Contacts Match Active Lifestyles at All Ages

In recent decades, Americans have become more active as they try to live a healthy lifestyle. Whether it is competitive sports or leisurely pastimes such as jogging, walking, or swimming, we are going and doing in greater numbers than our grandparents. However, if you are among the millions who require vision correction you have another concern: finding the type of lenses that won’t inhibit your activity level or enjoyment.

Although tolerated for years, eyeglasses remain pretty much a non-starter as far as being the best means for seeing well while exerting yourself. There are many disadvantages: restricted peripheral vision, slipping or falling frames, putting up with spectacle headbands, accommodating goggles, etc. Oftentimes glasses are the main reason people opt not to take up a sport.

Contact lenses have certainly made it easier to participate in physical activities, with their convenience and range of choices. Also, because of recent studies showing that responsible children can be successfully fitted for contacts, the entry age for kids who need vision correction and wish to start playing sports now begins at approximately eight years old. At the other end of the scale, older or ‘more mature’ individuals are able to continue enjoying healthful exercise with contacts that have come a long way in addressing eye conditions related with age, primarily presbyopia and dry eye.

Between the two types of contacts favored today, soft and gas permeable (GP), soft contacts get the nod as the better choice when it comes to active wear. Besides being more comfortable and quicker to get used to, their gel-like make-up allows them to adhere to the eye in such a way that they do not fall out during exercise or strenuous activity. Gas permeable contact lenses, because of their rigid and smaller-diameter design, tend to move or dislodge as the body exhibits vigorous motion. A recent development, hybrid lenses, may make it easier for those who are bound to a GP contact. Hybrids blend the corrective qualities of GPs with the comfort of soft lenses.

Disposable lenses have been a boon to sports enthusiasts who find themselves in situations where a strict contact-cleaning regimen is unwieldy, i.e. camping, sailing, or hunting excursions that can last for days. Beginning with a fresh pair every day and discarding them before retiring for the night, disposables are seemingly made for those constantly on the go.

Nowadays there are eye care practitioners who can specifically fit for participants in competitive or professional sports. Adapting general fitting techniques to the more precise need of a particular activity accomplishes this, whether it is softball or soccer for school-age children or golf and tennis that appeal to an older crowd.

Be mindful that any change in eyewear you plan to make is done in close consultation with your eye doctor. This is necessary to arrive at the proper lens for comfort and ease that will allow an enhanced enjoyment of your activities.