The allure of laser eye treatments is to rid you of eyeglasses. Wearing contact lenses is also another means to experience this kind of freedom.
So the final challenge would be: what should I prefer – wearing contact lenses or undergoing laser eye treatment?
There are advantages and disadvantages to both forms of vision correction.
For those who always receive constantly changing prescriptions, refractive surgery is not appropriate for them. This is because the sight may likely alter soon after the procedure, resulting to using glasses, contact lens, or more surgeries to experience clearer eyesight. Disposable lenses can be purchased in small quantities (e.g. 3 months at a time) and the prescription can be updated before each purchase.
If your Rx is very high, laser eye operation will not be able to altogether rectify your sight. Disposable contact lenses get limitations as well, but these restrictions can correct a wider scope of prescriptions. Conventional (or yearly) contact lenses can be specially made to suit even higher prescriptions.
If you have an uneven shaped cornea (the front of the eye), eye surgeries cannot be performed to rectify this. This is generally the case with injury to the eyes or eye diseases affecting the cornea. To right this, RGP (ripid gas permeable or hard) contact lenses are used. Due to the rigid form of the material, the contact lens vaults over the irregular cornea, effectively creating a new, smooth front surface. This in turn gives greater optical clarity compared to soft contact lens.
Although the above three points seem to imply the superiority of contact lenses, there are disadvantages to as well. The disadvantages are specialties where laser eye treatment excels in.
Contact lenses demand habitual upkeep. This means that never-ending insertion, removal, cleaning, and maintaining it can be a trouble. In comparison to laser eye operation, once the eye is recovered, no additional care is required.
Contact lens wear requires the placement of a comparatively big foreign body into the eye. These plastic pieces are often in eyes for long hours. Due to the nature of contact lens wear, you are at a greater risk of eye infections. The risk becomes especially higher if one sleeps while wearing it or fails to properly maintain them. Compared to eye surgery, once the eye is recovered, no maintenance is essential.
A lot of folks need and want the freedom from wearing spectacles, especially for certain activities like playing sports. Rough sports like kickboxing rugby and even swimming can easily dislodge contact lenses. Not only can these sports reposition the lenses, wearing them while doing these activities can also cause them to pop out. Naturally, this will no longer be an issue after having laser eye treatment.
Comparing contact lenses versus laser eye treatment will result to many advantages and disadvantages within the two. The best way to answer this question to find out whether which one is more appropriate for you, set up an appointment with the local optometrist as they are the ones qualified to give professional ideas.
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