Is your child ready?

The self-esteem and confidence of children and teens is closely related to their appearance. If they don't like the way they look in glasses, it can affect their personality and even their performance at school. Contact lenses can have a positive effect and improve how they feel about themselves.

Can teens wear contact lenses?

There’s no minimum age for contacts

Lots of teens, and even some pre-teens, wear lenses. Contact lenses make it easier to be active and help your teen to look and feel their best. The average age teens first get contacts is 13, but it has been shown that some younger children – even as young as 8 – are mature enough to wear and care for contact lenses. Successful lens wear depends more on responsibility and attitude than age.

It’s all about responsibility

The most important factor in deciding whether your child is ready for contact lenses is their level of responsibility and maturity. Wearing contact lenses involves more than wearing glasses, as contact lenses require good hygiene and clean and safe handling to keep the eyes healthy. Your optometrist can help you determine if lenses are right for your child.

Are they safe?

When properly cared for and worn as instructed by an optometrist, contact lenses are a safe and healthy vision correction option. Unlike glasses, soft contact lenses won't break while you’re wearing them and they aren’t likely to pop out or be damaged in sports or other physical activities.

Plus, the technological advances found in ACUVUE^® Brand Contact Lenses give wearers more healthy options than ever before. From the highest UV protection‡ available in a contact lens, to almost 100% transmission of essential oxygen to the eye, ACUVUE^® Brand Contact Lenses can help keep eyes healthy for years to come.

Still have questions? Put your mind at rest and read through out contact lenses myths Vs facts section.

Safety tips for your child

Inserting and removing contact lenses

The optometrist will teach your child how to insert and remove contact lenses so that they are comfortable doing this themselves. However extra help and advice can be found in our guide on inserting and removing contact lenses . Once they’ve done it a few times it will quickly become second nature.

Cleaning contact lenses

To help your child care for their contact lenses it may be useful to know the correct way they should be cleaning their lenses. See our step-by-step guide to cleaning contact lenses.

Wearing make-up and contact lenses

If your teen wears make-up then extra care should be taken when wearing contact lenses to ensure they are kept clean. To help them keep their eyes healthy and beautiful, we’ve assembled some useful Dos and Don’ts for wearing makeup with contact lenses.

Keep to a schedule

If your child would like to wear contact lenses, it’s vital that they are aware of how often they should replace their contact lenses. It’s extremely important that they replace their lenses on schedule in order to keep their eyes comfortable and healthy. Your optometrist will advise you on this.
See our guide to wearing and replacing contact lenses for tips on helping them keep to a schedule.

FAQ

As a parent it’s natural to have fears and reservations when considering introducing your child to contact lenses. We’ve put together some frequently asked questions  that should help to put your mind at rest.

If you still have any worries about contact lenses please see our contact lenses myths Vs facts section.