Contacts Lenses or Eye Glasses?

Ultimately your choice of eyewear comes down to your personal comfort and what your optician thinks is the best option for your condition and lifestyle. There are many advantages to both, and fortunately the wealth of choice means that you are more likely to be able to find something that suits you.

Eye glasses and their advantages

Glasses are simple and straightforward. Corrective lenses mounted on a frame of your choosing is simply put on or taken off, with no fuss or hassle in their use beyond keeping your lenses clean. This is an important point to bear in mind as the care of contact lenses is a key aspect of their use. They are, after all, going to be put into your eyes, and so hygiene and correct usage are both vital to your health and wellbeing.


Eye glasses can also be a fashion accessory in that a host of frames are available that encompass a range of styles and colour. A frame’s shape can be used to adjust the appearance of the shape of your face or to complement your natural colouring. Eye glass lenses also come in a range of different options, they can be anti-reflective, tinted, photochromatic (change colour with the light they are exposed to), and a number of different other choices that your optician can discuss with you.

The final advantage that eye glasses have over contacts is cost. Contact lenses need to be bought regularly, at least monthly if not daily, and that kind of expenditure adds up over the years. Glasses, on the other hand, need only be bought once as long as your prescription isn’t changing regularly. A sturdy set of lenses and frames can last you for years if looked after properly.

Contact lenses and their advantages

Contacts have definitely grown in popularity in recent years, and this is because they provide a level of comfort that glasses never can. A contact lens floats on the natural film of tears on your eye, and is therefore not visible and, if fitted properly, you won’t be able to feel it there. Your sight will be clear across your entire field of vision, with no loss of peripheral vision as is often the case with glasses.

Contacts don’t carry with them the inherent risk of falling off and breaking like standard glasses do, nor can they steam up as you walk from a cold to warm environment. Modern contacts are not likely to simply slip off, and are an excellent choice for people who choose to do sports in which wearing glasses is a nuisance.

There are a lot of choices within the contact lens market that can tailor their use for you and your lifestyle. You can opt for daily disposable lenses which are used once and then discarded, ideal for anyone who only needs to use lenses a few times a week, or longer term lenses which can be replaced from every 2 weeks up to 3 months. Now you even have the option of extended wear lenses which you can keep in overnight. Should you wish to, contact lenses can be coloured or shaped to alter the appearance of your eyes in both these regards.

Which one is for me?

The best way to decide which option is best for you is by having a discussion with your optician. They are qualified to give you professional advice based on what they know about your eyes and what you need for your vision, and so don’t feel afraid to ask any questions you may have about either glasses or contacts.

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