Gone are the days of multifocal glasses meaning a step into old-aged-hood and a step out of anything fashionable, stylish or trendy!
Ok… let’s take a step back.
First, what are multifocal glasses? In short, multifocal glasses are for people with more than one vision problem and who need a complete optical solution for these problems in one frame.
The most well-known form of multifocal are bifocals, which allow people to see things in the distance as well as close up – eliminating the need for two pairs of glasses that need to be swapped every few minutes according to the need. Less known are trifocal glasses, most popular for computer users so that they have three levels of optical usage – reading, clear distance vision, and computer use.
Both bifocal and trifocal lenses have line marks that point at the exact areas where the lenses change in strength. The line is called a line of demarcation and can cause an optical jump, which is a fancy way of saying your eye will not transition between prescriptions smoothly.
Progressives, on the other hand, have jumped into the market with a bang and they’re taking over from bifocals and trifocals by providing a more comfortable alternative that eliminates the lines on the lenses and is produced with so many focal points that the wearer receives one complete solution to correct their sight and no one will ever know that they’re progressives.
Now, in the past, all such lenses were expensive and only available with large, ugly frames. Therefore, if people could afford them, they didn’t want them and if they needed them, they simply couldn’t afford them or were terrified of anything that happened to them.
But no more!
As the Internet takes over as the eyeglasses shopping venue of choice, glasses are becoming more and more affordable; enabling people to own one or two pairs of very fashionable multifocal glasses for a fraction of what they would have paid in the past and far less than they would pay at an offline store.
More than that, as hundreds of stylish designs hit the market, eyeglass frames are being especially designed with progressive lenses in mind and so, now you’ll find trendy frames that work both for single vision and progressive frames. Still, while looking through the hundreds of frame design options, you should always watch out for the symbol which tells you whether the frame is suitable for multifocal or not… just in case.
The most important aspect of buying eyeglasses is to always have a recent eyeglasses prescription available and even better is to have some idea of what it says about your visionary needs. If you need multifocal, your prescription will have an additional value (ADD) or numbers in the near vision (N.V.) section.
Remember, if you don’t treat optical problems when you first notice them, these problems can rapidly increase into something worse – ensuring that you’ll need thicker and thicker glasses.
With the affordable world of the Internet, there is no reason why you should suffer from bad vision – either aesthetically or financially!
Hillary Glaser is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online. She oversees day-to-day operations for all marketing and promotions of eyeglasses for the company.