Multifocal contact lenses

[VaKim]

There was a thread here the other week with someone asking about this I think. We were discussing different ways to deal with presbyopia as we get older without having to hunt down reading glasses constantly. I had been doing the mono vision thing, with one contact for near and the other for far, but still needed reading glasses for small print and reading.

Anyway, because of some responses in that thread, I got myself some multifocal contacts yesterday. I wore them for the day at home and liked them pretty well. Still have to adjust a bit for reading I think, but at least I don't have to run and find reading glasses to read how many pills to take or how to cook a packaged food. Hoping for the same when I go to the store and have to read details on price stickers on the shelves. 

However, when I went to pick up DD from work, I realized my far vision is much worse with these. I can't really read signs until I am right on them. It was already close to that bad with the mono, but even worse now. I do have bad astigmatism and lenses can't totally correct that, so I think that is what is going on. My question is, how stupid would it be to ask my doc to prescribe me some glasses to wear over these contacts just for driving? I could even get prescription sunglasses, since I wear those all the time driving. Is that even possible? I can't really see why it wouldn't be. I would take my vision test with my contacts in, and he would write a prescription for that. 

[Bambam]

I actually asked my doctor to do that. He refused. I don't remember his reason. I asked again, but he wouldn't. 

My dh has the multifocal contacts - his vision is not as sharp as mine and it is slightly tougher for him to drive at night. 

I elected to stay with my near/far contact prescription (I do wear gas perms, btw - better vision correction for me than with soft contacts, they are just as healthy for your eye) and just have reading glasses handy - one pair by my computer (use there and in kitchen, remains by computer when not on head), one pair in the bathroom (stays there), one pair in my purse (for outside things, stays there except when being used away from home), and one pair in my car (emergency, just in case). I found it works better to have a few pairs in dedicated places - otherwise I had  8 pairs and couldn't find any of them! For a couple of years, I didn't need reading glasses, but the loose of near vision continued, so now it is not possible to correct enough so I can see to read street signs *and* read fine print. 

But, 'good' news. The doctor said when I finally need cataract surgery, I probably won't need glasses/contacts afterwards. 

 

[Myra]

I,too, have found that my vision is not as clear when wearing multifocal contacts.  I wore them a few years back when I was homeschooling so I didn't have to keep putting on and off my glasses all the time.  When my kids went to college, I switched back to reading glasses for sharper focus.  

But I have annual eye exam next week and I am thinking about getting a pair of "transition" glasses to keep in the car so that I can wear them while driving and be able to read GPS stuff. BUt I am thinking about checking out the costs of contacts again as it seems that I need my glasses to read anything anymore...

 

[katilac]

I solve this problem by keeping my GPS on at all times 😄

[matrips]

9 hours ago, VaKim said:

There was a thread here the other week with someone asking about this I think. We were discussing different ways to deal with presbyopia as we get older without having to hunt down reading glasses constantly. I had been doing the mono vision thing, with one contact for near and the other for far, but still needed reading glasses for small print and reading.

Anyway, because of some responses in that thread, I got myself some multifocal contacts yesterday. I wore them for the day at home and liked them pretty well. Still have to adjust a bit for reading I think, but at least I don't have to run and find reading glasses to read how many pills to take or how to cook a packaged food. Hoping for the same when I go to the store and have to read details on price stickers on the shelves. 

However, when I went to pick up DD from work, I realized my far vision is much worse with these. I can't really read signs until I am right on them. It was already close to that bad with the mono, but even worse now. I do have bad astigmatism and lenses can't totally correct that, so I think that is what is going on. My question is, how stupid would it be to ask my doc to prescribe me some glasses to wear over these contacts just for driving? I could even get prescription sunglasses, since I wear those all the time driving. Is that even possible? I can't really see why it wouldn't be. I would take my vision test with my contacts in, and he would write a prescription for that. 

You should have a trial period with them, and ask your doctor to adjust them.  They can give you another prescription stronger for distance, but they would need to weaken the close up.  But it’s standard to have a trial oeriodperiod

[Myra]

Does everyone have this problem with contacts - I mean not being as clear vision as with glasses?   I thought contacts were suppose to be so good since everyone seems to be wearing them.  What am I missing? (besides my sight - haha)

[katilac]

28 minutes ago, Myra said:

Does everyone have this problem with contacts - I mean not being as clear vision as with glasses?   I thought contacts were suppose to be so good since everyone seems to be wearing them.  What am I missing? (besides my sight - haha)

It's specifically related to multifocal contact lens, not regular ones. Wear regular contacts and use reading glasses to avoid it. I only notice it when it comes to reading street signs, and that's a very manageable problem for me (I really do have my GPS on most of the time, which means I don't need to read the street signs from very far away, lol). 

With regular contacts, you usually have better vision than you would with glasses. They mold to the shape of your eyes, so you see more clearly, and of course you have a wider field of vision. 

[RootAnn]

I opened this thread hopeful for good news. Boo!

My far eyesight got bad enough a few years ago that my contact prescription had to get stronger. The first year, I resisted & just dealt with fuzzy distance sight. But, I really needed it to be better. So, I had them give me the stronger contacts the next year. Disaster! I had to have reading glasses for everything homeschool related.

So, for the last year and a half, I don't wear contacts at all. (I have about a year's worth sitting on a shelf.) I just put on my prescription sunglasses for daytime driving or my bifocals for nighttime driving. If I go into a store or the movies or I need to see more than a couple yards from my face, I locate my bifocals. It is annoying, but not as annoying as not being able to see the books or menu or screen in front of me. I have good fine print vision without correction so around the house/during homeschooling, I just go without any glasses/contacts.

Sigh. I was hoping the multifocal contacts would be an option, but it sounds like they won't give me good enough distance vision. At least I know that now instead of after my eye appt next week.

[matrips]

I don’t know- I think my distance vision is 20/20 ish with my multifocals.  I don’t notice having a distance problem.  But the first pair I tried, wow!  Could I read everything up close in that office!  Amazing!  But my distance vision wasn’t good.  So they upped the distance which decreased the close.  So I can see distance fine.  I can read fine.  But it isn’t great amazingly tiny tiny print I could see with the first pair.  But it’s normal enough for everyday purposes.

[Myra]

12 hours ago, RootAnn said:

I opened this thread hopeful for good news. Boo!

My far eyesight got bad enough a few years ago that my contact prescription had to get stronger. The first year, I resisted & just dealt with fuzzy distance sight. But, I really needed it to be better. So, I had them give me the stronger contacts the next year. Disaster! I had to have reading glasses for everything homeschool related.

So, for the last year and a half, I don't wear contacts at all. (I have about a year's worth sitting on a shelf.) I just put on my prescription sunglasses for daytime driving or my bifocals for nighttime driving. If I go into a store or the movies or I need to see more than a couple yards from my face, I locate my bifocals. It is annoying, but not as annoying as not being able to see the books or menu or screen in front of me. I have good fine print vision without correction so around the house/during homeschooling, I just go without any glasses/contacts.

Sigh. I was hoping the multifocal contacts would be an option, but it sounds like they won't give me good enough distance vision. At least I know that now instead of after my eye appt next week.

Hey - look on the box of your contacts for an expiration date.  My place let me return them for refund and/or credit... Just a thought

[RootAnn]

@MyraI'll try since some don't expire until 2025, but they special order these just for me. If they carried them in-house, I'd be more hopeful.

[Bambam]

18 hours ago, Myra said:

Does everyone have this problem with contacts - I mean not being as clear vision as with glasses?   I thought contacts were suppose to be so good since everyone seems to be wearing them.  What am I missing? (besides my sight - haha)

I actually see better in my contacts - they are closer to your eye than glasses, so you can get better vision. So much depends upon your Dr. though. I had to wear glasses for a month due to an operation (ptosis) and it was horrible - I never felt like I could see as clearly (far distance) as with my contacts. I was very relieved to get back into my contacts! 

[VaKim]

20 hours ago, matrips said:

You should have a trial period with them, and ask your doctor to adjust them.  They can give you another prescription stronger for distance, but they would need to weaken the close up.  But it’s standard to have a trial oeriodperiod

I do have a trial period, but the sad fact is, you either have to give up some far vision or some near vision when your eyes are as bad as mine in order to wear contacts. And I am loving being able to read pill bottles, my phone, labels in stores, etc. and don't want to give that up. I already was doing the monovision, with one eye for close and the other for distance, but I still had to have reading glasses for up close because you can't have them so far apart in strength as I would have needed.

19 hours ago, Myra said:

Does everyone have this problem with contacts - I mean not being as clear vision as with glasses?   I thought contacts were suppose to be so good since everyone seems to be wearing them.  What am I missing? (besides my sight - haha)

I actually always had great vision with contacts until I started getting older and becoming far-sighted. I have worn them since I was about 17 or 18.

13 hours ago, kand said:

Agreed. I’m currently in my trial period for my first pair of multifocal contacts. Like OP, I also have astigmatism. Mine is pretty bad. I had reached the point where my near vision was slipping badly, and while reading glasses helped initially, suddenly they weren’t working well enough. The doctor said that was because of the astigmatism. It sounds like toric lenses plus reading glasses is not a good combination.  OP, are you wearing toric multifocals to correct the astigmatism as well? Like you, I think my distance vision may not be as sharp as it was with my old lenses, but I’m really liking that I can see both near and far, and these are working far better than the reading glasses were. My eye doctor said that he can tweak the prescription if it seems I need him to. He may increase the distance vision prescription a little to make it better. I’m going to try my old contacts again in a couple days, but at this point I’m pretty sure I’m going to decide that the slightly worse distance vision is worth it for the improved vision overall. I had reached a point my eyes were feeling sore by the end of the day from straining to focus even with my readers on.

Yes, I have toric lenses. I went to the store today and absolutely loved being able to read labels and price tags. Since I spend a lot more time inside than I do driving, that is why I prefer to have my close vision prioritized and also why I want to ask if the doc will prescribe me glasses just to wear over these contacts. Seems like he could give me the vision test with my contacts in and just correct from there with a glasses prescription. But a pp said her doc would not do that for some reason. 

[VaKim]

2 hours ago, kand said:

If I was understanding my eye doctor correctly, it seemed he was saying that it doesn’t work that way. That the glasses prescription is then undoing some of the astigmatism correction, presumably due to the physics of the way the two lenses together interact, perhaps?. I feel like I could almost imagine how this might happen, but I’d love to see some kind of diagram or something to make it clear. otherwise, what you are hoping for seems like it would make sense. It would basically be the opposite of wearing reading glasses with your contacts. did you say that reading glasses did work with your contacts, or were you having the same problem I was, where I could no longer see near even with reading glasses together with my contacts?

ETA: after looking for some kind of information that might explain this to me better, I think I probably misunderstood my eye doctor. I’ll have to ask him again when I go in next.

Yes, reading glasses work just fine for me, but are a pain. I don't carry a purse, so when I am out, I have nowhere to carry any, unless I wear them hanging off my boobs like an old lady, lol. Which I am not willing to do. I can also read just fine without any contacts or glasses at all. Just can't see any distance. I never have perfect vision with my left eye no matter what though. The astigmatism is just too bad to correct completely. 

[GoodGrief]

I found some compromise in my distance vision with the multifocal, so I wear one multifocal and one regular lens. Have done that for over a year now, and it works great for me.

[VaKim]

13 hours ago, GoodGrief1 said:

I found some compromise in my distance vision with the multifocal, so I wear one multifocal and one regular lens. Have done that for over a year now, and it works great for me.

Brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that? I still have my "old' lenses and am going to try that now. 

[GoodGrief]

17 minutes ago, VaKim said:

Brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that? I still have my "old' lenses and am going to try that now. 

 The optometrist gave me prescriptions for both types of lenses this last visit, and apparently it's common practice. I thought I was being secretly radical when I tried it, haha.

[HollyDay]

My vision with multifocal is actually better than with my glasses.  My doctor told me I am one of the lucky ones who has exceptional vision with mulitfocal. 

There are lots of options out there...one multifocal, one not, mini mono, regular mono, etc.  I have multifocal mini mono and it works.  I can't have reading glasses on top of multifocal because one eye is corrected for distance and the other is corrected for near.  Reading glasses would be really wonky with that.  The only time I could wear reading glasses was years ago when I still had single vision contacts

[RootAnn]

I'm going in this afternoon for my annual eye apt. I might try a trial of the multifocals, but I think I'll stick with the bifocals long term. I wore my contacts a couple of times this week & it is just super annoying to whip out reading glasses to read anything.

Getting older sucks.

[VaKim]

I am loving my multifocals. I still don't see as well at a distance, but it is so nice to be able to pick up a paper or can of food and actually see what is written there without having to put on readers. As a pp recommended, I have been wearing one of my old lenses in my weakest eye and that helps with the distance a bit. I do that for when I will be out for very long (driving and such). They did cost twice as much as my old ones, but that is because I have to have toric lenses, I think.