Glasses vs. Contacts: A History of Decisions in Eyewear

Glasses are a delicate thing, both literally and metaphorically. Recent studies from the National Health Institute suggest that over 63% of Americans require a reading aid of some kind after the age of eighteen. In conjunction with this statistic, over 16% of Americans wear contact lenses specifically and not glasses on a regular basis. This means that 47% of Americans who are in need of a reading aid outright refuse to wear contact lenses. Why is this?

On the surface, contact lenses seem to be vastly superior to glasses in every way. Contact lenses are simply applied to your eye and left there, augmenting your vision for the better and aiding you with hyper-specific, medically tailored specifications. Your contact lenses have been specially designed to improve vision for your eyes, not for anyone else's. While glasses have aided those with vision problems for centuries, they do not offer bespoke customization nor the scientifically-aided tailoring of contact lenses. 

While one could argue that eyeglasses are easier to put on and take off, they also require a greater deal of care and consideration throughout the day. When wearing eyeglasses, you must remain conscious of the fact that you have a delicate piece of glassware on your face at all times and take that into consideration. Conversely, contact lenses are concealed within your own eye and require no such consideration. They do not impede you from performing daily tasks in any way.

Historically, one of the earliest known recordings of spectacles being worn to assist with impeded vision was in 1284, in Italy, when Salvino D'Armate forged lenses of glass or crystal that one could utilize with handles attached to the side. While this is an early instance, by the 1700s and 1800s, glasses were everywhere and being made out of everything. Various materials, such as gold, silver, and leather, were all used to produce eyeglasses during these eras. It was also incredibly common to see various makers utilizing different styles, often customizing or even bejeweling the metal frames and lenses.

Conversely, the first contact lenses became a reality much later. Despite Leonardo da Vinci forming a plan to build a contact lens-esque device to improve one's eyesight as far back as 1508, one of the earliest instances of an actual contact lens was in 1801, in Britain. That was when scientist John Young built a glass contact lens that was filled with water to account for the distortion of one's eye and attached it via wax. Officially speaking, the invention of contact lenses as we know them is often credited to French optician Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick in 1888.

Ultimately, many factors go into deciding if eyeglasses or contact lenses suit you better. However, although many think of contact lenses as a fairly recent development, they have a long history of being medically sound and structurally reliable, which aids in improving one's vision in the short and long term.