I'm new to glasses, finding it impossible to keep them clean. Advice?

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 hour ago, invictius said:

Does anyone get glare at the very top of the glasses when looking at a screen?  I was told it was due to antireflective coating.  Is a bit annoying.

Yes, it can be very annoying. If you're in the wrong position, it can actually make things look smudged. Many times I think my lens is dirty and it turns out to be a dull reflection. All of this stuff will be annoying to you at first, but you get used to it eventually. How much did you pay for the eye exam and the glasses?

[invictius]

20 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Yes, it can be very annoying. If you're in the wrong position, it can actually make things look smudged. Many times I think my lens is dirty and it turns out to be a dull reflection. All of this stuff will be annoying to you at first, but you get used to it eventually. How much did you pay for the eye exam and the glasses?

The exam was free with insurance, I actually had one to try and find a cause for suspected pain in the intraocular nerve (Even though it goes away with a saline iv).  The first pair of glasses were aud100 and the second pair 75, both after insurance.  Actually I think an eye exam is free even without insurance here.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

6 minutes ago, invictius said:

The exam was free with insurance, I actually had one to try and find a cause for suspected pain in the intraocular nerve (Even though it goes away with a saline iv).  The first pair of glasses were aud100 and the second pair 75, both after insurance.  Actually I think an eye exam is free even without insurance here.

Surprisingly that's more than I paid for mine in America - I got the exam and two pairs for around $80. They used to be a lot more expensive though. I refuse to wear contacts, I'd rather save up for Lasik surgery or something.

[Arrowhead]

Just now, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I refuse to wear contacts, I'd rather save up for Lasik surgery or something.

Had to wear contacts when I did competitive Tae Kwon Do for a while. I hate contacts - I dislike the feeling of them on my eyes.

 

Some people swear by contacts, though.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Just now, Arrowhead said:

Had to wear contacts when I did competitive Tae Kwon Do for a while. I hate contacts - I dislike the feeling of them on my eyes.

 

Some people swear by contacts, though.

I just dislike the concept of having to put something on my eyeball every day, and I severely dislike the concept of forgetting to take them out when I go to sleep. I can't even put in eye drops without flinching, there's no way I would be comfortable with contacts.

[natashanightmare]

I'm no expert but these things come to my mind immedeately nvm, those seem to be just microfibercloths

Edited October 17, 2023 by natashanightmare

[Clippy]

I just wipe mine off on whatever cat is nearest

[HeatedChocolate]

I ignore it until I can't anymore, then I use hot breath and a shirt. Probably horrible for the lenses, but hey it works.

[Lila Feuer]

Welcome to the eternal fucking war that is glasses getting dirty from literally everything. I just wet them with water and sometimes soap then rinse and then dry them off, sometimes it's not perfect, in fact it's never perfect when you wear a pair long enough, so it eventually becomes good enough. Even better is the scratches, but you gotta just get used to it.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Lila Feuer

[Jello]

21 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I just dislike the concept of having to put something on my eyeball every day, and I severely dislike the concept of forgetting to take them out when I go to sleep. I can't even put in eye drops without flinching, there's no way I would be comfortable with contacts.

Yeah I tried them when I was around 13 years old, when I was first told that I needed glasses. Both my Mom and my older brother had contacts, and I certainly didn't want to be called "four eyes". Of course this was back when glasses were considered nerdy (which I was), so I was scared to wear them. So yeah, I tried them, and initially had problems because, as the Optician said "My eyelids are really close to my eyes", so they weren't sure if they'd stay in place. Which, I was surprised about, because how far away are eyelids supposed to be? I always assumed that they just kind of closed over the eyeball, there wasn't really a gap.

 

But anyway, I did try them for a week, and yes, it was really damn freaky having to put something in my eye. There's a very good reason that virtually every species on Earth with eyes, blinks, when something is getting close to their eye. It's a protective response, so overcoming that was difficult. And then I guess my eyelids were really close, because the contact would get stuck, and move off to the side all the time. And then there was one time that I was standing there trying to take them out for about five minutes, running my fingers on my pupil to get it to bunch so I could pull it off. Then I finally realized that it had actually slipped off the pupil, and was bunched up near my tear duct. So I was putting my fingers on my pupil and rubbing it for five minutes.

 

After that, I noped away from contacts. I went with glasses. And oddly enough, people said I looked really good with glasses, I never got any grief for it whatsoever.

 

As for Lasik, my Dad had it about 15 years ago, and he's had good luck with it. It worked extremely well, but his eyes are getting a bit worse, just do to aging. So he's trying to decide if he's going to have more Lasik, or just switch back to glasses.

 

Oh, and if you do get Lasik at some point, don't do what my Uncle did. Which was ignore the follow up treatments and exams. He, being a doctor himself, decided he didn't need to listen to another doctor, because of course he, as a Doctor who was a physiatrist, knew more about eyes than his ophthalmologist. And his vision ended up worse after having Lasik, and he became face-blind beyond around fifteen feet, meaning he's no longer able to recognize people's faces beyond fifteen feet. So yeah do the follow up and it seems to work well, this Simpsons gag was pretty popular among my Dad and my Brother after the Uncle's self-imposed fiasco:

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Jello

[Fonze]

2 hours ago, Jello said:

And then there was one time that I was standing there trying to take them out for about five minutes, running my fingers on my pupil to get it to bunch so I could pull it off. Then I finally realized that it had actually slipped off the pupil, and was bunched up near my tear duct. So I was putting my fingers on my pupil and rubbing it for five minutes.

 

Lmaooo yes so many mornings this has happened to me. Trying to take them off with even slightly long nails achieves about the same result too. I do love contacts overall, tho I will note contacts folding and going where they don't belong, or worse, ripping and tearing in your eyeballs like little doomguys, is an extremely unpleasant experience.

 

A lot of mornings my contacts will decide that physics be damned they will not stick to my eyes, instead sticking to my fingertip despite the smallest amount of surface area on its convex side making that happen vs the entirety of the concave side touching my eye. Dry eye or freshly wet doesn't seem to make a difference. Then as it makes life choices on what surface it flippantly most prefers at that time, it'll slip off my finger onto the countertop or onto the floor. I can't see them beyond a couple feet away from my face so I immediately go into panic mode trying to find them because sometimes they disappear and are never found again. By this point my eyes are also all of the red, and then I repeat the whole process of poking and prodding my eye in hopes that karma will decide that whatever atrocities I've done with my eyes in a previous life have been sufficiently punished for now. The joys of contacts lol 👉👁🥺

 

22 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I just dislike the concept of having to put something on my eyeball every day, and I severely dislike the concept of forgetting to take them out when I go to sleep. I can't even put in eye drops without flinching, there's no way I would be comfortable with contacts.

 

I used to be the same way before I started wearing them regularly. I needed help for about a month or so when I first got them to get them into my eyes, it just feels so unnatural lol. Helps to hold top eyelid open with other hand, bottom eyelid with your ring or middle finger of the contact-holding hand, look up and aim for the white part of your eye under your pupil, then slide and blink them into place rather than looking directly at it and aiming for your pupil. Also, mirror necessary for me, I can't put them in without one. Once they're in tho I barely notice them and I find them to be comfortable most of the time. For those who don't, there are other types of contacts, materials, and sizes that may be more comfortable to wear than others. Are def worth a try if you have the willpower to keep at it or somebody to help you put them in for like a month or so. Putting them in is the hardest part. Also helps when you can see the immediate benefit of wearing them, such as a return of proper peripheral vision, a lack of foggy glasses when changing environments or wearing a mask, not having to worry about damaging glasses during physical activity, more comfortable safety google wearing, etc.

[Murdoch]

23 hours ago, Arrowhead said:

Some people swear by contacts, though.

 

I do. You could not pay me to go back to glasses permanently. Pretty much the only thing that could would be a doctor saying "do it if you still want to keep being able to see".

[MrFlibble]

I noticed that it depends a lot on the microfiber cloth that you have -- try different ones, and also make sure they are clean. They absorb the dirt from the glasses and at some point will just do nothing but just spread this dirt around instead of cleaning it away. Wash the cloth from time to time, I use soap and that does not seem to have any adverse effect.

 

When there's too much smudge, I usually soak some cotton wool in mildly warm water and carefully rinse the lenses, then dry with any cloth (again, quite carefully), seems to work for regular glasses (either glass or plastic+glass or whatever they make them of now), but I won't say anything if there's some special anit-something-or-other coating, in that case you should probably refer to what the manufacturer says about cleaning dos and don'ts.

[The Almighty Egg]

On 10/16/2023 at 10:22 PM, OniriA said:

Lmao

[smeghammer]

I generally use my T shirt. Cotton tees are actually really good for cleaning lenses. They are simple untinted, non-Reactolite etc. so no risk of screwing up the surface covering. If they ARE special lenses, you are best off confirming with your optician how best to clean, but suspect the soft lint/cloth that came with them is good.

 

[Lilian]

As someone who has worn glasses for ten years, I suggest you try using a microfiber glasses cloth with an eye cleaning spray. Spray the cleaning spray on the stained area, and then wipe it clean with a microfiber cloth after a while. However, even if the glasses are wiped clean at the beginning, they will be dirty by dust or other things in the air, and it is impossible for them to remain in the state of just being cleaned. So if it does not affect your vision, you don't need to clean it.