A comparison between 30-day contact lenses and LASIK

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.