i meant the wear pattern the lens is sold for ie daily, monthly, fortnightly, continuous etc. While a lens sold as daily disposable MAY be safe to use for a month, it has only been tested for safety when used as a daily disposable. It is also worth noting that a lens sold under the same brand name in the US and UK for example may not actually be identical products, so if a lens has been licensed for daily and monthly use in the US it is not necesarily identical to the product with the same name which is sold in the UK only for daily use. One of the most important factors in determining a lenses wear pattern relates to the amount of oxygen which can reach the surface of you eye when you wear the lens - this is called the oxygen transmissability. Lenses such as AirOptix which is meant for continuous wear for 30 days have an oxygen transmissability of 175Dk/t whereas a daily wear lens such as Focus Dailies have a rating of only 29Dk/t. From this you can see that when worn over the same length of time far more oxygen is available to your eye when using an AirOptix lens as compared to a Focus Daily lens, so, if you wear a Focus Daily lens for longer than recommended you run the risk of starving your eye surface of oxygen and causing a condition called stromal anoxia which can in turn lead to a number of more serious problems.

hey gyzmo, i was reading an article about the issue of wearing lenses longer than recommmended the other day. The wear periods recommended by the manufacturers represent the pattern the lens has been licensed for. In order to be licensed the lens has to undergo very substantial testing and as such you can be sure your eyes are safe if you follow manufacturers recommendations. If you wear your lenses for longer it may well be safe, but this has not been tested and as such has not been proven safe.

Hey Mick, i think the lenses you are talking about from specsavers are acutally just repackaged version of AirOptix Night & Day, a lot of the larger chain opticians repackage major brands with their own name. i had to reorder my own lenses the other day (specsavers easy vision) and found out that they are actually just repackaged Focus Dailies. I used Find Cheap Contact Lenses its tells you who the cheapest supplier is in the UK saved myself over ten quid!!! EDIT - where it says "Find Cheap Contact Lenses" it should say lensfinder.co.uk odd!!!!!!