Vision Improvements

Courtesy of Sunshine Eye Clinic

During our Antarctica trip, I struggled a bit with my transition progressive glasses (needed for distance and reading vision). The transition lenses took a long time to change from dark to clear when I returned from a zodiac outing to the ice floes. Apparently, when the temperatures are cold, the molecules that work their transition magic become more like molasses - hence the affinity for darkness. This was bothersome as it became hard to see inside the ship and interfered with reading or taking interior photographs right after returning to the expedition ship. Wearing glasses also was cumbersome for winter skiing, so I started to seek possible vision alternatives to my transition progressive glasses. Lasik correction wasn't really of personal interest and I didn't want to deal with clip-on shades for non-transition glasses.

A few weeks ago, I was fitted for multi-focal contacts. These types of contacts are able to serve distance, intermediate and reading vision needs. They're somewhat like progressive contact lenses. This seemed a much better solution than my past days of wearing monovision contact lenses (one eye had a distance contact and the other eye wore a reading contact). With monovision contacts, I lost a capability for intermediate distance vision. I finally gave up monovision and wore distance contacts in both eyes and used reading glasses, as needed. After retirement, I stopped wearing my contacts due to itchy eyes from seasonal allergies and never went back to them. Multi-focal contacts seemed like an interesting new option to try.

Lately, the contact lens industry has increased its "focus" on multi-distance contacts. Certainly with the aging baby boomer population, this is an attractive and growing market to serve. More specifically, contact wearers in the 50-60 age range are likely to seek solutions that permit them to avoid having to again wear glasses. Thus, the newer multi-focal contacts are a win-win for the consumer and optician.

Soft contact wearers: There are several daily and extended wear multi-focus contact options. Among the manufacturers are Bausch + Lomb (Purevision), Vistakon (Acuvue Oasys) and Cooper-Vision (Biofinity Multifocal). I'm really not too familiar with the soft contacts as my previous attempts at wearing soft contacts were hindered by periodic dry eyes

Gas Permeable wearers: I'm now wearing Blanchard's Reclaim HD multi-focal contacts. The fitting required an image taken of each eye, a recent vision prescription and, two weeks later, I was back in the clinic chair putting in my new contacts. I find the contacts comfortable and my vision is now back to 20-20 for distance and reading is fine, without wearing any glasses. There are many other manufacturers of this type of hard contact. In addition, there is at least one hybrid version that combines a gas permeable interior and a soft ring exterior - kind of a reverse of an MM chocolate candy.

The only change I've noticed is that I now carry a bottle of Refresh tear drops for contacts with me. If the temperature is high and/or the wind is strong, a drop in each eye makes the contact immediately more comfortable. This may be more due to dryer eyes as a function of aging versus contacts. I also notice that wearing sunglasses with lenses that wrap around my eyes helps reduce the dry eye issue. I'm looking forward to further evaluating the multi-focus contacts when skiing and when we visit the Arctic Circle region next summer. In addition, the new contacts gave another reason to go hunting for new sunglasses!