Contacts vs Prescription lens?

[gqllc007]

Here's the thing with prescription masks and high correction. Please note everything I am saying applies to being farsighted/hyperopia at >+6.5. Maybe this is another area where nearsighted folks get an advantage over us hyperotics.


At scuba mask size the lenses are THICK. If someone will make your prescription in high index, last I checked SV was still using cr39, it is thinner, not thin, but now it's heavy. Dead center the vision is great. Off center the distortion is horrible, nausea inducing, gets worse the further off center you get. Your peripheral vision becomes non-existent. This problem is magnified 10X when night diving. Using contacts resolves all of this.

She is near sighted

 

[lowwall]

I put my glasses in my mask box and leave my mask on until my gear is off. Water droplets don't bother me. But I've been wearing glasses since I was 3 years old so for me vision = glasses.

 

[stepfen]

Please make yourself a favor and consider laser eye sight correction. It is a life changer. The only thing I ever regretted about it was that I did it at 38 and not (much) earlier.

 

[gqllc007]

If you read through the thread you will see where I said she doesn’t qualify for lasix or any type of eye correction

 

[stepfen]

If you read through the thread you will see where I said she doesn’t qualify for lasix or any type of eye correction

I understand. My suggestion was general for the people participating in this thread.

I use to wear semi rigid lenses (I had 3 degrees or so astigmatism and soft/toric ones were not so popular back then). The biggest problem I had was care (removing, cleaning, storing etc), fear of loosing them (no open eyes in water without mask) and that for deepish (within rec limits) dives towards the last couple of meters before the surface my vision was becoming blurred to the point of having difficulties eg reading my DC.
After a bit of research I fount out that eyes are one of the organs that off gas a lot of nitrogen. Hence the problem I had was actually caused by off gassed nitrogen trapped below the lenses (although my lenses were supposed to be gas permeable)!! Within minutes on the surface my sight would clear hence it was not a huge issue, but it was strange at least.

 

[kablooey]

I blame my father.
He had terrible eyesight.

Prescriptiondivemasks of La Mesa CA has been my lens provider for about twenty years. I’ve always been happy with the product and service. They’ve also responded excellently when I’ve had problems or questions.

I also have two masks by SeaVision, that are good too. I only had to contact customer service once, but they were excellent too. Good customer service is big with me.

There is an advantage to using a twin lens mask over a single lens, when you have a significant change in your prescription in only one eye. Updating the mask is about half the cost. This actually happened to me.

Also, consider getting bifocal lenses. It helps not just reading gauges, but also for seeing the little critters. It’s worth the significant extra cost.

Early in my diving I wore contacts. They were fine. I switched to prescription masks because I could nap between dives without having to take the contacts out.

 

[Mike1967]

I switched to prescription masks because I could nap between dives without having to take the contacts out.

Things have changed a bit since then.

 

[TuckerIdaho]

I dive in monthly wears but pull them when I get home to rinse and relax my eyes. But I'm only wearing -2.0 lenses so I'm not worried if I lose one.

 

[Degenerate]

I use glasses/contacts with -2.75 on both my eyes.
Daily disposables for diving and never had an issue with keeping my eyes open while doing mask drills or similar.
I have managed to pop a lens out on a few occasions but it has never been while doing a drill or similar, just me blinking violently basically.

I have considered lasik, but even if the risk for complications is extremely minimal that's still enough of a risk that I don't want to take it when it comes to my eyes.
A prescription mask is on my to buy list, for sure.

 

[lowwall]

Things have changed a bit since then.

Depends on your prescription. Neither extended wear nor disposables are available in my prescription.