contact lens wearers, Bi Focal dailies, how do they work?

If i wear my prescription distance contacts i can’t see my garmin or phone, so for the last 5 years I’ve been using prescription sunglasses, but if i want to wear normal sunnies I can’t see!

now they tell me you can get bi focal contacts, how do they work when I assume the centre of your eye sits on the centre of the lens?

I tried contacts a few years ago…I’m on varifocals and both eyes have different prescriptions. They did 1 eye for distance and 1 for near stuff and after 3 days they’d adjusted to work…but was a bit odd.
Didn’t last though, I’ve dry eyes and the contacts didn’t help that.

I think it depends is you have astigmatism or not, only your optician can tell you how likely they are to work

There is another approach, sometimes called “mono-vision”, where they lower the lens strength of your weaker eye to give you one normal lens and one slightly lower powered one. Your brain is then tricked into doing the work to give you improved near distance vision. It’s not as good as varifocals but if you’re eyes aren’t too ancient it could work for you. I did it for 2 yrs until my near vision disintegrated, my wife was doing it for about 5 years and it worked better for her

Can you put varifocal ones in upside down?

Mrs brain uses something “not” varifocal because they’re for old people, we’re both fairly sure this amounts to a few £ extra, different letters on the packaging and the same lenses in the packaging.

She gets on with these very well. I’ll ask what they’re called when I get home.

Not sure if I have a “mono vision” prescription as described above, but definitely have a lens in one eye for distance, and the other lens set for close work (garmin reading, etc).
It’s a weird sensation initially but you soon get used to it. I have an astigmatism and the price of bi-focal lenses was very high last time I asked.

oh, I actually meant varifocals, not bifocals #facepalm

and the two different prescriptions in each eye won’t work for me as my left eye has very poor vision and it can’t be corrected with glasses

Bifocal contacts have concentric rings at different focal lengths. The centre is distance, then there’s a ring of close, then a ring of distance, then close. Your eyes scan enough that everything is in focus at some point and the brain sorts it out. Apparently. I’ve never tried them.

I’m interested to hear from anyone that has used them. The optician recommended them for me as my prescription requirement is fairly low (-1.5 in both, no astigmatism) but said it would take a few weeks to get used to. At the time I didn’t want uncertainty for a couple of weeks and they’re quite a lot more £ per box but it’s getting to the point at which my arms aren’t long enough.

I’ve been recommended them, but sticking with the cheaper “one eye distance, one eye close” option

I’ve used the acuvue daily’s for about 5 years via Boots. They have the standard power and then a low med or high for the 2nd power. I used the low. Overall they work ok but there is some trial and error. E.g as have got older I could move from from low to med to improve reading but then lose distance which I need for driving or biking. So in summary worth a trial but you need to experiment with prescription and in my view always a compromise

Mrs brain uses something “not” varifocal because they’re for old people,

I’ll ask what they’re called when I get home.

Multifocal apparently. They’re not varifocal though. Because they’re for old people.

Hmm, I might try the one eye for distance, one for close next weekend, any idea how much weaker than prescription the close eye is? I’m -1.75L, -3.25R so I’ll just wear two left lenses.

I’ve been using the Accuvue MOIST 1-Day Multifocal for a few years now and really recommend them.

I’m -3.0 in one eye and -3.75 in the other and the Multifocals are great for Snowboarding, cycling and running etc as you can see in the distance and also read a map etc.

I did trial some fancy Japanese DoF Multifocals, but whilst they were super comfortable and the near vision was great, it did come at the cost of clarity for distance – which I can’t really afford to sacrifice – especially when snowboarding and cycling.

My understanding is that the Multifocal lenses ‘work’ by ‘tricking’ your brain into correcting the information it receives. Some people just don’t get on with them apparantly as they end up doing the equivalent of ‘focus breathing’.

Go and see a decent contact lens optomistrist would be my recommendation

… and yes … I’m old!

… and yes … I’m old!

Nope, categorically multifocal are for young people, you must be a young people.

I use acuvue multifocal for presbyopia (for oldies as the natural lense isnt as flexible as it used to be).

I think they are great. From what ive read, the lens has – from what i understand – multi circle lenses built into it or something like that. So when your focussing close up, you use one set of ‘lenses’, and when you look distance, you use another set of ‘lenses’ in the contact.

Bifocal contacts contain two different focal points for your distance and reading prescriptions, while multifocal contacts contain three focal points for distance, intermediate and
reading correction