Varifocal Glasses lens technology has come on leaps and bounds over the past 10 years and there are now currently over 10 million varifocal glasses wearers in the UK alone. But these lenses haven’t always been so popular among our spectacle wearing population due to poor and crude designs and high distortion levels around the peripheral of the lenses. There was even some negative press about these lenses back in the early nineties when some of the British tabloids ran a story reporting that there had been cases of people falling down stairs and having accidents when driving due to wearing varifocal glasses that had very high distortion levels. This, of course, was over dramatised by the press and the fact remains that even in the early stages of modern lens design the success rate for adapting to varifocal lenses stood at around 78% which isn’t bad considering that around half of other 22% of wearers could see perfectly well through them but didn’t like the fact that you have move your head and position your viewing angles in order to focus properly.
Varifocal glasses have always been an attractive option to those who need to wear multi focal lenses (lenses for both distance and near). If you have recently visited your Optician and have been told that you now need spectacles for both distance and reading then it probably time to consider investing in a pair of varifocal glasses. The first thing that you should bare in mind is that you will be slightly restricted when it comes to choosing you frame, this is due to the amount of depth needed when fitting the varifocal lens into frame. All varifocals have a minimum fitting height so that the frame can accommodate all the three areas of distance (Far, intermediate and near). If you are a first time varifocal wearer then it is advisable that you should choose a frame with a minimum depth of 28mm to allow enough depth to comfortably accommodate all distances. The more depth you have on the frame, the easier it will be to adapt to the new lens.
There are many types of designs and brands when it comes to choosing the actual lenses for your new varifocal glasses and your dispensing optician should go through a series of lifestyle questions in order to ascertain which lens will be suited to your requirements. For instance, if you are someone who works in an office environment and spend a vast amount of your time using a computer then it would be beneficial to opt for a lens with a wide and deep intermediate area to make viewing your computer screen more comfortable. On the other hand, if you are someone who drives for a living and reads very little then you would be more suited to a lens with the widest distance area but at the cost of a reduced near area. Just talk to your optician and they will be able to recommend a lens that is perfectly suited to your lifestyle.
Jim Romand is a specialist prescription lens consultant and dispensing optician who has worked in the industry for over 25 years. After qualifying as an SMC Tech at the London college of optometry in 1985, He has since worked as a Lab consultant for many high street opticians chains within the UK.
He currently works as a specialist prescription lens technician for online glasses direct where he specialises in the production of Varifocal Spectacles https://www.marvelglasses.com/