Advantages and Disadvantages of Daily Disposable Contact Lenses

Some people choose the comfort of contact lenses instead of eyeglasses. Wearing an eye glasses can be too distracting, and for a small piece of frame they tend to be a little too heavy to be sitting on your face for a long time.

That is why contact lenses are also an option that you can choose if you refuse to wear a pair of glasses.

If you are part of the population that suffers from any kind of eye conditions and you know that daily disposable contact lenses are the right type of daily contact lens for you or perhaps that you prefer, this is the article for you.

You can continue to read as this article will discuss and lay out the benefits and unfavourable outcome of the said type of daily contact lens.

If you are going on a research-spree, need some wee bit of knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of daily disposable contact lenses, you can use this article as a reference.

First, let us know what daily disposable contact lens is.

Daily Disposable Contact Lens

If you assume that daily disposable contact lenses are just used once a day, the answer is yes. You read that right.

As tedious as that process might sound, it must be disposed at the end of each day once you have used it and a fresh new pair of lenses must be put on the next day.

However, as ironic as it may seem, the most common misconception that people have about it is that it is a hassle in comparison to the daily wear contact lenses but if people had their facts checked, daily disposable contact lenses are gaining in popularity among practitioners and consumers for their health and convenience benefits.

Often times, people confuse daily disposable and daily wear as just one and the same.

To some extent, it is accurate but not entirely. To let you in on what I means, they both are types of daily lenses, and that much is true, but they are two completely different types.

What you need to know about daily disposable contact lens is already discussed in the preceding section.

These two daily lenses differ from each other simply with the fact that the daily wear lens is one that must be removed before sleeping. It is said to be not FDA approved for extended or overnight wear.

Such lens should be replaced weekly, monthly or quarterly, depending upon the brand.

Daily wear can still be called “disposable” because they are thrown out and discarded after every two weeks but that doesn’t always mean it is single-use.

To reiterate, “daily disposable” is the specific term for lenses that are removed and discarded daily.

Although, we should not be too quick to judge and jump to conclusions. We should intently assess first before asking for our eye care professionals to prescribe it.

Here are some of the advantages of disposable contact lenses that you can look into.

Advantages of Disposable Contact Lens

According to a study published by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, daily disposable lenses offer long-term eye healthand comfort for specific patients. 

Granted that eye care professionals surveyed, they would not necessarily prescribe daily disposable to all their patients, but only to most of them.

The results support the premise that day contact lenses is the current “standard of care” but with a factorial barriers.

At its core, the main advantage of daily disposable contact lens is that, the more frequently you replace your lenses, the healthier and more comfortable your eyes become.

Of course, lenses can be cleaned, but cleaning is not effective every time. Contact lenses by default would still have some deposits that can cling and continue to accumulate in each passing day.

Other than that, with daily disposable lens, you don’t have to take off and clean it every so often after you remove it at the end of the day.

Cleaning and maintaining the sterility of contact lenses can be too much of a work.

After a long day, all you want to do is just lay in bed. Cleaning your contact lens is the last thing that you want to do.

Unfortunately, daily disposable are not all that beneficial even if it has its merits. It has its own disadvantages as well. Here are some that you might want to go through.

Disadvantages of Disposable Contact Lens

The least favourable aspect about daily disposable is you have to throw it out after every usage. Discarding these one-time use daily lenses can affect you financially.

It was popularly known that replacing contacts was the healthy way to go but the problem was, contacts were too expensive to dispose very often.

Cleaning solutions and devices were produced just so it can extend the usability of the lens.

Depending on the brand and the kind of the daily contact lens material, it is not ideal to purchase it every other day.

It can be costly and it can break your bank. For an accumulated amount that you spent on daily lens, you can actually buy a pair of eyeglasses.

Another issue with daily disposables is the environmental risk that it poses. These contacts are single-used plastics that are thrown out every day.

Some people also object to the amount of waste created by disposable products.

Even if they come in small sizes, it can still ultimately affect the current precarious state of our environment.

We should be more mindful of what we dispose of every day, and we should manage our plastic waste disposal.

With all these predicated, even if you would want to choose to wear daily lenses, it would still all boil down to your prescription.

Your eye care professional has the authority to prescribe the right type of lens and lens wear for you.

Ideal Duration of Wearing Lenses

If not for the daily lenses, people would still be practicing bad habits. As much as the convenience that the regular contact lenses give us, they are not made to be worn all the time unlike the daily lenses.

This is essentially true for the regular contact lenses that most people have used on a daily basis.

There are different types of contact lenses, so you should be aware with what type you are using.

Dire consequences would result if we don’t follow our eye doctor’s warning and wear our contact lenses for far too long.

If you are prescribed with contact lens, and if you have been wearing it not too long, maybe you should also take note of the mistakes that you are prone and most likely to do when you are a first-time user.

Here are some of the most common mistakes that you can look into so you can be aware in the future.

Common Mistakes When Wearing Contact Lenses

Many people can be found guilty of doing the following unsafe habitual mistakes.

Going to bed without removing your contact lenses. While this can be an innocent mistake at first, this could also lead to an infection if not kept in check.

Having your contact lens while asleep can expose your eyes to bacteria and deposits.

Cleaning your contact lens the wrong way. There is a proper way of cleaning your lenses.

You can always make sure that your hands are clean before you touch your lenses.

Rub your lens properly and rinse it with a sterile solution and store it in a case that is clean.

Reusing cleaning solutions. Some people can go overboard and use the same cleaning solution that they have used previously to clean their pair of lenses.

If you are trying to save bucks, you can still get disinfecting solutions at a lower price. Never opt for reusing them. It is just not the safest way to clean.

References:

https://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/disposable.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30878378

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