At one time, promotions on television advertised a new, sexier you if you elected to lose the glasses and pop in a pair of contact lenses. This image has always been demonstrated in Superman comics, television programs and movies.
He’s a bit of a geek or too normal a guy, but when the glasses come off – he’s Superman. Fortunately, the image- makers and shakers that relegated eyeglasses to the awkward, the nerd gear of decades past has begun to embrace glasses for the fashionable, functional necessity they have become.
The differences between glasses and contact lenses are more related to personal issues of comfort than to image. Arguments can be made in support of contacts over eyeglasses.
For example, contact lenses are worn directly over the eye allowing natural vision and no distortion as some eyeglass wearers may experience because of the small gap between the lens of the glasses and your eye.
There is always a constant awareness of the frames as well as the reflections off the backside of the lens. While most eyeglass wearers become so accustomed as to hardly notice the discrepancy, it becomes more pronounced when switching between contacts and glasses.
Glasses can fog up when the temperature changes and they might be a distraction during physical activities, especially sports where you don’t want your glasses to be broken. Contacts suffer neither of these. Eyeglasses can be made with tinting lenses that allow them to turn into functional sunglasses, but contact lens wearers can pick any pair of sunglasses they want.
For the particularly fashion conscious, contact lenses coordinate with everything in your wardrobe. But for all their differences, both require cleaning and gentle care. Both correct astigmatism (irregular cornea shape) and with modern technology, both are very affordable. A new pair of eyeglasses and a new pair of contacts is comparable in price for the same prescription.
The decision between contacts or eyeglasses is no longer one associated with social stigma or social image, but rather of the image and look you want to project to the world. It’s all truly dependent in this day of modern fashion on what makes you feel comfortable and look great.