Contacts or Glasses – Which is Better for you?
Whether you choose to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses for vision correction mostly depends on personal preferences. Lifestyle, comfort, convenience, budget, and aesthetics can also factor into your decision-making process. Before deciding between contacts and glasses, keep in mind that one is not necessarily better than the other; each has its pros and cons in terms of vision, ease of use and eye health. At Mountain Eye Care, we can get you fitted for either contact lenses or eyeglasses. It all depends on your lifestyle and your comfort for which vision correction method you choose. In this blog, we talk about some of the advantages of contact lenses and eyeglasses with the hope that you can better understand which strategy is right for you!
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Is There a Clear Cut Choice?
Eyeglasses offer many benefits over contact lenses. They require very little cleaning and maintenance, you don’t need to touch your eyes to wear them (decreasing your risk for eye infections), and glasses are cheaper than contact lenses in the long run since they don’t need to be replaced as often. That being said, contact lenses have many advantages over glasses. Contacts sit directly on your eye, so vision, particularly peripheral vision, is unobstructed. You can participate in sports and outdoor activities without fear of eyeglasses getting in the way, falling off or breaking. You can even change the color of your eyes with color contact lenses.
Advantages of Contacts
- Contacts conform to the curvature of your eye, providing a wider field of view and causing fewer vision distortions and obstructions than eyeglasses
- Contact lenses don’t get in the way when playing sports and exercising
- Contact lenses won’t clash with what you’re wearing
- Contacts typically aren’t affected by weather conditions and won’t fog up in cold weather like glasses
- If you want to see how you would look with different eye color, you can experiment with color contact lenses. You can even purchase special-effect contacts to match your Halloween or fancy dress costume!
- Some contact lenses can reshape your cornea while you sleep. Overnight orthokeratology (Ortho-k) temporarily corrects myopia, so you can see clearly the next day without the need for glasses or contacts
Advantages of Eyeglasses
- Wearing glasses reduces the need to touch your eyes, which in turn reduces the likelihood of irritating your eyes or developing an eye infection
- If you have dry or sensitive eyes, glasses won’t exacerbate the problem as contact lenses can
- Eyeglasses generally are cheaper than contact lenses over the long term. You don’t need to replace glasses as often and if your prescription changes over time, you may be able to keep your current frames and just replace the lenses
- Frames are fashionable and can speak volumes about your personality and style, the look of your glasses can make a bold statement
- Glasses offer some protection from environmental factors such as wind, dust, and debris
So the decision to wear either contacts or glasses and when to wear them usually is a matter of personal preference. Keep in mind, though, that if you wear contact lenses full-time, you also should have an up-to-date pair of glasses, in case you need to stop wearing contacts due to an eye infection or irritation, or you simply want to give your eyes a break.
If you are looking for more information about whether you should choose contacts or eyeglasses, we recommend that you schedule an appointment at Mountain Eye Care. Click here to find our contact information, schedule an appointment, or to speak with a representative.
