As a person ages, she may find that it is extremely difficult to read printed materials when they are not holding them at arm’s length. This is because our eyesight weakens as we get older. Changes come about within the proteins in the lens of the eye. The lens becomes less flexible. The curvature of the lens may also be affected by changes in the surrounding muscles. Usually these changes are first apparent around the ages of 40 and 50. If an individual already wears prescription eyeglasses for distance vision, they will probably need to purchase a second pair of prescription glasses that help with both distance and near vision.
Traditional bifocal lenses allow the eyeglasses wearer to more clearly see long distance items by glancing straight ahead, and a person can see closer objects by looking down through a portion of the lens that corrects near vision. The near vision portion of the lens is readily available in four popular shapes – half moon, round, narrow strip, or the full lower half of the lens.
These traditional bifocals have an obvious appearance that tells someone looking at them that the wearer has been experiencing age-related loss of near vision. There is a noticeable line going across the lens. So, they are commonly referred to as “lined bifocals”. Lined bifocals offer benefits to users who use computers or read for extended periods. These traditional lenses have a wide lens area for seeing objects that are in close proximity.
The problem is, many wearers feel very self-conscious wearing traditional lined bifocals. They consider them to be old-fashioned and they make an individual appear older than their years. One good alternative to regular bifocals is “no-lined bifocals”, commonly called progressive lenses. As their name implies, these lenses empower the wearer to clearly see both distances and the lenses do not have an obvious line going across the lense. This is because the lens has a number of zones, which allow the eye to easily see distant, intermediate, and close items by glancing through different areas of the lens.
Most wearers prefer no-lined lenses because they provide an easier transition from viewing items off in a distance to closer objects. This is more like natural vision than normal bifocals, where the person’s eye needs to jump immediately from one type of lens to another. When the eye passes over the line that divides the two lenses, the wearer can experience a jump in the image, as the individual’s eye puts up a fight to adjust its focus. Progressives eliminate this image jump by allowing the eye to adjust its focus from distant to intermediate, and then to near objects in a smoother manner.
Some eyeglass wearers have specific needs that cannot be accommodated by the common types of bifocals. A good example is golfers, who experience struggles with their vision when they look down to address the ball. One solution is to have an optician design a lens that better suits the individual’s specific need. In the golfer example, a small vision corrective area is put in the lower outside corner of the person’s lens.
At the end of the day, the decision on whether to choose lined or progressive bifocals is one that each individual must make for themself, based on the person preferences.
To learn more about progress no-lined bifocals, visit your local optometrist.
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