High street opticians represent part of an industry that is currently worth over 2.5 million. With the increase in technologies surrounding spectacles, many consumers do not question the price attached such necessities. However, there is a pattern emerging where people would prefer to buy contact lenses or spectacles online, rather than pay high street prices. Research suggests that the actual production cost can be as little as one fiftieth of the high-street price.

Several websites have endeavoured to combine the best of both worlds, including online prices with your optician's prescription advice, to provide a step-by-step guide to buying cheaper, suitable glasses:

Step 1
Choose your frames. You can browse our frames by material, gender, face shape or Designer brand. Prices of prescription frames include standard lenses (plastic or polycarbonate, depending on your chosen frame style), a stylish case and cleaning cloth.

Step 2
Enter your prescription details, which you will have received from your optician. Ensure your prescription details are accurate, so you receive the best possible spectacles for you.

Step 3
Advice on the best lenses, based on your individual prescription and choice of frames, will be given. In some instances, you may be referred back to your local optician. Otherwise, choose one of the available lens options. Depending on your selection of lens, you may be offered a choice of tints and/or coatings.
These are optional, but may enhance the look, performance and durability of your spectacles.

Step 4
Choose any accessories required to complement your new spectacles.

Step 5
Your spectacles can be delivered to home or work, and paid for by credit / debit card.

Step 6
Ensure all the details on the confirmation page are correct before your order is submitted.

CONTACT LENSES
Contact lenses are transparent, curved discs worn on the eyes, predominantly to correct faulty vision. Usually made of plastic, they are shaped to fit precisely on to the outer membrane of the eyeball (cornea). Reasons for choosing lenses as an alternative to spectacles include:
  • More effective correction of some kinds of vision problem, particularly short-sightedness.
  • After removal of cataracts, where spectacles may cause vision distortion.
  • Personal appearance.
Greater choice and availability of lenses, along with improved comfort and cost reductions, have made them increasingly popular. The earliest description is credited to Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500s. However, the first wearable type emerged in Germany c1885. The first commercial lenses became available in the United Kingdom in the 1940s.

HARD LENSES
Hard plastic lenses are the most common, most durable type. They may last five years+, and are highly effective in correcting myopia (short sightedness).
They are also cheap and relatively easy to look after.
Drawbacks, however, are:
  • Eyes developing intolerance to the lenses producing discomfort, especially when particles get trapped under the lens.
  • A tendency of the lens to pop out when eyes are dry or tired.
  • Losing tolerance to the lenses after wearing spectacles for any period.
Some are unable to wear hard lenses since their eyes are too dry / sensitive, or are unable to keep the lenses clean. If lenses are kept in for too long, the cornea may become scratched, causing watering eyes and pain.
Certain lenses allow oxygen to enter the eye, while providing the same vision correction as ordinary hard lenses. Such "gas-permeable" lenses offer greater comfort, but are more expensive and less durable than hard lenses.

SOFT LENSES
Soft lenses provide the greatest degree of comfort because of their flexibility and high water content (up to 80%). Eyes tend to tolerated soft lenses immediately and completely, meaning they can be worn for far longer period. They are less easily lost out of the eye. They include:
  • Opaque, painted lenses which enhance the colour of the eye.
  • Lenses that can be worn for up to one month.
  • Disposable lenses, which are replaced every day.
Soft lenses, although still the most expensive, have become cheaper in the past ten years, and more popular as a result. They can correct short and long sightedness. Until recently, they were discouraged astigmatism (irregularly shaped cornea) as they may fit the eyeball too closely for light passing through them to strike the retina at the required angle. However, technological advances have made them acceptable for some forms of astigmatism, although the level of vision correction is not as total as that achieved by wearing spectacles or hard lenses. Toric lenses, (in the shape of a ring doughnut) which have an uneven surface and are made from various materials, are sometimes prescribed for astigmatism.

Problems with soft lenses include tearing during handling; care that is more involved and maintenance; and eye infections (especially in wearers of extended-wear lenses) because of skipping stages in maintenance. Soft lenses also have to be replaced at shorter intervals (every 18 months).

CARE OF CONTACT LENSES
Substances used in the maintenance of hard lenses are for cleaning (after wearing), storage (which is washed off before insertion), and wetting (applied before insertion to ease the process).

Soft lenses previously needed several weaker solutions due to the lenses' permeability. These include a disinfection procedure to remove infective agents, followed by another solution to neutralize the bleaching process to prepare the lenses for wear. Enzyme tablets have to be used for all soft lenses to remove eye mucus and proteins, which nevertheless build up and produce blurring, at which point the lenses have to be replaced. A reaction to the solutions used may produce pain, redness and oozing eye mucus. Any such discomfort or inflammation means ceasing to wear the lenses and seeking advice from an ophthalmologist or optician.

Newly developed solutions combine cleaning, storage, and neutralization in one fluid, although an additional cleaning solution is recommended
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