Contact lenses

Contact lenses are not glasses without the frame. The lens sits on the eye, the eye has to tolerate it, and the first week decides whether you wear them for twenty years or give up. So the fitting is unhurried, the trial pair is free, and the teach takes as long as it takes.

The assessment starts after an eye examination within the last year: we measure the curve of your cornea and the quality of your tears, talk about how often you would actually wear lenses, and choose a type: daily disposables for part-time wear and the easiest hygiene, monthly lenses for every day at a lower cost, torics for astigmatism, multifocals for reading as well as distance. We put a trial pair on you in the room, check the fit after twenty minutes, and then Val teaches you to put them in and take them out at the mirror until you can do it twice without help.

You go home with a week of trial lenses and come back for a check. If they suit, a plan starts: lenses delivered to the practice or to your door, solutions for monthly wearers, every aftercare appointment included, and a replacement pair if you lose one. Plans can be paused or stopped any time with a month's notice. Lens wearers still need a full eye examination every year, and the plan reminds you.

What is included

• Assessment, fitting and a free trial pair, £40
• A teach at the mirror until you can do it yourself
• Daily, monthly, toric and multifocal lenses
• A plan from £16 a month with aftercare included
• Lenses to the practice or your door
• Pause or stop with a month's notice

What it costs

Assessment and fitting £40, including the trial lenses and the teach. Plans from £16 a month for daily lenses three days a week, £32 every day, £19 for monthly lenses with solutions; the plan builder on the prices page works it out. Prices include VAT where it applies. The prices page has every price, the NHS voucher table, and a contact lens plan builder.