OT: to bifocal or not to bifocal

Hey all - I need glasses for up-close work but not for seeing distance. I

scorpio00girl...

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I'd NEVER consider buying or
wearing bifocals if I only needed reading glasses. IMO it's major

Userb3...

Whoah - I missed that. I'm with you completely. If I only needed reading
glasses, I'd keep a small pair tucked in a pocket, and not wear glasses
7/24.

overkill and makes absolutely no sense. Why spend the money or, even
worse, the time & effort trying to adjust to bifocals if you don't need
them? If I was you, I'd just buy a couple of cute pairs of OTC reading
glasses and forget about the bifocals.

cofarb...

I started out with OTC reading glasses. They worked for the first few years
when my arms first started getting shorter. Unfortunately, as my close
vision got worse, it didn't get equally worse in both eyes. The disparity
isn't huge but it's enough to make OTC reading glasses problematic.
Ironically, my 81-year-old mom wore glasses from childhood, but a series of
procedures has rendered her 20/20.
cofarb

spend a lot of time in conference rooms writing and looking at projected
images on a large screen. As such, I always have my glasses lowered on my
nose so I can transition between looking down at my writing and looking up
at the screen. I am thinking about getting bifocals but do not know which is

ahmward...

I'm a snob too. I've worn progessive bifocals for several years and
only my opthamologist knows :) My husband has to wear ones with
definite lines in them but I was able to adjust well to the progressive
ones.

val189...

Color me even more vane. Have soft, daily wear bifocal contacts and
love 'em. Can't stand the weight of glasses on my nose. I DO keep a
pair of cheap bifocals glasses with 'that line' on hand tho for any
emergency, like cat chewing a lens (it happened) and always take them
when leaving town.

cofarb...

I would love to do bifocals but I'm farsighted. They've come up with some
sort of bifocal solution but it's fairly complicated. Some people actually
wear one lens and learn to use one eye for reading and the other for
distance.

KC...

I'm nearsighted and have astigmatism and I got the two different
lenses solution several months ago. They told me to my brain a chance
to adjust to the two different lenses, but I really didn't need any. I
walked out, jumped in the car and drove home. No headaches, no balance
problems, nothing. It sounds weird, but I forgot I even had them until
I read your post.

I got new glasses today, again rimless. These are supposed to be sturdier
than my last pair. We shall see .

I hate needing glasses but rimless progressives are probably the least of

ahmward...

For many years I could wear just one lens for distance and read without
glasses. When I needed glasses for reading I switched to bifocals and
now I have the supercool Swarovski frames :)

all the evils.

better - the older ones with a true line between the upper and lower part of
the lens or the newer ones that have gradation between the two. Any
thoughts? Comments? Recs? TIA!

Barbara...

A lot of people have difficulty adjusting to the bifocals with
gradations; DH never could get used to them, and an optician friend
told us that it's a fairly common problem. If you go with the kind
with gradations, make sure you can return them for traditional bifocals
if you have problems.

Leigh Melton...

I'm one of the people who just cannot wear progressive lenses. They
give me headaches, make my stomach churn and make it hard to walk. I
really, really tried to get used to them but it just didn't happen.

My optician has a 'satisfaction guaranteed' policy and let me return
them after a month. I'd definitely take Barbara's suggestion and ask
in advance if you can return them if they don't work out. If they say
no, go elsewhere!

cofarb...

I ended up trading in my first pair of progressive lenses for "those line"
glasses but it was really the fault of the optician for not fitting them
properly. It's not easy; the bottom and top portions have to be "tall"
enough for your needs. I'm on my second pair of successful
progressives--and both times they had to be remade with a taller bottom
section because of the way I position my glasses--and because of the work I
do. On the optician's advice, I took an old frame and had them make a
fixed-focal-length pair of glasses that I use when I'm working at the
computer for a long time. It keeps me from having to tilt my head.

It does take awhile to get used to wearing progressives--or all glasses, for
that matter.

David RL Gärtner, RMT...

isn't it just about aesthetics? personally, i'd go with no-line
bifocals. i was told several years ago that i could get bifocals

Charlie Perrin...

My optometrist is a fan of the no-line version but I always want to
read over mine as I'm the opposite case (need them for seeing
distance).

I think I was badly conditioned by peering over/under for too long.

if i wanted them (i was still in my 20s). i didn't get them.

-sk