Anyone wear varifocal contact lenses?

[YCCMB]

So, after a hiatus of some years, from the point where my arms began to get a bit short to read the small print, and ocular technology has advanced somewhat, I'm currently trying out varifocal contact lenses. I've been wearing varifocal specs for a few years.

I have no trouble with the lenses, as I wore single vision ones for years, but I'm having real problems with the varifocal bit. I'm due to go back to the opticians next Monday, but at this stage I think I'll need a different prescription....unless anyone can tell me whether it takes longer than a few days for the eyes to properly adjust to them. At the moment, the reading prescription seems worse than with glasses, I can see fine in the middle distance, and my long distance vision seems a bit worse with lenses than glasses...is this normal, anyone?

I fully understand that there's an element of compromise involved, but I can't believe that this is the result....

[Chancer]

Does your prescription by any chance have a correction for astigmatism? AFAIK this cannot be corrected on the lower diopter lenses

 

I am currently trialling contact lenses and like you find that in many ways they are inferior to my glasses, the real problem is the right eye where the astigmatism is worsened by the correction of the lenses, my contrôle yesterday was a total cock up and I have to wait another couple of weeks before I know more.

 

Without glasses I have monovision thanks to an artificial crystallin lens which is set for close reading,, in that case its only the left eye working, the rest of the time its only the image from the right eye being processed by the brain, my glasses are corrected for distance and I have to remove them to read fine print. Without glasses I had lost the middle vision with a short sighted left eye and a long sighted right eye, I wanted just a contact lens for the right eye so as to keep the monovision, this being France they wont do it because they know best even though they acknowledge that the rest of the world does, they say it will make me unstable losing depth perception but they cant accept that I have been living like that with monovision for 8 years, the lenses they have prescribed have turned the short sighted eye into long sighted but as the retina was so damaged nothing is really clear, the long sighted eye is now so short sighted that I can only see clearly up to 1.8m, today for the first time I have stopped using the left lens and its better with just the right one but its still too short sighted, great for the computer and working but bad outside the house and for driving.

 

The opthalmo who could not see me due to yesterdays cock up did speak with me, seemingly the contrôle is more about how I feel wearing the lenses, my ressenti so you will need to discuss how the world looks through your lenses with your optican/opthalmo Betty, it does however take a long time for the brain to adapt to how it interpretes the signals from both eyes with somthing like monovision or progressive lenses but you must have already experienced that when you first wore the glasses? They said I had to wear them every day for 2 weeks to adapt but for me it was much quicker because my brain is now used to switching from monovision with no glasses to binocular vision when wearing glasses which would normally take a couple of weeks, its quicker I think with contact lenses as you cannot remove them or lift them up to see like with glasses.

 

Please post how you get on as its of interest to me, I think they might propose varifocals to me.

[YCCMB]

I don't think there is any astigmatism in my case, Chancer.

I have a months free trial with Specsavers, and they did say that if the vision isn't right, they'll change the prescription till they get it better, but it's likely to be slightly worse than my new prescription for glasses. That I can accept, but at the moment it's worse than my old prescription for glasses, and I've been wearing them all day for four days now, so I was hoping that I'd begin to notice an improvement, especially as I had little or no trouble adapting to varifocal glasses.

I will let you know what happens when I go back. At least the UK system is a bit more flexible..

[Chancer]

It definitely is more flexible, I started off with lenses there but having to return to France so quickly these days meant that I could no do the follow up visit, then I tried my own experiments with buying lenses off the internet but didnt have the critical dimensions of diameter and base curve.

 

Here in France its much more clinical, if by squinting you can read a line on the chart at 3m away in a brightly lit room then everything is fine according to them, the fact that i could not even find my way out of the corridoor and the hospital and did not dare drive shook them up a bit!

 

I was encouraged by the comments of the intern this time round regarding ressenti and that it should be him that I see because he knew my dossier and all its peculirairities, before he had been too clinical but the senior opthalmo had given him a talking to, she was mcu more à l'ecoute and had a good bedside manner.

 

Like you I know that wearing them will be a compromise but the benefits for me make it worthwhile if we can find the best lenses for me, not for their charts. I suffer no irritation from them, love that I can wear them for sport, that they dont get rained on or mist up, even my crystallin implany would get fogged up when running in sub zero températures, wearing a contact lens stopped that!

 

I even wore tan Acuvue Oasys lenses for a whole week night and day without a problem, it would be a bit dry in the morning until rehydrated and if I forgot and rubbed my eye then it would fall out, that said now I have spent a fortnight putting them in and removing them every day its no longer a big hassle.

[confused of chalus]

i have worn variofocal glasses for some years - i have a high prescription. last time i changed my glasses the ophthalmologist, at specsavers, said that the answer to my problems would be to wear one contact lens for short sight in the dominant eye, and for reading in the other. i thought it sounded nuts but am assured its a more common and easier to use solution than special variofocal lenses. (how do you know which way up they should go in?) i wonder if anyone has tried it?

ps i haven't been on the forum for ages as i got logged off and couldn't find my password!

[Chancer]

That is effectivelt what I have since all my detached retina operations, the final one was for a cataract and in removing that they have to fit an artificial crystalin lens, mine is set up for reading and working with my hands.

 

The acclimatisation for me was progressive as I was blind in the eye after the operations and the sight came back very slowly as the retina repaired its still not good but fine for close work, it was hard at first and i had to relearn how to do many things, even eating with a knife and fork, you know the party trick where you stab a knife between your fingers? dont go trying that [:D] at first I could not even put pen to paper in the place I wanted, I had no depth perception and driving  was a challenge but the brain adapts and the other senses take over.

 

Its only in this last week having binocular vision back for the first time in 8 years that I can realise the few handicaps of having monovision, what you will have with the proposed contact lens solution, I have been quite clumsy in all that time, often knocking things over or bashing my hips into things, that hasnt happened since, as I said the other senses take over but I would occasionally miss a dodâne on the road and crash the car suspension or trip over a drain gulley in a footpath when running.

 

They wont do monovision lenses in France but I think they are coming round to my way of thinking, I will have given it a month, it is certainly better than what they have me using at the moment but it could be improved on.

[YCCMB]

I've done the one lens for distance and one for close before, but it didn't work well for me, but I'm open to trying it again...

With varifocal contact lenses, there is no "right way up" , as they aren't like the lenses in glasses. With glasses, the gradation is top to bottom, logically. With lenses, they're like a bullseye, with the reading vision at the centre, and the distance vision around the outside, forming concentric circles. It's one reason why it takes a while to adapt to them, just as it takes a little time to adapt to varifocals. Your eyes have to re-learn which bit to look through.

[Chancer]

In which case I would give yourself a couple of weeks before returning to the optician.

[nectarine]

I did a trial run with varifocal lenses but really didn't get on with them, feeling rather seasick most of the time. I wear varifocal spectacles and recall it took a couple of days, so persevered with the vari-lenses but really couldn't get it right even after a week, which I thought was long enough to be feeling vaguely nauseous most of the time.. Everything was a compromise, both long and short vision. So I'm back to long-vision lenses where my long sight is excellent, plus innumerable pairs of cheap reading glasses littered everywhere. It's a slog but I preferred the inconvenience of reading glasses but the sharp long vision. The one long-sight and one-short sight lens trial that I did a few years ago didn't suit either ... I'm guessing it's the way your brain is wired.

[YCCMB]

I think I'd rather just go back to glasses than fanny about with reading glasses a again. I got so fed up of having to fumble in my bag in shops to look at price tags and the like. I want - if possible - to get back to having just one pair of sunglasses to carry around.

[johnnyboy]

I tried these a few years ago, but never did get a prescription to cover all eventualities. You have to remember that with variations in light levels, the focal length changes, if only minutely.

Net result was that I had to give up. Ironically I have just completed my trial with specsavers, with just distance correction and a pair of reading glasses. Not ideal, but much better than specs for 16 hours a day!

Just as a bonus, when I go skiing next week, I'll be able to see where I'm going. Woohoo!

Johnnyboy

[YCCMB]

Chance will know where I'm coming for with this, although I've pretty much given up scuba diving now...but it was one of the reasons I gave up on contact lenses previously...

Unlike skiing, scuba diving is best done with good distance vision (so you can see the fish and where you're going) and good close-up vision (so you can see your instruments and things like how deep you are or - critically - how much air you have left). Not possible to pop on the reading glasses at 20 metres underwater....

Yeah, yeah...I know...prescription goggles. Like money's no object.?

[marmite]

Don't know how you lot can put contact lenses into your eyes, takes the optician ages to put the drops in my eye on checkups, total wuss re my eyes.

[Rabbie]

Marmite said

Don't know how you lot can put contact lenses into your eyes, takes the optician ages to put the drops in my eye on checkups, total wuss re my eyes.

I am exactly the same. Never given contact lenses a thought. I'll stick with my varifocal glasses. Mind you I don't know how that would work with a scuba mask but it was fine with ski goggles

[YCCMB]

Went back this morning. Different lenses on order, arriving Thursday. We will see....hopefully literally!

[Chancer]

When you have had as many eye operations as I have with only a local anaesthetic and have put up with the opthalmos pushing their machines etc into your post operative eyeballs you will soon forget about being squeamish, its the one and only time in my life that I have passed out through pain, I came round on the floor where they had put me to elevate my legs, I heard them saying to each other "so he really was in pain and not just making cinema" [:D]

 

After that putting a contact lens in or worse still trying to pry one off that has glued itself solidly to the eyeball is no worse than scratching your nose, the eyes are incredibly tough and rubbery, its just our perception of how precious they are, which of course they are!

 

Betty its been a few years also for me since I have scuba dived, too many other sports now like running, back then I was having trouble reading the guages, I probably still could now with the bionic left eye but would need good viz, I probably would have to rig up a headtorch.

 

Can you swim in contact lenses? I dont mind closing my eyes when diving into the pool as I break the water but would keep them open when swimming underwater, I suppose I would have to wear a mask but that would stop me from diving?

[Department71]

Chancer. Totally understand what you say about having treatment on your eye, we have a friend who has/is going through the eye treatment at the hospital, he is going blind due to age and the last time we saw him he had just had the needle in the eye treatment to try and help him.  

[YCCMB]

Well, just to keep you updated, I have just returned from Specsavers with not one, but two new sets of lenses, with instructions to try both and see which I find best.

Ive just put in pair no.2, and they seem a bit better. At least they're willing to let me give it a good try before deciding!

[Chancer]

Had I been able to stick around in YUK then I would have had the same treatment at Boots opticians, the optician here in Intermarché was equally Customer friendly, they can order lenses FOC from all the manufacturers for Customer trials, she got me several but they were my best guesses and I didnt have the base curve dimensions etc.

 

The opthalmogy department at the hospital also dont pay for the lenses but they are typically mean spirited and make you feel that they are really doing you a favour by letting you use one set, the follow up appointment was a cock up, the intern was working in the operating theatre that day, claimed the admin staff had cocked it up but I know its him, he has a history, I wasted all afternoon having a battery of un needed and anwanted glaucoma tests that I had done 2 weeks before all at my charge and didn't get to have the suivi for the lenses, I have to wait another 3 weeks now [:(]

 

If things dont improve next time i will just get the prescription, you know the ones for the lenses that make me into Mr Magoo and can only see the length of my arm plus 10cms [:(] I will use the RC value from it and decide myself on the correction, it might take a couple of goes but I will get there.

[Chancer]

Hello Betty.

 

an update, I finally got my follow up appointment with the opthalmo after wearing what I believed to be badly prescribed contacts for a month, he agreed with me that the power of the right lens was too high and that I was very short sighted with it, he also now thinks that I am correct and it would be better for me to only wear a lens on the right eye and have monovision, left for close right for medium/long vision.

 

Being short sighted was fine indoors, at the computer and working on the build, especially the wallpapering that I was doing latterly but I had to be within 1.2m of the TV to watch it and as soon as I stepped out of the house it was a catastrophy.

 

Anyway I found out that I had in fact been wearing multifocaux lenses for the last month and didnt realise!!! I cant say that I was aware of any limitations of them apart from them being wrongly specified but on reflection they did have a greater depth of field than when I am wearing glasses, that is to say that I could see a little closer yet just as far but I think like you it was compromised at the extremes both near and far, aside from my vanity I am quite enjoying wearing my glasses again, they give me better vision than any of the contact lenses that I have tried to date but I will continue with the trials choosing the diopters myself this time.

[YCCMB]

Sounds like you've been messed about a bit, Chancer!

Meanwhile, I tried both of the alternative sets of contacts I was given, and one is almost perfect. Yes, my distance vision is a bit compromised compared to wearing glasses, but I can read very well with them, and for 90% of what I do on a daily basis, they're fine.

Went back last Friday for a follow up, and one thing the optician explained to me was very helpful.

As you know, multi focal lenses are arranged in a sort of bullseye with the reading lens around the outside and distance in the middle. One thing that affects how well you can see is the amount of light, or sunlight, that's available, because when your pupils dilate, they can become bigger than the centre of the bullseye and consequently you're looking at distances through at least part of the reading lens. So my optician said that it might even be necessary to change prescription depending on the time of year!

Now I understand that, it makes a lot of sense.

[Chancer]

Sadly explanations and communication in general is conspicous by its absence in my part of France, its very frustrating, I mean for dogs sake the muppet didnt even tell me i was wearing multifocal lenses.

 

I wasted a whole month with a completely inadapted pair of lenses plus a wasted afternoon for a follow up appointment where he wasnt available where I had to go through a battery of tests that I had had done and been charged for 2 weeks before that would have been useless anyway because I was wearing the lenses as he had insisted but the tests should have been done without.

 

As for giving me alternative lenses, well thats just too plain sensible for them to consider, even now he has changed the prescription without trying me out with the new ones, next appointment 6 months time.

 

This hospital is excellent as far as clinical care and operations are concerned, far better than the UK (I had the same operations in both countries) but where the opthalmos have retained the control of eye testing despite the fact that they dont really want to do it and are generally completely crap at it is an example of France at its worst, the opticians in the UK and even my friend in town are streets ahead but they are not allowed to actually give a prescription, the last time they completely cocked up my prescription would have cost me a lot of money for glasses that would have been no good, I suspected it was way wrong compared to the previous ones and the one I had recently in the UK, my opticienne friend checked it and agreed it was miles out and thet the Boots one was spot on, the test was done by the interns with just the opthalmo signing the prescription, thank god I order cheap glasses from the internet, all the opticians here would have to use the opthalmos prescription even after knowing that it was incorrect.

 

I am just going to continue with free test lenses from the local optician and order some others on the internet, do you have any tips for me?

 

The problem thus far has been that all the lenses prescribed for my long sighted right eye eg puissance + 0.75 have been much too strong, made me very short sighted and beyond about 3m a single image diverges into two images, one white line on the road becomes two, in the distance a single car approaching looks like one behind the other and slightly to one side, this does not happen with the glasses with a prescription of + 1.50, could this be the effect of the astigmatism that cannot be corrected with low power contact lenses? I have asked this and other questions of the opthalmo but they seem to find it deeply disturbing that a client should want to understand and seem to take it as a kind of doubt or criticism, in an case they are incapable of explaining which is where this rant started!

[Chancer]

By the way I thought that multifocal lenses had a series of concentric circles alternating long and short corrections not just midlle for close outside for long.

[YCCMB]

I dunno, Chancer...I repeated what was explained to me. Are they actually trying you with lenses specifically designed for astigmatism? Because these obviously exist.

I also asked about wearing sunglasses over the lenses. With single vision lenses I could always do this comfortably. With multi focal lenses, this also compromises the vision a bit..again, the optician says this is to do with pupil size.

In your shoes, I'd probably wait till back in the UK and see an optician who will actually listen and explain to you. Sounds like your French experience is a bit like banging your head against a wall...

[Chancer]

Been doing that every day for 11 years Betty, I no longer expect anything different, I am outgoing and meet lots of people, I never lose hope or judge the next person by all those I have met before, in all that time I have met perhaps 3 people who are good communicators and who understand that listening is key, two of those are politicians!

Astigmatism cannot be corrected on lower power lenses yet it can on glasses, I understand how it focusses the image away from or behind the retina causing blurring but I really would like to understand what is causing the double image when I wear lenses, if it were a television I would know what causes the ghosting.