Currently, Americans in all 50 states can buy contacts both from ECPs and other sources such as optical chains, warehouse clubs and online stores. This privilege originates from a 2004 legislation that patients are entitled to obtain a copy of contacts prescription from ECPs without extra cost, which was only available in certain states before that time. This law profoundly separated fitting and lenses buying. You will never be forced to buy contacts from ECPs after been fitted. Today, contacts prescriptions are just like ones of other medical products like medicines that may provide more information than eyeglasses prescriptions. With a prescription, customers can buy disposable lenses regularly.

An accurate prescription is needed for contacts. Poorly fitting contacts and lenses made of unsuitable materials may cause discomfort, inflammation, swelling, and most severely, permanent vision loss. Sharing contacts may also bring dangerous infections. In US, optometrists, ophthalmologists as well as opticians are entitled to fit contact lenses.

Subtle eye problems may have developed even you are still feeling good with your eyes and contacts. Some ophthalmologists have ever found eye problems during regular eye exams, so that you must update the prescription within a certain period, which is also listed by either federal law or state law. Another point worth mentioning is that you can change your contacts size, material or design if you are diagnosed with a lens-related problem.

Contacts prescriptions use standard terms, abbreviations and measurements, which look like secret codes yet easy for recognition. Besides regular items, your prescription may also tell the recommended replacement period or the expiry. By US law, the expiry normally is at least one year and in most of the cases it may be longer than this. However, you should always follow your ECP for final decision, rather than the products instructions.

Also called RGPs, rigid gas permeable or oxygen permeable lenses, gas permeable (GP) contact lenses are less-known than soft lenses. RGPs are different from “hard” contact lenses, which have disappeared today, although they were popular before the invention of soft lenses in 1971. PMMA hard lenses are uncomfortable and prohibit oxygen from passing through the lenses.

Invented in the late 1970s, GP lenses contain silicone, which is more flexible than PMMA and allows more oxygen to pass through, creating more comfort and better vision. They also have many other advantages, such as more durable and deposit resistant, easier to clean, and less expensive. However, GP lenses demand a longer adapting period than soft lenses.

GP lens is the right solution for people unsatisfied with soft lenses, such as vision fussy individuals, people with astigmatism, presbyopia or keratoconus, or individuals after a refractive surgery. GP lenses offer the best answer for bifocal lenses for people with presbyopia. Ortho-k lenses also use GPs.

GP lenses are not flawless. They require a regular wearing for most comfort and a longer time to adjust, which never happen to soft lenses. GPs may still cause blurry eyes when they are removed, even if the situation will soon disappear. GP lenses also need more careful cleaning and storing since they last at least one year.

Currently, new versions of lenses that combine the visual clarity from GPs and comfort from soft lenses are available, which remove the most significant obstacle for GPs. These special lenses are used for presbyopia, keratoconus and LASIK recovery.

If you are above 18, you can resort to LASIK for long term vision recovery, getting rid of daily removal, cleaning, and disinfecting of eyeglasses or contacts. There is actually another option to tackle these hassle problems: 30 days extended wear contact lenses that are approved by FDA.

Both LASIK and extended wear contacts have safety issues. In the early days of continuous wear contacts, many people were reported that they experienced eye infections so that the FDA reduced 30 days to 7 days for a maximum continuous wearing. Although the FDA has approved the new invented silicone hydrogel contacts for 30 days continuous wear because of its testified safety, these contact lenses are still not for some people who have previous eye problems.

Rich clinical experience may help surgeons screen out poor candidates for LASIK, but most of the people still suffer from nighttime glare and dryness during the several months after the surgery. The good news is that new refractive surgery technologies including femtosecond lasers, eye-tracking, new wave-guided laser treatments have significantly reduces the risks of LASIK.

Another aspect to make a comparison between continuous contacts and LASIK is effectiveness. If 30-day contacts can provide enough visual satisfaction for the wearer, they are the better choice than LASIK. Continuous contacts wearer can still move to bifocal lenses or reading glasses when they entering presbyopic ages. Statistics show that most patients after LASIK can get 20/20 visual acuity. An exception is that some LASIK-received patients may experience a visual change after a certain period. While some of them need eyeglasses during night for visual compensation, others even need a second LASIK. LASIK is less effective for people above 40.

Extended wear contacts require no lens care expense, but a 12-month supply of them needs almost $250 to $300. The surgery cost and subsequent expenses after LASIK are much higher than continuous contacts. An LASIK itself cost an average of $2000 for one eye, even if you can divide it into several installments. Patients after LASIK also need regular eye exams to check vision changes, nonprescription sunglasses for UV protection and safety goggles for sports participation.

It is all up to yourself if you are the right candidates for both 30-day continuous contacts and LASIK. There are some factors that may help you make a decision. Contact lenses have lower risks than LASIK, although the latter removes even the monthly lenses removal and replacement. 30-day contact lenses provide more flexible solutions that you can switch to other contacts according to vision change, and they are much cheaper than LASIK.

In fact, there are other options if you can not get enough satisfaction from either 30-day contacts or LASIK, such as Ortho-k contacts and daily disposable contacts. Ortho-k contacts free you from daytime lenses wearing, while daily disposable lenses eliminate lens care. A fact is that daily disposable contacts cost about twice the expense of 30-day lenses, although they also solve the dry-eye problem for nightwear.