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Progressives
I've finally given up on progressives.
Lenses, that is. I tried 'em for over a month and just couldn't adjust. Distance vision was fuzzy everywhere except dead center, and the reading portion didn't work at all. So I took them back and in a few days I'll have a pair of genuine old-man bifocals. Just like my hero, Benjamin Franklin.
My dad could never get used
My dad could never get used to them either: he prefers the old fashioned split lens. One thing he did, though, is also get a second pair of reading glasses (with just the near-view prescription), for situations like reading and using the computer, so he didn't have to strain his neck.
Progressive lenes are so
Progressive lenes are so easy to get used to. There are MANY brands that have quite a difference in end user experience.
Don't buy cheap progressives, you actually get what you pay for. Now before you complain you spent $450 dollars on your new glasses, guess what, thats cheap.
A good brand(set) of progressive lenses will cost you $300-$500 dollars. This includes thinner materials and AR coatings. Get used to it!
I have had MANY progressive lenses and most are great. Only 1.5% of people DON't adapt so if you didn't adapt you bought crappy lenses!
Really? I had reading
Really? I had reading glasses for the longest time because my distance vision isn't so bad, but finally had to go in for bifocals after taking off my reading glasses and misplacing them for the umpteenth time, much to the amusement of my students. (Often they were actually just on top of my head.)
Anyhoo, the nice lady at Sears talked me into progressives and they are great. Just got some new frames with sunglasses that attach magnetically so I can use them for close-up outside.
Len Replacements
tagged as:- solution
- result
Ah, but just wait until you have cataracts!
My wife and I recently had cataract surgery lens replacements with MultiFocus lenses.
It's absolutely amazing!
We can see near (reading), intermediate (computer), and far (driving and everything else) with NO glasses or contacts at all!
There are pros and cons with the different brands (we got Restor ), and insurance won't cover the additional expense over the standard lens replacements (either near or far, but not both), but we are now convinced that it is worth every penny!
Computer glasses
You should get a pair of "computer glasses," they're set specifically for reading at the distance of a computer screen, which is a bit different from regular book reading distance. As long as my computer screen is sharp, it's OK if everything else is blurry.
Computer glasses
Agree completely with charlie on the computer glasses. No bifocals yet though as long as the little string thingy around my neck keeps working!
I blame Sarah Palin
Progressives work better if you have big frames with big lenses, so that each section of the lens is big enough to look through without getting distracted. But small lenses are in fashion in 2009, so it's hard to find big frames.
I blame Sarah Palin for making small frames so popular.
Why not disguise your lenses
Why not disguise your lenses within a automotive air filter and call yourself Kevin LaForge?
Very much depends on what you bought
If you cheaped out, you got what you paid for. Progressives are one thing you really need to go for the Cadillac. I use Essilor Physio and love them. I only have to remove them to do extremely close work. Zeiss also makes a quality progressive. But I asked my opthalmologist what he used and got the same thing.
Larger frames help, but short corridor lenses do work.
There is also a superCadillac option -- iZon. Using a refractometer, they will measure the optical characteristics of your individual eyes and tailor unique lenses to fit.
And there is an impending ultraCadillac option -- PixelOptics, which has a micropixel LCD lens that essentially creates high precision Fresnel lenses on the fly. An onboard processor adjusts the Fresnel pattern depending on how far out you need to focus. Not for sale yet, but essentially like having a custom set of glasses for every possible distance.
I'd say try another progressive design, and maybe a different set of frames. You might find something else that works.
Monocular vision!
Try it, you'll like it.
Seriously.
Tripp
I hated mine.
But, I've never tried bifocals either. I now use the two glasses system, a "computer" distance 20inches. I also use it for reading. It is a bit of a pain switching back and forth, but I have no intention of going back to multifocus lenses.
A comment on large lenses. For decades I would only have large lenses. But my ears and nose became so sensitive after decades of holding up the weight, that I can now only use the smaller ligher frames.
I tried two rounds of progressives, with big lenses, hated them
tagged as:- result
It was awful. And wait till you try to do woodworking wearing them, it's like working in an ucking unhouse. Paid a fortune for them, too.
Got bifocals, got computer glasses. The bifocals are nonstandard in two ways -- a big wide lower window (so I can easily see my whole laptop screen) and I have the focus set further out than standard -- if I need to read super-fine print (once a month, more or less) I get out a magnifying glass, or find a really bright light. A colleague of mine had a similar conversation with his optometrist, in his case for reading sheet music while standing.
I do think about laser surgery, every time I ride my bike in the rain.
My exact same experience
I was very disappointed with progressives for exactly the same reasons, so I went to two separate lenses per side which has worked very well.
Unfortunately, my computer glasses went unused for quite a while at first, and when I decided that I finally needed to start using them they were gone. I think I mistakenly donated them to charity thinking they were just an old pair I had mindlessly saved. Ouch!
Glasses
Wait till you need trifocals.
I have been waiting for years for the computer controled focal distance lens. Why has it taken so long for them to be devloped?
Kevin........ If my
Kevin........
If my experience means anything, you really need to use progressives for about three months to get used to them.
I didn't need glasses until my early 40's, and got bifocals because of presbiopia due to normal aging of the eyes. I was too cheap and/or not vain enough to use progressives so had the bifocal with the line. When I reached my mid 50's my eye doctor recommended trifocals. I decided to go with progressives because I didn't want multiple lines, plus it seems harder on your golf swing with lined trifocals.
At first I hated the progressives (I also have transitation lenses; get darker in sunlight) and was going to go back to lined glasses. Some fellow golfers who had them urged me to try them for at least 3 months. I did and my eyes eventually adjusted. That was about 10 years ago and I like the progressives just fine. Larger lenses do make progressives easier to use.
Not all progressives are equal
-- as Paul Camp says.
The first progressives I got were awful, especially the fact that at normal reading distance a textbook-width line of type was fuzzy at each end and that I never could get a comfortable distance from a computer screen. I got fixed-prescription computer glasses which fixed the latter problem, and simply took my glasses off to read (I'm nearsighted). Two years and I never really got used to the progressives.
When I replaced those glasses, I discussed my issues with my optometrist, and wound up with progressives that, 99% of the time, simply work. My computer glasses are unused, and I no longer doff my glasses to read anything wider than a newspaper column.
My lenses, BTW, are just this side of fashionably small (my OD measured very carefully to put the transition at just the right point before having them cut). Unlike Paul I don't recall the brand name of the lenses. They were about $30 more expensive than the first set, and are infinitely worth it.
whew
For a minute I thought you meant you'd gone over to the Other Side.
I love mine, but if you can't adjust you can't adjust. I do have to say, or echo what's been said, that my first pair were from a poor optician and I liked them less than what I have now.
Well, my progressives were
Well, my progressives were high priced and had large lenses. And I used them for about two months. But they just didn't work for me. The distance problems were tolerable, but the main reason I got them was so I could read while watching TV, and for reading they were worthless.
My optometrist says this is common. Most people like progressives, but a fair number just can't adjust. So I'll try bifocals now.
Actually, I only wear glasses rarely, and don't use them at all for the computer. I can still read the screen fine without glasses. I'm sure that won't last forever, though.
I was intrigued at one time with the idea of different lenses for each eye, but I never tried it. I suppose I could just pop the lens out of one side of an old pair of glasses and try that, since I don't actually need any correction for reading. Maybe I'll do that someday.
Don't do that. The only way
Don't do that. The only way you can do monovision is with contacts--the lack of focal length with contacts keeps things from getting too magnified for your brain to handle.
As for progressive lenses, don't give up. They get better literally every year, and it's entirely possible your optician picked the wrong kind for you. You laugh, but it does matter. I've fit thousands of people in progressives, and the nonadapt rate is low single digits, 1% or less if you really know what you're doing.
As far as large frames, there are only really 3-4 molds the lens surfaces are made out of (your prescription is ground into the back of the lens), and they're mostly made to fit in damn near anything. You'll get a little more blur on the outside lower edges (where you don't look anyway) and a smidge more reading room going with a larger frame, and that's about it. There are a very few designed to only fit in larger frames, but it's more than likely whoever's helping you won't know the difference. And your Costco/Lenscrafters/large chain is going to have 1 or 2 to choose from. Costco actually uses one lens for everyone last I knew, the Essilor Ovation. I think LC tries to do the same, but they can make exceptions if you push.
As for computer glasses, a number of makers have computer/reading glasses that are half of a progressive in that there's no distance portion of the lens, there's just a small transition between the top (computer) and bottom (reading, slightly stronger). Without getting too much into lens arcana, that there's a smaller shift in power in the lens makes for a smoother transitions and less squishy spots in your vision. Think of pushing a bubble in wallpaper--the higher it rises off the wall, the smaller spot of the wall it's covering and vice versa. Now think of a lens doing the same thing. A +0.75 change in power as opposed to a +2.00, purely from an arithmetical standpoint, is going to be a mellower shift.
progressives
I've had mine for about a year and a half and they're great. It took me about two days to adapt to them. I'm farsighted, and my primary interest was in getting a pair of glasses for driving (distance and dash in sharp focus) and hiking. They're really of no use for steady reading or for computer work, as you need to move your head a lot, though for reading in a pinch, mine are very sharp. However, you have to watch the price - more expensive is better.
bifocals
When you get your bifocals, take care on the stairs until you get used to the new glasses. And take special care at the computer. After a few years of tilting my head back to see the screen, I wound up with calcified neck vertebrae in the upper back and neck. (Possibly less of a hazard if you use a laptop.)
If you experiment with monocular vision
Choose your dominant eye for far vision and pop the lens out of the non-dominant side.
You'll need to give your brain a couple days to adjust to it, and it may seem hopeless at first, but trust the remarkable adaptive capability of your brain.
Will you not even consider contact lenses? I find them extremely convenient and cheap, I'm less prone to misplace them, and they have less distortion and give better peripheral vision compare to glasses, especially glasses with small lenses.
Tripp
On Line Options
I was amazed at the prices for glasses on-line compared to my local optician. I have a pretty basic single vision prescription and the entire frame and lenses purchased online were less than my ($25) co-pay for my company vision plan. I normally like to buy local, but a 90% discount changed my mind. Buying on-line makes various glasses types cheap enough that you can experiment with different types without feeling like you are wasting money.
Monovision
I've had a tremendous experience with monovision contacts (soft). My left (dominant) eye is corrected for distance & my right for reading. I've had them for about 10 years -- with some increase in correction -- and have had great success. No more lost reading glasses, no more "wrong" glasses with me, no more neck strain on the computer.
My "reading" correction is for roughly the distance of a computer screen, so when I read the printed word, I have to keep the book/paper at the "right" distance. But I can switch immediately between reading/computer/TV/driving/etc.
I can't do close detailed work with either correction. For that, I use no glasses and keep the work very close.
Some people can't seem to get used to it, but I'd recommend you give it a try. I'm able to wear the contacts from 1st thing in the a.m. to last thing at night.
Good luck.
There can be a huge
There can be a huge difference between one prescription for progressive lenses and another.
I have used them with great satisfaction for years. But a few years back I got a pair that were an absolute disaster - all the problems listed above.
It turns out that the optician, in an attempt to make the lenses thinner, had adjusted the 'base curve' of the new pair. I absolutely could not use them: I had the glasses redone, with the original 'base curve'. Problems - all of them - solved.
How exactly you can *find* the right base curve for you I have no idea. And I'm sure that if my *first* pair had been so problematic, I would have given up on the idea myself. Luckily my first pair were a delight, and from then on I knew that they could work for me.
who says "where you don't look anyway"?
tagged as:- result
Anonymous wrote, "You'll get a little more blur on the outside lower edges (where you don't look anyway)...."
Progressive lenses are designed to have a large region of significant blur to the sides of center. Anonymous may not look there, but others do, and it can be very frustrating.
Progressive lenses are not what you might think they are. You might think there is a region at the top with a constant focus for infinity, a region at the bottom with a constant focus for a close reading distance, and a region in the middle where the focus gradually changes between the close and the distance sections. That's not what progressive lenses are. A progressive lens has no region of constant focus. The focus changes everywhere. This results in a very narrow telescope of correct distance vision, as Kevin noted. None of this was explained to me when I ordered progressive lenses a few years ago. I am amazed that anyone can stand using progressive lenses, given these problems.
I strongly suspect that satisfaction rates are incorrectly measured by number of glasses retained (i.e. not returned) by the customer divided by number of glasses initially delivered to the customer. This calculation is upwardly biased by two factors: First, many dissatisfied customers never return their glasses. Second, people who are unhappy with their first pair usually don't order a second pair, but people who are happy with their first pair become repeat customers.
big lenses
"Progressives work better if you have big frames with big lenses..."
well maybe, if you like getting your neck exercise at the same time. I've found lenses with a small vertical extent much easier. it's true you have to aim accurately, but it takes less movement to get there, so you don't look like one of those bobbing head rear window ornaments.
as far as the computer goes, I'm one of those people whose close focus ability craps out just a little inside the screen, so I just don't wear glasses at all when computing, i.e. I can focus just fine out there at arm's length (whereas a younger me could focus at around four inches). far away, e.g. driving, I wear progressives because I've never been able to see at long distance, and the short side of the lenses works at distances that otherwise would be in the dead zone where I can't see either with distance only or no glasses.
Progressives
Sorry if this is a re-post, not sure what happened the first time.
I bought my first ever pair of progressives about 2 years ago. I *LOVED* them, they were/are the best glasses I have ever owned (3+ decades). I misplaced those after they fell apart. This year I bought another pair and I *HATED* them, even though the prescription is nearly, if not exactly, identical. I told the tech they were "wrong". She insisted that I "get used to them".
I found my old pair and compared the two. If I look at the under the light just right, I can see that the new ones have a circle in the center and regions of concentric blobs about that circle. The old pair doesn't have that, there are discrete regions. Everything is smooth. I brought both pairs back the office and asked what the difference was between them. The new pair that I hate are Ovation, and the old pair that I love are AO Compac (my best transcription). There is a difference in technology here that is absolutely NOT working for me. They fixed my old glasses so I can wear them again, but considering how expensive these things are, I'd like to be able to use my new pair too. "Getting used to it" doesn't cut it.
Progressives
Oops - that should have read "The old pair doesn't have that, there are NO discrete regions.".