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Varifocal glasses

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Chris152

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I picked up a new pair of glasses yesterday, the first time I've had any for distance (I've had reading glasses for years). Varifocals - I find them really odd. Do you get used to them in time? I just took the dog for a walk and felt like I was a bit inebriated at times, and generally find them pretty hopeless for reading (very narrow window of focus for close-up). I did buy the cheapest varifocals, which have limited range, so maybe just my fault. Currently typing with my old cheapo reading glasses.

ps I'd forgotten how sharp the edges of the world are - they're great for distance, once I'm looking through the correct part of the lenses!
 
Fitting is very important.
Using boots or Specsavers etc, you will just get a shop assistant with a bit of training thrown in.
I also have what are called desk glasses which are varifocals with a bias to the first four metres.
 
I think that's the trick, looking through the right part of the lens. So that depends on where they sit, and stay, on your nose. Mine vary between about 16" for computer and reading, and about a metre. In the workshop, mine slide down and I end up looking through the 1m bit which is no good. I still have to use the magnifying loupe on my head with the specs when doing really close up work, and have to push the specs up my nose so Thayer at the right place, too.

And I daren't ever wear them again walking down stairs!!
 
I’ve been wearing varifocals for at least 20 years and glasses for 50+ years, my eyes are very short sighted. Without glasses my left eye could not read what I writing now with iPad on my lap.
One day is not enough for your eyes to get used to them, IMHO. I’ve only ever had one problem about 4 years ago when the lenses were not centred properly, noticeable as soon as I got in the car and found I had to tilt my head down to read the speedo. This was easily fixed, no cost, by the optician who replaced the lenses.
Give it a coupe more days and if you are still not happy go back to the optician and explain how you use them and what the issues are they might be able to adjust (replace) the lenses.
 
Had Varifocals for some years now, there is definitely a considerable difference in performance if you can run to the inflated asking price for the wider range upgrade.

Occasionally have a small change in perspective for a couple of days if astigmatism prescription changes but no more than was the case in days of wearing Bifocals.

A lot depends on the optometrist and how much credence they are willing to acknowledge your own preferences. (Close work/Reading/Comp screen magnification, Machine working distances etc.)

I find that I've a good idea when it would be beneficial to have a new prescription made up by the fact that the area of focus for an individual eye has moved up or down the varifocal lens area.
 
Mine took about 10 days to settle then my brain seemed to catch up with them and they've been great ever since.
 
Same as AndyP; I've been wearing glasses for the last 60++ odd years and varifocals for quite a few of them. I get them from SS and whilst the opticians who examine your eyes are medical pros, the staff who fit the glasses appear to have had very scant training on some occasions. Generally though, the SS experience for me has been positive. Varifocals take some getting used to but I wouldn't dream of going back to ordinary glasses as my prescription seems pretty stable at the moment. I also have lenses that darken in bright sunlight ('Reactolight' I think) so I have no need for extra sunglasses. I find now though, that for close work at the bench it's better to take off my glasses which seems a bit odd - Rob
 
I had to move to varifocals some eight, maybe ten years ago to compensate for gently fading distance vision as well as short vision. I noticed the distance thing as being a bit of a problem when I realised I could no longer see the speedometer numbers clearly when driving. I've always asked for the largest reading area of glass possible at the bottom of the lens out of a range of choices, and that seems to work well for me - maybe you'd benefit from that too.

I took to the things pretty much like a duck to water and I adapted to them within two or three hours. I seem to experience the same short period of adaptation when I get a new pair of glasses with an updated prescription. But I have heard of a few folk who initially find it difficult to get used to varifocals. As far I recall all the cases I've come across without exception of people like this they've adapted within a few days or a week, so maybe if you persist a bit longer it will come good.

One trick that was suggested to me, which has proved useful very occasionally, is if you can't get a clear view of whatever you're looking at is to pause, look away, look back, and gently waggle your head up and down a bit to find the right part of the lens to look through. Finding the right part of the lens becomes automatic after a while, so maybe a bit like driving when you've developed what's known as unconscious competence, i.e., you no longer think about all the things you have to do and in what order to change gear, and you just do it. Slainte.
 
I used to wear contact lenses to correct my myopia and had reading glasses of different strengths strategically placed around the house and in the vehicles. After my cataract surgery last Fall, with standard replacement interocular lenses, I no longer need glasses for distance or reading. The surgeon told me I would likely need reading glasses, but so far I can easily read without them.
 
Varifocals rock!

That's except for decorating ceilings (or any DIY looking vaguely upwards), and I completely agree about using the stairs to begin with DAMHIKT!

Yes you do indeed get used to them.

Somewhere I have a pair of triple-distance varifocals for the office - close for reading at the bottom, upper half at about 3ft (screen), and a long distance spot middle-of-top. I didn't get on with them, because the long distance thing was awkward and I'd have to change glasses anyway to walk about. Not recommended, but the more usual flavours are great.
 
Thanks for the replies all. I can see I need to persist!

I went for a drive earlier, slightly unnerving but ok, and there was the added bonus that I could read things on the dash. Something else that's quite striking is that I can now read the blurb on films on streaming channels on the tv - less of a lottery than choosing a film used to be.
 
Be careful if you ride a motorcycle and wear a helmet. Varoifocals can limit peripheral vision to a surprising extent.
 
I have triple vision varifocals that are excellent - but they are very expensive in order to get the three lenses of a size and position that I need.
Skilled fitting at the optician is an essential part of getting it right.
Half a dozen attempts at bi/tri/varifocals at the high street opticians were all dismal failures so I now just swallow hard and accept the cost.
Duncan
 
My first pair of varifocals came from specsavers, and were dreadful - the reading portion was way too small, and the middle distance bit didn't seem to exist at all. After a couple of weeks I took them back for a refund.

I get varifocals from an independent optician now, at vastly more expense (and the specsavers ones were supposedly top of their range!) and the difference is huge - took to them very easily, and wouldn't look back now.
 
I got ortho-k lenses probably about 15 years ago, these have been great and pretty much stopped my myopia getting worse. My prescription has hardly changed since I had them fitted.
 
I’m rather fortunate in that the optician I use has a normal shop but he is
also manufacturer ( if that’s the word for a spectacale maker) so you get a prescription, fitting by the boss man and then the order goes to the technicians working behind the shop. He seems to supply most local independents plus others further afield.
He has three grades of lenses and says that the cheapest are comparable to the high st shops. First time I used him I obviously had the best but even with that, the glasses were still cheaper than the previous boots ones.
Since then we have never considered anyone else.
 
Wore glasses from about 12 years old, could not sit in back row of class any more!
Over the years they just got stronger and heavier (glass). I had a set of plastics for playing squash but they scratch so easily.
Had both lenses replaced in 2016/2017.

Now only use multifocal reading specs, from reading book to about 1m away.
On my third set, latest very expensive pair stays at the computer, previous pair is stand by used when we go away from home. Previous-previous is the pair in the workshop.
Then there is a cheapy pair from Dischem, ZAR130.00 which are the walk-about pair. Used for going to shops, lunch, meetings etc. They are frameless and scratched and need replacement soon. The one arm screw has been replaced by a pin stuck in with superglue!

Last year I had to have the one eye lasered as it was getting 'dim'. Just have floaters and a small black spot which moves around.
 
A few days in and I'm getting more used to them. Reading your posts, I can see that mine have a very narrow field of focus for reading - so much so that they're ok for out and about, reading prices in shops etc, but pretty hopeless for reading a book/ looking at a screen. I have either to move the book, glasses or my head to get from the top of a page to the bottom, which is just annoying and not ok. And peripheral vision's reduced - I'm not on a bike but I have to be aware of it when driving.

The answer's to use the varifocals for out and about and mooching about the house, and reading glasses for sustained close-up work. I'm fine with that - as I wrote above, I'm amazed at how much detail I've been missing along the way!

Thanks all.
 
I should say that the optician, and the people who make up the lens order for the lab are really important in this.

We had a superb optician down the road (walking distance), but she sold up and retired. Thinking the business would continue as-was, I went in for eye tests and new glasses.

The staff had all changed. My favourite brand of frames were no longer sold (that's a biggie, as I am very fussy about the frames and despise the fashion-victim approach). They told me they could fit lenses to the old frames. They couldn't. Screws weren't done up correctly (heads were stripped too), and one lens fell out overnight, in part because it was too big and the wrong shape for the frame and had been force-fitted. And they couldn't get the prescription right either (after two tries).

I'm due another test soon, and probably new glasses. Obviously, I will be looking elsewhere.
 
Eric the Viking said:
I should say that the optician, and the people who make up the lens order for the lab are really important in this.
Click to expand...
I agree and what I call the centre point in the lens, or the point where you feel the need to more your head rather than eyes to read stuff can be got wrong as my example above.
On your first pair of varifocals you have no reference point to go back on. See my post above. When I was presented with a pair that required me to move my head I knew it was not right.
Always worth going back to the ophthalmologist and/or optician to see if adjustment (new lenses) can be made.
 
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