I know this thread is old, but I hope someone will check it. I picked up my new progressives today and I’m just not sure the prescription is right. I’ve been wearing readers or old glasses and nothing for distance and these have correction for distance and reading and it looks like very little in between. My question is this - shouldn’t I be able to see clearly at a distance and up close as soon as I put them on if the prescription is correct? I understand getting used to using the different focal lengths will take some getting used to, but very little is in focus, no matter which part of the lens I look through. Is that normal?
Sounds wrong to me, unless you are doing it wrong. You should be able to tilt your head down down and look through the top part to see distance, look straight ahead for middle distance (if that’s how your distance is set), and look down through the bottom part to read. It should be in focus. Mistakes do happen. Check with the optician
Well, after a few hours the distance is in focus and there is a tiny spot at the very bottom where I can read, but there really isn’t any middle of the road at all. I wonder if larger frames would allow for more intermediate focal area. They assured me that these would be fine and I can’t use them at the computer at all. The whole reason for progressives was basically “one pair to rule them all” and wear all the time instead of swapping glasses 50 times a day. I was already doing that, so what’s the point?
I hate walking with mine on. I feel like the ground is tilted and that I’m too close to it. I complained to my eye guy about feeling like a hobbit going uphill, but they could find nothing wrong with the lenses. I agree about having progressives in those popular narrow frames. I got talked into a pair of those and hated them.
I basically have trifocal progressives. The top is for distance, the middle is for middle distance to work on the computer, and the bottom is for reading. Sounds like they missed something
I checked into progressives and bifocals but was quoted an outrageously expensive price. This was my regular shop that I know and trust, and I don’t think they were trying to rip me off. My wife gets hers for a reasonable price, but my prescription is so strong that it apparently it complicates matters.
The cheapest they could do it was something like the equivalent of US$1300, just for the lenses. The best quality would have topped $2000. I just said no.
The size of the frame has nothing to do with the size of the intermediate area, although too short of a frame can cut off some of the reading area. What you’re describing is the classic symptom of the lenses being cut with the optical centers either too far apart or two close together. It’s a lot like trying to look through fixed width binoculars that are too wide or too narrow to line up with both eyes. If that happens the only thing that can be done is to remake the lenses with the correct measurements.
It could be a lab error, in which case it should have been caught and corrected before you were told they were ready, or it could be a dispenser error, meaning the person who wrote up your order didn’t measure correctly.
I know this thread is stale, but it’s a great discussion and I’d like to ask a question of the clearly knowledgeable readers here (if you all still read this).
I just got progressives and I told my optometrist that I spend most of my day reading on the computer. I hate my new glasses, I can barely read either my ipad or my computer, but I’m keeping them on and trying to see if I can get used to them. But they are straining my eyes something fierce. The discussion here has helped me understand why, and I loved the link someone posted early on with a diagram for how the progressive lenses are beveled.
My question is, in this day and age where more people are using larger computer monitors and often two monitors arranged side by side, WHY do they still make the mid-range portion of the lens so narrow? Am I unreasonable in thinking that reading should not be like watching a tennis match? What is the technical reason, if there is one, for not making the mid-range area extend to both sides of the lens?
nm
I can move my single-focus glasses on my nose, to where the correction is usable for a given distance. But that may just be me. A while back, I found some clip-on lenses (flip-up) in a craft store, and they work pretty darn well for reading (they had several different strengths), but they are also kind of heavy.
I have worn progressives for over 10 years. They have been awesome and horrible depending on the quality of the lens maker and the person who does the initial measurements. My eyesight sucks and my glasses cost upwards of $1k before insurance, and my scrip changes every 6-12 months.
Found a great group in my former home town who still ground their own lenses. Those were the best glasses I ever got. Prior to that it was hit or miss and I routinely went back to less than optimal glasses after getting new ones that I could never get used to. The last two pairs I have gotten, in a different location, were nigh on perfect. The person fitting them, an older woman, marked the lenses by hand by looking in my eyes and placing magic marker spots on the demo lenses.
Mrsin got a pair at the same place at the same time and was fitted by a young kid using goggles and a computer. He couldn’t read with them unless he turned his head 25 degrees away from what he was trying to read. After much back and forth his were replaced and he now has no problems with them. Tech said the lenses were flawed???
TLDR: If you can’t get used to your progressive glasses they were probably made wrong.
zombie or no
progressives are good for outdoors and long distance.
for a computer get single vision glasses or lined bifocals with the top for the computer and the lower regular close-up area for reading. this gives the maximum full view on top and the lower for reading papers.
Like jsgoddess I came to mention the stairs problem. Until you get used to them, you need to watch the stairs while you walk down. Eventually, though it will not be a problem, but I swear that it took me a year.
Bob
Or monovision contacts. I have astigmatism, lifetime nearsightedness, and now an having trouble reading without reading glasses. For driving, both eyes are corrected to 20/20 . When I get to work, I switch the contract in my left eye from a -4.25 to a -2.75 which allows me to focus on my monitor and the tiny-ass print on the forms I have to use. I thought it would make me off balance or mess with my depth perception, but it doesn’t at all. Actually, most of the year, I wear them like that all day. I can drive with them differently focused in the day. The headlights at night do weird things.
The stairs and just walking down the sidewalk were my “big” issues. Took me a couple weeks to get used to things at my feet being blurry and 1.5x bigger than they are. I can see how someone with a stronger reading correction could have a really hard time adjusting to the weird perspective. I’m still not thrilled with the immediate sidewalk being blurry (I walk a lot as a city dweller), but I have indeed gotten used to it.
To JcWoman, I use a desktop computer at work and find it much easier to just push the monitor to the further side of the desk and use the larger distance portion of my progressives. The keyboard is in the middle, and then room for papers and stuff I’m working on (or the office cat) either between the keyboard and monitor, or between the keyboard and me. But I’m not doing anything very intense on the computer for hours at a time, either. I’ve only gotten the progressives a couple months ago, and it’s very nice to read the monitor, type, and write stuff by hand without having to take my glasses off or try to look under them like I used to.
Interesting suggestion; I tried it and it doesn’t work for me. I keep my monitors on the back side of my desk anyway, because I prefer my keyboard at desk-height (and scorn the keyboard tray that’s mounted under the desk). I pushed my chair slowly to the back of my cubicle while looking at the screen through the top of my lenses and it was blurry the whole way.
After forcing myself to use the glasses all day at work yesterday I figured out that I’m peering down my nose at the screen, slightly cross-eyed in order to see clearly. I pushed my monitors down as far as they’ll go and still having to do this, so I think my mid-range section is mis-aligned. Also, if I turn my head slightly side to side, one eye comes into focus for each side.
I haven’t read the zombie posts, but I have a couple observations about progressive lenses.
First, pay attention to the difference between the correction you need for distance and near vision. The average person will be going from a negative refraction for distance to a positive refraction for the close vision. So if you think about your glasses, they have to perform quite the optical fanciness to create a gradual transition. Worse, many of us spend most of our day at the intermediate distance (watching a monitor, say). The progressive corridor of transition is unfortunately most narrow at that distance b/c of what is necessary for the grind to effect the optical transition from negative to positive. Therefore for some people, progressive lenses have the most problematic viewing right where the most viewing is done.
Things to consider in light 
of the above:
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A larger lens, top to bottom. Give the transition some room, and the progressive corrider will be larger.
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High refractive index lenses esp if the difference between far and near field correction is large.
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Intermediate-specific glasses (or perhaps progressive to near-focus) if you sit in front of a monitor all day and want pretty comfortable intermediate viewing but can put up with blurred vision should you gaze across the room at an attractive colleague.
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40 inch monitors.
I got them about a year ago and I had absolutely no problem adjusting to them. I have been told some people just can’t get used to them, but they were natural to me.
If they are your first pair of progressive lenses they could take a couple weeks to get used to. The hardest part is there focal sweet spot is a lot smaller than single vision lenses and you have to turn your head to keep things in focus and in your field of view instead of just moving your eyes like you do with regular glasses. As for reading and looking at things at different distances you just look down and it should be in focus.
Just because the optometrist said you need progressives - think twice.
I have approx -6 diopter shortsighted prescription and for many years the optometrist has added an “Additional 1.00”
bifocal/ progressive part for reading. Because of the price and frame limitations I skipped them and haven’t had any programs - neither long distance, computer distance nor close-up smartphone distance.
My wife has a similar base prescription but “Additional 2.00” and she succumbed to the progressives. But after years and many $1000’s of top-quality lenses she’s still always complaining - always thinking the next pair is going to fix things.
Obviously they work for many people, but if you have a strong prescription, be sure to be super explicit with both the optometrist and the optician about exactly what your priorities are so you can order the right quality level, the right size of frame, the right size of close vs. far zones etc. etc.