glasses versus contact lenses we're going to go over the pros and cons of each such as
comfort cost Vision so you can know which one might be best for you let's focus in
now first let's go over the Comfort issue now generally speaking contact lenses especially
soft contact lenses can be really comfortable to wear but there are people that tend to have dry
eye issues or allergies where it can be difficult to wear contact lenses now remember contact lenses
tend to amplify what you already have going on if you already have dry eyes or allergies
contact lenses tend to bump that up a notch now you can minimize the irritation issues by treating
your dry eye symptoms or your allergies or by switching to daily lenses they tend to be thinner
more comfortable to wear or there are specialty contacts like scleral lenses that can be worn for
people that have dry eyes and so there are things that you can do and options in the contact lens
world that can make it more comfortable but if you are someone that does suffer with some of
those issues then generally speaking glasses will be more comfortable your eyes won't have to fight
anything extra in your eyes that are fighting for the tears or causing more allergy issues
now there is a little bit of a challenge finding a comfortable frame something that can actually
sit and rest on your nose rest on your ears it's not going to pinch your head or finding a light
enough frame and lenses to make it comfortable and not too heavy so there is that challenge to think
of when you're picking out glasses now when we're talking about sports and comfort which one's best
to wear there definitely soft contact lenses have an edge up you don't have to deal with wearing
glasses and running around and flinging around and jumping or somebody hitting your glasses
and breaking them or they fall off soft contact lenses are in there you can be really active move
really fast and not have to worry about glasses or anything breaking on your face that being
said glasses tend to give you better protection especially if you get goggle type sport glasses
that can wrap around and protect your eyes from any impact or blunt force trauma or anything
like that so that is something to consider and in general glasses do have an added protection to the
eyes so there are some patients that have a really good seeing eye and then one poor functioning or
lazy bad seeing eye and so we tend to lean towards giving that patient glasses as an added protection
because if something happens to that good seeing eye they're left with that bad seeing eye which
can put them in a bad place now the cost this can range all over the map with contacts or with
glasses there are premium daily contact lenses out there that can be very comfortable to wear
can work for many people that can't wear any other contact lenses but can be very expensive there are
also specialty contact lenses like sclera lenses for people that might have corneal issues like
keratoconus that can also be really expensive to get but that might be their only option to
give them adequate vision and so the price of contacts can range and can go up pretty high
now on the flip side there are contact lenses that can be very very cheap there are contacts
out there that are made from old technology from the 1970s 1980s that may not be the safest for the
eyes but are still available and still produced so you can still get these contact lenses now a
lot of eye doctors are fitting their patients in contacts that will be the safest for their eyes
but there are still contacts out there that are available especially when you're talking
about colored contact lenses or generic daily contact lenses that you can get online their
old technology might not be the safest but can be really cheap and the exact same thing can be
said about glasses the cost of glasses can range wildly you can get designer frames with the best
type of lenses transitions anti-reflective coating blue light protection and it can go upwards into
the thousands of dollars depending on what type of frames and lenses that you want to get on the flip
side you can also get very very generic lenses non-designer frames glasses that you could get
online or kind of The Bargain Bin that you can get at your eye doctor's office now which one
lasts longer generally speaking glasses can last longer if you take good care of them I just saw a
patient that came in wearing 30 year old glasses and lenses and they actually didn't look that bad
it actually kind of surprised me so yeah you can definitely stretch out glasses a long time if you
take care of them now with contact lenses they can vary typically soft contact lenses there are
at a monthly replacement schedule or two week or a daily replacement so you just wear the contact
lens one day and replace it the next day there are some soft contacts that you can wear longer there
are also hard contact lenses that last longer in some patients if they take care of them and their
Vision doesn't change they can actually stretch those hard contact lenses out one two three years
sometimes longer now let's get into the big topic vision engine this is where a lot of people have
questions which one will they be able to see better with now in general glasses will give
you the best clearest Vision that's if you're keeping the lenses clean if they're properly fit
to your face and if they're up to date glasses can be more fine-tuned and made exactly to your
prescription especially when we're talking about astigmatism now there are contact lenses that can
correct your astigmatism in your eyes but with glasses you can correct the astigmatism down to
the degree down to the quarter of the exact amount of astigmatism that might be in your eyes and so
the customization of lenses to your prescription far outweighs what can be customized in the
contact lenses people that tend to have a reading prescription they need bifocals or progressives
tend to see better with glasses now they do make multifocal or monovision contact lenses they work
great but typically vision and Clarity of vision does work better by using progressive lenses or
bifocal lenses in glasses the customization of of the lenses you can get in your glasses
is actually kind of mind-blowing depending on what your needs are there are different types
of progressive lenses depending on where you need your Best Vision distance intermediate near Vision
you can get transition lenses you can actually put prism in glasses if you deal with double vision or
eye strain when reading or working on the computer prism will help redirect the light through the
lenses so it can reduce the eye strain reduce the double vision in your eyes and that's something
that you can't have done or get in contact lenses so with that alone the customization that you can
get in frames you can get frames that are crazy wild looking if you want down to the basic normal
frames you can get lenses that can pretty much do whatever you want as well that really does make
glasses shine as far as the possibility of your vision now that being said there are limitations
to the glasses and downsides that we need to go over one obvious one is the range and the
peripheral vision when looking through glasses obviously you can see the frame and the outline
of the frame and outside the frame it won't be corrected so you'll have blurry peripheral vision
where the center is clear so that's one thing to consider is this is something you will have to get
used to looking and seeing this Frame another one especially when you get into higher prescriptions
is on the outside of the edges in the periphery you will get weird movement and Distortion and
that is something to consider when you're wearing the glasses and you have a higher prescription
when you move around you might notice Distortion and weird movement it might make you sick or give
you headaches or if you look through the edges of your glasses you'll notice that the vision might
not be as clear as when you're looking through the center of the lenses another thing depending
on the severity of your prescription you could get a minimizing or a magnifying effect where things
in the lenses in Your Vision will look smaller or they'll look much bigger depending on what lenses
you need to correct and clear your vision and on the same side when you're wearing the glasses if
you see something in your peripheral vision and it pops into your lenses sometimes you'll have a
pop-in effect where things will kind of pop in because of that minimizing or magnifying
effect or sometimes things will look bigger out here and smaller in here and so that's something
to consider as well you will have these size differences when looking through the glasses
now the reason why you get these distortions and peripheral blur and minifying and magnifying
effects is because the glasses aren't sitting right on your eyes there's a little bit of gap
between your eyes and the glasses and so this is where contact lenses can shine because the
contacts are sitting right on the eyes you won't have this minifying or magnifying effect you
have a full field corrected division you won't have these peripheral vision issues like you
will with glasses now I do have to say there are patients with certain corneal irregularities like
keratoconus or marginal pellucid degeneration where their corneas aren't normal shaped or
if they have really high prescriptions like high astigmatism they tend to see better and do better
in contact lenses specialty contact lenses like hard contact lenses or scleral lenses so depending
on the patient and what their prescription is and what the condition is sometimes contact lenses
can actually shine and give them much far superior Vision compared to glasses now in most cases most
doctors will recommend having a pair of glasses even if you wear contact lenses because obviously
there will be times that you won't be wearing the contact lenses and will still need to see
so it's nice to have a pair of glasses in either case now if you're considering contact lenses and
you're new to contact lenses definitely check out my playlist a beginner's guide to contact
lenses how to put them in take them out clean them so you will have the best tools possible
to be successful in your contact lenses I'm Dr Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused.