Acuvue Oasys For Astigmatism: Too Pricey?
The World Is Their Oyster
Ahhh, contact lenses. The magic of popping a thin bit of floppy rubber-plastic on your eyeball, and the word is suddenly clear. Modern science and production truly are amazing.
Johnson & Johnson is amazing.
And Johnson & Johnson loves you. Or rather, they love your wallet. How much they love your wallet depends on where you live. Since you got lured here to read about astigmatism correcting contact lens prices, let’s talk about those. Lucky for you J&J make Acuvue Oasys contact lenses available for sale world-wide. But how much they’re worth, depends on where you live.
The astigmatism part is interesting, though anytime you use contact lenses, the cylinder correction for astigmatism is less accurate than the equivalent for contact lenses.
First, let’s briefly look at how astigmatism (cylinder diopter) is managed in a contact lens.
Astigmatism Correction In Acuvue Oasys
Cylinder correction in any lens is applied at a specific axis, to correct astigmatism.
Before we go into just doing this though, realize that you may be able to fix your own astigmatism (so you don’t need Acuvue Oasys for astigmatism in the first place).
I’ve written a guide on all things astigmatism.
Perhaps worth reading since I’ve spent the past 20 years in myopia control, and have helped many tens of thousands of people reverse their astigmatism (and stop needing glasses altogether). I’ve written hundreds of articles about astigmatism.
I’ve also explained how to build an astigmatism DYI measuring tool as well as many optometrist confirmed results of astigmatism removed (there are quite a few).
In my guide (link above) I explain why the optometrist astigmatism measuring system is deeply flawed, why astigmatism is the “high fructose corn syrup of the vision industry“, whether you should even use astigmatism correction at all, and of course, how to measure it.
Whew. Well if you made it this far, then let’s look at how astigmatism correction works in contact lenses.
In principle, there’s a little weight at the bottom of the lens, to keep the cylinder correction aligned:
As you can tell from above image probably, that’s a pretty relative sort of solution.
If you have high astigmatism or are sensitive to fluctuations in focal plane, I don’t recommend it.
I also strongly suggest not wearing these contact lenses during screen / close-up use, especially not for longer duration. They contribute in many ways to why your eyes suck in the first place.
But if you really want Acuvue Oasys, or any contact lens with astigmatism correction, the price is worth exploring. Because J&J is very much trying to get the most money out of you, and that depends where and how you buy these contact lenses.
Let’s explore just how much (or little) you pay for Oasys depending on where you live.
Congrats, You’re Paying $35 For Acuvue Oasys For Astigmatism (India, Thailand, Mexico)
It does make sense, on a certain level. Income varies, and if you live in Mexico you’re not going to be able to pay the same amount of money for Acuvue contact lenses as if you lived in Norway.
That’s the interesting thing though – the cost of making the contact lenses has absolutely squat to do with what you’re paying for them. They charge you as much as they can, that’s the name of the game. You could say that infrastructure costs are higher, rents, salary, insurance, etc.
You could say that.
Or you could say that they’ll just get you for whatever they can.
Acuvue Oasys in Mexico will set you back 699 pesos. That’s 40 USD for Acuvue Oasys on lentesmexico.
Also interestingly, lots of sites will try to stop you from seeing local prices, depending on where you’re browsing rom. But if you find sites (not all that difficult), you’ll find the same story for various countries in a generally similar income bracket:
Country | Average Price (USD) |
---|---|
India | $35 |
Thailand | $40 |
Mexico | $45 |
The contact lens market in the US alone is 3 billion dollars a year. A drop in the bucket compared to the entire myopia industry lens industry which is 100 billion dollars a year.
Huge profits in contact lenses. Also a number of side effect risks, but nobody really will tell you about those.
I actually posted a picture of my find of $6 (!) daily contact lens boxes for sale at 7/11. Nuts!
Oops, You’re paying $100 For Acuvue Oasys For Astigmatism (Norway, Denmark, Island)
If you live in rich-ass countries, you’re used to paying lots more for things.
Country | Average Price (USD) |
---|---|
Norway | $100 |
Denmark | $95 |
Iceland | $90 |
Actually, here’s a deal, for just 700kr (or 70 USD as of this writing):
They really get you with taxes too, depending on where you live. You’re paying a boatload more for everything from Apple products to basic commodities, because why not.
Your favorite old eye guru has lived all over the world, from Myanmar to France. And the interesting thing I found is that ‘rich’ countries don’t necessarily mean ‘rich’ lives. People are just as broke, and often less happy in these supposedly wealthy countries.
You would be wealthy, if the system wasn’t rigged against you. Contact lens prices and my article, just to jab that one in a little bit.
What To DO: Shop Around (Everywhere)
As you look at it globally, prices more than double depending on where you buy your contact lenses:
Country | Average Price (USD) |
---|---|
India | $35 |
Thailand | $40 |
Mexico | $45 |
Norway | $100 |
Denmark | $95 |
Iceland | $90 |
Sure you make way more money in Norway over Mexico. At the end of the day though they will keep you as broke as possible, no matter what your paycheck looks like.
Since you can’t change where you live (probably), buying online is really often the way to go. You’ll find discounts, sometimes it might even be worth shopping from other countries – depending on how big of a supply of lenses you want.
Also and because this is endmyopia, I’d e remiss to leave out the part where you can unsubscribe from all of these contact lens subscriptions (not ‘prescriptions’). Your eyes are fundamentally healthy, and they really just sold your eyes into focal plane slavery by misdiagnosing a simple focusing muscle spasm, and getting you to buy their lenses. You can (and should) get your way back out of all this.
Check out my other articles on contact lenses and the many ways you can use them to actually improve your eyesight. It does take a bit more effort and knowledge, but whether you buy Acuvue Oasys or any other brand, you can use focal planes to actually make your eyes better.
Or there are contact lenses actually made to stop your eyes from getting worse. Those are mad pricey but they offer tech that should be pretty interesting. Check out my article on these defocus ring contact lenses.
And if you want to just get rid of all contact lenses, see more below.
Cheers,
-Jake