Progressive Lenses

[ddbach]

Adaptation does take time but will improve the swim effect and skewing of lines. The first week is the worst, most people can generally adapt by the end of a month.

There are many manufacturers and many designs. A lens that is a short corridor lens will have more distortion than a standard lens; short corridor is used with frames with a relatively short vertical height. Free-form lenses grind correction on both the front and back surfaces which helps decrease some of the problems with older designs where all was on the back surface. There are specific designs for right and left lenses.

Best thing to do is speak with a very experienced optician who can help get you into the right size frame and lens design. Explain what you are experiencing with the current pair so they can help by adjusting the location of the optical center and the add zone.

More than you want to know about progressive lenses: OptiCampus.com - Continuing Education Course
but see Design of periphery for discussion of skew distortion.

[azasadny]

I have them and it took 1-2 months to get used to them, but once you do, you'll love them!

[widgeon13]

I have progressives. I thought I was clicking on the "naked bike rides" thread and actually ended up here.

I like mine and they weren't hard to adjust to, maybe a few days at the most.

[stomachmonkey]

Lenses were set up by an independent optician with a great reputation. I don't use the chains.

I am trying to wear the progressives exclusively so I can make the adjustment.

But imposible to do computer work with them right now.

Swimming, good description.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Lenses were set up by an independent optician with a great reputation. I don't use the chains.

I am trying to wear the progressives exclusively so I can make the adjustment.

But imposible to do computer work with them right now.

Swimming, good description.

You should have no problem taking these things back until you get a set of lenses that you love.

[Z-man]

By the way, my lenses were setup the folllowing way:

1. I picked out my frames, and they put a funny bracket around the frame with green dots pointing outward.
2. They took a digital picture of me in these frames
3. They adjusted the focal points on the digital picture -- the guy who did it (been in the business for over 20 years!) said he typically "moves" where the center of my pupils are a mm or two lower, so the close-up magnification starts lower than right under your main line of sight!
4. The optician then took those numbers and made the lenses.

I alos have pretty bad astigmatism, and the lenses are fine.

Another point to consider: the "swimming feel" goes away a little if you turn your head more rather than just move your eyeballs side to side, since the 'blur' effect occurs on the outer edges of the lens.

I would have them re-grind your lenses, and have them move the 'close up' portion of the lens a couple mm lower.

Hope this helps,
-Z

[stomachmonkey]

Alcohol seems to help.

A bit of an equalizer.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

I agree with Hugh. I ran into problems with the cheapo optical shops (Lenscrafters, et al). For some reason, I could never get adjusted to the lenses they made. I went to an optometrist that used better quality lenses (i.e., Ziess), and had no problem adjusting to the progressive lenses.

FWIW, my optometrist-cousin advises me that quality lenses (adhering to the exam results) depend on the lens quality produced by their factory supplier. I took that to mean that the lower-cost options (LensCrafters, Costco, etc.) may not provide the best/most consistent lenses. In addition, progressive lenses are more complicated to make than single vision lenses.

Sherwood

[charlesbahn]

Have the optician check them and make sure they are made right and that they are adjusted correctly. If they are off 1 mm in any direction they will be impossible to get used to.

If they are made and adjusted right, give them a week. Do not go back to other glasses, superglue them on.

If after a week you can't adjust, go back to the eye doc. Usually the Rx can be tweeked to make them easier to wear. It is the art of glasses- sometimes the perfect prescription optically is impossible to wear, and adjusting the astigmatism amount/direction or the add can make all the difference.

No one wants you to buy glasses that don't work, and most opticians will remake/replace glasses that don't work for free for1 month. Most Ophthalmologists will also do "glasses checks" at no charge to be sure you get the glasses that work best for you.

As stated above, there are different brands of progressives that are better than others. Varilux Physio Enhanced is, in my opinion the best, followed closely by Zeiss.

The most common problems with progressives are
1) Patient impatience and not understanding what to expect (not the patient's fault, the optician should spend a lot of time training you)
2) Optical center of lens off (not adjusted in frame properly)
3) A change in plastic types (polycarbonate instead of plastic)
4) Poor choice of lens manufacturer (cheaper generic knock off)
5) Prescription was made wrong by optician
6) Prescription was determined incorrectly by Doctor

Once you get used them they are wonderful and you will wonder how you ever got along without them. If you don't succeed you will be fighting the far/mid range/near vision battle for the rest of your life (changing separate pairs of glasses, bifocals then trifocals, etc)- so the effort is well worth it.

Hope this helps

[Rufblackbird]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I'd like to get contacts, but my astigmatism is so bad, the doc said it would be difficult and expensive.

how bad is your astigmatism? Mine says if you really want it, it's worth trying. It's not gonna be easy, but it's also not necessarily expensive.

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Think they got the center too high, I need to point my nose down a little for driving which I don't like, feels uncomfortable.

And the distortion is killing me, I need to be able to look at things and know they are square/aligned. Right now everything that should look square looks trapezoidal.

You should take them back...they probably measured the seg(ment) height 2mm too high. I worked with an optician with a "great reputation"...but people only loved her because she gave discounts she wasn't supposed to and utilized people's insurances illegally. As far as measuring people for progressives her measurements were always off, and yes, she's a licensed optician. But definitely take them back and have them remeasure the seg height. Let the optician know what you're having problems with and if they're experienced enough they should be able to fix it for you. Even with higher astigmatism you shouldn't have that must distortion. How high is it?

[island911]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

... I need to be able to look at things and know they are square/aligned. Right now everything that should look square looks trapezoidal....

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Apparently I've got very severe astigmatism.....

astigmatism was my thought reading about the trapezoidal thing. --I had the same happen. I (wrongly) thought there was a problem with the lenses. The problem was that my brain had been adjusting for my astigmatism, and once corrected, things appeared trapezoidal to my (then over) compensating brain. ...but only for a while.