As one reaches their 40s, their visual needs begin to change in drastic ways. For those who have never worn eyeglasses before, now may be the time to start; while long-time wearers of eyeglasses may find that their prescriptions completely change. In an overwhelming amount of instances, the change is that one needs two different types of lenses in order to go about ones everyday life – one lens for distance correction and the other to see up close.
In practice, this used to mean two different pairs of eyeglasses to complement two different visual strengths; however, as with all things, technological advances have changed the way we do things and now one can buy one pair of eyeglasses that includes different prescription strengths in one lens.
Welcome to the world of multifocal glasses!
First, let’s explain the different types of multifocal glasses:
Bifocal and trifocal lenses have line marks pointing at the areas where the lenses change strength. The line is called a line of demarcation and can cause an optical jump, which means
that your eye will not automatically transition between prescriptions smoothly.
Progressive lenses provide a more comfortable alternative to bifocals and trifocals as they do not have lines on the lenses and are produced with so many focal points that the wearer receives one complete solution to correct their sight within one frame; yet no one will ever know that they’re progressives in place of regular glasses.
For people who have never worn eyeglasses before, they will need to get used to wearing eyeglasses in general and possibly wearing multifocals. On the other hand, those long-time wearers of eyeglasses will find multifocals to be a whole new experience. For some, the adjustment is quick and within a matter of hours the glasses feel like the perfect fit. For others, it’s known to take up to two weeks to make the same adjustment. What’s important to know is that distortions in your vision are normal at the beginning. Just know that in time it will all clear up.
Before you can try to adjust to this new form of vision, you will need to test out whether the frames actually fit you properly – they shouldn’t be too tight, too loose or feel uncomfortable over your nose area. Once this is cleared, you are ready to begin the adjustment…
The first step to getting used to wearing multifocal glasses is to immediately stop wearing your old prescription eyeglasses and to ONLY wear your new multifocals – no matter how uncomfortable they may be. Now, remember to keep them as high up on your nose as possible and begin training yourself that when you want to look at something, you need to move your entire head and not just your eyes. You should always continue to move your head as much to the side as possible until the object that you are aiming for comes into focus.
Once you have your eyeglasses on, choose an object at least twenty feet away and stare at it to test out the focus points to ensure that you can see clearly. For bifocals, if you can see the line of the bifocal, then the bifocal height needs to be adjusted. Take your eyeglasses off and send them in for immediate adjustment.
Once all is right with this, then, without bending your neck, drop your eyes down as if to read and then try to read something at your regular reading distance. If you see everything clearly then you’re ready to move on to the next step!
Get up and carefully walk around, while only looking straight ahead. Your sight should be completely clear. Whenever moving your eyes to the edge of your glasses, you will find that you lose vision clarity. Moving your eyes downwards will have the same effect. Straight ahead is the position for regular distance vision, while the downwards view is for reading and close-up sight. The trick is to train your eyes to look straight ahead normally and then to drop to the position of the lens to see things close up. NEVER look through the lower lens when walking or climbing stairs.
Happy hunting for gorgeous new multifocal eyeglasses styles. Enjoy the multifocal experience! If you have not yet bought your multifocal glasses, remember that you need to have an updated eyeglasses prescription which includes the additional value (ADD) or numbers in the near vision (N.V.) section.
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.