Do you wear bifocals?

[HIU8]

This is new territory for me. I've been nearsited since I was 8 yrs old. My sight is currently -7.0 and -7.5. I wear contacts (glasses at night and on weekends). I've recently noticed that when wearing my contacts I can no longer hold things close to my face to read. I have to pretty much hold them at arms length. My glasses have also been bothering me. I figure I'm now farsighted as well (however I cannot tell if I have issues up close when I have neither contacts nor glasses on). I'm not averse to getting bifocals. But how do those of you who wear contacts deal with the bifocal issue? Do they make bifocal contacts? Do you wear contacts for nearsightedness and glasses for reading?

FWIW, I am not a candidate for any of the laser eye surgeries. The last time I inquired I was told my corneas are so thin and my sight bad enough that they would essentially be removing most of my cornea (and hoping it would grow back--end result if it didn't I would be essentially blind). I can do the older surgery (where they cut slits into the eye, but I would most likely end up seeing a perminent ring in my vision. So, needless to say, surgery is not an option.

[trales]

I am glad you asked, I want to know the same thing. I am also not a surgery candidate and seeing keeps getting harder, as does juggling multiple pairs of glasses and sunglasses.

[eyedoc_01]

Hey all,

You're not technically gettting farsighted, since you can only be nearsighted or farsighted. And since I'm as nearsighted as you, I can tell you for sure that the nearsightedness isn't going away.

What you're running into is the natural loss of near focusing ability called presbyopia everyone hits somewhere between 38 and 45 (give or take). If it's any consolation, without glasses or contacts you'll still be able to hold things 5 inches from your face and read teeny print for decades thanks to your nearsightedness.

Anyway, for glasses you're pretty much looking at bifocals. For contacts you have 3 choices:

1. Wear over-the-counter readers over your contacts. Pros: cheap, good vision. Cons: still wearing glasses, readers easy to misplace.

2. Bifocal contacts. Pros: no reading glasses. Cons: $$, vision not as good at near OR distance as with option 1, may still need readers for very fine print or dim light situations. (Those of us blessed to be extremely nearsighted tend to like really crisp vision, and usually aren't satisfied with bifocal contacts.)

3. Monovision contacts: one eye see distance, the other up close. Pros: if you can adapt to it, usually better vision quality than option 2, also no glasses. Cons: you may not adapt to asking your eyes to function independently, may have difficulty with night driving or prolonged computer use.

Whatever you pick, the good news is that it won't make your presbyopia worse. E.g. using reading glasses doesn't make you dependent on them. Bad news is that presbyopia gets worse on its own no matter what you do. Unfortunately, the near vision that you're losing isn't coming back, so don't expect your poor eye doctor to work miracles*. Every option listed includes tradeoffs, so you have to figure out which tradeoff works best for you.

*yes, I'm an optometrist:D

[Gena]

I got my first pair of bifocals about 6 months ago, right after I turned 38. I have been nearsighted since my early teens and currently my lenses are about -5.5 with a mild astigmatism. Before getting bifocals, I didn't find myself holding things at arm's length. Instead, I would take my glasses off and hold things close to my face to read it. (this happened a lot with stuff my boss wrote. I told him that his terrible handwriting forced me into bifocals.)

I don't wear contacts because I'm too squeamish about touching my eyes. And I'm way too squeamish for laser surgery.

I went with progressive bifocal glasses and I LOVE them. It took me about a week to get used to them, but now they work great for me. I am so much more comfortable reading (even the boss's handwriting) and I can see distances great. I get Transitions lenses, so I only use one pair of glasses for everything.

[mumofboys]

I went with progressive bifocal glasses and I LOVE them. It took me about a week to get used to them, but now they work great for me.

Second vote for the Progressives here. :waving4: No more peeking over or under my distance glasses to read or knit... no more juggling glasses (just putting glasses on and off seems to add to the wear and tear).

[MoJo]

I don't yet, but I'm in that "extremely nearsighted and afraid, and 38" camp. We were just discussing this at work yesterday, actually.

DH does.

eyedoc_01, I really appreciate your taking the time to explain all of that!

[HIU8]

I want progressive lenses for my glasses. I want to continue wearing my contacts (I am not a glasses all the time person). I will probably be happiest with regular lenses and reading glasses. As it is, the computer now bothers me, reading food packages is very difficult etc... I need to make my eye appt to get a new prescription soon.

[TwinFoxes]

Eyedoc_01, that was very informative. Thanks for posting!

[egoldber]

I tried progressives and they gave me a terrible headache, so I can't wear them. That was $$$$$ wasted. But I have a somewhat complicated prescription. My eye doctor suggested trying a traditional bifocal to help train my eye and then switching, But for now I am making do with two pairs of glasses.

[erosenst]

I am extremely nearsighted (-7.25 in both eyes at their worst) and happily wore contacts for 30 years. I now wear progressive glasses.

Because I wore soft contacts in their early years (and possibly because my eye doctor at the time wasn't aware of what was going on) I developed permanent GPC (the little white bumps on your eyelid that are treated if discovered soon enough) years and years ago. The last 10 (?) years or so I had to wear daily disposable contacts.

They make bifocals contacts in daily disposables...but they tend to only work for people just starting to need reading glasses. The first year+ they were great - no adjustment period, great vision. Over time, however, it wasn't great. I switched back to regular contacts and reading glasses - which lasted three months at most - it drove me TOTALLY crazy having to take them on and off (and on and off, and on and off) while I worked on the computer and did other tasks. Even though I had a number of pairs of readers, I didn't have them where I wanted. I *hated* it.

Despite being told that it would take a while to adjust to progressives, I had great vision immediately. I thought I'd wear contacts/readers when I was dressed up/out for the evening/etc - but still hated the reading glass thing to read a menu, a program, see my food etc.

The only small issue I've had is that my nearsightedness has corrected a little - back to -5.50. It's taken me a little while of strained vision each time to realize I need to go back and get different lenses, but then all is well again.

[HIU8]

I expect to have adjustment issues also. I really prefer to wear contacts the majority f the time (glasses have always bothered me--something sitting on my face that is). I assume I will have multiple pairs of reading glasses. My glasses will have to be either bifocal or progressive. I've worn the type of lenses where you can only see out of a portion of them (I want to say crushed lenses) for about 20 years now. They were somewhat weird to get used to although now it's not a big deal at all. I'm anticipating not having a huge adjustment to progressives b/c of that (I hope).

Sadly, I just realized that I really am older than I feel.......

[niccig]

I will soon. I have a pair of glasses for everything, and then another pair for close computer work ..the prescription for the two was too different. I had an older pair of glasses, that we used for the computer glasses. I'm working on a project with detailed programming and spending far too much time staring at the screen, but that is nearly over. ..I think next time I go in, it will be bifocals..great, I'm 37 so I suppose it's time.

[MichelleRC]

I have had progressive lenses from Costco for almost 2 years and I love them. No adjustment issues.