Discover the best daily contact lenses for comfortable, clear vision. Explore top options, key features, and expert tips to find the perfect lenses for your needs.
Introduction to Daily Contact Lenses
So if you’re new to contact lenses and you’re not sure what is the best contact lenses for you, chances are they’re probably dailies. In this article, we’re going to break down the best daily contact lenses in 2024. Here we go!
About My Experience
I help show you all about eyes, vision, and finding the best vision products. Today we’re talking all about daily contact lenses. Myself, I’m a huge fan of contact lenses ever since I was 13 and I first got contacts. Yes, they are something I really do love and enjoy both personally and professionally. Now, today I’m going to be breaking down the best daily contact lenses here in 2024. Yes, I know 2024 is already half over with, but it’s still something I made like 2022, and I skipped 2023, and it’s just time to talk about it.
Key Considerations for Choosing Contact Lenses
Now, with this article, we’re going to be breaking down the important things that you really need to pay attention to as a contact lens wearer. That is, things like vision. You want to make sure you’re seeing your best. You want to care about comfort. You want contact lenses that are comfortable that you can wear. You want something that is healthy—you only have two eyes; you have to take care of your two eyes because if you lose them, you can’t get them back. And finally, price. Everybody’s got a different budget; you basically want the best vision you can get, that’s the most comfortable, that is the healthiest, at the best price that you can afford.
Vision Quality
So, we’re going to cover all those things. First thing on the top of the list is vision. Honestly, as long as your prescription is up to date and is for you, then all the daily contact lenses out there should give you good vision. If for some reason it’s not sitting well in the eye and not really fitting well for you, then maybe it’ll slide around and give you variable vision. But then, yeah, if you’re having any vision problems, you have to see your eye doctor. So with that being said, we can scratch vision off the list and just focus on everything else.
Personal Experience and Lens Selection Criteria
Now, the daily contact lenses I’m going to be reviewing here are based solely on my personal experience wearing the contact lenses as well as prescribing and fitting them on patients in the clinic for the last five years. And with that bias, that means that not every daily contact lens is on this list. Some other lenses may work really well for you, but these are just the ones I personally find are the healthiest, most comfortable, and that people often have the best response to.
Alcon Precision One Lens
The first lens I want to talk about is the new Alcon Precision One lens. This one came out fairly recently. This is a silicone hydrogel lens that is very healthy for the eye. It has an oxygen transmissibility of a DK over T of 100, which is really important for me as an eye doctor because we want to make sure good oxygen gets to that cornea. The other really important aspect for this lens is comfort. What they did at the Alcon company, in a previous lens which will come up later in this article, is the Daily Total One lens. That lens has a surface technology that makes the outer coating of the lens almost 100% water. They took that technology and brought it over to the Precision One lens, where the center of this lens, the Precision One lens, is about 51% water. When you get to the edge of that lens, it is almost 80% water, making it extremely comfortable.
Modulus and Ease of Use
In addition, this lens very specifically, the Precision One lens, has something called a lower modulus. The term “modulus” is something that we use in the eye care profession to describe how stiff that lens is and how well it holds its shape. This lens was specifically designed with a lower modulus, which makes it ideal for new wearers. If you’re somebody who’s just beginning with contact lenses or you’re thinking about starting contact lenses, then the Precision One lens is honestly one of my favorite lenses to go to because it does hold its shape and it’s a little bit easier to learn how to put on and take off contact lenses.
Price Considerations
Now, as far as price goes, the daily Precision One does come in, if you’re buying for both eyes for a full year’s supply, somewhere in the $500 range. I say “somewhere” because it does vary depending on where you’re purchasing it from, if you’re using any sort of a discount code, or if you’re using some sort of a rebate, or if you’re buying it from your local optical shop. There’s a lot of different variables, so if you want to check those out, I do encourage you just to go ahead and shop around. But again, because the prices of contact lenses do fluctuate from retailer to retailer as well as throughout the year, including things like rebates and insurance, all those different things, it’s important for you to certainly look around, shop around, and talk to your local optical provider because they can often get you better deals and offer you better services along with that. But if you want to check out updated prices yourself and you prefer just to look around online, I know and trust. For the Precision One lens, it is really nice that you get a comfortable lens that’s very healthy, and it’s got that nice lower modulus, so it’s easy to learn. It’s a pretty middle-of-the-road price for a daily contact lens. It’s not the highest on the market, and it’s not the cheapest on the market, but for the high quality of the lens, it’s one of my favorite lenses right now.
Daily Total One Lens
The next lens that we’re talking about is, yeah, you guessed it—I’ve mentioned it in a previous article before—all about being the best contact lenses for dry eyes. I think personally, as well as overall, it’s one of the best daily contact lenses you can possibly get, and that is the Daily Total One lens. Now, the Dailies Total One lens, again, was designed about 11 or 10-plus years ago, and this lens completely reimagined how contact lenses are made. They spent about ten-plus years researching how to make it. They manufacture it in a different way that’s actually better for the environment than any other type of contact lens, and that’s because they use less plastic in the manufacturing process. As far as daily contact lenses go, it has the highest oxygen transmissibility—it’s like 156 DK over T, which means there’s a lot of oxygen getting to the surface of the eye. And then because of their specialized surface technology, the center of the lens is only a little bit plastic—it’s mostly water. But by the time you go from the center of the lens to the outside of the lens, it’s 100% water. That means your lids and the eyeball itself are just being cushioned by water. That is why they are so incredibly comfortable.
Phosphatidylcholine and Dryness Prevention
Another cool thing about the Daily Total lens is that the lens itself has an extra additive to help with moisturization and preventing dryness, and that’s an additive that is naturally occurring in your tears called phosphatidylcholine. This acts to buffer the front surface of the contact lens when oil starts to separate on the front surface, and tears start to evaporate. So, this phosphatidylcholine embedded in the lens is released, and that again helps prevent dryness, making it probably the lens to go to if you have dry, sensitive eyes. The only downside with this surface technology is that it is so wet that if your fingers aren’t bone dry, it can be a little bit difficult to take off your eye. So, I encourage you, if you wear the Daily Total One lens and you ever notice how hard it is to remove them at the end of the day, just make sure your fingers are absolutely bone dry. Really, that same tip goes for every kind of contact lens, but particularly definitely with this one.
Price and Availability of Daily Total One
Now, because the Daily Total One is the single only lens in its class—a water gradient lens—they probably have a patent on the technology, I assume. So, this lens being so unique, being the most healthy, the most comfortable on the market, expect to pay a premium price for it. Usually, a yearly supply of these types of contact lenses—it’s not unheard of to see it run for around $800 for a year’s supply for both eyes. However, again, you often can save quite a bit with using special rebates, discount codes, insurance, all of the above. In addition, that Daily Total One also comes in a multifocal option. They currently don’t come in astigmatism correction, and the Precision One, I should mention, also doesn’t have astigmatism correction right now. But I do know that it’s in the works. I’ve seen the Daily Total One at least in production—they’re kind of building out their supplies so that when they launch coming up in the next year, they should be able to roll those out to pretty much everywhere throughout the world. So, no, if you’re an astigmatism wearer, I’m sorry, these lenses—the Precision One and the Daily Total One—are not available in astigmatism. However, they’re coming soon. Oh, and also I forgot to mention that the Precision One lens does have a UV blocker in it, so while you’re wearing the lens, you do protect your eyes a little bit from UV light, whereas the Daily Total One unfortunately does not have a UV blocker in it. But in reality, if you’re wearing contacts, you should have sunglasses available on hand anyway.
CooperVision Lenses: Clarity One Day and MyDay Daily
Moving on to our next lens, we should talk about the CooperVision lenses. In fact, these two lenses I’m going to talk about have pretty much the exact same price. They have the same material, but slightly different benefits. The CooperVision lenses I’m talking about are the MyDay Daily lens and the Clarity One Day lens. Both of these lenses are made with silicone hydrogel, making them healthier and better for the cornea, are also a little bit less in price. These lenses I find in my clinic still give a great vision and comfort, but they’re a little less expensive than the Daily Total One. So, if you’re looking for something that’s a little less expensive but still really good on the market, then the CooperVision lenses, the MyDay lens and the Clarity One Day lens, are certainly some good options.
Options for Astigmatism and Value
In fact, these lenses from CooperVision, including the MyDay Daily, do have some of the most options when it comes to astigmatism correction. So, if you’re somebody who has astigmatism, or you just want to try something a little different, these lenses are certainly a great option to go for. Now, if you’re wanting to go for the best value lens that you can get that still offers great oxygen permeability, then I’d say to take a look at the Clarity One Day lenses. I think they go for somewhere around $400 for a year’s supply for both eyes, making them a much better option if you’re on a budget.
Johnson & Johnson Acuvue Oasys One-Day Lenses
Lastly, another lens that I need to mention is from Johnson & Johnson, which are the Acuvue Oasys One-Day lenses. These lenses are made with something called senofilcon A, which is the material that they use for their two-week Acuvue Oasys lens. So, it’s the same material; it’s just put into a daily lens form. This lens, for me and my experience with patients, is also great for people who have dry eyes. So, the Dailies Total One, the Precision One, and the Acuvue Oasys One-Day are all great for dry eye sufferers. However, they do have the benefit of having some of the best UV protection on the market for contact lenses.
UV Protection and Final Recommendations
The Acuvue Oasys One-Day lens comes with a class 1 UV blocker, which is important because class 1 is the best. Class 2 is like middle-of-the-road. Class 1 offers about 90-something percent protection from UV-A light and almost 100% protection from UV-B light, which again is one of the highest you can get. I personally prefer this lens over most others, but that’s just a personal preference and my personal bias for this lens. So if UV protection is important to you, then this is the one I’d go with. Again, the only downside is that they don’t have this in astigmatism or multifocal just yet, but that could also be in the works.
Conclusion
So there you have it, my top recommendations for daily contact lenses in 2024! Just remember to consult with your eye doctor to find the best fit for you.
