Wearing Eyeglasses With Contacts

I've done a little Internet searching around, and so far found no
information on the idea of wearing contacts and eyeglasses at the same time.

After ten years since the onset of middle age in my life, I am now compelled
to use prescription lenses. OTC reading glasses just don't make it anymore.
I'm far sighted, have an astigmatism, and have developed presbyopia to where
I simply must wear glasses to read or work with things up close. Now with
years of experience with taking care of cheap OTC glasses, and with eyes
that need something better, I'm ready to own some quality prescription
eyewear. Anyway, I'm thinking that contacts that corrected for my
astigmatism and hyperopia would be best for my outdoor activities, while a
supplemental pair of bifocals would serve for providing for good visual
acuity for up-close work and detailed focusing at intermediate ranges.

To be clear, I'm thinking that a good idea for my needs would be to wear
contacts all day. Additional to the contacts when needed, I'd wear
eyeglasses that provide a boost for adapting to presbyopia so I can read
fine print and have a clearer intermediate focus.

So my question goes something like this: Do people use contacts and
prescription eyeglasses at the same time?

 

Yup. I did it for years. In my case, it was because my prescription
was too meaty to do a really good job in cosmetically acceptable
glasses. Also, we were trying to determine -- if LASIK were elected
-- which refractive error would we fix: astigmatism or hyperopia.

I wore the hyperopic correction in the contact lenses, had a pair of
astigmatic correction only glasses to wear for distance vision, then
another pair of glasses that had astigmatic correction /and/ some plus
power in them for near work.

Works ok. I think it's less unusual than you might think.

 

Sure. No big deal. Do it all the time for people in situations similar
to yours. The contact lenses can be set for distance or near, with or
without astigmatism correction and the spectacles set up to correct what
the contacts do not. An often-used solution is contact lenses for best
distance correction including all or most of the astigmatism (if that
works well) with PAL (progressive multifocal) spectacles: no distance
correction (except for any not-in-contact lens astigmatism) with
progressive intermediate-to-near. Pretty simple and straightforward.

--LB, O.D.

 

That would be an ideal solution!

Just got word on an O.D. in Seattle, whom I will likely be visiting soon.

- Mykal

 

"Quick" wrote in message

Another solution would be smaller monitors closer. Then you
could sleaze by with cheap bifocals. Of course, no one will be
impressed by cheap bifocals or small monitors.

To me, a practical solution for indoors would be add 1.0D for
the room and 2 or 2.25 for the closer work. One could
consider the half-and-half lenses. I think they are called "Franklin"
(after Ben) or "Library". But, heck, you cannot mail-order that
kind. They are, however, unique, and somewhat fashionable.
Poets and scholars use them.

Gloriously, IOL implants have left me seeing quite sharply at ~ 1M, and
with apparently only about a half diopter of unresolved astigmatism. So
I am doing just fine with little Walgreen half-pane +1.25D reading
glasses. But basically my biggest problem is being able to read
the schedule while watching the TV. Here, the smaller-and-closer
solution is also applied to TV sets.

In a couple of weeks, the time will be right for refraction and the
fitting of eyeglasses. So I need to make my decisions carefully as
SS will only pay for one pair of eyeglasses, and, case of bifocals,
with visible edges between the panes.

When you are dead, you can see everything clearly again.