BS: Bifocal contacts work great!

Subject: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 06:42 PM

Awhile back I had inquired about bifocal contact lenses for replacing reading glasses. I got some good feedback here. Well, I tried some out, and they work very, very well. I now have good closeup AND faraway vision for the first time in about 5 or 6 years. I am extremely nearsighted, so the standard contact lenses were overcorrecting at close range, forcing me to use reading glasses over top of them. I have now discarded the reading glasses.

These contacts work on the principle of a lens that corrects for different distances as the lens goes out from the center, so to speak. The eye just naturally recognizes that part of the lens which is giving the best resolution at any particular distance, and ignores the rest. Or perhaps I should say, the brain ignores the rest.

Anyway, it works great. I can recommend these lenses highly to anyone who can handle wearing soft contact lenses.

Thanks to those who helped me out on this. It has turned out to be a very good solution.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 11:53 PM

wow....I have never worn contacts....but the idea sure intrigues me.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 12:45 AM

My mother's husband is an optometrist, and he sent me a sample pair. Yuck: it was as if I had my reading glasses on all the time, even when I was looking into the distance. When I told him about it, he said that the curve or the diameter was probably wrong for my cornea, so the lens kept dropping down and I was seeing through the top (which was the peripheral near-vision part) instead of the center. Makes sense. I guess I'll go to the eye clinic here at work and give them another try. I'd love to be able to ditch the reading glasses, which are, sadly, becoming more and more necessary.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 01:56 AM

Hey, Little Hawk - What happens if you put one lens rightsideup, and the other one upsidedown? - one eye goes up and the other down?

Is there a song in there somewhere?

I just moved up from reading glasses to graduated lenses, and generally I like them - but the reading area is small and doesn't work as well as I'd like.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 07:08 AM

Are they soft, hard, disposable...?

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 07:22 AM

I did try hard lenses a few years back - found them difficult. Are these hard or soft?

The optometrist on Wednesday said I have eyes belonging to two different people - one long sighted, the other short sighted.

I've just spent over $500 on a new pair of vari-focals, which work well for me. Maybe next time I need to change the prescription.....

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Davetnova
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 08:50 AM

I'm wearing varifocal (convention spectacles) just now. For about the first month I thought they were great, normal vision through the top close up through the bottom centre. Now after about a year I find that I remove them for reading. The close up portion seems to have a very limited range so that I had to hold my head at a strange angle, hold the reading material at a fixed(uncomfortable) range and move my head while scanning the lines. I'm not convinced they work for me and much as the idea of contact lenses appeal to my vanity, I don't think I could cope.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 11:29 AM

These are soft lenses. They are not divided into upper/lower sections. If I understand it properly, the lens has different magnification (or whatever you would call it) at the center, then a bit different moving out from that center, then a bit different again, and so on. The differences are gradually changing out from the center, they do not divide at a rigid line. Accordingly, the eye simply registers on the part of the lens that gives it the best focus at any particular distance, and it ignores the rest. Or the brain does. Whichever. You only notice the part that is focusing best.

It works.

The optometrist was astonished how well I was able to focus at short range with these. Apparently they worked better for me than they do for most people. That's what he said, anyway. I feel pretty lucky when it comes to that.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Amos
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 11:37 AM

Jacqui:

Did he identify your ocular victims? In case you want to give them back in a fit of conscience, or sumpn...ya know. :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 12:24 PM

Sounds like a case for Chongo, Amos! "The case of the missing eyeballs."

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: MMario
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 12:33 PM

I have the graduated lenses in my glasses - when I wear contacts - my latest prescription is close vision for one eye and distance vision for the other. The brain just sorta adjusts.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 12:55 PM

Yeah, that works too. I've tried it. I like the bifocals better, though. They should really be called "multifocals", I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: MarkS
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 07:48 PM

Little Hawk

How long did it take you to get used to them, and do you know if they can also correct for astigmatism at the same time?

Please also let us know the brand name. I will bring this to the attention of my eye doctor - they sound like the answer to a prayer.

Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 08:35 PM

I got used to them in about 2 seconds. No kidding. I put them in, and was startled to see how clearly I could see my hands and the material on the arm of my shirt. Wow. I went and got a magazine and read the small print with no difficulty. Double wow! This was all while I was waiting to be shown into the doctor's examining room. When I got there, I could not only see great at long distance on the charts, but also could read the smallest print up close. He was surprised. He said most people don't get such a good result as that, although it generally works fine for them...just not quite so well as it did for me.

I'll find out the brand name tomorrow if I can, but they're probably closed. And I'm out of town next week. Well, I'll find out as soon as I can, and then refresh the thread.

I'm just using a trail pair now, and they are working great for everything, including using the computer.

I'm not sure about the astigmatism, but I'll see if I can find out.

PM me in early November if I get distracted and forget to post the info here.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 10:11 PM

I lucked out. I've had the same contact lens prescription for many years, but I'm into the era of poor near vision. As it happens one of my eyes is astigmatic which paradoxically allows me to focus on near items with the contacts. The optometrist called it "against the rules astigmatism" and insists that is a valid term. Anyhow, except for fine print I can go around without glasses for the time being, AND pass my driver's test.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 04:06 AM

I have severe allergy reactions to the silicone style soft contact lenses, and it took me ages to find a make that I can wear for more than a couple of hours before turning opaque.

I would appreciate any information that anyone want to pass on, especially with 'multifocal' type.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: mouldy
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 07:24 AM

I had varifocal contacts for about a year, but they still involved a bit of eye tilting to look through the right bit of the lens (the reading bit is round the edge). I also found that in poor light my vision was worse, and that my night driving wasn't so good in them.

I changed to the monovision system: one lens for distance and one for reading, and it's much better for me, although I sometimes have to favour the left side when holding reading matter, as that's the reading lens. (I have worn varifocal specs for several years and they've given me no trouble).

It all boils down to what suits the individual.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 08:02 AM

LOL Amos - you must know by now I have NO conscience.

LH - these sound amazing. I'd like to know the brand name too please.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 11:19 AM

I didn't wear glasses until 6 or 7 years ago, and then I gradually moved from wearing them to read to wearing them to do other things. Now if I'm working around the house without them I find I have to stop and curse them until I find them so I can read the small print or see some small detail that I used to do just fine with no mechanical help before. Bummer!

I haven't tried contacts--I have a problem with dry eye, so need to solve that first. I tried multifocal no-line glasses and spent so much time moving my head around to find the right focal spot that I gave up and went to simple bifocals and am much happier. I use a different set of lenses for computer work (mid-range and closeup only in those lenses). Your description of how well these work is marvelous--it might be worth it to try contacts for a little while just to see if they've found a solution that the no-line lenses couldn't offer. Please do tell us what the brand is!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Oct 05 - 06:05 PM

Jacqui, I too was diagnosed with that anomoly. The doc said the condition was not rare, just not common and added, Just one of Nature's freaks. Humph.

Interestingly, long before I knew that one eye was nearsighted and the other farsighted, various people had told me that my right eye was my 'friendly' eye, that the other was sharp. It turned out that the right eye was the nearsighted one. Makes one wonder what messages we send out that are based solely on physical capacities.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Bizibod
Date: 23 Oct 05 - 06:21 PM

Ha HAH! I too have one of each! So which of you two has got mine? And whose do I have?

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Kaleea
Date: 23 Oct 05 - 11:40 PM

Jeepers! Zounds! This could actually help alot of people. Is that allowed? My bifocals are always a little off-my left eye seems to always be looking through the wrong spot on the lens. Sounds like the new-fangled contacts would make that go away. Typical Musician, I'm always having to look at/attempt to read Music which is at a wide variety of distances from my eyes, & then squinting, guessing/missing the notes & such. Also, I have really missed having good periferal vision to see & give & get "signals" from other Musicians around me.

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 07:57 AM

Ebbie and Bizibod - maybe we should get together and have an eye swap. Sounds like wandering eyes!

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: kendall
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 08:19 AM

What? stick something in my eye on purpose? you gotta be kidding!

"Oh vanity, your name used to be woman"

Subject: RE: BS: Bifocal contacts work great!
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 05:21 PM

Foolstroupe

Allergic to silicon?

Are you a carbon based life form?