Framed Glasses or Contact Lenses—Which Is Better?

Comfort Is Most Important

No matter if you choose framed glasses or contact lenses, being comfortable is key. Wearing framed glasses for too long can make your nose feel heavy, so pick light lenses and frames. Wearing contact lenses for too long can make your eyes dry. Either way, let your eyes rest often.

Framed Glasses Are Safer for Your Health

When you wear contact lenses, you have to touch them with your hands. If your hands aren’t clean, the lenses can get dirty and bumpy.

Putting dirty contact lenses in your eyes can hurt them, cause swelling, or even lead to problems that can’t be fixed.

Contact lenses also have other health risks. Many news stories say some bad companies make them with fake or low-quality materials. This is especially true for "colorful contact lenses"—they’re even riskier because of the dye and dirt, and can hurt your eyes a lot.

Also, contact lenses sit right on your eyeball. Many people keep them in too long, which can scratch the clear front part of your eye (cornea) over time.

So, if you buy contact lenses, go to good stores or trusted online shops, and choose well-known brands. Framed glasses don’t have these problems.

Contact Lenses Let You See More

Framed glasses are limited by their frames and the way they bend light around the edges. This can make the area you can see feel smaller.

Contact lenses don’t have this problem. They fit tightly on your eye and move when your eye moves. So you can see as much as someone with normal vision.

Contact Lenses Look Better

Contact lenses are popular with people who care about how they look. The main reason is they don’t cover half your face with big, dark frames. Many women use colored contact lenses to make their eyes look bigger and nicer.

Compared to framed glasses, which are usually square or round and plain, contact lenses let you look better in more ways. Plus, you can wear cool sunglasses over them. That’s why many people with blurry vision (nearsightedness) choose contact lenses.

Contact Lenses Let You See More Clearly

Framed glasses can make the things you see look stretched or funny because of how they bend light. Contact lenses don’t do this.

Because they sit right on the clear front part of your eye (cornea), contact lenses barely mess up the light. They also stay in line with where you’re looking, so what you see is clear and natural.