Hey guys,
Who else could I turn to - to get some great advice as to my "tell it straight"
brothers here.

I have been wearing glasses for almost 6 years due to needing bifocals.
Prior to that I wore contacts and now I think I would like to go back to
wearing them.

My question has anyone tried the new bausch and lomb multifocal contacts?
did it take long to get used to them?

I kind of like the progressive glasses I am wearing as they provide a nice mid-range for all of the computer work I do.

What say you?????

 

I've been wearing the Bausch & Lomb PureVision Multifocal contacts for the past year and I love them. Been wearing bifocal contacts for the past 6 or 7 years and these are by far the best I've had. The best part about them is that you can leave them in for a month. All the others I've had were suposed to be taken out every night, even though I left them in sometimes a couple nights. They are very thin so they are comfortable, but because they are so thin, they can sometimes be a pain to get in. Luckily that's only once a month. As far as getting used to them, any bifocal contact takes some getting used to. I had tried the method where they put different powers in each eye (right eye for close up, left eye for far) and that just plain sucked. The PureVisions are concentric circles with the power needed for close up in the middle and the power for far away on the outside. You eyes get used to them pretty quickly. At first, if you've been reading or doing any close up work, when you look up it takes a couple seconds to get everything in focus. But your eyes get trained fairly quickly. Riding with contacts has been a non issue as well. If you wear a half or 3/4 helmet with glasses, get some with the foam between the glasses and your face. I've never had a problem. One word of advice about wearing these overnight, have some lens drops handy. They tend to dry out during the night. It is the first thing I reach for when I wake up.

Sorry this was so long winded. Hope it helps. Give em a try.

 

I tried the multi focal contacts and they didn't work for me at all. I wear progressive glasses and have for a few years. I bought a pair of Panoptex and had the progressive, photo-gray in them along with a safe/riding style lens and they're the best. Just try the lenses and see how you like them. My optical store didn't charge me for trying the lenses. Good luck.

 

I'm going in tomorrow to get examined to see if Lasik surgery will get me out of contacts and glasses. My up close vision has gone to **** with contacts in, but it's not so bad while wearing glasses. Without contacts or glasses - I can see the hair on a knat's butt. Seems my up-close vision is thrown off when my nearsightedness is corrected??? I've had a contact to wash out of my eye while on the bike in the rain and that was no fun. So I'm gonna see what the deal is with this Lasik thing... getting old sucks!!!

 

Dunno about multifocal contacts. I use a monovision set up. Dominant eye is set to focus on the front sight (pistol) and the non-dominant is set for distance. Both eyes open I can see the sight and target clearly. Also, I can read fine print without too much eye strain with this set up. Been working fine for the last 6 years of competitive shooting. I'm over 50.

 

I've been wearing bi-focal glasses for a little over 25 years now. I tend to be far sighted and started out with reading glasses and have progressed to needing distance correction too. Hense the bi-focals. I never liked having the frames in my peripheral vision but have gotten used to it. My old eye doctor was not a fan of contacts for people like me. He eventually retired and a younger guy bought out the business. I really like him and he set me up with the Bosch and Lomb multi-focal contacts. They were Ok but I had comfort issues with them. We switched to Pro Clear brand and they were a lot better for me. I tried a couple of variations. Basically, the first set were biased more toward the close up side of things. I could easily read and distance vision was acceptable in good sun light. In poor lighting or after dark however, my distance vision was unacceptable. Tail lights and traffic lights were heavily starred and road signs were very hard to see until I was right on top of them.

The next set were tailored more toward the distance side of things. Reading was still generally Ok but not as sharp, especially in low lighting conditions. Distance vision was much better but still not as crisp as it was with my glasses. Ultimately, I wasn't that thrilled with either one. I just wasn't happy with the compromises I had to make one way of the other. My vision is corrected to 20/20 both ways with my glasses and the fuzziness I had with the multi-focal contacts was just something I wasn't willing to live with. It was nice "not" having the frames on my face but that was it.

I did try distance only contacts for a while and still have a couple of sets. The doctor warned me that I would not be able to read at all without glasses but oddly enough, that didn't turn out to be true. If I had good lighting, I could still read a newspaper without help, even though I was wearing distance only contact. The trouble was, after a while, my eyes would start getting tired and it would become more difficult. In less than ideal lighting, reading was impossible without help from Walmart specials. My distance vision with these was great but I always had to carry around the cheater glasses to read.

I looked into Lasix but with the way my eyes are, they could correct me for close up and I'd need glasses for distance. They could correct me for distance and I'd still need reading glasses. Either way, I'd have to to carry glasses around and I couldn't see putting my eyes through a surgical procedure if it couldn't rid me of glasses at least for a little while. I haven't worn my contacts any time this year.

FWIW!
Good luck with your decision.
Steve R.

 

The multifocal are great. The only problem is that your distance vision is a little sacrificed. They are great for working on the computer and looking down on paper on your desk.

 

This is similar to the folks asking for legal advice, ask your Doc. My wife is a Certified Opthamalic Tech, what she said is maybe it will work for you maybe it won't. A good Doc will fit you with a trial set and have you use them for about a week and then tweak them if needed. Some people like me can not get use to multi focus lens, but mono lens work great for me. This is only some thing that you can work out with a Doc.

 

I agree it is something to work out with your Doc, but it's nice to know how other people see it (pun intended). When you go to get fitted you are better prepared, and can ask questions about problems your buds on HD Forums might have had with the lenses. IMO

 

I wear them daily and love 'em. That being said Scott is right you need to talk with the doc. They gave me a couple of pairs to try out before I committed to 6 months worth, they are a little on the expensive side. The doc said they work for some folks but not for others. I wear them 7-Eye progressive lens so I'm good in most any light. Good luck...