Which is better - Progressive Lenses or Bifocal Lenses? | Progressive Lenses vs Bifocal Lenses

Which is better - Progressive Lenses or Bifocal Lenses?

Approximately at the age of 40 (+/-2 years) your eyes gradually lose the ability to see things for near. It is a normal part of aging. The term is called “presbyopia”, comes from a Greek word which means “old eye.” You will probably find that you hold reading materials farther away or stretch hands in order to see them clearly.

When you are young, the lens is soft and flexible, easily changing shape due to this you can focus both distance and near objects clearly. After 40 years of age, the lens becomes more rigid and cannot change shape easily. This makes you to read at near with efforts, thread a needle, or do other close-up tasks. There is no way to stop or reverse the normal aging process that loses the ability to see things at near. However, this can be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery but surgical choice may not be very good for everyone. If you do not correct presbyopia, you may experience eye stress, eyestrain, focus-defocus, headaches and sometimes you feel that your hands shorten.

Wearing eyeglasses is an easy way to correct presbyopia. Seeing clear vision with eyeglasses offers the opportunity to select from different types of lens options, frame designs and even lens coatings for various purposes.

There are different types of eyeglass lens designs: single vision lens – corrects only one distance vision, bifocal lens - corrects distance and near vision (does not has intermediate distance to see monitor), and multifocal or progressive lens - designed to correct all distances vision (the upper portion is focused for distance vision, middle portion focused for monitor, while the bottom portion is used for reading).
Bifocals have two zones to correct vision for reading on the bottom half of the lens and another for seeing at a distance on the top. Some special lenses may also have segments at the top for those who need to look upward at objects that are in the intermediate or near range these lenses are called double-D bifocals (but not used frequently).

Progressive or multifocal lenses function generally the same way as bifocals due to a smooth transition between distance and near focal areas instead visible dividing lines in bifocal.

If you don't want to use glasses for distance, you can use reading glasses only which can be purchased from any optical store. You will probably must change your eyeglass prescription from time to time (approx every 1-2 years) between the ages of 40 and 60 because your eye's natural lens will still lose flexibility and consequently focusing ability.