Bifocal Contact Lenses For Presbyopia

Have you reached an age where the eye doctor is talking about bifocal lenses and how they can help you see better? Anyone with vision problems knows eventually they will need to have bifocal lenses to help with their changing eyes, however if you are new to the corrective lenses world you might find the information below very interesting. Those who need bifocal contact lenses have blurry eyesight when looking at close range objects while still needing correction for further distances.

For many of us, presbyopia is a fact of life. Simply defined, presbyopia is the inability to focus on items in close range. This condition is caused by the lens in the eye becoming less and less flexible as we age. Unfortunately, most of us will need corrective lenses and even bifocals at some point as this condition worsens.

There are two types of contact lenses when you need a bifocal contact lens, the soft contact lens or gas permeable. The gas permeable lenses will last you up to a year before you will need to replace them, while the soft contact lenses are usually biweekly or monthly. The yearly contact lenses are often less comfortable due to protein build up and require weekly cleaning. Depending upon the type of eyes you have will in part make this decision for you. Those with allergies find a soft contact lens lasting for a month is about all they can handle even when they clean the gas permeable weekly. Another benefit of the soft contact is the material used to make it. It is soft and fairly easy to tear, but lighter on your eye than the gas permeable lenses.

Soft and RGP contacts are the two main varieties available for patients suffering from presbyopia. As with the regular wear lenses, they can be disposable or made for long-term usage. The disposable kind is the most popular since the user has the option of using a new pair every day.

Bifocal contact lenses work just like bifocal glass lenses do; two powers of glass in each lens provide different focus adjustments, one for far away (distance) and another for close up. Both adjustments are contained in each contact lens. Different manufacturers make different types of bifocal lenses, and it may take some experimentation to discover which type is right for you.

Some bifocal contact lenses are made with a concentric design. Like concentric circles, one adjustment is in the middle of the lens, and the other adjustment is around the outside of the lens. The two are distinct, with a sharp delineation between the two. Although they sound difficult to use, most find that they eye will adjust and use the proper ring with a little practice.