Do You Have To Change Focus Monthly Contact Lenses Every Month? Why or Why Not? Can You Extend The Wear Time?

Question

I've just gotten contacts and they said you need to discard them every month. Usually this type of limit is under stated and you can use them for longer periods of time. What would stop you from doing that? What if you only wore them for 12 hours a day and not 16? could you go 45 days? Longer?

I would appreciate any help, thanks in advance for any information or insight on this.

I don't need lectures on how you should follow the rules and be ultra careful lest you fall off the earth and float away into outer space or anything bone headed like that. Just practical information on the lenses and what would cause them to go bad and harm your eyes if you wore them to long. How they break down over time, anything like that. Thanks

Answer 1

What keeps me from overwearing my contacts?  Maturity, responsibility, and a sense of personal hygiene.  Along with the risks of dry eye, serious infections, corneal neovascularization, giant papillary conjunctivitis, and corneal ulcers.

The longer you wear a contact, the more protein builds up in it, increasing your risk for infections and depriving your eyes of oxygen, especially if you sleep in them.  Oxygen deprivation leads to blood vessels growing over your eyes.  Even if you clean the contacts well, there will still be buildup.  This can scratch your cornea, lead to ulcers, and irritate your eyelids.

Wear times are set up to protect you.  I would much rather underwear a contact than overwear one.  And wearing a pair for six months?  That's just disgusting.

And you're right, not following the rules won't make you fall off the earth; you'll just damage your eyes enough to not be able to wear contacts ever again.

I know it seems like everybody overwears his or her contacts, but it really is not good for your eyes.  Optometrists are not out to make a buck by charging you for tons of contacts; they are watching out for the health of your eyes.  Please follow their advice.  You'll be glad you did.  :)

Answer 2

The "limit" set is to help keep your eyes as healthy as possible (as I'm sure you understand).  But it sometimes helps if you think of your contact lens as a sponge.  Much like a sponge, you can clean the contact lens multiple times and get it relatively clean.  But, after a while, no matter how much you try to clean them, you know they've held onto things (bacteria and protein) you can no longer clean and you throw them away.   Not only does the bacteria put you at great risk for infection, this buildup also prevents as much oxygen from getting to your cornea through the lens.  Your cornea does not have blood vessels and because of this, it gets its oxygen from your tears and the air.  When the lens isn't letting enough oxygen through, blood vessels will start trying to grow onto your cornea to provide the needed oxygen.  Not something you want to happen.

Keeping the contact lenses beyond the recommended amount of time is like playing chicken with the health of your eyes.  It would be just a matter of time before something happened.  And the people who say they consistantly overwear their contact lenses without consequence are kidding themselves or very lucky.

Answer 3

ok, I have been wearing contacts for over 30 years since my teens.  I wear the same ones forever, until they start to bother me.  Never had any problem with doing that.  I think I have been wearing the pair I have on right now for at least 6 months and probably more like 8 or 9 months, I forget.  My optician always comments on how clean my contacts are whenever he examines my eyes.  I don't tell him it's because I don't touch them.  I do tend to change my right one more frequently than the left, only because I have astigmatism in that eye and I guess the lens loses its shape after a while.  Oh, yes, I do sleep in them so I am talking CONTINUOUS wear for 6 or more months.

Answer 4

You get the product line from the "pros" no great surprise there right? What I wonder about is why exactly 30 days? What is magical about day 30? Why do the prices seem to correspond more to the times you wear them than anything else? Things are to pat to be based on good science, and it sounds more like marketing convenience. Oh, but no marketing goes on in the drug and medical industry right? No profiteering there right? Yeah ... Right.

From a scientific angle protein buildup would be a matter of wearing hours, not calendar days, so why do they format the instructions as they do? It doesn't follow does it. And bacteria buildup? To allow this they must be porous, which they are. This would also allow the cleaning fluid to penetrate and sterilize the lenses, that's what the fluid claims to do. It also allows the fluid to wash off protein buildup, which is what it claims to do. So why do the "pros" claim both problems occur? I mean a weeks bacteria growth can be it, you don't need a month, so why is the month critical to bacteria growth? It smacks of bull stuff, doesn't it?

What are the tests for wear? What are the times used and what are the results? How and why does harmful bacteria build up to unacceptable levels in a month, but it's safe at 3 weeks?They don't give those out do they? Why not?

Do they have a financial interest in your using more contacts? Yes, they do.

I wouldn't test the wear times, because those are based on real substantive circumstances where there is protein buildup and they do dry out your eyes after a while. As far as the length of time you can keep them in use? Like I said, there is a whole lot of "stuff" in play there.

Your eyes are pretty important so you have to decide if you want to push it. I won't suggest either way, just making observations about where they are coming from and the apparent quality of the information they give. Plus I'm tired and in the middle of crashing, so sorry about the redundancy and rambling.

Answer 5

You know what? I am supposed to change my contacts every month. I never do. They told me it is so you don't get eye infections. Well, I think it is so you run out and have to go spend more money buying more. I use my contact untill they either rip or bother my eye.

I always keep them clean. Ihave been wearing my contacts this way for 20 years and never had one problem. And I have gone 6 months without replacing. Oh but I don't sleep in them.

Answer 6

Yes, every month. U can extend it but not adivsable. It is at the user own risk to wear overdue lenses.