The Benefits of ICL Surgery Compared to the Lifetime Costs of Contacts

If you dread wearing glasses, wearing contacts might seem like the perfect choice to correct your vision. Initially, the upfront costs are not that much and include your contact exam, starter boxes of contacts, contact storage case, and contact lens cleaning solution.

Yet, if you take a moment and consider the lifetime costs of contacts, you might be surprised that the costs of implantable contact lens (ICL) surgery make a better investment to correct your vision. To help you decide, let’s break down the costs between these two vision correction options.

The Lifetime Costs of Contacts

There are several types of costs and things that influence how much you pay that are necessary when you wear contacts. These include, but may not be limited to:

• The cost of annual eye exams to renew your contact prescription. You must get a new exam every year to check for changes to your vision.
• The cost of the contacts with the features and options you select. The costs of contacts vary if they are daily-wear, extended-wear, colored, and so on.
• The place where you purchase your contacts. The costs for contacts do vary slightly depending on where you purchase them.
• The number of contacts purchased. If you only buy a few boxes at a time, you could pay more than buying in bulk or taking advantage of manufacturer rebate offers.
• The frequency of contact purchases. Prices can fluctuate with contacts. If you buy enough to last an entire year, the costs could increase between purchases.

Since there are variations in the costs of contacts, it is difficult to provide the precise costs for each person. In general, the average cost of a box of contacts with six lenses in LA is $25. A box of contacts lasts about two weeks provided you don’t rip, tear, or lose contact.

So, you would need about 18 boxes of contacts per year, which would cost roughly $450 a year. Then you must take into the other costs of wearing contacts—contact solution, eye drops, and contact lens cases.

The average cost of contact solutions per month in LA County is about $20. The cost of a new contact lens case every three months averages around $5. The cost of rewetting drops is about $10 per month. You would spend about another $380 on these supplies.

Not counting the cost of eye exams, you would spend about $830 a year. If you wear contacts for 40 years, that amounts to a little more than $33,000 in lifetime costs, not taking into account price increases. So, you could easily be looking at lifetime costs of $50,000 or more!

The Lifetime Costs of ICL Laser Eye Surgery

The costs of ICL laser eye surgery will vary by provider. On average, Visian ICL surgery costs between $8,000 and $9,000 for both eyes in Los Angeles. The price will vary based on the vision correction required by the individual and the type of implantable contact lens selected.

For more people, this is a single one-time cost. Once the procedure is complete, they never have to buy contacts again!

One of the benefits of ICL surgery is there are several different lens options to address just about all types of vision problems. You can even get ICL lenses with built-in bifocals for both nearness and distance vision problems.

Plus, reputable laser eye surgeons offer payment plans to help make ICL surgery affordable for everyone!

For further information about ICL surgery or other laser eye surgery options, please feel free to contact Dougherty Laser Vision at (805) 953-7052 to schedule a consultation appointment today! We have laser eye center locations in Westlake Village, Camarillo, Simi Valley, and Encino, CA.