Seven Reasons to Choose Luxury Eyeglasses Instead of Contact Lenses

Deciding between eyeglasses and contact lenses can be a tough choice for many San Francisco residents, and perhaps surprisingly, many people find that eyeglasses are a better choice for them than wearing contact lenses. Glasses have many advantages over contact lenses, and superior style and comfort are at the top of the list. Here are the top seven reasons San Francisco residents choose luxury eyeglasses and designer eyewear brands over contact lenses.

1. Cost

The cost of daily-wear soft contact lenses can be hundreds of dollars a year, and vision care insurance plans may or may not pay for part of the expense. Contact lens solution, rewetting drops, and contact cases can all add up, making contact lenses a pricey choice for most people.

By contrast, most people choose one great pair of eyeglasses for improved distance viewing that will last for years.

2. Style

Unlike contact lenses, luxury glasses and frames provide a chance to accessorize and to express personal style! Especially in the world of San Francisco designer eyewear, a luxury brand is not developed overnight, but takes years of perseverance and substance to achieve. Luxury brands represent success achieved through unique innovation, hard work, and progress over time. Luxury brands showcase quality, and make a personal statement about the wearer’s unique style.

3. Ease of Care

The choice to wear glasses instead of contact lenses comes down to ease of care for many people. Contact lenses require daily cleaning or replacement, and can be prone to debris under or on the lens that may require frequent cleaning or insertion or removal of the lens.

• Night storage. Wearers of eyeglasses can attest to the ease of storing them at night, which generally consists of removing glasses and placing them in a case or on a nightstand. By contrast, contact lenses must be removed individually from the eye, and depending on the type of lens, either thrown away or cleaned with solution, and placed in a case containing additional solution for overnight storage. In the morning, wearers of eyeglasses need only to put them back on, while contact lens wearers need to remove the lenses from the case one at a time, rinse them with solution, and insert them into each eye, a process requiring more time and additional steps.

• Daytime maintenance. Glasses can occasionally become streaked or spattered with debris, requiring the wearer to remove them and clean them with a soft cloth before placing them back on the face. Cleaning contact lenses requires a bit more work, as debris can cloud the lens on the inner or outer surface, irritating the eye and causing rapid blinking or watering of the eye. Cleaning contact lenses requires the wearer to remove them, rinse them with contact lens solution to clean them, and then reinsert. This process generally requires access to a sink for hand-washing before contact removal, and may require the wearer to carry contact lens solution with them when leaving home. The inability to immediately clean a contact lens due to lack of access to a sink or to contact lens solution has caused eye discomfort at one time or another for almost every contact lens wearer.

4. Better Night Vision

Some contact lens users have reported experiencing halos around lights or glare when wearing contacts at night, which sometimes interfere with nighttime driving. At night, the area of the eye that responds to light — the pupil — becomes larger, or dilated, to allow more light to enter the eye. Occasionally, the pupil becomes larger than the optical area of the contact lens, a condition called spherical aberration, which leads to glare or halos around lights.

Eyeglass wearers may be able to escape this phenomenon; the anti-reflective (AR) coating added to many luxury eyeglasses blocks some of the glare or halo effect that naturally occurs when lights are viewed through magnification lenses.

5. Eye Health Issues

Eye health can play a major role in the decision to wear eyeglasses, as many people are unable or unwilling to wear contacts due to eye conditions or increased risk of infections.

• Eye infections. The daily insertion of contact lenses into the eye can introduce bacteria into the eye, which may, in turn, cause an eye infection. Proper handwashing can help prevent infections, but as many contact lens wearers can attest, conjunctivitis (pink eye) or other infections can easily occur if lenses are inserted in less-than-sanitary conditions. Eyeglass wearers incur no greater risk of eye infections than non-wearers, as nothing is directly inserted into the eye area.

• Other serious eye conditions. Contact lenses can sometimes cause other serious eye conditions if not worn or handled properly. For example, corneal hypoxia occurs when contacts prevent oxygen from reaching the cornea. Contact lens wearers are more at risk for this condition if they wear lenses while they’re sleeping. Symptoms include blurry vision, tearing, and a burning or scratchy sensation. If left untreated, corneal hypoxia can lead to more serious conditions. Wearers of eyeglasses are typically not at risk of developing this condition, as glasses do not prevent the flow of oxygen to the cornea.

• Dry eye. Other eye health issues such as dry eye may prevent contact lenses from being worn comfortably. People with dry eyes may not produce enough natural tears to allow a contact to “float” freely over the center of the eye, and so may find contact lenses to be too uncomfortable to wear.

6. Age

Age frequently plays a role in making the choice between eyeglasses and contact lenses. Very young children are generally not able to handle the responsibility that goes along with wearing contact lenses, and may not have the dexterity required to insert and remove lenses each day. Older adults may lose dexterity over time, making daily insertion and removal of lenses impractical or burdensome. However, eyeglasses are a great choice for both young and old alike, and durable frames will enhance the wearer experience for people of all ages.

7. UV Protection

While contact lenses provide no protection from the San Francisco sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light, luxury glasses can provide UV protection if specially treated with UV-protective coating. Protection from UV rays is important, even in cloudy weather, as short-term exposure to UV rays can cause eye damage similar to a sunburn, making eyes red, puffy, or gritty. Some polycarbonate eyeglass lenses offer 100% UV protection, and regular plastic lenses can be treated with a UV-blocking coating to afford protection. Luxury brands frequently offer UV-protective coating for lenses.

Luxury eyewear brands are a great choice for those in San Francisco who want to enjoy comfort, ease, protection, and personal style.