Glasses, contact lenses or laser eye surgery?

Your sense of vision is one of the most important parts of your body. Those who have to live without clear vision often have to go to extreme lengths to live a normal life, often relying on others to help them throughout their day.

Of course, though, even if your vision isn’t the worst in the world, it can be hard to enjoy life when you struggle to see properly.

There are three main options to solve this problem in the modern world, but which is the best for you and what do they all involve? Let’s find out.

Glasses

Glasses are by far the most common tool used around the world for solving vision problems. Specially designed lenses are used to alter the light that goes into your eyes, altering it to make up for the problems you have with your vision.

Glasses are cheap, easy to use, and can look nice and stylish if you choose the right pair, making them an obvious choice for anyone with poor eyesight.

The benefits of glasses

• Cheap & easy: Glasses can be bought for nearly nothing, nowadays, giving you the chance to get started right away.
• Robust: Glasses have been used for a very long time, making their design robust and strong.
• Flexible: You can easily remove your glasses when you don’t need them, ensuring that they can be flexible depending on your lifestyle.

The downsides of glasses

• Visible: Everyone who sees you will know that you are wearing glasses, making it hard to hide this part of your life.
• Misty: While it may be a small issue, most glasses will get misty when in the wrong conditions. This makes it hard to see in high humidity.
• Easy to lose: People lose glasses all the time, forcing you to keep a spare pair at home to make sure that you don’t get caught without them. It can be quite an issue if you lose your glasses and need them to drive as you won’t be able to legally drive. It’s also expensive to keep replacing lost or broken glasses.

Contact lenses

Contact lenses work very similarly to regular glasses, providing you with a set of small lenses that sit in front of your eyes. This option is more discreet than glasses, though it can often cost more, too.

You can get contact lenses through the same eye doctor you speak to for your glasses, though there are a lot of companies out there that can make them for you if you give them your prescription.

The benefits of contact lenses

• Very subtle: It is almost impossible to see clear contacts when someone is wearing them, making this option far more subtle than glasses.
• Easy to use: While some people worry about contact lenses, they are much easier to use than they used to be.

The downsides of contact lenses

• Expensive: Most contact lenses are single-use, and this means that you have to keep buying them.
• Uncomfortable for some: Some people find contacts very uncomfortable, though this is something you have to figure out for yourself.

Eye surgery

Eye surgery comes in a couple of different forms, but it always works differently to glasses or contacts. Laser eye surgery involves using a laser to essentially recalibrate your eyes, giving you the chance to enjoy clear vision without having to wear glasses.

An ophthalmologist can talk you through your options for this treatment, giving you the chance to work towards fixing your eyes without having to carry accessories all the time.

The benefits of eye surgery

• Total solution: Not all eye surgery options will make your eyesight perfect, but they will usually yield the best results compared to glasses and contacts.
• Long-lasting: Eye surgery can often last forever, but even in cases where it does, you can still expect over a decade of good vision.
• Precise: Glasses and contacts can often leave something to be desired, though surgery is done with far greater precision.

The downsides of eye surgery

• Expensive: Thanks to the training required to be able to work on eyes, it costs quite a bit to have eye surgery.
• Scary: A lot of people find themselves worried about this type of surgery before they have it, with the idea of someone working on their eyes being unpleasant.

You have a lot of eye health options nowadays, but you have to pick carefully to get the best results. There are plenty of other options out there to maintain eye health, from improving your diet to watching less TV, but if your sight is already poor and needs adjusting then this means choosing between glasses, contacts, or going the extra mile and getting surgery.