When you reach 40 years of age (or thereabouts), your eyes will have trouble focusing on nearby objects as well as small print. While you can try to compensate by squinting or holding fine print farther away from your eyes, it won’t be long before this stops working — if it ever did.
At this point, it’s time to get corrective lenses to make your life easier. You will have three options. These are getting a pair of reading glasses, getting bifocals, or a pair of progressive bifocals. Although you’re probably familiar with reading glasses and bifocals, you may not have considered progressive bifocals, of which there are several benefits over the other two options. These are:
They Are More Youthful Looking Than Bifocals
A bifocal lens has a reading lens (for near distance viewing) set inside of an outer lens for far distance viewing. There is a sharp boundary between the two lenses, which advertises your vision problem to everyone. They’re often associated with older people. If you don’t like the “Ben Franklin” look, you might consider getting progressive bifocals, which lack distinct lens boundaries. To everyone else, they appear as ordinary glasses with a single lens. The near vision and far vision parts of the glasses seamlessly blend together.
They Lack the Sudden Image Jump Effect of Bifocals
This effect feels unnatural and is uncomfortable for many people. The image jump effect is distracting when driving, and can impact your safety in some situations requiring a quick reaction. This effect will be noticeable when quickly shifting your focus from your dashboard to the road. On the other hand, this transition from near to far field vision is more gradual with progressive bifocals. That is, the transition will seem more natural.
There’s No Need to Carry a Separate Pair of Reading Glasses
Carrying around a separate pair of glasses increases the possibility of losing or damaging them. They add yet another complication to everyday living. Switching to reading glasses gets in the way of enjoyable activities requiring both near and far vision, such as fishing, hunting, or activities requiring the use of a map or GPS. Texting on a cell phone while walking outdoors is another example.
If you wish to enjoy these benefits, choose progressive bifocals as one of your prescription lens options when buying your next pair of glasses. Progressive bifocals will require a short period to get used to them. The fastest way is wearing them all day. If this interests you, don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions.
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