Are bifocal contacts for you?

First things first - trust me when I say that everybody, even you, will need help seeing up close sometime in your life, probably starting around age 40. This is a promise. 100%. Everybody. Yes, I mean you. Now if you're under 40 you can stop reading now because bifocal contacts are not for you... yet.

For everyone else who is wearing reading glasses, bifocals, or just plain struggling to read the newspaper (or this blog for that matter), bifocal contact lenses are an exciting option with some new advances, but they definitely aren't for everyone.

Let me state two caveats before I begin. In this blog I am really only talking about soft lenses. Second, when I discuss bifocal contact lens fittings I am refering not only to true bifocal contact lenses (as advertised on T.V.), but I am also referring to monovision (one lens for distance only and one lens for near only), plus every conceivable combination of bifocal and monovision lenses.

Here are a few things that would make you a good candidate for bifocal contact lenses, though keep in mind not a signle one of these is an absolute requirement: a strong desire to not wear glasses, a willingness to accept vision that isn't quite perfect in exchange for adequate vision at all distances, being closer to age 40 than to age 60, prior contact lens experience, long-time glasses use, and an understanding that reading glasses may still be needed from time to time for small print or poor lighting conditions.

And now a few things that make you a worse candidate: intense fear of touching your eye, high amounts of astigmatism, need for crystal clear vision (perfectionists and Type A folks), very dry eyes, having an eye that doesn't see very well even with the best correction.

There are a couple of things every person should understand prior to trying on any type of bifocal contact lens. 1) Your vision cannot be as clear with bifocal contact lenses as it could be with bifocal glasses, and 2) every person experiences bifocal contact lenses differently and therefore it may take several fittings with vastly different lens combinations before finding the lenses that work best for you.

The reason those two points are true is because bifocal contact lenses do not work in the same way as bifocal glasses. With bifocal glasses both eyes look through the distance portion of the glasses to see far away and both eyes look through the near portion of the glasses to see up close. With glasses, both eyes are always perfectly focused for whatever distance they are viewing. This is not possible with soft contact lenses - you cannot look through just one part of the lens at a time. Therefore, with contact lenses part of your vision is ALWAYS focused at a distance and part of your vision is ALWAYS focused up close. When you are looking at a distance your brain learns to concentrate on the part of your vision that is focused at a distance and block out the part that is focused up close, and vice versa when you look up close. Because part of your vision is always focused at the wrong location bifocal contacts cannot be as perfect as bifocal glasses. And because it is the brain that interprets what we see through bifocal contacts, every person experiences bifocal contacts differently and therefore the same type of fitting does not work for all people.

In my opinion the biggest factor of whether someone will successfully be fit with bifocal contact lenses is the doctor who fits them. Bifocal contact lenses require a firm understanding of how the different lenses work, a doctor must know what changes to make based on each patient's responses to the lenses, the doctor must him- or herself be very patient, and the doctor must set appropriate expectations through proper education. Fitting bifocal contact lenses properly is a challenge. I love a challenge.

If you want to learn more about whether you are a good candidate or not then please call for a complete evaluation. If you're interested in trying contact lenses or bifocal contact lenses but aren't sure you want to risk the money on something that might not work, then stop worrying because we offer all our patients a No Risk Contact Lens Guarantee. If you decide not to do contacts for any reason then you'll receive a refund on all fees associated with the fitting or purchasing of contact lenses.

Sweet Visions,

Eric Stamper, Optometric Physician
Visionary Eyecare Center
www.visionary-eye.com