For the longest time, my experience with the optician was: your eyes are blurry, you get your eyes checked in a tiny 2 meter room and a machine with the little house in the field, you get your degrees, you try and buy contacts/glasses and you leave. Thats all- very simple. Oh and did I mention that th entire eye checking process is free at the optical shop? Imagine my great surprise when I realised that I couldn't order any contacts online in the States without first getting my eyes checked for $80USD! How can they CHARGE for such simple procedures?
Well earlier this month, I finally found out what that $80 is for. I went to an actual optical clinic and they used tested my eye in a standard 6 meter room, stared at my eyes for the longest time, used the usual house in the farmland machine and this other machine which blew air at my eyes, took digital pictures of my eyes and put blue solutions (for pH) and this other very stinging solution into my eye (I forget what this one is for- the dilation or something?). The whole process took almost an hour!
And they even made me go back two times just so I can change from two week Acuvue Advanced to one day Acuvue moist! This whole long long procedure was so foreign to me that I was in awe. Is THAT the standard eye care you get in the States for $80? Anyway, random things I picked up:
- One should start getting thier eyes checked at the age of 2- wow I've really missed out a LOT on that.
- If you wear contacts for too long, your eyes might be so lacking in oxygen that red vessels will permanently grow on the surface of your eyes- scary thought!
- There are two sizes to contacts.
- The laser eye surgery is still not perfect yet even though they claim the success rate is high up there. Its only because they consider people with CLOSE TO but not have 20/20 vision a success as well- hopefully it'll be perfected in a few years (fingers crossed!)
