Bifocal Contacts
Whether it be bifocal/progressive eyeglasses, or contact lenses in either bifocal, multifocal or monovision configurations, there is always going to be some degree of compromise involved. It can mean having to hold your head in a certain position to view through a particular part of the lens, or things simply may not be as clear as desired at certain distances. The fact is, nothing will ever be as good as when you were younger and didn’t need special lenses to see both near and far. That being said, bifocal contact lenses, multifocal contact lenses or monovision may or may not be a viable option for you. Below is a brief description of each of these 3 options:
Bifocal Contact Lenses
Bifocal contacts lenses, like bifocal eyeglass lenses with lines, have two powers – one for seeing distance and one for seeing at near. Bifocal contacts are most typically of the alternating vision (translating) design. These are rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses that are designed like bifocal eyeglass lenses. The top part of the lens has the distance power, and the bottom part of the lens contains the near power. When you look straight ahead, your eye is looking through the distance part of the lens. When you look down, your lower lid holds the lens in place while your pupil moves (translates) into the near zone of the lens for reading.
Multifocal Contact Lenses
Multifocal contact lenses, like no-line progressive eyeglass lenses, have a range of powers for seeing clearly in the distance, up close and everywhere in between. Multifocal contact lenses are most typically of the simultaneous vision design. With these lenses, both the distance and near images are placed on the retina at the same time. Although this might sound unworkable, this is how the human visual system works anyway. It’s impossible for people to clearly perceive both near and distant objects at the same time; it’s either one or the other (you can try this on your own right now!) Simultaneous vision lenses are by far the more popular of the two lens designs. They are available in both soft and rigid gas permeable (RGP) materials; Dr. Winkler himself wears simultaneous RGP lenses.
Monovision
With monovision, you wear a single vision contact lens on one eye to correct for your distance vision and a single vision contact lens on the other eye to correct for your near vision. Again, while this might sound awkward, the human visual system is quite adaptable and this approach works well for many, many patients. It is similar yet different than the simultaneous vision lenses described above in that with monovision one entire lens is devoted to distance and the other to near.