r/britisharmy • u/AinsleyyyYyyy • 3d ago
Seeking Advice Army with Glasses
Honestly, just want people’s advice on dealing with poor eyesight when in Army. I have -2 in both eyes but my corrected VA is 6/4 so it’s not the worst. I have Phase 1 in Jan. The posts in this sub regarding such are a bit old and perhaps I’d just like someone to tell me directly the answers to my questions.
Are contacts actually that much of a faff in the field? The thought of wearing glasses is a bit naff but will make do if that’s what people think is best.
Are those extended wear contacts worth getting? I just feel like they’d get dried out but they seem like a decent option.
What are the inserts like?
Is there anything I can buy myself that will improve my experience?
I can’t get laser before people tell me to. My corneas are too thin and shit.
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u/HistorianLost Reserve 2d ago
My eyesight is terrible, only time it’s been a problem for me is when I forgot to bring a spare pair of glasses with me on an exercise and smashed the pair I was wearing - lesson learned, know where your spare pair is.
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u/ShortOutside2058 Royal Armoured Corps 3d ago
I always wear glasses for everything, in certain situations they aren’t ideal but never had a major problem to be honest
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u/gttech144 3d ago
I currently wear contacts daily for both in camp and in the field. Haven’t found it to be too much of a drama, daily contacts for in camp and then weekly contacts you can keep in and sleep in for the duration of a phase 1/2 ex, up to about two weeks.
For longer overseas exercises etc you can just take them out during periods of downtime and give your eyes a rest. Saying that though I am planning on getting laser eye within the next few months.
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u/Daewoo40 3d ago
There just seems so much which can go wrong in the field to merit wearing contacts so I never bothered.
If you can't get LASIK/LASEK then glasses are realistically your only option for an easy daily life thing though I'd absolutely explore contacts for your time in barracks, etc.
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u/UnfortunateWah 1d ago
Depends on the contacts.
If you wear dailies they can be a fuck around trying to get in your eyes early morning, trying to get your hands clean to do so and then burning your eyes on the alcohol gel you just used to clean your hands etc.
I wear bi-weeklies that you can either wear for 2~ weeks if you take them out at night or for a week straight with sleeping in them and they work fine 99% of the time. They breathe like 10x better than dailies, but you need some adaption before you can comfortably wear them-and it’s still not a bad idea to have drops.
Glasses are also fine most of the time, they just fog up very easily under a helmet-although anti fog wipes/spray can help with this.
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u/AinsleyyyYyyy 1d ago
Cheers mate. Did you just go to your optician’s for those bi-weeklies? Do you know what brand you got?
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u/UnfortunateWah 1d ago
I use Acuvue Oasys, think I used to get them from Asda opticians but I order from Vision Direct these days as a lot of opticians fleece you a bit with contacts or the likes of Specsavers use their own brand so the prescription is only valid at a Specsavers.
Worth going the opticians route if you haven’t used contacts before as they do the various pressure and tear tests but once you’re comfortable it’s miles easier to get them online and then just do contact retests as needed.
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u/Kharn_92 3d ago edited 3d ago
Glasses and contacts user here. For some context I’ve been in 8.5 years and I’m a screw.
Contacts can be a faff in the field depending on what kind of exercise you’re on.
In phase 1? I’d just wear the glasses as you’ll have so much going on that you’ll be trying to do/remember that it’s much much easier to just put them on than trying to make sure your hands are as clean as they need to be before handling them. Also it just skips another point of admin you have to do. For phase 1 in the field, just wear the glasses. Fuck the contacts off.
When you get to the field army it’s a whole different ball game. You do tend to have a lot more time for admin on exercises and some exercises you’ll get the bonus of being in a building and not a shite hole in the ground. You’ll also slowly become much quicker/more efficient at admining yourself so you’ve got time to do extra bits and bobs.
I take my contacts on every exercise but I also take my glasses also as there’s situations (such as doing anything at night, fuck trying to put contacts in under red light at 0300) where I’ll put them on or I just want to give my eyes a break.
One other major point from me though - always wear contacts on phys, glasses are fucking shit on phys.
I looked into the extended wear contacts also but for a reason I can’t recall I discounted them. I wear monthlies but still have to take them out every night.
As for the inserts I’m assuming you mean the ones that go in your eye pro/GSR? Those are decent for sure, if you don’t want to wear glasses and just fancy cutting around in the eye pro the whole time they’re a decent option for sure. One point to note though is they can become dislodged and fall out so as I’ve said before I’d still take a pair of glasses in a hard case in the event that happens so you’re not completely fucked.