Varifocal Lenses Upgrade

by Dan
(Farnborough)

Q: Hi

I have had a new prescription of varifocal lenses for my glasses and my distance is the same but reading is a little stronger.

I decided to upgrade from Elite varifocal (Specsavers)to Taylor made, an additional £50.

However the peripheral seems exactly the same absolutely no change and in fact it seems more blurry in the peripheral although not sure if that's because they are stronger than my old one's. Either way I expected to notice an improvement edge to edge for the extra cost.

Has anyone had a similar experience or has an answer? Thank you for your help.

Blind as a bat ...Dan


A: Hello Dan,

As I understand you are a progressive glass wearer, so you are up to date with the difficulties of adapting the vision to a different kind of lenses, even different kind of varifocal lenses. You say the new lenses are the same or a little more blurry in the peripheral area.

From my point of view, there are several possible reasons:

1. If you changed the frame also and the new one is a little bit wider than the old one, when the lens was mounted the peripheral area remained bigger so maybe this is the reason for the blurry area.

2. If you kept the old frame, then we turn to the lenses. You say maybe is the difference between the old and new diopters, I would say that this can be true if the difference is big (1 or 2 diopters) so the whole lens is made differently so the peripheral area is also different. If the difference is small (0.25 or 0.50), I think we can search for another reason.

3. The mounting of the new lenses in the frame could be wrong, I mean, for example, if they mounted the lenses in the frame with a smaller pupillary distance, then the peripheral area will come closer to the middle so is more visible. The same situation is if they mounted the lenses with a bigger pupillary distance.

I say all this because you are right, paying more for a higher quality should bring a greater satisfaction, if not, where is the point for paying more?

As I see the whole situation, you can go back to the shop and discuss the issue with them, I am sure the optician will understand the situation and find the right solution.

After that, if you find that everything was done correctly, the lenses and the frame are good, then it may be something else. I can tell you from my personal experience that I had clients that after a long period of adaptation with one type of lens, they could not adapt easy to another one. That happened even if the new ones were a higher category and quality and all the changes were made correctly.

Maybe for you, in this case, paying more does not bring more satisfaction, so returning to the lenses you already know would be the simplest solution.

Related Information

Progressive Lenses Accommodation

Progressive Eyeglasses Tips

Hope this helps,

Arpi

Search This Site!