Should I ditch the varifocals?

[stbrandonsboat]

I'm on my second pair of varifocals. Can't say I'm impressed with them, but never used to do much reading or close work, so kind of got away with them.

I'm -7 and have astigmatism. The trouble is, I'm now doing some studying, cross stitch and music and I can't see 😭 I hate these lenses. I can only see distance. Should I just get distance glasses and a pair for reading and close work?

Anybody have a similar experience? I have an eye test booked for this Wednesday.

I was also advised to choose the frames with the largest lense size

My first varifocals were in a pair of safety specs required for my work and my employer would only pay for the cheapest lenses. Rather than move my eyes to look at things, I had to turn my head instead. They took a lot of getting used to.

In contrast, the more expensive varifocal lenses in my everyday specs took zero time to get used to. When I got them I put them on and carried on as usual. I just move my eyes. However, I think people with relatively small prescription range, near to far, have a much easier time.

I would also echo what a previous poster said about frame sizes. The slitty narrow (top to bottom) frames that were fashionable until recently don’t work well with varifocals at all. There isn’t enough space for the distance, middle, and near areas to transition smoothly. This is particularly noticeable with strong prescriptions.

I never thought that about the frame size. Mine is kind of medium so I probably need something a bit larger.

I've read about something called occupational lenses too which fit your particular needs according to what you use day to day.

I'm still trying to get used to mine (also very strong, -10ish and oblique astigmatism, which apparently makes it harder). It's OK now on the third pair, but I don't really ever find it comfortable and close or medium distances. I can see, ish, but just find it a bit stressful. I'm hoping it improves - I've had them about a month. One eye never seems to focus as well as the other, regardless of the prescription or distance, and I don't know why.

But I did have to go for the most expensive lenses, cost a fortune, and that was with my old frames, too. My frames are fairly small - they said that was better with the strong prescription, though, at least with oblique astigmatism. Larger lenses might give more space for different parts of the prescription, but can be pretty thick at the edges, even at the highest thinning level. (Mine are about 7mm at the corners, at 1.74 thinning, with pretty small frames, so I'd worry about how thick they'd be with bigger ones!).

Nonetheless, I'm still keeping them, as there are too many activities that I do where I need to change focus quickly from close to distance and back, so it's really impractical not to have them, despite the frustrations.

I do feel that more prescription tweaks could potentially help, but at this price I can't afford to try again, and I already sent this pair back a few times and think the opticians will hate me as it's not really their fault I find it hard or can't focus, as the prescription has been checked and double checked. I just have to learn to compromise I think.

It might be that the prescription is fine but the pupil distance when you're looking at a distance vs close up needs some tweaking.

My current glasses were terrible when I first got them. I don't think it helped that we were expected to wear masks and between them steaming up within seconds of putting them on and pushing my glasses up, it was impossible to get the measuring and fitting right. My right eye is also very uncooperative with the tests as it's a bit lazy and sometimes nothing is in particularly clear focus. If almost right wasn't nearly right enough I notice within weeks, though, as my brain gives up on it.

Scrolling through you put your prescription is -7 - that is only a small part of your prescription- the level of astigmatism is relevant as is the reading add…

the reading add is very relevant to the soft focus at the sides.

frame choice is relevant so long as it isn’t too small - fashion is much bigger at the moment so it doesn’t need to be a huge lenses especially with your prescription but enough to fit in the varifocal.