Contact Lenses

Contact lenses offer many benefits, and can be a great way of enhancing your vision. They can provide better more ‘natural’ vision than glasses for many people, and for others they can be a great help for playing sports or for social events where glasses may get in the way. Contact lenses can be worn very safely and successfully, as long as they are looked after carefully and with regular professional care.

If You Are New To Contact Lenses:

We understand that the prospect of putting a lens in your eye for the first time can be quite daunting! Contact lenses are now surprisingly comfortable, and most people who wear soft contact lenses are barely even aware of the lens being in their eye once it’s in. We usually find that within minutes of the Optician putting the first lens in for you, you can hardly feel it there!

If you are new to contact lens wear we will teach you how to safely insert and remove your lenses, and will make sure you are confident at doing this before you take them home.

We will provide all new and existing wearers with full advice on how to care for lenses and how to wear them safely. Even if you have been wearing lenses for many years, this can be invaluable advice as we now understand much more about the relationship between the contact lens and the eye, and some older methods of handling lenses are now considered outdated and potentially dangerous.

If You Have Tried Contact Lenses Before & Not Found Them Successful:

Recent developments in contact lens materials have allowed us to overcome many of the problems experienced by lens wearers in the past. This is great news for many patients who have had problems with uncomfortable lenses or dry eyes, as the modern materials we use tend to be much better at retaining moisture. Silicone Hydrogel soft lenses have also made contact lens wear much easier and safer for many patients, as they are much more breathable than conventional soft lenses, and can often be safely worn for longer periods (of course, with the guidance of your Contact Lens Practitioner). Lenses for correcting more complex prescriptions such as astigmatism have also improved to help provide more stable and sharp vision. Whatever difficulties you have had in the past, we will be happy to discuss them and work out what options may be available.

At Lovat Short Optometrists we have the flexibility to choose from all lenses available in the UK, so we are able to fit and provide contact lenses for almost any prescription, including for patients with astigmatism and multifocal needs. If your prescription does not fall within manufacturers’ ‘standard’ ranges, we can arrange to fit custom-made lenses in either soft or rigid gas-permeable materials.

If you would like to try contact lenses for the first time, or if you would like to consider updating your current contact lenses, please contact us at the practice to discuss your needs or to book an appointment.

Contact Lens Care

UK legislation now requires that anybody purchasing contact lenses must have had them fitted by a Contact Lens professional, to prevent the dangers that can be caused by lenses fitting badly or not being looked after properly.

At Lovat Short Optometrists we feel it is important that our patients have easy access to advice from a Contact Lens professional, so that any problems can be investigated and managed appropriately in the early stages. We believe the simplest way to do this is to provide contact lens care for a one-off annual fee, so once you have paid for your care you do not have to worry about paying fees for every visit. This means our contact lens patients are welcome to see us for any problem, no matter how small, and we are always happy to help.