Today, we are going to discuss an interesting scenario.
A person came in, and we gave them a prescription for their glasses. They are over age 50 or so, and they need a bifocal.
We discussed getting a no-line bifocal. It is also called a progressive bifocal because it gives you the ability to see different distances, from distance to intermediate to close. When you get that kind of bifocal, it’s extremely important that you get the right brand and the right fit for them to work.
I hear all kinds of complaints from people. “I tried those.” “They didn’t work.” They didn’t work because they didn’t get the brand and fit correctly. We’ll go over what that’s about and why it makes a difference.
You just need a reading glass for regular glasses or the sort that does not require a prescription. A little bit cheaper, over-the-counter things are fine, but when you need a prescription for distance, or you want to wear glasses all the time and have a bifocal in them, then the progressive no-line bifocal gives you the best result.
Now, we are going to describe why people have trouble.
This lady still had 20/20 vision when she came into the office, but she complained, “I just can’t see right in these things. There’s just something that doesn’t feel right. I can’t see to the side; it just doesn’t seem like there is something right with them, and I’m having trouble reading. I can’t find a spot to read in these things.”
We’ll go a little bit about the difference between one brand and another and why that happens.
If you don’t know what progressives are, picture you have a lens. How progressives work is that your prescription is ground in like an hourglass. This progressive gives you all fields of vision: your distance up top, your reading at the bottom, and your intermediate in the middle. That’s good for using your computer, looking at your speedometer on the car— all that stuff that’s about an arm’s length away.
Since the prescription is ground in this way, you will have what we call peripheral distortion. That’s why we teach people with progressives to point their noses at where they want to look and learn to raise and lower their chin to focus on the channel because they will lose a little bit of their peripheral.
This is the basic concept of how progressives work. This lady had the same problem, so what we did was take what we call premium lenses. They take the same type of fitting because any progressive you get is fit the same way.
What happens with premium lenses is that they’re digitally surfaced. They start out wider, but they still curve in like an hourglass, and then they shoot right out again. So you’re still getting that hourglass shape, but you have a lot more distance and a ton more intermediate. The biggest thing is your reading is really more on a peripheral level. So, this little area of distortion is much less than what you see with regular lenses.
We’re not saying you can’t get regular progressives, but if you want your best vision and don’t constantly want to turn your head to get that sweet spot for reading, you want to go with premium to have a wider area of vision.
Regular progressives have very narrow channels, which is why fitting is so important. If you don’t have this channel lined up with your pupil, and you’re trying to look down and see through this, then you’re hitting all these distortions, and people have become uncomfortable with those.
It’s important to have high-quality premium lenses as far as fit goes, but there’s a little more give, and the peripheral part is a whole lot better. I have actually some progressive bifocals that I wear in the office to do my work, and I can tell that in the newer, latest brand of these high-level lenses, the peripheral part is excellent especially now with the digital capability of making these lenses. This has actually gotten so sophisticated that they measure where your pupil sits on the frame, and account for frame measurements, too.
The company that makes this lens knows exactly what the frame is, and they form a digital file of exactly how to grind the lens. So, this lens is not ground by a human being but is inserted into a machine, and that computer file precisely designs that lens to fit perfectly in your particular frame. The quality is getting much better.
When you talk about no-line progressive bifocals and where these glasses may be in two, three, four, or five years to go and find some cheap price for one of these, it’s just not worth it, because the quality is so much better.
If your neighbor or you are experiencing discomfort with your glasses, there are options. For questions, contact the Cataract & Refractive Institute of Florida. May God bless you with healthy eyes and great vision.</p
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At the Cataract & Refractive Institute of Florida, our board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr. James E. Croley III, uses state-of-the-art tools and techniques to help his patients manage their cataracts and other eye conditions. Dr. Croley is a member of the following professional organizations:
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