I got my progressives (first bifocal) a month or so ago. It took me about a week to adjust and now wish I had gotten them in my sunglasses - can’t read the blinkin’ map in the car on a bright day. Hell getting old.
–Nancy
Sokay, I get that a lot 
I learned to accept and embrace geekhood long ago. Hey, at least we’re not alone. I have photos of my really bad Big 1980’s glasses, and those really big blue Revo sunglassess I thought were so cool (can you say Superfly?).
I went to bifocals and then to trifocals. I had absolutely no trouble from the first day. At the advice of my opthamologist I switched to progressive lenses. It took me about an hour to adjust to them. I have had them for about 4 years. I don’t search for the right spot it just happens automatically. The funniest part is I need them for distance and near vision from about 3 feet out and further. I read without glasses. Sometimes work at the computer with glasses and sometimes without.
It is different for each individual. My sister-in-law could not wear them at all. She tried to adjust for about 3 weeks and had nausea the whole time. Switched to trifocals and had no trouble.
I am afraid your reaction is unpredictable.
Ron
Just to day I was fitted for bifocal contacts.
My progressive
glass frames bang into my new hearing aid.
Now I’m a Cyborg.
I resisted. It was futile.
I had progressives for about a year or so before cataract surgery. Long story short, I got used to them before the operation but had chronic headaches in the 6 months since. Turns out that:
- the myopia in one eye had rotated about 110 deg, and
- the big name national chain did a crappy job in the first place so I was never going to get used to it no matter what.
I am having a new pair made by a private optician - should have them by Friday.
Lessons learned:
- If you don’t get used to your glasses in a couple of weeks at most, go back to your doctor and have him detrmine how well the scrip was filled, and
- Go to a private optician - the good ones are not really more expensive especially if they give a straight-up deal right off and don’t start with the extra fee for the hard coating, and the UV coating, yada, yada, yada…
Roger
I’ve had progressive, (glasses), for several years now. Never had any problem adjusting to them. I would like to try to bi-focal type of contacts, or whatever they call them, but I’ve never had good luck with contacts.
I’ve had a couple of different pair of soft contacts over the years, but I didn’t adjust well to them. No matter what I did, they seemed to irritate my eyes. I could see great, and I loved not having glasses, but…
The last time I tried contacts, (single vision), was about 11 years ago, when I was getting married. Every now and then I think about giving it a go again, but I have to “waste” the $$.
All the Best, Tom
Dazed, sounds like you got a crap optician. Having done this very thing for ten years now myself, (dispense and troubleshooting PAL lenses etc. and fitting contacts, bi, prog, monovision etc etc.) I can tell you that if you have an optician worth their salt, you shouldn’t have ANY troubles adapting to a PAL lens.
Do you know what type of lens it was? Short corridor? What was the B measurement on the frame you’re using? Decentration? Is there proper pantoscopic tilt and face form? What’s the index of refraction of the material you’re using? Is it a poly? Did they use prism thinning to equallize the thickness from top to bottom? Did they get it right? Has there been much of a Rx change from your last distance pair of lenses? What was your best corrected VA in the chair?
There are so many variables that can cause a crap fit - without knowing that all of these have been addressed and worked through there’s no way to know if it’s really YOU having the hard time, or if you just got stuck with a poor fit and no follow up care to speak of.
Either way, before you bag it all, I’d stop back into the dispensary and ask to have the optician, manager, lab tech or doc. look over everything first. You’ll be amazed at what a small change can do for your vision, so long as it’s done correctly.
Bri~
scottieluvr wrote:
My first glasses, which I remember keenly as one does all traumatic events, were pale blue, in that awful, awful harlequin style (it was what they had, back then).
I had those glasses too!!! Weren’t they lovely? (I’m another of those who’ve worn spectacles for so long I would look odd without them)
I was able to put off the bi-focal thing for years because I could see fine without glasses for reading(one eye near sighted, one far- so they worked together). My opthamologist suggested the progressive lenses when bifocal time arrived- well there was no way. Nausea resulted within seconds. I tried these for a couple of weeks, even wore them to work without taking the old ones. I finally went back and got the bifocals with lines. They were wonderful! I immediately was able to use them.
Now, I’ve recently gotten new glasses and find that the bifocals just were not cutting it anymore. There was still a distance- like from me to the computer screen, me to the music on the piano/organ, me to the mail slots in my case at work , that I just could not see. So, now I’ve got the new $$$$ bifocals, and my cheapo trifocals that I use for the three above described situations.
So true, and I’ve already done so…actually I started with executive/straightop bifocals, not progressives, and I was kinda just good naturedly complaining about the transition, but I did go in today and we made some changes to the fit, as well as order a new pair of lenses…progressives this time. I actually was getting fairly well adjusted to the bifocals by last night, but thought I’d might as well start off in progressives. I know I’ll get a good fit, and it is easier for me perhaps because I’m very patient (um, actually, stubborn may be more accurate), so I’ll keep at it till its right (and yes, the optician was a newbie).
This topic is very timely for me. I have an eye exam in 3 hours, and I know that I will need bifocals or progressives, or whatever. In fact, I didn’t even realize that I will have a choice, so this thread’s been a good head’s up–so to speak (I’m gonna go with the progressives).
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was seven years old (38ish years ago). I wonder if there’s any correlation, + or -, between length of time wearing glasses and period of adjustment for bifocals/progressives. My wife got progressives a couple of years ago, and had no problem adjusting. But she’s one of these people that just wears her glasses sometimes, whereas I keep them by my bedside and can’t even consider stepping away from the bed without 'em.
My bigger concern is the glaucoma test. Not because I’m afraid I’ll get glaucoma. Get this: I have a near-pathological fear of eyes. Seriously! I can’t even think about people putting contacts in, have to look away if a mascara commercial comes on the TV, and hate horses because of those huge eyeballs! And I can’t take eyedrops. When they give me that newer glaucoma test, where they stick that blue light right against your eye, I literally start hyperventilating, sweating and squirming. The air-blow glaucoma test isn’t much better, but I’ve learned to psych myself into it. I know the air-blow isn’t as good a test, but now I base my optometrist choice on who’s willing to give me this older test. Seems like ophthamologists go with the blue light, a lot of optometrists use the air-blow thingy. Sad thing is, I’m high-risk for glaucoma. 
Anyhow, since I have this exam comin’ up, if any of you optical types have advice for me on this eye-phobia, I’m…er…all ears. Get this: I love going to the dentist (I like the comfy chair, and am lucky to have really healthy teeth)–but I think that I experience eye exams the way many others experience dental work.
The older style of “air puff” test you mention is called NCT or Non Contact Tonometry. The “blue light that touches your eye” is Goldman Aplination Tonometry. Neither are a test for glaucoma but rather for ocular hypertension. If the pressures in the eye are too high or too low, it can be a red flag for a variety of other issues, one of which being glaucoma.
If you have a doctor who knows what they’re doing, you’ll be completely numbed with flurocaine or some such drop well before they start any biomicroscopy or tonometry readings. And it’s FAR better than going blind from any retinal pathology that otherwise would be easily caught and treated.
Back to the original thrust of the topic - progressives. If you’ve never worn bifocals before and you’re in say your early to mid fourties, you are well positioned to make an easy transition to progressive addition lenses. However, if you’ve worn a lined style bi or tri focal design for more than ten to fifteen years, you may have a bit more difficulty adjusting. But again - the technology is advancing at amazing rates and what was new a year ago is old news now. So make sure you check into all your options as far as lens design goes.
Best of luck either way.
B~
We use to manually test dogs. Most were suprisingly co-operative. Just some numbing drops and a few trys till they figured out that they really didn’t care if the instrument was touching their eye since it did not hurt.
Most disliked the head tilted up/muzzle being held position more.