Contacts are basically very small eyeglasses made from a plastic material as oppose to glass. Contacts change the direction of rays of light to focus that light properly onto your retina and the nerves within it. There are contacts that correct both nearsightedness and farsightedness. If a person is nearsighted, the focus point of light rays is in front of your retina. If you are nearsighted, the light rays are not able to form a focus point before reaching the retina. Contacts fix both of these issues. Contact lens powers are calculated and expressed in diopters. Nearsighted lenses begin with a negative sign while farsighted lenses begin with a positive sign. The reason that contacts are so much thinner than eyeglasses is that they are a different distance from your eye. Contact lenses rest directly on our cornea so we can see everything without the feeling of looking into a lens. Eyeglasses are a bit further away from your eye and therefore need to be thicker to have a larger optic zone; you can only see through those lenses, most people with glasses have poor peripheral vision. You can think of this concept as if you were in your house loping out a window. If you are very close to the window you have a larger range of what you can see. If you were on the other side of the room you would only be able to see a much smaller percentage of what is outside. Eyeglasses are also thicker so that they do not break upon impact. Contacts don’t really fall off like glasses may. People should use contacts because they seem to be more convenient than glasses. Glasses can break pretty easily and also change a person’s appearance quite dramatically. I would recommend to anybody who needs to where glasses that they should at least try to wear contacts.
Sources:
http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/faq/how-contacts-work.htm
http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/cosmetic-treatments/contact-lens.htm
Although I do not wear contacts I was very curious about how wearing them can negatively impact ones health. To my surprise, because they are so universally used, there are many risk that contact used are exposing themselves too. One risk is smokers who wear contacts are putting themselves at a higher risk of cornea cancer. This is an awesome article that highlights all of the risks: http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=5644&channel_id=9&relation_id=26047
I agree with Carly, while you certainly did a good job explaining the benefits of contact lenses, i especially liked the window metaphor, adding information about some of the risks and downsides of contacts would have made for a more balanced and informative post. Remember there’s nothing wrong with a little concession as long as you follow it up with a strong assertion. I found this link to FDA page about the risks of contact lenses including eye infection and irritation that i think people should read before deciding to switch to contacts.
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/HomeHealthandConsumer/ConsumerProducts/ContactLenses/ucm062589.htm
I like how you explained the use of contacts but i feel as though you could have gone into more depth about the different types of contacts that people use as this may help or hurt the argument. I feel as though your argument could have been much stronger. I feel as though people wear contacts due to the fact that they allow people to have less of an obstruction on his or her face. So they could be better because of the fashionable sense. Also they are not an alternative as people with contacts still need their glasses. this is because contacts are technically only suppose to be used for a portion of the day and after that they should be taken out. yet this may leave the person with time that they still need to be able to see thus meaning they need their glasses.
I have glasses now and I really need to get contacts. I usually only wear my glasses during class, when I should be wearing them all the time. It’s pretty bad; someone will be relatively close to me and wave or say hello and I will have no idea who they are until I get close enough. Contacts do seem convenient, but glasses are nice because they are so easy to take off and on. I am not ready for the struggle of having to put and take out contacts every morning and night. Not only that, I know that I will not be good at doing it. I should probably get contacts over break but I probably wont. The only bad thing I can think of when wearing glasses is when they fog up due to the cold weather, thats super embarrassing. I found an interesting article that compares contacts and wearing glasses that you should look at! http://www.contactlenses.org/clsglasses.htm
I have glasses and definitely find myself using contacts much more than I wear my glasses. I agree with you that anyone with glasses should try contacts. I think it would have been beneficial to include some research on if contacts or glasses work better. Also it could have been good to add information on the side effects of contacts or if there are any risks. I found that because contact lenses rest directly on the eye and cover the entire cornea, they decrease the amount of oxygen that reaches your eyes. A good oxygen supply is essential to keeping your eyes healthy. Here is an article on some more side effects of wearing contacts. http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/faq/cls-damage-eyes.htm
Are there any studies that prove this? Not to be nit-picky but you used the wrong where/wear at one point. What implications does choosing between contacts and glasses have?