Anyone wear monthly (extended wear) contacts?

<watching thread with interest>

My mum has worn them for a few years now (specsavers ones) and has persuaded me to try them too. I'm -7.25 in each eye with a strong astigmatism too so was told they didn't make them for my prescription last time I looked into it.

She says hers are so comfortable she really doesn't know she's wearing them

I don't have astigmatism, but am short sighted (-6 and -7) and use monthly lenses - I love them! And apparently my eyes are more healthy now then when I was on the daily ones. The best thing is to be able to see when I get up in the night straight away - Its like having new eyes!I just get the ones from specsavers and never had a problem. Anything you want to know specially?

Me ! i know my optician hunted high and low for some that worked for me but can,t remember name. when can move baby will goand look for you.

i needed something i could sleep in at work so they are great. i still wear my glasses more than contacts but mainly 'cos i prefer how i look in them.

I'm -6 in both eyes with a slight astigmatism... I use the specsavers ones, they are great...

This is important for me too (although I hardly ever get to sleep on nights anyway, but if the opportunity came up, it'd be nice to take it!)

Those who get them from Specsavers - are they own brand? I buy my disposables on line as it was costing loads to go through the opticians.

Do you all wear them continuously for the whole month? Do they get dry or uncomfortable at all?

Thanks for the help.

Loved, loved, loved them. I was -3.5 with a mild astigmatism in left eye. I wore the extended wear contacts for about 6 years - absolutely loved them. Definitely more comfortable for me than daily contacts (lighter? couldn't tell I had them in except that I could see) and I loved, loved, loved that I could see the whole time I was awake and could fall asleep without worrying about dragging lenses out of drunked eyes. When I used to wear daily contact lenses I almost always ended up wearing glasses instead - too rushed in the morning to force lenses into sleepy and puffy eyes.

I used to wear them back to back. The advice now seems to be to give it at least a 24 hour break and possibly a few days/week between 30 day cycles. Apparently some wearers had trouble with them when wearing back to back. I never asked what kind of trouble as I didn't care - they were always great for me. I dallied with laser eye surgery several times while wearing them, so had extensive eye health checks and was always told everything was great. So, whatever the issues other people had with them were, they weren't negatively affecting my eyes.

I ended up having laser eye surgery as I'm sponsored to race again this year and insurance won't cover contact lens wearers. I was also getting a run of conjunctivitis, which with extended wear lenses is expensive (as I'm sure you know, you need to throw away any lenses you've worn when suffering conjunctivitis). Throwing away a daily pair of lenses is fine, but at £30 a pair, it hurts a bit more to throw away an extended pair...

Downsides? Swimming/holidays were a little bit of a faff. Removing daily lenses in a changing room is fine, as if you lose them you just stick a new pair in. Losing a pair of extendeds is a pain. I usually went back to dailies and glasses for holidays were I was in and out of the pool. Some brands are more durable than others. I bought a set of 6 pairs of one particular brand (sorry, can't remember which brand) and about 6 of the 12 split either on insertion or while wearing them. Optometrists don't seem to like them - they were always slightly reluctant to prescribe them to me when I changed to a new clinic and wanted to know how much experience I'd had with them (and whether positive or negative).

If I didn't have the insurance and conjunctivitis issue, I'd still be wearing them now. (Conjunctivtis wasn't caused by the lenses - doctor and optometrist confirmed this.)

I think my standard brand was Acuvue (?sp - it's been a while), but I migrated between optometrists and they all only ever recommended two brands for me. I assumed eye shape determined which brands were suitable?

I was giving my eyes a break, but optician said I didn't need to between lenses so now I wear straight through the month and just change them once a month.

I only find them starting to get unconfortable when I forget to change them at the end of the month! I think they are a brand from specsavers, but I only pay about £12 (i think!) a month through specsavers and I get free check ups and if I had a problem I could get a free appointment straight away so I don't mind paying that even if I could get them cheaper.

I tried these about 2.5 years ago and really didnt get on with them, but going by what you are all saying maybe I should give them abonter try!

I do have quite sensitve eyes, do any of you??

Also, why are they not good on hols, can you not wear them swimming??

also, are your lenses toric lenses???

No, I guess my eyes aren't sensitive. Not sure what toric lenses are, but I guess not, as I probably would know if I was using them? No, you aren't meant to wear lenses swimming. If you must swim with daily lenses in, you need to wear watertight goggles. I've done several years of swim training and I've never found a pair of watertight goggles...You shouldn't swim with the extended wear lenses in at all if you are leaving them in and not cleaning them daily, watertight goggles or not.

Sunny Day - though re your question about sensitive eyes, depends what you mean by sensitive - the extended wear are especially recommended for people who suffer dry eyes. Something about the increased oxygen flow available on these lenses is better for people with dry eyes and healthier than normal contact lenses.

I had them for about 3 months and they were fantastic - unfortunately I developed an eye infection and then couldn't wear them again. I have an astigmatism in my left eye and they worked the same as any other contact lens with that i.e. not great on it's own but works perfectly well with two eyes! I would have them again tomorrow if I could. I'm back on daily wear now unfortunately

I've been wearing extended wear lenses for 7 years now & would never, ever go back to dailies!

When I started wearing them I was with Specsavers - had a deal at about £20 a month for the lenses, solutions, bi-annual check ups. A few years later I developed an astigmatism and at the time the extended wear lenses couldn't correct that - but they can now. I'm -3.75 in both eyes.

Specsavers were using Bausch & Lomb Pure Vision extended wear lenses - they didn't have their own brand. I then switched over to buying the Bausch & Lomb lenses off of the internet (cheaper) and just going to Specsavers for check ups.

I got a bit fed up with Specsavers and moved over to Vision Express for the check ups - the optometrist there was pretty anti extended wear lenses - he said he just didn't see the point in them - why wouldn't you take your lenses out when you go to bed - you wouldn't sleep in your clothes etc etc. But he was OK to prescribe them for me as I had been wearing them so long and the health of my eyes were fine.

Right from the start I've been advised to have one clear day a week when I don't wear them. TBH I'm not very good at this - but try to have a lens free week once a month in between changing over the lenses. Also it is important to go for the check ups - if you were to buy them online - they wouldn't sell them to you without permission from your optometrist - who won't sanction the sale unless you came for a check up less than a year ago!

If you decide to go for it - Specsavers is probably a good place to start.

Anyway HTH - I usually post over on WP by the way.

Hmm, this might be a sticking point for me actually. I swim 3 times a week at the moment (with lenses in - I know, I know!). Having to take them out and have dailies would kinda defeat the point. Drat.

I tried them and I didn't like them. I felt like I'd slept in my lenses. I have always had problems with drying lenses though but I love my Moist dailies, the only comfortable lenses I've found, apart from gas permeable but they're so hard to get hold of now.

It probably doesn't help that I swam and wore loads of makeup! (not at the same time, obviously!)

By sensitive I mean not liking bright light etc, have to wear sunglasses if itsa a little bit sunny as I end up squinting and haveing very watery eyes

I used to wear monthlies years ago all the time but now dont wear any contacts at all. Was thinking about giving thee a try for holiday but if you cant wear them swimming its a bit pointless!!!!

I have had continuous wear contact lenses in the past. The only reason I don't have them atm is because I'm lazy and haven't sorted out new ones lol

I loved them, I think they're absolutely amazing, so comfortable to wear-much more than dailies. I used to wear them the whole time including swimming, shower etc I thought it was allowed?

I had them on a pretty good subscription deal at specsavers where you get money off new glasses and so on.

My optometrists were always ok with showering in them (just as well really, given they were 30 day wear...). I think what made shower water ok was mainly that it hasn't had kids peeing directly into it. I didn't question it too closely, tbh - just went with it. Perhaps advice has now changed - my last extended wear check-up was 18 months ago, when I got a 12 month batch of lenses and then took to wearing glasses for 6 months.

Well, I'm not an eye doctor and therefore not qualified to give advice, so you should probably ignore me BUT I always wear my daily lenses when I swim (I couldn't swim blind, it'd be awful) and I would wear extended lenses when swimming too. In fact, I told my optician that I wear my lenses to swim and gym and they didn't even comment. I didn't actually know you weren't supposed to, does anyone know why?

I really can't remember whether I was officially allowed to wear them for swimming or not, I still did though ?

I could be wrong but I was always under the impression that the reason not to wear them swimming is the risk of you losing them - the moisture in your eyes 'holds' the lenses there - if say you had your head under water and your eyes open - the water in the pool would break that 'bond'.

Actually it probably is much more likely to do with the risk of infection - you aren't supposed to rinse them in tap water are you?

Anyway that being said I've swum in mine loads with no ill effects!

I wouldn't swim underwater in them though.

The thing with tap water is trapping nasties between your eye and the lens I think

So if you get dry eyes these might be a good idea? I have some dailies which I am wearing once a week at the moment and after a couple of hours my eyes are starting to dry out and get itchy ☹️

MrR has them and ❤️s them. I am sure it is the Acuvue ones he has, he is -4.75. He has tried loads of different brands (my sis and BIL have their own optometrists business and get loads of trial lenses) and comes back to them. However my sister really rates (from a professional POV anyway) another make, buggered if I can remember what they are called ? but Mr R likes the acuvue.

AFAIK my sister has never advised MrR that. He does have some solutions that she gives him though. However maybe he's never told her he doesn't clean them after swims...he does wear goggles though. Had better get him to ask her.