Taking Care of Contacts and Glasses

Whether you need to wear corrective lenses or contacts, regular care is necessary to promote longevity. Both contacts and glasses can be damaged or broken. In the case of contacts, this may not be a terrible ordeal, as these are worn temporarily in most instances. However, if you wear glasses, damaged or broken specs mean a trip to the eye doctors’ for a new pair.

To prevent something like that, you can take the proper precautions and take proper care of your contacts and glasses. If you wear contacts, care differs depending on the kind that you have. There are soft contact lenses and rigid gas permeable contact lenses (which have a tougher exterior). Then there are contacts that you throw out and those that you can keep for a longer amount of time, at least for a week but sometimes for up to a month.

If you have disposable contacts, you should never wear them beyond the extended amount of time as recommended on the box. If you have extended-wear contacts, you need to make sure that you also take them out nightly. If you wear them again, you need to clean them. You can typically find contact solution at the grocery store or at your eye doctors’ office. Don’t attempt to use water of any temperature to clean your contacts, as these could lead to the spread of bacteria. Only proper contact solution will clean your contacts properly.

If you forget to clean your extended wear contacts, you may want to skip wearing them again. They can easily attract bacteria which could infect your eyes. If you have any eye condition or an illness of any type (even one that doesn’t affect the eyes), you should switch to disposable contacts and throw these out after daily use. When your body is fighting off infection, bacteria is more likely to spread from your contacts.

However, perhaps you prefer wearing glasses instead. In that case, you need to worry not only about the lenses of the glasses potentially becoming damaged or broken but the frames holding up as well. If you’re an active person, you should not wear your glasses when playing sports. Instead, you may want to talk to your eye doctor about prescription sports goggles that are meant for activity. Whenever you’re not wearing your glasses, you should take them off properly, using both of your hands. This prevents you from tugging at one of the arms and loosening it or accidentally snapping it off.

You also need to place your glasses in a safe area when you’re not wearing them. Your glasses probably came in a hard-shelled case that you picked out at the eye doctors’ office. You should always place your glasses in that protective case when you’re not wearing them. You may want to put the case somewhere out of reach of kids or other people.

In order to keep the frames intact, look out for any loose parts. There are screws that hold together the frames which may unwind over time and need to be screwed back in. If you’ve noticed that the arms of your glasses are looser than usual, this should take care of the problem. If screwing the arms back in place didn’t help, you may want to take your glasses to your eye doctors’ office.

You also need to worry about the lenses of the glasses, which can experience damage in the form of scratching. Always placing your glasses in your hard-shelled case prevents them from coming into contact with other elements when you’re not wearing them. Put them with the arms against the back of the case rather than the lenses against the back of the case. If you need to take off your glasses for a moment and put them somewhere, never put the lenses first.

If you have a smudge or particles on your glasses that you need to wipe off, don’t just use your shirt, pants, or other fabric around you. Instead, use the cleaning cloth that your eye doctor likely gave you with your pair of glasses. This soft cloth will rub away any smudges without damaging the lenses.

By following these guidelines for contacts and glasses care, you will not have to worry about breakage, damage, and potential bacterial infection. As long as you don’t forget any of the above steps, you should be able to wear your contacts without incident, and enjoy your glasses for years ahead.