Contact Lenses for the Over 40 Year Olds

Patients who are over 40 who want contact lenses present interesting challenges. The main challenge for these patients is being able to read and see distance through the contact lenses. There are generally three options. The easiest one is to fit the contact lenses for distance and fit reading glasses over them for reading. The second option is to fit one eye for reading and the other eye for distance. Surprisingly, this works quite well for many patients but not everyone. However, there are some limitations in fitting a patient this way. Limitations may include blur at night or the eyes feel strained when doing a lot of reading. Sometimes we fit glasses over the contacts at times to help compensate for the blur. The third way of fitting patients in this age group is multifocal contact lenses. When they work, they really work. If you're a bifocal wearer, you notice that when you're viewing something closeup with glasses that is at eye level or above. you have to tilt your head back. This does not occur with bifocal contacts. However, bifocal contacts don't work for everyone. There is sometimes a reported blur and reading or distance no matter what lens you fit. I've worked with patients who I have fit the first time they came in; others who were fit on the second or third time and others who couldn't be fit at all with the multifocal lenses. What's great is that the technology of the lenses is improving all the time.