Q: How Many Contacts Come in a Box?

A: Six*

This is one of the more common questions I hear when people are wondering how much their contacts are going to cost. The simple answer is six, but there is a better question to ask: “How much is a year supply of contacts?”

Some brands of contacts are meant to be replaced every two weeks and others are one month. So you have to buy twice as many boxes for a two week lens vs the one month kind. On average, the one month kind are almost twice as much as the two week lenses, but this varies from brand to brand.

In general, the cheaper contacts you see advertised to get you in the door are made from an older, plastic technology that in general is more dry and less breathable on your eyes. The newer contact lens materials cost a little more, but most people notice their eyes feel significantly less dry and red with the newer, breathable contacts.

If you want to find out how much contacts cost per box, check out 1800Contacts.com. If you buy a complete year supply, you can usually get a discount, and having a year supply tends to make it less likely that you will over-wear your contacts and get an eye infection.

*If you get the daily disposable contacts, they come in packs of 30 or 90.

Because the contact lens doesn’t completely cover your eyes, is it even important for your contacts to have UV blocking? This panel of expert eye doctors concludes that yes, it is. I think it’s especially true if your sunglasses do not have a wrap to stop UV coming in from the side. The UV light on a standard frame will sneak through the side and reflect off the back lens surface and onto/into your eyes. UV blocking contacts filter out these peripheral rays.

These graphs from Acuvue.com illustrate the difference in UV blocking ability between several popular brands of contacts:

UVA blocking ability of select soft contact lenses

UVB blocking ability of select soft contact lenses

Most contacts don’t block UV except Johnson & Johnson’s Acuvue brand of lenses. The reason is most soft contacts are created in a solid plastic and then hydrated at the end. Part of their process is to use UV light to cure the lens, so it would be impossible for these manufacturers to create a UV blocking lens. Acuvue, on the other hand, hydrates the lens from the onset, so they can build UV blocking into the material because they don’t need UV light curing for their polymer.

I know a guy who works for Acuvue who told me about a time his daughter went snow skiing and refused to put on sunglasses or goggles. At the end of the day, her eyes were completely red from UV light passing through the clouds, bouncing off the snow, and inflaming her eyes. When she took off the contacts that evening, she had a white ring where the contact lens overlaps from the cornea onto the conjunctiva. Her Acuvue lenses had spared her from getting a photokeratitis! (However, her photo-conjunctivitis was still pretty painful and required some eye drops to treat it.)

My message is, if all things are equal, contact lens wearers should consider getting contacts that block UV light. Also, everyone should wear sunglasses with a side wrap to decrease UV exposure to areas in and around your eyes. Your skin, conjunctiva, and lens will be healthier and look younger for longer. Start your kids out young with sunwear because this is the most important time to prevent UV exposure.

Sources for more information:

• Acuvue.com
• American Optometric Association
• Contact Lenses holding AOA Seal of Acceptance for UV blocking

(Note: not everyone can wear Acuvue lenses due to fit on their eye or prescription not available in their powers. Ask me during your eye exam if Acuvue lenses are a possibility for your eyes.)

• Replace your lenses on the approved schedule. (An old lens is a dry lens.)
• How many hours a day do you wear your lenses? Not all lenses are meant to be worn 14+ hours a day.
• Ask your eye doctor if he would recommend a certain kind of contact lens brand/material that could help decrease dryness and match your wear time lifestyle.
• What contact lens care system are you using? Ask your eye doctor for a recommendation considering your eye health and contact lens material.

The contact lens care system you buy is very important because not all contact lens materials are compatible with all contact lens solutions. This has been studied and the researchers publish a grid that helps us predict for most people what solutions they should use. Here is copy I grabbed from their website on January 26, 2011 (click to enlarge):

Match up your solution with your contacts. Is it usually compatible for most people?

My observations are that that Optifree and ClearCare are generally compatible with contact lens materials. (Please don’t just buy the Unisol Saline because it won’t disinfect your lenses.) In general, the Acuvue2, Acuvue Oasys, and Biofinity materials are compatible with most contact lens solutions.

So, in short, if you experience dryness, first start by replacing your contacts according to the recommended schedule which I mark on your prescription paper. If you already do this, then the next step I would take is try changing your contact lens care system.

In your contact lens exam I recommend and mark on your contact lens prescription paper specific contact lens care systems for your eyes based on the lens material, your previous experiences with solutions, and your eye health.

Don't wear contacts in a hot tub!

Yucky Eye Infection

Also, replace your contact lens case more often. How old is that thing, anyway?
For more information about avoiding serious eye infections, please read here and here.

But realize you have other choices. There are some lenses on the market that you can officially sleep in, like the Ciba Focus Night & Day. I can already hear you say, “No, I can’t sleep in my contacts- too uncomfortable.”

That’s because you tried it in those standard lenses. If you really want the convenience of just taking your lenses out once a week or once a month, then at your next contact lens evaluation ask me about the newer, more breathable silicone hydrogel lenses.

Another thing, maybe you have had poor luck with wearing contacts because they dry out your eyes too much. I have strategies for that as well. If your eyes match the lens, we can try out the Acuvue Oasys material or the CooperVision Avaira or Biofinity. Also, it’s a little known fact that contact lens solutions can effect contact lens comfort. We can switch your multi-purpose solution to Opti-Free or try the Clear Care system because in a study, these two were shown to cause the least amount of trouble for the most people.

Allergy suffers sometimes think it’s not possible to wear contacts. Prescription eye drops like Pataday in conjunction with daily disposable contacts or frequent replacement contacts while using Clear Care can make all the difference for allergy eyes.

Another contact lens option is Ortho-K. A hard contact lens is worn during the night. You take it out in the morning, and you see great all day long without any glasses or contacts. Then at night you put it back it. It’s like a retainer for your eyes. It molds the surface cells of your cornea into a lens shape so you can see clearly during the day. Its benefits include being completely reversible if you ever want LASIK in the future from a place like TLC in Ogden. Also, studies indicate that for kids whose eyes seem to rapidly progress in nearsightedness from year to year Ortho-K slows down this acceleration (see here, here, and here). Ask me at your next eye exam if you are a good candidate because I can only do it for low to moderate nearsightedness with low astigmatism.

Another contact lens option you should be aware of is bifocal/multifocal contact lenses. The optics are a little complex, which means your vision probably won’t be as crystal clear as your glasses with Nikon or Zeiss progressive lenses, but at least you can take a break from glasses when you want and still see pretty good far away and up close. You should try them out and see what you think.

Your contact lens options will sometimes be dictated by your eye shape and glasses prescription, but more often than not it can be a lifestyle choice. During my exams we’ll talk about what contacts are available to you that will match your budget and, more importantly, which ones can keep up with your lifestyle.

Dr. Bazan wrote a post about why he likes them. Let me add that they are great if you have any eye allergies. They are great for your teenage kids because while you love your kids unconditionally, can you trust them completely? I mean trust them to always take care of their contacts properly so that they can avoid blinding eye infections (throwing away contacts on schedule, not sleeping in them, washing hands before applying or taking out the lens, avoiding swimming in them, getting a new case every 3 months, removing the lens if any redness, pain, light sensitivity, and/or discharge-watering occurs and calling me to schedule an appointment, get a yearly eye exam to renew the prescription)?

What was my question again? Oh, yeah…do you trust your kid to do all that stuff? Probably not, especially since chances are YOU don’t do all that stuff. So yep, your kids and you would do great in daily disposable contact lenses (if available in your powers and eye shape).

My favorites are Ciba Focus Dailies, Coopervision Clearsight or Proclear 1-Days. At your next appointment (or your kid’s) ask me about daily disposable contacts.

Please note: not all prescriptions and eye shapes are available in daily disposable contact lenses. I can explain all your contact lens options during a complete eye exam with a contact lens evaluation upgrade.