Progressive Lenses
Replace Bifocals for
Age-Defying Appearance

By Liz DeFranco, ABOC, NCLC, with updates by Gary Heiting, OD;
review and contributions by master optician Mark Mattison-Shupnick

Why progressive lenses? You may be maturing, but "mature" doesn't have to mean "old." If you're a 40-something who has trouble reading fine print, you have more options than just the lined bifocal lenses your parents wore.

Progressive lenses, sometimes called "no-line bifocals," eliminate the visible lines of traditional bifocals and trifocals and hide the fact that you need reading glasses.

No one else has to know whether you're wearing glasses just for fashion — or because your arms have "grown too short" for you to see up close.

Advantages of Progressive Lenses Over Bifocals and Trifocals

Progressive lenses also provide a more natural correction of presbyopia than bifocal or trifocal prescription eyeglasses.

Instead of providing just two or three lens powers like bifocals or trifocals, progressive lenses are true "multifocal" lenses that provide a seamless progression of many lens powers for all viewing distances.

With progressive lenses, you can look up to see clearly across the room and in the distance. You can also look ahead to view your computer in the intermediate zone and drop your gaze downward to read and do fine work comfortably.

And it's easy to adapt to today's modern progressive lenses.

A "corridor" of optimum vision runs vertically down each progressive lens. Your eye care practitioner will take careful measurements of your eyes and eyeglass frame in order to place the corridor in just the right location so your eyes can naturally access the various powers within the lens for comfortable viewing at all distances.

And progressive lenses eliminate an annoying problem caused by bifocal and trifocal lenses known as "image jump."

With conventional bifocals and trifocals, images seem to "jump" as your eyes move past the sharply defined boundary between the distance and near parts of the lens. With progressive lenses, the transition between lens powers within the lens is smooth and seamless, letting you change focus from distance to near and back again more comfortably.

Choosing the Right Progressive Lenses for Your Eyeglass
Frames and Visual Needs

For all powers of progressive lenses to fit within a pair of eyeglasses, frames in the past had to be relatively large.

If the frame was too small, the reading portion of the lens would sometimes end up uncomfortably small after the lens was cut to size and inserted in the frame.

But lens manufacturers have overcome this problem by introducing "short corridor" progressive lenses with compact designs that provide larger reading zones for today's smaller, fashionable frames.

The popularity of progressive lenses has exploded in recent years, making progressives the most widely purchased lenses for correcting presbyopia.

There are many choices now among the various styles of progressive lenses. The differences are related mainly to the size of the central corridor of optimum vision and how much of the corridor is devoted to various viewing distances. Different areas of the corridor are expanded depending on the function of each particular lens.

Some progressive lenses are made specially for computer use, for example, and have a wider intermediate zone. Others have a larger reading portion. Your eye care practitioner is in the best position to evaluate which lens style will work best for you.

Progressive lenses are also available in a wide variety of materials, including regular plastic and glass, polycarbonate, high-index and photochromic lenses.

Adapting to Your Progressive Lenses

When you are fitted with your first pair of progressive lenses, you may need a short adaptation period typically lasting a few minutes to a few days.

This progressive lens has a typical configuration of distance, intermediate and near zones.

This is because blending lens powers in progressive lenses lets you see clearly at all distances, but also causes minor aberrations in the peripheral part of the lenses (see diagram).

If you glance to the far right or left, especially when looking down, you see through these peripheral zones of the lenses and your vision may be blurred slightly. Peripheral aberrations also may cause you to experience a sensation of "swim" when you make quick head movements.

Over the last several years, progressive lens designs have been improved continually to greatly reduce peripheral aberrations. Most first-time wearers notice no problems at all.

If you do have problems with blur or "swim," you may need to — at first — make slight head movements to look more directly at objects. But eventually these problems caused by peripheral vision disappear as you adjust.

If you have a lot of hyperopia, adapting to progressive lenses may take a bit longer than if you are only mildly farsighted or are nearsighted. But with today's lens designs, nearly everyone can wear progressive lenses successfully.

To make sure you get the best value in progressive lenses, talk to a professional optician, who will be able to recommend a customized progressive lens solution for your specific needs and give you helpful tips on adapting to and caring for your new lenses.

[Page updated October 2008]