Bifocal Contact Lenses

Presbyopia is a condition which affects vision by which they eyes are not capable to emphasis clearly on n  ear objects. It usually begins after the age of about forty when the lenses in the eye start reducing in flexibility. Presbyopia affects around 85 million adults within the USA alone and about one in four sufferers passing via an optometrist's door will suffer from it.

Symptoms of presbyopia include difficulty in reading, working with the computer, difficulty in seeing in low lighting conditions and, occasionally, headaches.

Traditionally these vision problems have been addressed using the old-fashioned reading glasses. Or existing eyeglass wearers could opt for bifocal eyeglasses. However the use of modern contact lenses for use with presbyopia has some distinct advantages beyond their cosmetic appeal. For example they can be well suited to other aspects of a wearer's lifestyle such as sporting activities, exercising or using a computer.

Recently, bifocal contact lenses for correcting presbyopia have become available in more convenient types such as disposable or frequent replacement varieties. Today these are very popular lens types providing obvious benefits for the wearer.

How bifocal contact lenses solves presbyopia problems

From a technical perspective, there are three distinct ways by which contact lenses can be utilized to correct presbyopia, each with advantages and disadvantages for particular types of patient. But the important thing here is that there is a choice and each and every wearer is most likely to find one method best suited to their unique situation. The different contact lens methods are as follows:

Monovision: The monovision technique involves using in one eyesight a lens for seeing near objects and inside the other eye a lens for seeing distant objects. Many people find that monovision works extremely nicely for them. It relies on the brain's ability to selectively process and combine information in the best available sources in order to provide the clearest feasible vision. In some instances, the optometrist may employ a bifocal lens in one eye and a normal distance lens within the other. The main problem associated with monovision is the apparent loss of depth of vision for some sufferers.

Bifocal Contact Lenses: As with traditional bifocal eyeglasses, each lens in bifocal contact lenses possesses two powers ' one for seeing near objects, the other for distant objects. Some types of bifocal contacts when magnified look a little like a bull's vision with an central inner zone surrounded by the outer zone. The drawback to this type of lens is that in certain conditions of lowered lighting, the vision might not always be as sharp in certain areas.

Multifocal Contact Lenses: Multifocal contact lenses work very a lot like the progressive contacts for eyeglasses. These lenses possess several zones of differing power in order to assist the eye gradually as it changes its emphasis on different objects at different distances. Therefore these contacts are designed to function well for seeing near, intermediate and distant objects. Their drawbacks are typically the same as for bifocal contact lenses, with occasional loss of visual acuity.

Bifocal lenses are available in two simple design types, 'Translating' and 'Simultaneous', the important characteristics of which are as follows:

Translating Bifocal Contacts: An additional name for the translating lens type is an 'alternating lens'. Gas Permeable bifocal contacts are regularly of this type. Their usage is extremely a lot like that of traditional bifocal eyeglasses. The wearer will look through one zone for distance vision then 'translate' to look through the other zone for near vision. Both zones aren't looked via in the same time.

Simultaneous Bifocal Lenses: The majority of soft bifocal contact lenses on the market are through the 'simultaneous' type. As the name implies, with simultaneous lenses the wearer actually looks through the various powers with the lenses at the same time. What happens is that the brain steps in and 'suppresses' the power or powers, which aren't needed at that particular time in order to see clearly. There exist further subdivisions of this lens type, but we won't go into the details in this brief overview.

As with all get in contact with lens selection and wear, choosing the right type of bifocal lens depends equally as much upon the wearer's unique lifestyle as his unique vision characteristics. For example a patient who regularly undertakes sporting activities will have different needs from one who only needs to wear them socially or for use at work.

However, the success of adopting bifocal contact lenses relies extremely extremely much on the expectations of the wearer who should realize that, almost by definition, bifocal lenses are truly much a compromise and that he or she is never going to regain the acuity of vision in all environments that they had when younger. In most cases this is perfectly acceptable and bifocal contacts have now earned their spot inside the optometrist's ever-expanding repertoire.