Varifocal Glasses – A Buyers Guide

If you have difficulty with both short-sightedness and long-sightedness then varifocal glasses could solve your problem.

Varifocals include two vision corrections in one lens, one to correct your short-sighted vision and one for the long-sightedness. Before varifocals, getting 2 sight corrections within one lens required bifocal glasses. Bifocals are a short-sight correction lens, that has a distinct long-sight correction lens contained in a little area in the lower half of the lens. This solution is not ideal though, as to use your long-sight correction you have to take care to look using a small lens area in the lower half of the lens. These glases also often look unattractive.

For the wearer, the prescription of the varifocal lens adjusts gradually starting at the top and moving gradually to the bottom of the lens. So for near sight use such as reading a paper the wearer simply gazes through the lower half of the lens. For longer-distance uses including watching television, you simply look through the top half of the lens.Varifocal lenses are now available in most of glasses frames out there, there are though a few things to keep in mind.

The biggest problem is the frame size. In order to fit two lenses within a single frame, there is a need for the lens to have sufficient height to enable the prescription to change. There are ways around this though. Many varifocal prescription glasses require a height of at least 25mm in order to function properly. However, you can buy short corridor varifocal lenses that can be housed in frames less than 25mm high, and even as small as 13mm.

You can also choose from a variety of lens thicknesses. For higher strength prescriptions the lenses in standard varifocal glasses can be quite thick which many wearers find unattractive. For occasional use, this isn’t really important, but if the glasses are your main pair, you might want to consider taking a thinner options. The standard, thinner varifocal lens is the 1.6 option. For ultra-thin, you can choose a 1.67 premium varifocal lens. Lastly, if you need the very thinnest lens available you may want to try the 1.74 option. It will be no surprise, the thinner the lens, the higher the price, so it’s worthwhile giving some thought if you actually must get the more expensive lenses.

As with other glasses, coatings are available for varifocal lenses including sunglasses tinting, anti-glare coatings and scratch protection. As varifocal lenses tend to be factory made though, not all coatings are available on all lenses. This might again influence your choice about which lens grade to select, based on your need.

To order varifocal glasses over the internet you need a prescription from an opticians. Along with the standard prescription information there are some further particulars that you’ll want.

In particular, your supplier will need the pupillary distance. This is a distance in millimeters from one pupil to the other. This should ideally be measured by an optician, although if required you can do it at home with a ruler and the help of a friend.

Varifocal glasses, are a great step forward in improving the vision and appearance of anyone who suffers from both. long and short-sight. Now they are available on the web, less costly and easier than ever before, so why wait. Make your world a little clearer today.