Benefits of Contact Lenses vs. Glasses

Choosing to wear contact lenses or eyeglasses depends on your individual preference. Comfort, lifestyle, convenience, esthetics, and budget are all critical factors to consider when making your decision.

Both contact lenses and glasses improve your quality of life by helping you see better. One is not essentially a cut above the other in terms of vision, eye health, and convenience. Each one of them has its benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of Contact Lenses

Contact lenses:
 

• Conform to the curve of your eye, giving you a wider visual field than glasses.
   

• Move with your eyes, ensuring that nothing blocks, distorts, or obstructs what you see.
   

• Do not get cloudy or foggy when it is rainy or cold.
   

• Do not get in the way of your active lifestyle. For example, you do not have to worry about your contact lenses breaking or falling out when playing sports.
   

• Are easy to wear and remove. You can quickly become accustomed to wearing them.
   

• Improve your vision without changing your appearance.
   

• Are easy to experiment with various colors.

Drawbacks

Contact lenses require a lot more maintenance than eyeglasses. You must disinfect and store them appropriately. Otherwise, you can get severe eye infections if you do not clean and preserve your contacts appropriately. You can also get eye infections if you do not clean your hands before touching them.

If you are above 40, you may still have to use reading glasses with contact lenses. You may need to see your eye doctor more often for follow-up visits when using contact lenses.

Benefits of Glasses

Eyeglasses:
 

• Are laid-back. You wear them and go about your day.
   

• Are easy to remove whenever you want, and you can store them away safely without needing to follow strict guidelines.
   

• Make you touch your eyes less often, thus reducing the risk of eye irritation or infection.
   

• Do not worsen dry eye disease or eye sensitivity.
   

• Are easy to maintain, and you do not need to replace them often unless they break or their prescription expires.
   

• Are easy to experiment with frame styles and colors. You can choose frames that express your style and personality.
   

• Give your eyes more protection from wind, debris, dust, and other environmental issues.

Drawbacks

It can be hard to see your sides when wearing eyeglasses, although that depends on the size of your eyeglass frame. Also, you may not like the pressure your glasses may exert on your nose or ears.

Likewise, you may feel like your glasses are taking away from your esthetics or hiding your facial features. The glasses may have thick and unattractive lenses or may make your eyes look unusually big or small.

Eyeglasses can get foggy when it is cold or get splashed in the rain. They may also not be the most suitable choice for athletics and other physically active occasions.

Contact Lenses? Glasses? Both?

As you have seen, what works for one situation may not work for the other. The choice to wear contact lenses, glasses, or both is a matter of what you prefer. The best thing is to talk to your eye doctor to arrive at the best solution for your situation.

For more on contact lenses and glasses, visit City Eyes Optometry Center at our office in Sherman Oaks, California. You can also call (818) 960-1300 today to schedule an appointment.