Bifocal Contact Lenses
Bifocal contact lenses are made specifically for people with presbyopia. If you read the newspaper by holding it at arms length, then you have presbyopia.
What is Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is the aging of the lens in your eye and the muscles that control the shape of your eyes lens. It commonly occurs after you turn 40. The lens of the eye becomes more rigid and does not flex as easily as it should. The result is that it is more difficult for you to read or focus at close range. This is a normal aging process of the lens it can also be combined with myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism.
Corrected with bifocal contact lenes, Presbyopia is a refractive error that results from a disorder rather than from a disease. A refractive error means that the shape of your eye doesn't bend light the way it is supposed to and this results in you seeing a blurred image.
You can buy bifocal contacts in both soft and rigid gas permeable materials, plus you can also now buy disposable bifocal contacts, which gives you the convenience of replacing them with fresh, new lenses whenever you wish to... even daily.
Types Of Bifocal Contact Lens
The bifocal contact lens works in much the same way as bifocal eyeglasses. Each lens has two powers. One part of the lens corrects distance vision if needed, while the other corrects near vision.
Bifocal contact lenses come in concentric, simultaneous, and alternating vision styles:
- Simultaneous vision design... is designed to fit centered on your cornea with both the distance and near prescription within your pupil area. Your eye learns to interpret the correct part of the lens to use, depending on whether you're looking close up or far away.
- Concentric vision design... either the center part of the lens has the distance power, while the outside part has the near power, or vice versa.
- Alternating vision design... works much like bifocal glasses with a clear line between the top and bottom powers.
Alternatives to bifocal contact lenses
If you can't wear bifocal contact lenses, your doctor may prescribe monovision contact lenses. In this case one eye will be fitted with a near vision lens and the other eye with a distance vision lens. It sounds odd, but your eyes become accustomed to the separate roles very quickly. The downside is that the you will tend to turn their head about more in order to see, and you may exp[erience a loss of depth perception.