Posts Tagged ‘contact lenses’

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Contacts Pros & Cons!

Friday, May 27th, 2011

If you’re long or short sighted and wear specs, you may at some point have toyed with the notion of contact lenses. All patients have their own fears and questions about this issue. Do they hurt? Can they slip round and get lost behind your eye? Are they expensive? This bit’s easy – the answer to all those questions in no!!

Can I wear them if I have an astigmatism? Need help for reading? Can anybody wear them? The answer to all these is yes!! Easy isn’t it? But if you need further reassurance, here’s our top ten of why you need to make contact!

1.Without resorting to surgery you’ll have clear, spec free, stable eye sight.

2.You’ll have a full field of vision, even at the periphery, with no spec frame in the way.

3. The newest lenses and cleaning systems are easy and simple to use.

4.You have flexibility – different lens types are worn for I day, 1 week, I month……the choice is yours!

5.Sport is easier and more fun without sliding, misty specs distracting you from your performance!

6.You can look different for socialising or work, and show off your eyes for maximum impact.

7.Some eye conditions are corrected more effectively with contact lenses.

8.Contact lenses are suitable for all ages – from eight to eighty and beyond if you’re game!

9.Most people can wear them for long periods of time from day one onwards – they’re quick to adapt to and so comfortable you won’t know they’re there!

10. With IGC spec prices you can afford contacts, and lots of spare glasses for convenience and an exciting range of eye wear options.

So what are you waiting for? Get down to the Opticians for your contacts, then make contact with us for some groovy glasses – sorted for work, rest and play!

Varifocal Glasses

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Contact Lens Choices

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

If you raise the subject of contact lenses with most people you’ll get some very similar responses.

1.“Ooooo – there’s no way I could stick my finger in my eye!”

2.“I’ve got astigmatism, I can’t wear them.”

3.“I tried them in 1972 and they were no good. I can’t have them”

4.“I need reading glasses, so they’re no good for me.”

All very interesting, and for the most part, completely untrue! Common misconceptions that are stopping millions of people from enjoying contact lens wear as a literally life changing experience. Do you want to play sport without becoming a target for the opposition? Stop steaming up when you go into a shop? Enjoy full peripheral vision without your frames getting in the way? Have a new look? Then read on, literally! Let’s take a close look at the options for objection 4 – I need reading glasses – or do you?

If you’re over forty and now wear specs for close work, there are several options that we can suggest that solve the problem with contact lens wear. This is a huge stumbling block for many patients, who assume that contacts aren’t for them. There are actually several options, which will suit different prescriptions, lifestyles, and budgets:

1.Multifocal contact lenses – depending on your prescription and wear regime, the whole far distance, middle distance and reading powers can be built into a teeny little contact lens. How clever is that?!

2.Monvision – this is a simple system where we fit a distance contact lens in one eye and a near vision in the other. This works brilliantly for suitable patients, and relies on the action of your dominant eye. Sounds weird but very successful for millions of wearers.

3.Varifocal specs – if you want contacts for sport or social occasions, you can have distance contacts, then specs that you pop on top for reading. You can use the glasses at work or for reading, then take them off when you don’t need them.

4.Reading Glasses – this is a low cost option, choose a half frame that you can look over the top of, and again, pop them on just when you need them.

Simple isn’t it? Plenty of choices, and one will suit you. It’s every rare nowadays to find someone for whom there is not a single contact lens option.

In case you’re wondering about the other questions:

In answer to 1 – Yes you can, plenty of other people have learned!

2 – Yes you can, there are plenty of contact lenses for astigmatic patients.

3 – We tried plenty of things in 1972 that didn’t work – flared jeans included – and as times change, they do work now. So if times have changed, so you can too!

Varifocal Glasses

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Taking the Plunge

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Contact lenses today offer more versatility and choice at lower prices than ever before. Once the option of the very rich and brave, nowadays we can all wear them – or are you one of the people who think you’re the exception? Well think again, because contacts will be an option for you, so it might be time to consider taking the plunge.

We’ve fitted lenses for patients age six upwards; you just need a little patience to learn how to handle them, faith in your optician, and the motivation to persevere for a day or two at the beginning. Whatever your age or prescription there will be a lens for you, and you can choose to wear them for a day, a week, a month, with lenses that suit every lifestyle and prescription

As glasses are so economical nowadays it givers people the option to be more flexible about their contact lens wear. You can afford glasses as a back up or to wear for work for example, with contacts for your favourite sport, or holidays, or socialising.

Have you worn lenses in the past and give up on them? The prescription range is bigger today, and even patients with astigmatism who were difficult to fit in the past can now be accommodated. If you need a separate spec power for reading, you can have multifocal or bifocal contacts, or distance contacts with reading glasses over the top. Again, specs are cheap and easy to acquire for a specific reason or task.

If you gave up on lenses because the solution regime was too tiresome, with masses of bottles, you’ll be pleased to know that the present generation of lens cleaners are simple and cheap, with less solutions and faster sterilisation times. Again, because you’ll easily have access to glasses you’ll always have a back up option if you haven’t remembered to clean your lenses.

So take the plunge and speak to your optician about contacts – cheap, easy, and flexible, with the good old IGC helping you out with your back up specs!

Prescription Glasses

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Convenient Contacts

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Over the years since contact lenses first changed our lives, the advances in technology have led to some amazing developments in these tiny slivers of plastic that give us the gift of sight. We’ve gone from solid shields that covered the whole of the white of the eye, to tiny discs with the consistency of cling film that you can barely see off the eye, let alone feel!

So are you up to date with how times have changed? There are many patients who wore contact lenses back in the seventies or eighties, and still remember complex cleaning regimes, watering eyes, massive costs and immense frustration! As people get older and need reading glasses and spot the first signs of physical ageing, they also think that they won’t be able to wear lenses for a variety of reasons. The good news is however that nearly everyone can wear them, with a higher success rate and at lower prices than ever before!

So take a look at your lifestyle and see where lenses could fit in. They’re not an all or nothing lifestyle choice nowadays, you’ll be able to find a wear regime and lens type that will suit your individual needs. If you play tennis at the weekends, love swimming, or just want to show off your eye make when you go to a ball, they’ll be a lens to let you do all this. If you hate fiddling to put them in, you could try a lens you sleep in, so there are fewer lens insertions and removals and you get permanently clear sight and no solutions to worry about.

Daily wear lenses are sealed in solution and are easy to carry with you, so for holidays, weekends away or sport you pop them in when you need them and then throw them away. No solutions, no worrying about storage, the ultimate in convenience. With internet prices on specs and contacts now low, it’s cheap to find the eyewear products that suit you, wearing interchangeable specs and contacts.

Just be careful to visit your optician regularly for check ups, follow their advice, and then you can source all or some of your own products if you wish. Never over wear lenses and make sure your eye health is checked regularly for successful contact lens wear.

Prescription Varifocal Glasses Online

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Get Packing!

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Our jolly holidays will soon be upon us, so lets’ have a quick look at what you need to pack to ensure good eye health and excellent vision while you are away. If you need new specs for your hols then get your order in early – this is always a busy time for any opticians as we rush to fulfill orders to let you do your sight seeing!

Obviously a spare pair of glasses is essential – they get dropped over the side of boats, left on planes, squashed in unfamiliar rooms, and ground into the sand. That blissful view looks even better when you can see it! So don’t think that your four year old pair will do as a spare. Could you drive in them for long periods? Would you be seen dead in the frame?!

Then there are sunglasses, whether prescription or clear. Do you look like Dame Edna or Lady GaGa in last years? Are they scratched, sad, or sandblasted? Make sure you have 100% UV protection and a good tint that’s dark enough for the climate of your destination.

If you wear contact lenses, make sure you pack your spare glasses, and plenty of cleaning solutions for your time away. It’s not always possible to get the same solution abroad, so make sure you’ve got your supply to hand. You may also need non prescription sunglasses to wear over your contacts.

If you need reading glasses, why not pick up a couple of cheap pairs of ready readers, so you have some to hand if you lose or break a pair. That relaxing read on the beach won’t be fun if you’re squinting at every line and giving yourself wrinkles!

If you use eye drops or take supplements for your visual health, stock up before you go, and don’t have a holiday from taking them! Take a copy of your glasses prescription with you, so that if the worst comes to the worst you can order replacements. Have a relaxing holiday and at least you’ll be sure that your eyes are taken care of!

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You Give Me Fever!

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

For many people summer can bring misery with the onset of the Hayfever season. Correctly called seasonal allergic rhinitis, it’s an allergy that’s very common, affecting about 1 in 4 people in the UK. In most sufferers it starts in the teens and usually our immune systems allow us some relief from it by our forties, although this is not true for everyone. It’s more likely to hit you if you have a family history of allergy, including eczema and asthma.

Different types of pollen come into season through the Summer, so you may be affected at different times through the months. The common factor however is that the upper respiratory tract is affected, so your throat, nose, sinus and eyes react as if you have a cold. Obviously our main concern is what happens to your eyes, because specs or contact lens wear can be problematic.

If you have well fitted contact lenses, and you look after them carefully, you should not even know you’re wearing them. So if no irritation is present with your contacts, you’ll be able to keep wearing them through the hayfever season, and they may even give your eyes some protection. If however your eyes are irritated or inflamed, then lenses may trigger a reaction. Best to invest in a pair of specs to see you through to Autumn!

Glasses wearers may find their frames uncomfortable if their sinuses are bothering them, as the bridge of the frame may put pressure on tender areas. You may need to swap to a different type of bridge, and go for something as lightweight as possible.

A large and close fitting pair of sunglasses will stop the light from irritating your eyes more than is necessary, and will give some relief from extreme sensitivity. Take an anti-histamine – remember they take about 3 days to work so don’t give up if they don’t help immediately. Your pharmacist can also sell eye drops to you for more topical comfort.

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Special Specs!

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

One of the things we really enjoy is untangling problems and solving life’s little dilemmas for our customers. We’re always happy to answer phone or e-mail enquiries if you need help. Plenty of you out there do have specific eye wear needs that we’re delighted to tackle.

We recently made varifocals for a lecturer who also works in a research lab. He’s always worn contact lenses, but recently he’s found that the lenses keep going a funny colour due to something in the atmosphere at the lab. Not a problem with his new specs, varifocals online are easy to make nowadays, we just wouldn’t want to be near whatever he’s working with – if it makes his contacts discolour what’s it doing to the rest of him?!

Last month we made some Polaroid sunglasses with prescription in for a regular customer who’s a keen angler. He hasn’t told his fishing buddy he’s got new specs, they look just like his usual prescription sunglasses, but the Polaroid layer on the new pair will let him see into the water, and he just might win the little wager they’ve got on next week.
We’ve made several pairs of different prescription specs for one customer, she does some kind of surveillance work and likes to change her appearance. Different glasses are an easy way to alter your look, trendy shapes make you look younger, a traditional frame will age a young person. We’d just like to know who it is she’s keeping an eye on!

We had several chats via e –mail to a chap who has recently had a lot to deal with – after radical surgery he has a prosthetic eye. Obviously this takes some getting used to, and we have suggested a varifocal lens to help him maximise the vision he has got left, and a frame size and tint to help him get used to the look of his new eye.

So there’s always a solution to every problem – just mail if you think you’ve got a challenge for us!

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A Fish Out of Water!

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

I’m a keen swimmer, but getting progressively short sighted since my teens, it’s been a challenge to stay safe in the water. I was only a bit short sighted when I learned to swim, so squinting madly helped then.  As it got worse when I got to my twenties, I relied on friends to hold my hand and lead me to the steps, and wearing a bright swim hat helped them to find me – and kept other swimmers out of my way!

Then came the day when I grabbed the hand of a complete stranger and asked her guide me back to the changing rooms, which led to some confusion although I made a new friend! I tried goggles over my contact lenses, but this was tricky as I was wearing hard contacts then and twice I dislodged them when removing the goggles. Finding a contact lens on a wet changing room floor dressed only in an M& S swimsuit is not the most dignified way to spend your afternoon.

I then tried prescription swimming goggles, but as I have different strength lenses in each eye these weren’t that good. By now I’d got soft contact lenses.  You can’t wear them in the water as there’s a nasty bacteria that can contaminate them. I tried daily lenses, which I had to remove as soon as I got out of the pool.

I got fed up with remembering to keep a stock of disposable lenses though, so after all this trial and error, nowadays I have a cheap pair of specs I got from my online optician and I just wear them in the water. I don’t make as many new friends but at least I don’t crash into the sides of the pool!

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Sight But Not As We’ve Known It!

Monday, May 11th, 2009

This summer we’re all going Star Trekking – glued to our seats thanks to Simon Pegg and Zachary Quinto in the newest take on an old favourite. So if we’re thinking futuristic and techno, what’s happening in the world of optics?

Spectacle lenses constantly evolve, because as technology moves on in leaps and bounds, so do the products. If you are very long or short sighted, you do not have to suffer the weight and bad cosmetics of thick, heavy lenses. High density, machine thinned lenses reduce the bulk of the lens, even if your prescription is high.

Glasses frames change every season, a fashion item that serves a purpose  – you can look good and see well! Space age materials such as titanium and stainless steel make for thin, light, strong frames. Plastics improve all the time too – the stuff used in the 1950s was flammable and went a funny yellow colour! Thankfully times have changed. Plastics come in all sorts of colours and finishes, from plain and simple to bejewelled and engraved.

If you’re still not convinced by glasses, you could opt for contact lenses – which can now be worn for a day, a week, or a month, with simple, cheap cleaning solutions. You can sleep in them, swim in them, and apparently chop onions without tears! Or if that’s still not techno enough for you, you can have your eyes lasered – suitable for a huge percentage of patients nowadays.

So, we may not be able to beam ourselves up yet, but times are changing and will continue to so. Check out opticians websites and keep up with the future of optics.

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Being Long-Sighted

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Of all the afflictions that can befall us, you’d think that long-sightedness is a fairly minor thing. I’m not blind as a bat, I can see with my specs on, I should be counting my blessings. For me though, my eye defect has been a real blight on my life……

When I was little I was quite severely bullied, because my confidence was poor due to wearing glasses. They were thick, heavy, and worst of all they magnified my eyes. Looking back at photos, I was engulfed by these big specs with my huge eyes behind them.

I wore contact lenses as soon as I could, but when I was pregnant and breast feeding my hormones affected my eyes and I couldn’t wear lenses. The happy time with my new baby was almost spoilt by the thought of wearing specs again. I was so traumatised that I couldn’t cope with the thought of choosing glasses at the Opticians.

I trawled through loads of online optician sites while breast feeding at night, steeling myself to get some glasses. I found a site I could e-mail and phone, and they were really helpful about my prescription lenses. I got lenses called aspherics which are light and flat and don’t magnify my eyes. For the first time in twenty years I have specs which I actually like wearing. If my baby has to wear glasses it’s great to know she won’t ever have to deal with the trauma that mine used to cause me.

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