Glasses vs. contacts

Does anyone here have good vision, or are those people just not opening this thread?

I've had gone from glasses to soft contacts then hard contacts then glasses again before having LASIK about 6-7 years ago. Now, I have excellent day eyesight but lousy night vision.

 

Naw, we opened the thread. Just didn't have anything to add. I don't need glasses. I've worn funky contacts for Halloween (they drove me insane), but that's all the experience I've had in the area. Not really anything to say.

 

This is a big problem for people whose eyes revert back after Lasik. I've had to try so many different pairs of contacts because they kept falling out. Now the only ones that work are the daily disposables because they are so thin to begin with they adhere to the eye better. Still can't wear contacts for the duration that I did pre-Lasik.

I won't bore you all with my Lasik horror story, but if anyone is considering it and wants to hear the other side, PM me.

 

My vision is probably the only healthy thing I have.

 

That happened to my mom as she got into her late 40s (although she didn't "slide back" -- her vision close-up was the one that regressed after LASIK, even though she was as nearsighted as me before surgery.)

We've got terrible eyesight in our family (I was -4.75 when I got it), so I'm well aware that my LASIK corrections likely won't last into old age.

That's fine by me -- if I get 20 good years out of it without contacts or glasses, I'll be thrilled. If not, that's OK, too.

I'm at 20/15 now. I got lucky: no complications so far, other than occasional halos at night, and even those have started to clear up since the first few weeks after the surgery.

 

I tried contacts when I was starting college 16 years ago. Cleaning them every night was a bitch and they burned me eyes. No good. So I wore glasses for the next 13 or 14 years. Like others have mentioned, the smudges, rain, scratches etc. sucked and now that I've got kids, they get torn up much easier. A few years ago, an eye doctor had me try the single-use daily wear soft contacts. The daily wears have been great and I just wear my glasses when I first get up and haven't had a chance to put in my contacts. I had a hard time at first putting the things in my eyes, but you get used to it.

 

Well, you'll always have to put them in your eye, but contacts are so state-of-the-art now that you don't even know that they're in.

The only reason I have any trouble with mine is I spend so much time in a smoky bar. But they're very comfortable, and one pair lasts 30 days (and you can keep them in for days at a time, although that's not necessarily recommended).

For golf in particular, driving (with sunglasses) and just general comfort and appearance, I don't think I'm ever going back to glasses until I'm forced to.

 

I'm wearing a new model that I still am getting used to that focus on the distance when you look there, and short for reading when you look there.

I'll admit, my long distance vision for golf isn't perfect, but one pair works for both and is generally great. I had to use reading glasses for a while, but don't now.

And yes, they also make bifocal contacts.

 

rico, good to see you around these parts.

 

I started wearing glasses when I was 7, contacts when I was 17. Now I'm 27 (OK, 28, but I had some nice symmetry going), and I wear my contacts pretty much every day. Occasionally I'll go most of a day in my glasses, but I don't see as well and my eyes get tired (perhaps I need a new pair).
I had some squeamish-ness issues at first, but got over that in about a week. Now I think nothing of sticking a finger in my eye to fish out a lens lost under my lid. Did it yesterday, in fact. I have had the occasional infection issue over the years, but I've been wearing those two-to-four-week disposables and they work pretty well. If a contact gives me trouble, I toss it, take a day off and open a new one. And contacts are great for sports, driving, not slipping off the nose, etc.
I've thought lately about going back to glasses, though. I worry a bit about the long-term effects of daily contact wear. Not sure why, but spending much of the day 15 inches from a computer screen, and wearing contacts, just seems like a troublesome combination, and my eyes certainly get red on occasion.

 

Apparently she forgot the part about CLEANING the lenses.

 

Just about everyone who gets to your mom's age will have their "close-up" vision regress naturally, with age. That's why they eventually get to a point where they go out to a dark restaurant with a bunch of people their age, and every single one of them has to pull out the reading glasses to see the menu. That is not LASIK-related.

You think 4.75 is bad? I would have killed for that. Pre-LASIK, I was 8.5 of myopia and 3.5 of astigmatism - right at the 12 diopter max LASIK is able to correct.

What amazes me about that procedure is that they in theory would be able to correct a 13 (practically blind) to a 1 - which would change that person's life. But they won't do it unless there's a realistic chance of getting you to 20/20.