TIPS FOR PROGRESSIVE MULTIFOCAL LENSES
There are a lot of rumors about how hard it is to get used to progressives. I’ve seen a lot of patients who can truly benefit from progressives but are always scared to try them. In this blog, I would like to talk about what you should know about progressives.
Progressives can be prescribed for different purposes. The most common one would be for people who are over 40 years old and struggle with their reading.
When we are over 40 years old, our eye muscles are not as flexible and therefore we can’t use single vision lenses to focus at various distances. Instead we will need progressives, a lens that has multiple prescriptions incorporated into the one lens. This multipurpose lens can accommodate patients that need to wear glasses for long vision and near vision- making it more convenient for everyday use and there is no need to swap in between two pairs of different glasses.
The design of the lens allows the prescription to increase or decrease as it travels down to the bottom area. Wearers need to look straight ahead when they are viewing distance and have their eyes move down (not their head) when they need to read at close distance.
The most common complaints about progressive lenses are side distortion and small reading areas which may affect adaptation. Since there are multiple prescriptions in the one progressive lens, side distortion is unavoidable. Wearers will need to turn their head when they want to look aside. The simple rule is “your eyes should follow where your nose is pointing to”. This way the wearer will notice the distortion less and it also makes adaptation easier and faster.