Progressive Vs. Multifocal Contacts

Many people in their 40s experience presbyopia, a condition of aging that makes it hard to focus your eyes on near objects, according to the website All About Vision. Multifocal contact lenses, including a type called progressive lenses, can improve near vision without the need for reading glasses.

Identification

• Multifocal lenses are contacts that use more than one lens power, such as bifocals, which have one power for distance and one for close-up viewing. Progressive lenses are multifocal lenses that contain a larger number of lens powers.

Materials

• Multifocal lenses can be made from either soft material or rigid gas-permeable material. However, progressive lenses are made from lighter, thinner material than most contact lenses, so they are usually more comfortable.

Vision Correction

• Certain multifocal lenses, such as bifocal or trifocal, can cause a jump in vision when you are moving your focus from one lens to another. There is no “in-between” vision. Progressive contacts eliminate this jump to provide a more "seamless" transition and clearer vision when changing focus among different distances.

Lens Designs

• The designs for multifocal lenses include concentric bifocal (rings of near and distance lenses), alternating image design (distance on top, near on bottom) and aspheric (near and distance at the center of the pupil). Progressive lenses have the distance lenses on top, intermediate lenses in the middle, and near lenses on the bottom.

Consideration

• Progressive lenses take some getting used to, because your peripheral vision may be blurred when using them. This usually goes away after a week or two of wearing them.