If this ritual becomes a problem try looking into daily disposables.
• Applying contact lenses takes some getting used to and can feel very unnatural and uncomfortable at first. With time and practice applying and removing them becomes easier. Hands must be kept clean during contact application and removal.
• Contacts partially block oxygen from reaching the surface of your eyes, resulting in dry eyes and the worsening of dry eye syndrome. Extended computer use can cause eye strain and it may be more difficult to focus on the screen. Your eyes can tire faster and computer vision syndrome will occur.
• Falling asleep with daily contacts left in the eye will make them feel dry and irritable in the morning. This sensation will last until you take them out and soak them in solution. There are extended wear contacts available that can be left in for an entire month if this is an issue.
• If you have contacts it might a good idea to keep a pair of glasses around too, in case you run out of contacts, need to stop wearing them due to infection, or need to give your eyes a rest.
Luckily NAC Members and their family can see better savings at over 20,000 vision providers nationwide, including national chains and local retailers. You save 10% to 60% on glasses, contacts, laser surgery, exams and even designer eyewear.
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