Daily Disposable Contact Lenses

Daily disposable contact lenses (or daily contact lenses) generally refers to contact lenses that you wear for one day then throw out. These types of contact lenses have several advantages over monthly or weekly contact lenses (contact lenses that you re-wear several times).

I am not a doctor and this article is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You are not being prescribed contact lenses in this article. Please read Contacts Advice Terms of Use before continuing.

• They reduce the risk of eye infections

  • Because daily contact lenses do not need to be cleaned or stored, there is no risk that they can become contaminated through these processes.
  • Because daily contact lenses are thrown out every day, any bacteria that might get onto them do not have a chance to multiply and cause an infection. Since bacteria and other micro-organisms are often found in water, this makes it much safer to swim

    

    or shower with daily disposable contact lenses than it is to do so with reusable contact lenses.

• They are more convenient

  • Not having to spend any time cleaning and storing your lenses at the end of the day is nice.
  • Not having to carry around your contact lens case and bottle of cleaning solution if you travel or spend the night anywhere is nice.
  • If you lose or rip a daily contact lens it’s no skin off your back (you haven’t wasted a whole month’s worth of contact lenses).

• They are more comfortable

  • Because they are replaced every day they always feel fresh. Monthly contact lenses tend to become less comfortable as the month goes on.

• Are they less expensive or more expensive?

  This one is almost impossible to calculate because it depends on a lot of things. You can’t just compare the price of a year’s supply of daily contacts to a year’s supply of monthly contacts. If you do, the monthly contacts will be cheaper every time. But you also have to factor in:

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    The cost of your cleaning supplies. This generally adds up to $150 over the course of a year for monthly lenses VS $0 for daily lenses.

  • The number of days/week you will be wearing your contacts. A ‘1 year supply’ of daily lenses usually lasts for more than 1 year unless you literally wear your lenses every single day. Whereas a 1 year supply of monthly lenses lasts you exactly 1 year because they need to be thrown out 1 month after they are opened regardless of how often you wear them within that month. And that’s assuming you don’t lose or break any of them. If you do your ‘1 year supply’ will have to be replenished in less than 1 year.

That’s daily contact lenses in a nutshell. There is another term out there in the industry that may confuse you if you come across it. ‘Daily wear contact lenses’ does not mean the same as ‘daily disposable contact lenses’. ‘Daily wear‘ refers to contact lenses that you wear during the daytime and remove during night time, which is the vast majority of contact lenses. The opposite of ‘daily wear‘ is ‘extended wear‘ which are contact lenses that you sleep in.