Contact Lens Price

Introduction

"What is the price of contact lenses in India?" is the first question we get asked when patients are considering moving from glasses to contact lenses.  Here we are talking about the contact lenses price with power. 

It is a very valid question. However, the answer is not always easy.  

What does the contact lens price in India depend on?

Contact Lenses with power price in India or your total cost of starting to use contact lenses would depend on the following factors.  Here you would have to consider the cost of eye examinations at your ophthalmologist's clinic.

1. The company you or your doctor chooses for you
2. Each company has many lenses, so the power eye-lens price in India would depend on which type you choose.
3. The power of your contact lenses
4. The number of lenses you choose to buy at one time
5. The contact lens solutions that you will have to buy for all lenses except daily disposable lenses
6. Price would depend on where you purchase the lenses.  Some places offer more discounts than some others.
7. Your ophthalmologist consultation fees.

1. Choice of contact lens companies

Various companies manufacture soft contact lenses.  The most popular world over are

1. Johnson & Johnson
2. Bausch and Lomb

Some others are

1. Cooper vision
2. Seed
3. Alcon
4. Celebration. 

Each has a different eye lens price in India.  However, for most companies, the cost of contact lenses would be almost similar, but like for any other product, the most popular lenses are probably the most expensive.  It's straightforward to buy the cheapest lens, but the issue with choosing the most affordable lens is that if the company cannot offer you the service you need, you would feel very helpless after buying their products.  
In our experience, the more prominent companies are more responsive and can deliver lenses much faster than smaller companies, and this delay becomes a challenge for patients.  Sometimes after ordering lenses that we don't have in-stock, patients have to wait for weeks for their lenses to arrive from smaller lens companies.  For this reason, we encourage all our patients to buy lenses from larger companies so that they get the expected service.

2. Types of contact lenses

The most common lenses available are disposable lenses, and these are available as

1. Daily
2. Biweekly
3. Monthly

The type of lens would affect the eye lens price in India. The daily lenses are the most expensive, and the monthly lenses are the cheapest.  The most common daily lenses are Acuvue moist daily disposable lenses.

3. Power of your contact lenses

Powered eye lens prices in India may vary but not significantly. 

1. Contact lenses could have a spherical power that looks like this -5.00 DS or -1.00 DS. 
2. You could also have a cylindrical power or astigmatism, and this could look like -5.00 DS / -1.5 * 180.  The lenses which help with astigmatism are called Toric lenses.  Toric lenses are more expensive than spherical lenses.

Thus the contact lenses price with power would depend on the power of the contact lenses.

4. Quantity of contact lenses purchased

The number of contact lenses you choose to buy at one time will also dictate the amount you pay for your first purchase.  Some may choose to buy only a monthly stock if they buy daily disposable lenses.  If you are buying biwbeekly or monthly disposable lenses, your minimum purchase would be 3 or 6 months, depending on your eye power.  People may choose to buy a larger quantity of lenses to reduce the need to buy every month or few months.  Sometimes, there are special offers for buying larger quantities, and you may choose to take that offer.   

PRO-TIP

We feel that it makes a lot of sense to buy contact lenses for six months or a year if you get good discounts.  You would have spent the money on the lenses anyway, and these lenses don't get spoilt.  In fact, at Eye Solutions, we sell yearly stocks of contact lenses to patients and offer them discounts.  Many of our relatively younger patients who study abroad buy yearly lens stock before their travels, so they don't have to buy these lenses from the foreign countries they are in.

5. Contact lens Solution

As mentioned in the article on daily disposable contact lenses, the contact lenses collect deposits of different materials.  These deposits need to be cleaned, and one needs contact lens solutions.  These contact lens solutions are not necessary for daily disposable contact lenses but are necessary for all other types of contact lenses.  You should be able to get a 500ml bottle for Rs 600, which would last you for about 1.5 to 2 months.  These solutions are also available in lesser quantities.  So there is this additional cost to the eye lenses price in India.

6. Where you buy contact lenses from 

The cost of contact lenses would depend on where you buy them.  There are three places where you can buy lenses. 

1. Online shopping
2. Optical Shops
3. Eye Hospitals

Online shopping would be the cheapest, but you would associate no service with that purchase.  If your eye power changes, you will waste your lenses.  Also, if you face any difficulty with the lenses, you would have to visit an ophthalmologist to help you with your eye condition.

Opticians and Eye hospitals would almost charge the same.  Opticians sometimes may be slightly cheaper than an Eye Hospital.  However, at both these places, you would be more sure of your eye power before you buy the lenses.  However, lens exchange would not be possible for an optician.

Eye hospitals offer discounts as well as lens exchanges when needed.  At Eye Solutions, we offer free trials before you buy the lenses.  These free trials help you decide if the lenses are comfortable, and you can see clearly with them.  If not happy, you don't need to buy the box of lenses and end up wasting money.  We also offer discounts for six-monthly and yearly purchases to our patients.  If the eye power changes, we also offer to take back the unopened boxes of lenses and replace them with the new eye power.

You can book your contact lens trial or order your contact lenses with us.

7. Your ophthalmologist's consultation fees

Contact lenses are worn on the front surface of the cornea.  It is always a good idea to have an ophthalmologist who can look at you if you face any difficulties with the lenses.  Many Eye Hospitals offer these services as a value add if you purchase lenses from them. 

At Eye Solutions, we provide free power checkups for our patients who buy six months to 1-year contact lenses from us.  In short, there is a relationship established between the contact lens wearer and the team at the Eye Hospital, and this relationship comes in handy when the need arises.

8.  What is the power eye lens price in India

Here is a chart showing the power eye lens price in India.  What we have listed here is the MRP.  We also have made a note of the discounts we offer.

Here we will try and attemp to break down the power eye lens prices.

If you were to use daily disposable contact lenses and were to wear them every day in both eyes you would spend about Rs 4000 a month.

On the other hand if you were to use fortnightly contact lenses and were to wear them everyday you wuld spend about Rs 1200 a month.

If you were to use monthly disposable contact lenses and wear these lenses every day then you would spend about Rs 900 per month.

So Daily disposables Vs Fortnightly disposables Vs Monthly disposables are Rs 4000 Vs Rs 1200 Vs 900 per month.