Is There A Such Thing As Reverse Bifocals?

BusDriver · #1 (**permalink**) 01-14-2008, 02:00 PM

Hi,

This is a good site. There are a lot of good questions going around. I hope I can find an answer to my question here.
Okay, my question is about bifocals. As we all know, these glasses or contacts help people to read because they have a clear, no prescription part that they use to see in the distance, and a magnifying lens, usually at the bottom of the lens, to be able to read.
What if someone is near sighted and needs help seeing distant objects, but needs to take their glasses off to read because looking at things so close with nearsighted lenses is a strain? Does anybody make bifocals with the clear part on the bottom and the upper part shaped to allow the person to see in the distance?

DaBrat · #2 (**permalink**) 01-31-2010, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusDriver

Hi,

This is a good site. There are a lot of good questions going around. I hope I can find an answer to my question here.
Okay, my question is about bifocals. As we all know, these glasses or contacts help people to read because they have a clear, no prescription part that they use to see in the distance, and a magnifying lens, usually at the bottom of the lens, to be able to read.
What if someone is near sighted and needs help seeing distant objects, but needs to take their glasses off to read because looking at things so close with nearsighted lenses is a strain? Does anybody make bifocals with the clear part on the bottom and the upper part shaped to allow the person to see in the distance?

Bifocals are not really prescription plus no prescription, just different strengths for different visions. From your description, it seems you just need good old bifocals or multi-focals. I started with the same issue and my distance vision is still pretty good though not perfect. I have the 40 yr old long-arm syndrome and wear multi-focal glasses and am still trying for multifocal contacts.

If you were to get multifocals, they would be written so that you could see near and far without the transition from glasses, even if that meant little or no prescription for near reading. Multifocals are genrally not at the bottom but are generally concentric around the lense. From what I understand, your eyes adjust to using the portion on the lense suited for whatever task you are doing.

You may want to check into aspheric type contacts that allow you to adjust to all distances.

Eldradmustlive · #3 (**permalink**) 02-01-2010, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaBrat

Bifocals are not really prescription plus no prescription, just different strengths for different visions. From your description, it seems you just need good old bifocals or multi-focals. I started with the same issue and my distance vision is still pretty good though not perfect. I have the 40 yr old long-arm syndrome and wear multi-focal glasses and am still trying for multifocal contacts.

If you were to get multifocals, they would be written so that you could see near and far without the transition from glasses, even if that meant little or no prescription for near reading. Multifocals are genrally not at the bottom but are generally concentric around the lense. From what I understand, your eyes adjust to using the portion on the lense suited for whatever task you are doing.

You may want to check into aspheric type contacts that allow you to adjust to all distances.

Sounds like you're our go-to brat for multifocal information. Thanks for your help.