rant ordering contact lens's from vision direct

why does the government always have to protect us from ourselves. why can't i order my own damn contact lens's without needing eye exam. I can understand every 2 years like with glasses fine since insurance covers an eye exam every 2 years but I have to go every year and pay out of my pocket so i can order my own contact lens's.

i have a prescription that expires on 4/7/12 and they won't let the order process because i am buying a years worth of contacts what kind of scam do they have going here. why do i always have to wait to order until i have 1 pair of contacts left.

My brand!

Sorry, ive got nothing to add or offer. Rant away!

For what it's worth, I comfortably get 2 months out of 30-day lenses, so a year's supply would last me 2 years. That being said, I get my eyes checked every year. They're just too damn important to me not to.

i use daily's so those really only last a single day, i never try using them more than once.

I don't really mind getting an eye exam every year I just want to be able to order my own damn contacts without needing permission. I mean there my E36 M3ing eyes let me be.

I think the issue is that with glasses, nothing is physically touching your eye, minimising the amount of damage that can occur. Contacts, through their use, can cause issues that will cause eye troubles.

I used to wear contacts every day for 5 years. On one visit to the doc, they informed me that the use was starting to cause a thinning of the membrane layer, and if I did not cut back I would start to have issues (possibly irreversible) within 2 or 3 years.

There is a very intimate contact between the lenses and your eye, so regular checkups would be prudent to me.

My guess is that the regulation is there because somebody would blame the manufacturer or the distributor if they damaged their eyes because of not catching a problem early enough.

I'm 4 or 5 yrs into a single year worth of weekly contacts.... I can normally get 4-6 months out of them before they tear and have to be thrown away.

Duke wrote: For what it's worth, I comfortably get 2 months out of 30-day lenses, so a year's supply would last me 2 years. That being said, I get my eyes checked every year. They're just too damn important to me not to.

Same here, occasionally take them out and clean with the peroxide stuff that turns into saline.........good for another few weeks.

I'm an over-wearer, too. My Acuvues used to start to get hazy after a couple months (and I don't take them out over night, either), but these new Ciba Vision badboys stay totally fresh until they tear. I think I've got 2 years out of two packs for each eye. No troubles at all.

Of course, now I'm basically out and I also have to get an exam to get a scrip for a new order. Boo.

what burns me is my script isn't even expired, my eye doctor just wants to steal more money out of my pocket and the insurance co.

I gave up on contacts a long time ago. I was sailing, so gone 6 months of the year. I asked the optometrist for my prescription and he refused to give it to me, afraid I might use one of the mail order places that were just starting up. Mumbled something about he was responsible, etc. I said screw it and went back to glasses, and never to him again. I kinda like having an extra layer between my eyes and everything else out there in the world. And I prefer to just put the glasses on/take them off instead of having to mess around with contacts.

Sorry to mess up your rant. Please continue.

Dr. Hess wrote: I gave up on contacts a long time ago. I was sailing, so gone 6 months of the year. I asked the optometrist for my prescription and he refused to give it to me, afraid I might use one of the mail order places that were just starting up.

Can you even do that. I have those once a day throw away brands and I get one or two weeks out of them easy. 14 years worth sitting in my cabinet, though I do toss them after I surf as they get itchy.

Still have my eyes checked every two years and no damage so far.

Um...fellas...THEY'RE-YOUR-EYES! You only get two. One month is as long as I'll keep a two week contact. I've seen people who are permanently berkeleyed because they abused contact life. Be careful.

alex wrote: I'm an over-wearer, too. My Acuvues used to start to get hazy after a couple months (and I don't take them out over night, either),

my family has crappy eyes... all of us... my aunt did the extended wear type (remove once a week for whatever, sleep in em etc etc)... after so long she couldn't ware them any more... had to much build up on her eyes... eventually she had lasic surgery done to get out of glasses...

so be careful in those extended ware type...

that being said... been in contacts for 20 years now... the ones i'm in now are supposed to be replaced every 2 weeks... I get a month or so out of them... but they are cheap... when they start bothering my eyes they get tossed.

my first few pairs of contacts where like most of the early 90's... 1 pair, nightly rub-clean, weekly enzyme clean... if you lost or ripped one you where out a chunk of cash (want to say it was 60 or 70$ per lens... the new monthly disposables are so much better...

I've worn dailies for years, and buy from coastal contacts online.

For years I simply ticked the box to have them contact my physician to verify my prescription and 2 days later they'd send an auto-generated message that the physician had not responded to their fax so they'd be shipping my lenses directly.

Then about a year ago it appears the regulations had tightened up, and I needed a current prescription, so I went and got one. Exactly the same as I'd been ordering the past 3 years.

So it may be worth a try