People wear glasses for different reasons. Some glasses help to correct vision by allowing the eye to focus light in the right spot on the retina needed to produce the clearest image. Since wearing glasses controls the crossed eyes to sharpen vision, a pair of glasses that allows one person to see properly is not automatically effective on another.
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As such, eyeglass manufacturers use different types of lenses to address different eye conditions with bifocal lenses, for instance, used in bifocal glasses.
There are several types of optical lenses designed to rectify specific eye conditions. These include single vision lenses, toric lenses, trifocal lenses, prism lenses, progressive lenses, and bifocal lenses.
So, what are bifocal glasses? Bifocal glasses use bifocal optical lenses known to have two lens powers to ensure that users can see objects at all distances through the lenses’ distance correction capability on the top of the lens and a correction to help you read on the bottom.
Who needs bifocal glasses?
Bifocal glasses are generally recommended for people suffering from Presbyopia, the gradual loss of the ability to focus your eyes on nearby objects. Presbyopia occurs due to aging but can also occur in children with different underlying eye defects.
Bifocal glasses serve a crucial purpose. Using the dual-purpose lenses enables the wearer to solve two critical vision problems without changing glasses between tasks. This approach is more convenient for users who only need a pair of glasses capable of seeing at longer distances and reading.
Thus, bifocal glasses suit people who are both nearsighted and farsighted. The condition is common among people aged 40 and above, who often begin to experience a change in their vision. Acquiring bifocals solves both problems, allowing them to do activities that require farsightedness, such as driving and reading.
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Anyone can use bifocal glasses. They are regularly used by children having trouble focusing or those suffering eye strain from reading.
In such cases, bifocal glasses are a preventive measure that reduces the strain of focusing on your reading or writing. As a result, most such children end up reducing their preexposure to myopia. Similarly, astigmatisms are corrected when you wear bifocals, especially in cases where the wearer also has other eye defects.
Types of Bifocal Glasses
Given the specific nature of bifocal glasses, would-be wearers must obtain a prescription for them to receive the correct type of bifocal lenses. This requirement is founded on the many different types of bifocal lenses.
The various types of bifocal glasses arose from their use cases. Today, you will find specialty bifocal glasses classified as:
● Reading glasses
These bifocal glasses are the most common and do not require a prescription. The glasses have a clear lens containing a magnified section towards the bottom to give you clear near vision.
● Traditional bifocals
The truest bifocal glasses around. It contains two different prescriptions with clear differentiation in between. The top segment of your lens corrects for farsightedness, as the bottom corrects for nearsightedness.
● No-line bifocals
These bifocal lenses give you a smooth change in focus from the top of the glasses to the bottom.
● Progressive lens
These lenses are an upgrade on both bifocal and trifocal lenses, which are more traditional glasses with clear telltale lines. By contrast, progressive lenses use a smooth and seamless design to ensure a consistent progression of lens power runs vertically down each of your lenses, ensuring that the user has a clear vision at all distances. Trending Credit Cards Topics
● Flat top bifocal lens
This bifocal lens has the nearsighted lens segment located in the lower portion of your glasses. It also has a straight line along the top that curves into a D shape down to the bottom of the frame. The nearsighted lens can sometimes take on a round shape with a narrow rectangular shape, popularly called ribbon lens. The flat top bifocal lens is usually placed along the line of your lower eyelid.
Downsides of bifocal glasses
Changing lifestyles have necessitated changes in eyewear and related technology. For instance, as people use computers more, those who use bifocal lenses struggle with constantly lowering their lenses. Bifocal lenses for nearsightedness are also difficult to use when working on a computer.
Regardless of your diagnosis and prescription, you’ll need time to adjust to your new lenses. For most people, this adaptation takes about one to two weeks, but you can also take longer to get used to your pair.
There are cases where bifocal glasses are ill-suited to their purpose. One of such instances is when working on a computer, where you look straight at the screen rather than down as you would while reading a book. The challenge is because bifocal glasses have the nearsightedness correction on the lower part, making it difficult for users on a computer.
But this is not an isolated scenario.
Take motorists, for example. A bifocals driver will likely struggle to juggle driving and other essential activities like checking a map or gauges on the dashboard.
Traditional bifocals present a unique problem. Since the top part of your lenses correct farsightedness and lower myopia, users often deal with noticeable image jumps as the image crosses the visual axis from the far vision glass to the reading segment, causing apparent displacement of fixed objects. It also causes image quality degradation.
Where to buy bifocal glasses
Depending on your condition, you can buy bifocal glasses without a prescription. As such, you can buy these glasses either online or in-store.
Many online retailers require a copy of your current eyeglass prescription. The problem, however, is that prescription scanners like those built into mobile apps cannot read bifocal prescriptions.
So if you’d prefer to buy online, here are the best places to shop for bifocal glasses online;
- Glasses USA — Known for deep discounts on designer and brand-name frames, Glasses USA lets you upload your photo to be used in a virtual try-on feature. The store has more than 2,000 frames you can choose from.
- EyeBuyDirect — The retailer has over 2,500 eyeglass frames compatible with various bifocal lenses, while shoppers can search the site by brand, material, shape, and cost.
- Zenni. The perfect outlet for budget shoppers, with some deals on frames going as low as $20 or less. Zenni lacks designer frames, but customers can still shop by style or genre.
- Just Bifocals. Are you looking for no-line bifocals? Look no more, with a small but detailed selection of bifocal frames for men and women.
- Great Eyeglasses. A moderately sized collection of the budget-priced website offers frames for bifocals. You won’t find any brand or designer names, but Great Eyeglasses offers an expansive selection of shapes, colors, and materials.
- ReadingGlasses.com. The leading market for non-prescription eyewear. The website has a huge selection of designer and brand-name frames for bifocals and progressive no-line bifocals.
- Frames Direct. Access more than 12,000 bifocal frames from popular brand names and top designers.
You can also buy bifocal glasses in major retailers such as Costco Optical, Walgreen’s Optical, and Cohen’s Fashion Optical, among others.
Conclusion
Bifocal glasses were invented to solve a personal vision problem. This solution has proven effective for many and continues to create possibilities for people who’d be limited without them. But as lifestyles and work practices change, it’s time the bifocal lenses technology also changed along.
