If your 40th birthday has come and gone, you may have started noticing some changes in your vision — holding written material further away to read fine print, or having a harder time adjusting focus from distant objects to near ones. Fortunately, multifocal contact lenses can help.

What Is Presbyopia?

Presbyopia is the natural and gradual loss of your eyes' ability to focus on near objects. From age 40-50, the eye's lens becomes considerably thicker and much less flexible, making it harder to change shape and accurately refract light when focusing on near objects. This farsightedness can be corrected with reading glasses, bifocal or multifocal glasses, monovision contact lenses, or multifocal contact lenses.

Multifocal Contact Lenses for Presbyopia

Multifocal contact lenses contain multiple lens powers to provide vision correction for different visual zones, so you can clearly see objects at distance, nearby, and everything in between.

Certain multifocal contact lenses have 2 lens powers (bifocals) for near and distance vision, while others have a more gradual power change similar to progressive lenses. These lenses can be made using soft materials or rigid gas-permeable materials and are available as daytime or extended wear lenses.

Note that multifocal contact lenses are not perfect for all situations and some patients may need to try several brands or designs before finding one that works well for them. Your optometrist will guide you toward the ones best suited to your eyes and lifestyle needs.

To discover options beyond reading glasses, call Dayton Optometric Center in Kettering, Ohio at (937) 228-2020 to schedule your contact lens consultation today.