Contact Lenses Eyeglasses

Glasses are not cheap, and when you purchase designer glasses they really cost quite a bit of money. If you are willing to spend the money on designer frames and lenses, then you likely want to know how to keep them as clean as possible. Cleaning glasses is not difficult, but if you do it incorrectly, you can damage your investment, creating scratches and ruining the finish on the frames.

Talk to Your Optometrist

The first thing you need to do in order to learn the best possible way to clean your glasses is to talk to your optometrist. If your glasses are coated in any way, you may be advised to avoid certain chemicals or types of cloth when you clean your glasses. For instance, if you have glare cutting coating on your glasses, cleaning them with a napkin or paper towel may scratch the coating. Be sure to follow all instructions given to you by your optometrist to keep your glasses in good shape.

Over the Counter Wipes

One of the most annoying things about glasses is that occasional smudge that is directly in your line of sight on your glasses. One way to be sure that you can always safely take care of this problem is carrying over the counter lens cleaning wipes. These are pretreated wipes that are safe to use on most lenses. You can simply pull out a wipe, swipe your glasses, and eliminate that smudge!

Thoroughly Cleaning Glasses

While wipes work well for touch ups, you are going to want to thoroughly clean your glasses from time to time, especially if they have nose pads, which tend to gather dirt and grime behind them. For most pairs of glasses you can wash them with a nonabrasive soap and warm water. Make sure you use clean hands and mild detergent as you wash your glasses. However, do not use a lot of pressure on your lenses, as this could scratch them or cause them to pop out of the frames. Rinse them off, and then dry them with a soft, lint-free cloth.

Sometimes dirt will build up under the nose pads. When this happens, use a soft bristled toothbrush to get into the crevices. As much as possible, keep the bristles away from the lenses, as this can leave scratches on them.

Do not forget to clean the frames, including the earpieces, when you clean your glasses. The earpieces are in contact with your skin at all times, so they build up sweat, dirt, and oil over the years as you wear your glasses. When you thoroughly wash your glasses, make sure the earpieces get a good cleaning as well.

Always Use Something Wet

Many people will take a rag or paper towel and wipe their glasses when they are dry to get a speck of dirt or some oil off. Never do this. Always use water and soap or a glass cleaner when cleaning your glasses. Even the softest cloth can cause scratches or other marks on your glasses. Also, when you do clean your glasses, use a glasses safe cleaning cloth. The towels you use for your bath are not safe, and if you use fabric softener in your laundry, it will leave streaks on your lenses.

The Best Routine

You do not need to thoroughly clean your designer glasses every single day. You will probably find that a thorough washing once a week, followed by a daily routine of wiping them with the lens cleaning cloths when they need to be cleaned, is sufficient to keep your glasses as clean as you want them to be.

Decorative and special effects lenses are rapidly increasing in popularity.  People who were unhappy with their regular eye color can now simply pop in a different colored lens and be instantly transformed into someone else for an evening or weekend, and that person will often gain a good bit of confidence with the transformation.  It’s not uncommon for some people to have several different pairs of decorative or special effects lenses so they can change eye color to match different outfits for different occasions.

Special effects lenses are used in conjunction with Halloween and costume parties and in theater productions all year long.  Some special effects lenses are the piece that makes a costume complete - like a cat’s eye.

All too often though, someone will buy a special effects lens from an unreliable source to save time and money and end up suffering with a painful eye problem because of it.

It’s true that decorative special effects contact lenses come in both prescription strengths as well as in zero-powered strengths so that people who don’t have vision problems can comfortably wear them - this, however, does not meant that you don’t have to be careful and take appropriate precautions before wearing them.

There’s a popular misconception that just because the contact lenses aren’t prescription strength that they are safe to be worn by anyone at any time without any risk to the wearer.  Special effects contact lenses can, in reality, cause many eye problems, but there are some steps that someone who wants to wear them can take to ensure that they will be as safe as possible during the time that have the decorative contact lenses on.

What to do to be Safe

Before you sit down at your computer and order a pair of special effects lenses from some overseas store on the internet or run out and get a pair from a vending machine at a costume shop - you should know that these practices are likely to land you at the Optometrist with a nasty eye infection.

Your best bet to get a comfortable, high quality pair of contact lenses that will fit you properly is to schedule an appointment with a licensed eye care professional for an exam.  Your eye exam will tell you for certain if it will be safe for you to wear lenses.  If your exam shows that wearing contacts is safe for you, you’ll likely be able to get fitted and purchase the lenses that you want right at the office.  This will ensure that you get the best quality product from someone who is supposed to be selling it.  Even zero powered decorative contact lenses must be distributed through a licensed outlet, just because they aren’t designed to correct a vision problem doesn’t mean that anyone who wants to sell them is allowed to sell them.

If you already wear contacts regularly, you should still ask your regular eye care professional what their opinion of you wearing special effects lenses is.  If you haven’t had an eye exam in a while, they may want to see you to make sure the decorative lenses that you chooses will be available in your prescription so as to not cause any problems.

If you decide that wearing special effects lenses is for you and you are cleared to do so by a licensed professional, be sure to follow the instructions for wearing and caring for your lenses.  Just like wearing regular contact lenses, you shouldn’t wear them to bed, in the ocean or a pool and you should never swap lenses with anyone - even if they have the same prescription as you.

Even the slightest miss-step in following these instructions could lead to a serious eye problem - a problem much worse than not liking your current eye color.