Bifocal Contact Lenses – A Babyboomer’s Experience

I wore contact lenses all the time when I was younger. I preferred them to
glasses, they gave me superior vision to glasses and they were comfortable to
wear.

I was prescribed my first pair of contact lenses when I was around
20-years-old (a long time ago … I’m one of Australia’s four million
babyboomers). They were the old-fashioned hard lenses; they required little care
and provided great vision for many years.

My next pair of contact lenses were the newer soft lenses six or seven years
later. The soft lenses were revolutionary at the time and didn’t cause the
cornea distortion that was an issue with the earlier hard lenses. However, the
new soft lenses required a lot of maintenance. They had to be boiled and soaked
and were more trouble than they were worth so after a year or so I went back to
wearing glasses.

More recently I moved from single focus glasses to correct my myopia to
multifocal lenses to deal with my presbyopia (the syndrome that many people
experience as they age when they find that their arms aren’t long enough to read
a book or a menu!). I’ve been very happy with the multifocal glasses, I wear
them all the time as I can’t see a great deal without them and I stayed with
glasses until quite recently.

I like to surf and swim when I’m on holidays and we were planning a trip to
Tonga and I wanted to be able to go snorkeling and to see the coral and the
tropical fish so I thought I’d try bifocal contact lenses with a view to being
able to swim and see at the same time!

So off I went to the optometrist. He was very helpful and explained that due
to a combination of my myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia that I was unlikely to
achieve the sort of vision I received from my glasses with bifocal contact
lenses. However, since I mostly wanted the lenses for distance vision I was
prepared to give them a go.

He ordered in some disposable contacts and I went back the next day to try
them out.

With bifocal contact lenses one lens is designed for distance viewing and the
other lens is designed for reading.

It was a little uncomfortable at first to put contact lenses into my eyes
again after so many years but I achieved it without too much difficulty. The
weird thing was trying to get used to one eye seeing distant objects and one eye
seeing close up.

My optometrist sent me away for half an hour to see how I managed. I made it
to my local cafe where I enjoyed a cappuccino and even managed to read the paper
without covering up one eye! My optometrist was happy with that result so I wore
the one pair of disposables (they last two weeks) and drove home wearing my new
contacts…

I didn’t wear the new contact lenses the next day, however the day after I
thought I’d better try them again and start to get used to them. I needed to
build up my wearing time. I had little difficulty the second time although – as
predicted by the optometrist – I didn’t have great close-up vision with them.
Although, that said, I could manage to read quite well. Perhaps it’s not that I
couldn’t see close-up … I think I was still trying to get used to the idea of
one eye having distant vision and one eye having close-up vision. The lenses
themselves were quite comfortable.

I wore the contacts most days while I was on holidays, and even though I
wasn’t completely happy with the level of vision that I achieved with them they
served their purpose of allowing me to swim, snorkel and see at the same time.
For most of the time the lenses were quite comfortable. One lens irritated my
eye slightly but I think that was only from long wear. The longest time I wore
the lenses was for about nine hours one day when I was sailing.

Once the holidays were over and there was no more snorkeling, it was back to
work in front of a computer.

I gave the bifocal contacts a go while using the computer – but it just
didn’t work for me. The distance wasn’t right. I can read a book okay with the
lenses but when I use the computer I’m too far from the screen to focus and I
can’t sit any closer to overcome the problem as I have a large monitor.

I’ve seen the optometrist again but there is no other bifocal contact lens
solution available for me. I tried them for about a month before abandoning the
project. I ordered a new pair of glasses instead!

I’d use the contacts again if I was going on holidays and wasn’t going to be
using a computer all the time but I just don’t find them practical for everyday
use. I think the issue for me is the inability to focus both eyes at once on any
object.

About the only time when I found them useful was when I was reading and that
wasn’t the purpose of them – I wanted the bifocal contacts more for distance
than for reading. Still, they served the purpose when I was snorkeling and
swimming!

Alison Stevens in an online author and publisher, an offline editor and an enthusiastic and fit babyboomer. Visit her website

http://www.choose-bifocal-contacts.com to find out if bifocal contact lenses will suit you!

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/20952.html
Multifocal Contact Lenses: Great Vision at Every Distance

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