Hate my glasses!

[guessagain]

I’m fed up with my glasses!

I’ve only had them for around 3 months or so. They are varifocals & I have astigmatism. I have trialled contact lenses before but couldn’t find a pair to suit - SS don’t offer varifocal contact lenses for astigmatism. It was either a pair with one eye for distance & one eye for close up or a pair just for distance & having to use glasses for close up things. So I gave up & got the cheapest varifocals!

I’ve trialled a few frames from glasses direct before (when I was pre-varifocal) so I’m thinking by maybe I could give them a go again, but how accurate are their varifocals? Or I could try elsewhere for contact lenses, surely somewhere does varifocal ones for people with astigmatism? If so could I just ring SS for my contact prescription?

Yes you can get varifocal contact lenses as I’ve had them in the past. I think the trouble is you have to comprise on one part of your vision and vision will never be as perfect as with varifocals glasses.

If your glasses aren’t working then it’s possible they haven’t fitted the lenses properly and the lenses are out of alignment, just a few mm out can affect your vision.

I’ve had all types of contact lenses. I currently have monovision, so 2 different strengths, lenses for astigmatism. They’re called Toric lenses. Mine correct my near and medium vision and then I have glasses for distance but I only wear the glasses when I’m driving. I go to an independent optician who is amazing. He came recommended by an acquaintance as I was having real problems with Vision Express and then another independent.

There are varifocal contact lenses available, I think asda opticians do them.

I do have an astigmatism in both eyes but I wear contacts for distance then just pop readers on top for close up work. The optician did ask how I felt about trying mono vision but I can’t get my head around one lens for distance & one for close up but I may try it in the future. Wearing readers on top suits me for now & keeps the cost of my lenses down. They will be able to use the prescription from specsavers. I left SS for Asda because they didn’t do the lenses I wore any more so I just took my prescription to Asda.

And yes, get a printed out copy of your prescription then you can go to any optician and buy the glasses.

Did you try toric multifocal contact lenses OP? They're varifocal lenses for people who also have astigmatism. I know CooperVision make some, assume other manufacturers do too. You may need to go to an independent optician as they tend to be more specialist.

I have astigmatism in one eye. I wear contacts but I also have glasses to use as a back-up. It's important to get your varifocal glasses properly fitted (to make sure the lenses line up correctly with your line of vision), even more so if you also have astigmatism. So worth spending a bit of money (if you can afford it) at a more specialist opticians.

Toric Varifocal contact lenses are relatively common within standard ranges of astigmatism, but they can be time consuming to get right so you will need to ask around to find an optometrist confident and accomplished enough to get a decent result.

Over and above your average amount of astigmatism you can get tailor made toric varifocal contacts, but that gets pretty spendy, pretty fast. I tried a few types and found the tailor made ones to be absolutely tip top vision wise, but comfort was not good...I normally wear my lenses 14-16 hours a day, but was down to six hours and wanting to peel my own corneas off!

Currently I get by with distance vision only for specs, and hold anything that needs reading VERY close and take off my specs!
With contacts I have the full distance prescription, plus ready readers and I find that's the easiest for me

I might give mono vision a bash next time I get new contacts as there's more of a difference between the two now and I am not doing nearly so much driving which I struggled with when I tried it first.