If you ask any contact lens wearer what the pros and cons are of wearing corrective lenses, I can almost guarantee that convenience will be a pro and cleaning will be a con. When someone recommended the
CIBA Night & Day lenses I was more than a little skeptical about being able to wear them for thirty days and nights. I suffer from bad protein deposits so I need to stay on top of cleaning my lenses and making sure that they are free of any of the tell tale signs [pitting, scratching, dryness etc] that they are running out of “wear time”. Chris reluctantly converted to contacts shortly after I met him and since he works 18 – 24 hour shifts, contacts are the last thing he wants to deal with. So, we both decided to take the plunge and order a few pairs online to try them out. Chris fell in love with them since he could sleep, shower and work in them with only a few drops of rewetting liquid every few hours. For me, I managed to get three weeks of solid, non-stop wear from them without any dryness, itching, redness or headaches. These were a little more expensive than the normal brand I wear but are well worth it if you aren’t into cleaning or have issues with calcium or various protein deposits.
CIBA Vision Focus Night & Day Contact Lenses
The basic principal of this lens is convenience, up to thirty days of continuous wear without having to take them out and clean them. Since I have some serious sleep issues, I can go up to three days without any real quality sleep and often times find myself on the computer, cleaning or doing laundry at all hours of the night to pass the time. This means that I need lenses that will keep up with me during these trying times – something that most disposable lenses just can’t do. After doing some reading about the lenses I found out that these allow up to six times more oxygen to pass through the lenses. While this might not sound like an important factoid, to extended wear lovers, it means less redness, soreness and need for rewetting drops. When I got my order of lenses I was really curious to see how these would stand up compared to my usual pick,
Johnson & Johnson Acuvue Lenses or
Bausch & Lomb SeeQuence Disposable Contact Lenses.
I was lucky to be able to order one pair to see if I liked them since most online stores only sell these in three month, six month or year packages. I paid $23.00 for one pair of lenses which is about the same as a box of six lenses of my normal brand [when I don’t get them on sale that is]. Since I wear the same strength and size in both eyes I wasn’t worried about which pack was which and eagerly ripped open the containers to try them out. They are about the same thickness as my usual lenses but for some reason I had a hard time getting them in correctly. I have been wearing lenses for years now and have never had many issues with them flipping around on my finger, most have a stable curve that stands up to a few drops of solution or repositioning but these flipped around like a fish out of water. If you have never worn contact lenses, when you go to insert them in to your eye, you place them in the tip of your finger, apply a few drops of saline or multi purpose solution to it then tap it in to your eye. It was almost impossible for me to tell which way the lens was to be inserted, a truly nerve wracking thing to endure – especially with limited vision. It was pretty much trial and error to get them in correctly however Chris popped his in with no trouble at all so I am thinking that my prescription or base curve may have had something to do with all the trouble I had. Once I did get them in, they felt like heaven. There’s nothing like sliding in a fresh pair of lenses and not feeling a thing … but if you don’t wear contacts that might be a hard statement to fully understand.
After the first week I was fully prepared to rip the lenses out, seven full days and night of constant wear – that is usually the death rattle for most lenses, even extended wear. But no, I had no trouble at all with them the first week, second week – even the third week! I did start to get a little sore entering the fourth week and knew that I should take them out and that they’d reached the level where things were going to start going down hill. When I removed the lenses I gave them a good hard look to see if there were any deposits or pitting and I couldn’t see any. I was half tempted to rinse them off and soak them over night with some enzyme tables but these had seen three long hard weeks of wear so I’d rather pitch them than try to squeeze out another week. I might be cheap some times but my vision isn’t something that I screw around with. Chris got the full four weeks from his and says that he’ll never use another lens. He was able to sleep in them, work in them and they never gave him the slightest bit of discomfort. He did need to use drops though, his workplace tends to go through some strange climate changes and when the air conditioning kicks on late at night it really does a number on his eyes.
Things To Know
Shortly after Chris and I received our lenses, my oldest son asked if he could get a pair. He recently started wearing lenses all the time and swears he will never go back to glasses. I was a little apprehensive about letting him wear these since they are designed for thirty days of continuous wear. After bugging me almost non stop for about a month I finally called a family friend / optometrist who said that he saw no reason why he shouldn’t give them a try but he had to be careful and watch for any signs of a reaction, redness, soreness or blurred vision. After having a long talk about them with him we decided that he could try them for one month but this was a huge responsibility and he would have to take them out if there were any signs of an allergic reaction. Luckily he wore them for almost a whole month without any trouble and I stocked up on them for him before he went back to England for school. I wouldn’t suggest these for kids under the age of thirteen unless they are seen by an optometrist and he or she thinks that they would be a good pick. While these are meant to make your life easier if you don’t recognize the early warning signs of an allergic reaction or infection, you could be placing your vision in danger.
As much as this is touted as miracle product, you may still want to see or check with your eye care provider before you make a purchase. If you go to the website you will be able to enter your email address to get a coupon for a free pair. Some people won’t be able to wear these for the four full weeks so it is pretty important to know some of the tell tale signs that you need to remove them. Don’t throw out your contact lens products just yet, chances are you will have to take them out from time to time when you get something in your eye or one of those pesky eyelashes manages to get stuck on the lens. While I didn’t have to clean mine for three weeks, you may not get the same results so discuss the pros and cons with your eye care provider to see if these are a good pick for you. Aside from initially getting them in my eye, I wore them non-stop and most of the time wasn’t even aware that I had them in. But again, you might not have the same luck so be prepared for the worst and pray for the best.
The Bottom Line
So far the lenses are better than I expected and while I didn’t get the full thirty days wear from them, I did get about three weeks of uninterrupted wear without having to remove them to clean them. The strength and size were dead on accurate and while they were a few dollars more than my usual lenses, there’s a very good chance that these will be the ones that I go with when I exhaust my stock of Acuvue or plan on doing some traveling or camping – times when the last thing you want to deal with is the daily routine of cleaning and storing lenses. I’d rather pay a few dollars more and have clear vision for almost a month than to save a few dollars and have to watch the lenses like a hawk for signs of pitting or deposits. I have no idea how CIBA came up with this lens but if the creators were here right now, I’d lay a big fat kiss on them for giving me a lot of freedom and being able to tuck my cache of contact lens care products under the sink.
For more information about these lenses, please visit the official website at www.nightanddaycontacts.com. You can learn more about these lenses, request a free trial pair and find a doctor in your area that carries them.
As always, thanks for the visit …
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
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