Experience wearing two different strengths of contacts

[Myothername]

I am about blind as a bat but up until about a year ago I was fine with my contacts. However I have reached a point where I can see great far off with them but can't see up close and it is so frustrating. I have had to keep reading glasses handy to read stuff and I hate it. My choices are 1) keep what I have, 2) get the "bifocal" type contacts or 3) wear one contact for near and one for far. I have one more set of contacts so I won't do anything until I am in that pair. Right now I have taken one contact out to see how I would like choice #3 which is what I am afraid my eye doctor will want me to do. My brother and I see the same doctor and that is what she suggested for him. She said most people don't like #2. I am willing to try them though.

Anyone have experience with any of these? Which eye should you have for the near vision, the dominant eye or the other or does it matter? Right now I have my dominant eye as far vision since that is what I am mostly using.

 

[Green Tea]

I tried the one for near, one for far contact. While my sister loves this, I hated it. I didn't find I could focus on either particularly well and it was sort of disorienting. The reading glasses with the right contacts seemed the best option for me.

 

[LisaR]

I wear one for distance and one for close up and I don't have any issues with it. It didn't take long to adjust to at all. I did notice the difference the first few days but that is only because the concept seemed so foreign to me so I was thinking about it everytime I would read something. It is second nature now and I don't even think about it.

I am not sure your experiment will give you a realistic feel. I assume you currently wear corrective lenses in both eyes? Taking one out and leaving the other in is not even close to how the new lenses will be. If I did that, I think I would end up dizzy.

One thing I can say for any eye place I have ever been to in regard to contacts; they are always willing to give me trial lenses. When I made the switch, they gave me a month in the new pair and if I didn't like them, I could switch to the bifocal lenses. I didn't mind the two strengths but I didn't like the feel of those particular lenses so they gave me another month in a different brand. Find a place that will work with you.

 

[LBKB]

My Dr has me wearing 2 different strength contacts. Not for everyone he had me try it first for a couple weeks. One eye is fitted to see far away the other eye is fitted to see up close. I do fine with it each eye compensates for the weaker eye.

 

[snykymom]

I have #3 (called "monovision"), and I love it! I found that using progressive lenses in my glasses was impossible because I couldn't deal with my computer screen - the reading area was too small to see the whole screen. I had to take my glasses off, put them back on, take them off, etc. (And I also have astigmatism, so I can't wear the bifocal lenses anyway.)

It takes about a week to get fully used to them, similar to what it took for me to get used to the progressives. Then in the morning it takes about 5 minutes for the lenses to settle - again, this is due to the astigmatism. YMMV.

I wear them all the time now and only wear my glasses if I'm going to go swimming or something like that.

I currently have my right eye for distance and my left for reading, but I don't know which is dominant!

 

[HERSEY]

All I can say is if you go with the Bifocal contacts stick with it. It takes a while for your eyes and your doctor to find the right prescription. Maybe my eye and I just took longer But I can see much better. I hated regular contacts and having to use the readers. I felt like a gramma. Plus the taking on and off the readers were driving me insane.

My doctor did suggest the bifocal in one eye and regular in the other but since I had a hard time adjusting to lined bifocal glasses I said no to that.

 

[Myothername]

I have #3 (called "monovision"), and I love it! I found that using progressive lenses in my glasses was impossible because I couldn't deal with my computer screen - the reading area was too small to see the whole screen. I had to take my glasses off, put them back on, take them off, etc. (And I also have astigmatism, so I can't wear the bifocal lenses anyway.)

It takes about a week to get fully used to them, similar to what it took for me to get used to the progressives. Then in the morning it takes about 5 minutes for the lenses to settle - again, this is due to the astigmatism. YMMV.

I wear them all the time now and only wear my glasses if I'm going to go swimming or something like that.

I currently have my right eye for distance and my left for reading, but I don't know which is dominant!

Thanks. I wondered about the progressive lenses and computers. I work on one about 50% of the day. My doctor will give me some trial lenses so I will do that this fall. I am also waiting to get nearer when I could sign up for our vision insurance because I heard the progressive lenses are expensive. They would be cheaper with the insurance which is only about $8 a month.

As for as my experiment with only one lense, it actually went better than I thought. I think my eyes and/or brain adapt pretty fast. I only did it about 20 minutes and was quite comfortable. Gives me hope that I can do the 2 strengths if I need to.

 

[Nohal]

I have one contact for near and one for far. It takes a few seconds after putting them in for the adjustment but other than that they are great.

 

[Gigi22]

I was given one contact for long vision, and one for short. It did not work for me. I finally returned to wearing glasses.

 

[Tampa Mousekeeter]

I also wear Option #3....love, love, love them.....did not take any time at all to get adjusted.....just once in a while if your one eye is blocked for whatever reason your stuck...

 

[Imzadi]

I went with choice #3, the monovision, when I got Lasik eye surgery done. It took over a year for my eyes to adjust to it. They weren't used to working separately, as literally that's what they have to do now to focus on something. Even for contacts, some people never adjust. But, at least you can take them out and have the eye doctor switch back to two contacts of the same vision.

For quite a while, I literally would have to cover one eye up with the palm of my had, so the other eye could learn to correctly focus by itself to the object. Then do the same thing with the other eye. I needed to train my brain that the eyes had to focus separately and differently. Quite a feat since they weren't used to that for over 40 years.

There is an option 4 that you didn't mention. Wear the contacts and get reading glasses from the drugstore, for when you need to see up close.

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

I just went to the eye doctor for my checkup and discussed this with him. I don't need to do this yet - He did mention he was amazed that "at my age" I didn't need bifocals yet (geez, thanks a lot). Anyway - I did ask him what happens when I do since I really like contacts. He isn't too imprssed with the bifocal contacts and he said I could try them but he would suggest either the option of wearing the different strength contacts or the reading glasses route.

Hopefully I will be able to put off making this decision for awhile yet, but when I have to, I will probably try Option #3, the near in one eye and far in the other eye and see how it goes.

 

[tommya60]

I wear one contact and leave the other one out...it works great for me. I stumbled on this solution when I had a sty in one eye so I didn't wear that contact...and realized I could read everything. My eye dr says it works for some people, doesn't work for others, but I love it. I'm sure at some point I'll be wearing different strength lenses.

 

[MichelleVW]

I tried the one for near, one for far contact. While my sister loves this, I hated it. I didn't find I could focus on either particularly well and it was sort of disorienting. The reading glasses with the right contacts seemed the best option for me.

That's what I do. I am really picky about my contacts and vision and wearing two different strength contacts would drive me insane..

 

[LuvOrlando]

I really like the Multifocal type because the transition is seamless. I don't need glasses for close up but the regular lenses were making me dizzy because I just couldn't focus my eyes when it came time to see things in front of my face. Anyway, my eye Dr was a sweetheart and took the time to let me try out the multifocals as an alternative. They have my regular prescription far away and she has it set to the bare minimum close up just because they don't come plain close up, I wish they would but still, it's better than glasses all the time.

 

[jsmith]

I think how well it works or doesnt might be partly dependant on how much correction you need to start with-my contacts and distance glasses are -5.00My doctor will not proscribe multifocal lenses for me since he says they will not correct my distance vision enough-so i wear reading glasses with my contacts when using a computer.

 

[princesspiglet]

I have two very different scripts for each eye but they both have astigmatism. My left eye has very bad near-sightedness, -4.00 and the right eye has bad far-sightedness, +3.25. I have been wearing these contacts now for almost 10 years without a problem. It takes a brief second once I put them in to get accustomed, but after that I usually can't even tell I have them in. I use Baush & Lomb SoftLens Toric.

 

[SueInBoston]

I wear the multi-focal contacts and love them I did try a couple different brands before I settled with the current ones made by cooper vision.

 

[minniecarousel]

I am one of those crazy people who is far-sighted in one eye and near-sighted in the other. I had worn hard lenses for 39 years and just switched to soft lenses last summer. I have one for distance and one for reading. Works fine for me. I'm not sure the strength is quite right, though. Time to get new lenses, so I'll see if we can change the Rx.

So yes, wearing the different lenses was easy for me, beacause it was natural for me!