Wearing daily contact lenses for one week: not considered harmful?

January 31, 2008 9:07 PM

I just bought 90 days worth of daily disposable contact lenses, but I intend to wear each pair for a week at a time, taking them out every evening and cleaning them in OptiFree. I occasionally get eye infections, so I no longer want to use even a well-cleaned set of lenses longer than a week. Am I pushing safety levels by using dailies as weeklies?

I know that there's been at least one question here, several years ago, about the difference between various types of lenses, and people varied on whether or not you can wear dailies for more than a day. Given that contacts may have become better since 2004, I thought this was worth asking again. (My brand: CibaVision Dailies AquaComfort Plus and CibaVision Focus Dailies toric lenses for astigmatism).

posted by maudlin to health (11 comments total)

I've done it for years with no ill effects. I find that I get about 2 weeks' use out of each pair before I inevitably tear them. They may be more fragile, but safety-wise you should be fine.
posted by snickerdoodle at 9:11 PM on January 31

My eye doc people have been recommending this for years. I wear "dailies" called Extreme H20, but take them out at night, soak in disinfecting solution, and ditch after two or three weeks.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:24 PM on January 31

The disposables are pretty much the same composition as the ones they used to sell one pair of to last you the whole year, except thinner. So if you were fine wearing those every day for a year, you'll be fine wearing these for two weeks.
posted by kindall at 9:40 PM on January 31

You'll be fine.
posted by padraigin at 10:01 PM on January 31

If you got eye infections even with well-cleaned lenses, then wearing dailies and then cleaning them sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? I know you'll get extended wear but if the cleaning was not sufficient to prevent infection with your long-term lenses, will it stop it with these short-term ones? The sterility of the fresh pair is the whole selling point, after all.

That said, my last pair of long-term contacts lasted two years with careful cleaning and I never once had an infection so it CAN be done - you'll just have to weigh your susceptibility to infection over convenience and savings.
posted by ninazer0 at 10:27 PM on January 31

I asked this question about 2 week disposables, got similar advice as those asked above, and my eyes are fine.
posted by like_neon at 4:04 AM on February 1

As an alternative point, The times when I have worn my dailies more than one day, they have been extremely uncomfortable and 'itchy'. I'd not even consider this, but then I don't take the slightest risk with my eyes anymore - even with the old sort of dailies I had my eyes used to be red from dryness if I wore them for more than 15 hours or so. The current ones (Focus dailies) do me fine and they really aren't expensive enough for me to move from the optimum and convenient point of 'wear and throw'.

The main reason I switched was the arse of cleaning and the dryness issue.
posted by Brockles at 5:33 AM on February 1

I wear Acuvue 2 for about two weeks at a time, without cleaning them at all. No problems at all. I generally wear my glasses for a day or two in-between to give my eyes a rest.
posted by kdern at 10:25 AM on February 1

My overly sensitive eyes produce so much gunk and rubbish that I need to use the hydrogen peroxide based AO-Sept solution to keep them clean. Added to my gunk producing woes, I recently scratched my cornea with a slightly damaged lens. This left me with a bloodshot, tear filled eye for nearly a week.

I used to push out my two weeklies to a month but after recent problems don't dare.

My partner wears two weeklies and manages to get two to three months out of her lenses. She's been doing it for well over the decade I've known her with no problems at all.
posted by chairish at 11:51 AM on February 1

Most will say you'll be fine, and chances are that you will be, but extended use of old contacts can cause long-lasting infections or conditions, unfortunately. I've been trapped in my glasses for going on a year now. Talk it over with your optometrist, and he'll likely say go for it, but do be careful.
posted by AthenaPolias at 8:13 PM on February 1

Thanks for all the advice. I've been playing it by ear (eye?), and have worn the contacts for up to 3-4 days (my compromise maximum). I've also been wearing my glasses more to give my eyes a rest.

I've found that because they are thinner, I can't wear them as long as my old contacts. It seems that if I wear them more than 12 hours straight, they're likely to dry out enough that it can be very difficult to remove them. I had a tough time just this past Wednesday because of that, so I tossed the well-wrestled pair in the garbage and wore my glasses most of the day Thursday.
posted by maudlin at 7:35 PM on February 17