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Before you can buy contact lenses, or specs either for that matter, you will need to submit yourself to an eye test. However, the eye test for contact lenses is a bit more detailed than a test for regular glasses, so you should tell the optometrist which sort of lens you want before the test starts in order to save time.

An eye test will usually start with a physical examination of your eyes for signs of eye disease such as cataracts and glaucoma or general problems such as high blood pressure or diabetes. This is why it is so vital to have an eye test at least every two years, because a physician does not give routine checks for cataracts, diabetes or glaucoma, all three of which can turn you blind.

Your optometrist might pose other questions too such as why you would prefer to have contact lenses rather than specs and whether you have had any problems with your eyes. The decision to wear contact lenses or spectacles is entirely yours, although in some countries specs may be free whereas there may be a charge for contact lenses because they are more expensive.

The results of the optometrist’s test will produce a set of numbers which will tell an optician the strength of the lens required for each eye as the lens needed for each eye is normally different. This is commonly referred to as your prescription. Then you take this prescription to an optician to select your spectacle frames, if you are having spectacles, and to have your lenses manufactured or and fitted.

In the case of spectacles, lenses will either have to be cut or and adjusted for the frames that you would like and in the case of contact lenses, you might have to have the lenses made. In either case, you may be lucky enough to walk out of the shop wearing your specs or contacts or you might have to return in a couple hours or even a couple days. No optician worth his salt will sell you expensive lenses without a prescription.

There is an clear important difference between spectacles and contact lenses – contacts have to come into contact with your eyeballs and not all eyeballs are exactly the same shape. Therefore, if you want contacts, the optometrist will have to measure the exact curvature or the exact contours of your eyes and this will be part of your prescription. Some eyes are naturally drier than others and this can affect the type of contact lenses that you ought to purchase.

Your optician will then often give you a pair of trial contact lenses and ask you to return a few days later for further tests. You may have to wear a number of types of contacts before you find a kind or marque that suits your particular eyes and sight.

Once you have contacts that seem to suit, you will have to follow the directions and advice that comes with them and return for your check-ups when you are asked to. These follow-ups are important to make sure that the contact lenses are not irritating your eyes or causing more serious conditions.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with Designer Spectacles. If you want to know more, please go over to our web site at Spectacles Direct.

When you begin to lose your eyesight, which happens to most of us at around the age of forty, you have two basic choices: glasses or contact lenses. Both contact lenses and specs have their advantages and disadvantages, so whichever you choose is really a personal decision. However, some individuals have ‘dry eyes’, which means that the tear ducts do not irrigate the eyes as much as normal.

If someone has dry eyes, then wearing glasses will not exacerbate the condition, but if someone with dry eyes chooses to wear contact lenses for personal reasons, the condition can make their lives very uncomfortable.

Some people who wear contacts but have dry eyes will probably experience a discomfort that will lead to the person rubbing their eyes, which will make the condition worse.

There might be medical reasons for the lacrimal ducts not producing enough moisture to lubricate the eyes, but age can be a factor. If you have itchy eyes and are over sixty, it might be in your interests to change from contacts to spectacles.

Some people find it a very hard decision to take. TV personalities and film stars seldom like to be photographed wearing specs. All right, there are not too many of them, but there are hundreds of millions of individuals who look up to their screen idols and copy them blindly.

One of the causes of dry eyes, besides age or personal illness, is environmental conditions. Pollution affects different people in different ways, but tobacco smoke affects most peoples’ eyes, to say nothing of their lungs.

Evaporation is another reason for dry eyes. This sounds strange, because you would think that the water trapped between the eyes and the lenses could not evaporate, but many contact lenses are composed of fifty percent water to make them more flexible and therefore more comfortable.

A warm environment will evaporate water from the lenses and the lenses will endeavor to replenish themselves by sucking water off your eyes – a kind of osmosis. This is a sensible reason for soaking your contact lenses in a solution over night. The solution is there to sterilize the lenses, but it will also permit the lenses to ‘fill up’ again.

Therefore, a possible solution to the difficulty of dry eyes, if evaporation is your difficulty, is to replace your lenses half way through the day. another way of combatting dry eyes if you would like to wear contacts, is to put drops in your eyes each hour.

You can purchase these drops from a chemist in small containers or you can purchase a litre of the solution and refill your droppers yourself. However, a saline solution (salt and water) is just as good as anything and a great deal cheaper.

If none of this works for you then why not just switch to glasses? The trend is to be more open about oneself and part of this trend is to admit your age, wear your wig openly, if that is what you do and be| seen wearing your spectacles.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with Designer Spectacles. If you want to know more, please go over to our website at Spectacles Direct.