Varifocals and Driving

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Discussion

Reg Local

Original Poster:

2,676 posts

207 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I've worn glasses for most of my adult life - I'm short sighted, so my distance vision is poor.

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that my "close up" vision is starting to deteriorate a bit. My optician told me this is perfectly normal and many people experience the same thing in their mid-40's. It's not really caused me any major issues - I just need to take my glasses off occasionally to read very small print.

I went for my biennial eye test a couple of weeks ago and found that my distance vision had deteriorated slightly (so I needed a new prescription anyway), and my reading-distance vision had become quite poor - worse than I thought anyway. The optician persuaded me that varifocals were the way to go - I ordered some new frames with their most expensive varifocal lens option.

I went to pick the new glasses up yesterday. Anyone who wears glasses will know it's usually quite nice getting a new pair of specs - everything you look at seems to have a new level of crispness and clarity, very much like when you see an ultra-HD telly for the first time.

I tried the varifocals in the shop and found them a little disorientating - the top of the lens deals with distance vision and the bottom of the lens deals with close vision. In addition, there is a sort of "Y" shaped section in the centre of each lens which gives some improvement to distance vision, but to the left and right of the Y, the lenses are tuned for closer vision.

OK, I thought - they'll take some getting used to, but glasses always do. I had a walk around town for half-an-hour or so and started to get used to the variations in clarity, depending on where I looked through the lenses. Right, I thought - time for a drive.

Driving in varifocals, however, was a whole new world of dreadful. I've always used (and taught) an observation technique called "scanning", which involves constantly moving your eyes around to make a visual "sweep" of the whole environment. My eyes are continuously flicking around, looking in the far distance, middle distance and near distance, together with the sides and the rear via the mirrors. Scanning ensures you use your eyes to best effect to spot hazards well in advance before they become a problem. It's not rocket science, but it's a key driving technique if you want to rise slightly above the usual driving habit of staring intently at the brake lights of the car in front.

Scanning in varifocals, however, is virtually impossible. Scan into the far distance and everything is clear. Move to the middle distance and it's still clear, but look towards the nearside and offside pavements and they're suddenly very blurred - I cannot make out any significant detail at all. Look in the side and centre mirrors and everything is blurred. It's better if I move my head so that I'm looking through the centre of the lens all the time, but moving your head, instead of your eyes for every scanning movement is just ridiculous - I looked like a nervous pigeon in a shooting competition.

I'll be wearing them around the house and at work over the next few days in an attempt to get more used to the lenses, but at the moment I'm convinced that driving in varifocals is bordering on dangerous & I cannot see myself (see what I did there!) ever wearing them for driving.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem? Has anyone adapted to them for driving? Do I just need to give it more time?

At the moment, I'm thinking of just taking them back and getting standard lenses.

gus607

916 posts

135 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I welol remember getting my first pair of varifocals, the optician advised me not to drive in then until I had got used to them.

I left the shop & walked across town for twenty minutes & felt fine, so drove home wearing them. Wore them ever since & the best thing since sliced bread.

Stay with it OP, you'll be fine.

jkh112

21,886 posts

157 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I too switched to varifocals not too long ago after years of wearing glasses.
At first they were very strange and took quite a while to get used to.
I actually find them fine for driving with the top half ideal for distance vision and the lower half ideal for looking at the dials and dashboard. Mine do. Or have the Y shaped lens you describe so for me scanning right/left is no problem..

Big Al.

68,795 posts

257 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Been wearing and driving with varifocals now for at least 10 years, you will get used to them, took me about a month IIRC.

Would not change back now.

pastrana72

1,721 posts

207 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I got the expensive varifocals recently too, they take a bit of getting used too but they are seriously worth sticking with them.

You have to learn to move your head to look and not your eyes if that makes sense. Glad I changed as it makes all the difference.

Dogwatch

6,221 posts

221 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Worn them for years without any problems whether driving or anything else.

I haven't noticed this left-right business though - am I a bit weird?

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

202 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I may need variofocals soon frown
Some interesting replies & I wonder how Reg will cope having read his previous post about scanning ...

Reg Local

Original Poster:

2,676 posts

207 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Thanks for all your replies - I've been on PH for nearly 10 years and I'd never once looked in the health forum!

I'll give them a good go before deciding one way or the other, but consistent vision is so important to me when I'm driving, I think I'll struggle to adapt to them.

loskie

5,143 posts

119 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Toltec

7,159 posts

222 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Do you have any astigmatism in your prescription? I ask because that appears to be why the optician cannot make up lenses that work for me. My distance prescription is small and almost equally sphere and cylinder, if anything more the latter, I am now losing short range too hence the varifocals. The combination appears to make it hard to produce a lens that works through the range, distance is great and close up is great, but anything between 1/2m and 5m has a narrow field of view.

I have ended up using a single vision distance pair for driving and a pair of varifocals for office work where the distance only works out to a few metres. When driving I can read the main instruments and see the route on sat-nav well enough, but not fine text such as the road number on the sat-nav.



Riley Blue

20,907 posts

225 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I've been wearing varifocals for around 30 years, never had any problem driving in them and can happily use them (like now) when using a laptop. I don't have this Y-shape section in mine and to be honest, I'm not sure how it's supposed to work as mine are close vision in a band across the lower part and distant vision in the upper part with a 'crossover' area inbetween.

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

202 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Thanks Toltec, I've got an astigmatism frown variofocals may not work for me...

silverthorn2151

6,298 posts

178 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Shaw Tarse said:
Thanks Toltec, I've got an astigmatism frown variofocals may not work for me...
I have an astigmatism. Quite a strong one at that and my varifocals are brilliant. My distance vision is wacky too so my lenses are all over the place.

Buy good ones. When I first got them it was a little strange using stairs and steps. Worse thing was slightly strange feeling playing golf, but I still managed to hit it in the trees with unfailing consistency.

I now have to wear transition lenses as well to reduce the UV effect on my eyes and its all fine and dandy. I have Ray Ban Clubmasters for everyday and Wayfarers as my prescription sunglasses. Not massive lenses but they cope very well. Very narrow frames will always be more difficult to get used to as the bands within the lenses will be shallower.



motco

15,918 posts

245 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I have had varifocals for a few years and have a minor astigmatism. However both my distance and close up prescriptions are positive which means that I lose a margin at the periphery and also that movement of the glasses on my face is magnified in my eyesight. If I wear a helmet on a trackday every bump is amplified in my vision because the helmet grips the arms and jiggling of the helmet moves the specs frames up and down. It can be a little disconcerting. I have tried prescription single vision swimming goggles because they rely on the fit to the bony orbit rather than the arms to locate the lenses with respect to my eyes. They do improve the situation but it's hard to get the full-face helmet on whilst wearing goggles. Contacts would be the ideal but varifocal contacts are a bit of a compromise I gather, and the vision is less than perfect.

Toltec

7,159 posts

222 months

Sunday 1st May 2016
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Shaw Tarse said:
Thanks Toltec, I've got an astigmatism frown variofocals may not work for me...
It is more that they are not a complete solution and maybe I am expecting too much. I found the first lenses I tried were perfect at distance and good down to 5 metres, they were also fine for reading and seeing a keyboard, but useless for looking at monitors. I could drive in them, but as I can drive with just a distance lens which means there is no problem with field distortions there is no point in having them.

If single vision lenses will not work for you when driving then bear in mind that you do not have to get varifocals that will work all the way from reading out to long distance. For driving you need to see the instruments, but you don't need the focus to be perfect so you could have lenses that do not begin at a full reading prescription. Don't be afraid to tell your optician what you want out of your glasses, mine checked my eyes at the distance I wanted for monitor use so they could make up lenses that would give me a wide field of focus at that range. Due to the way varifocals work you cannot avoid an intermediate area where the lens only works in the centre of view. Better lenses widen this, but you cannot get rid of it, this is the range at which you will have to move your head more.

andyxxx

1,164 posts

226 months

Sunday 1st May 2016
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I have had varifocals (dear ones) for 5 or 6 years and hate them and have never fully got used to having to move your head to get the correct focus. I stick with them because I can't be swapping speccs every two minutes.

I think they make me a worse driver.

gdaybruce

753 posts

224 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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I've used varifocals for many years but I've learned that I need to move my head, especially at T junctions and cross roads, to be sure that I've seen what might be coming clearly. Interestingly, my brother has a private pilot's licence and he told me some time ago that varifocals are prohibited in aviation. Bifocals are OK, but not varifocals. I guess that must tell us something.

blueg33

35,573 posts

223 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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I have a strong astigmatism and am short sight and have had varifocals for the last 2 years.

When I first got them I fell down the stairs at the tube station (looking down through the reading part, I missed a step), and managed to scrape the Tuscan putting it in the garage, I took it back out again and scraped the other side!

I am now used to them, I have he expensive ones. I picked up new ones at the weekend but have returned them because the field of vision wasn't wide enough on the reading part. The optician said that there are different makes of lenses even for the most expensive type and are redoing the glasses with another make of lens (the same as the ones I have at present)

In all it took me a week to get used to them, and I am still careful when trotting down the spiral stairs at Lancaster Gate

motco

15,918 posts

245 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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blueg33 said:
I have a strong astigmatism and am short sight and have had varifocals for the last 2 years.

When I first got them I fell down the stairs at the tube station (looking down through the reading part, I missed a step), and managed to scrape the Tuscan putting it in the garage, I took it back out again and scraped the other side!

I am now used to them, I have he expensive ones. I picked up new ones at the weekend but have returned them because the field of vision wasn't wide enough on the reading part. The optician said that there are different makes of lenses even for the most expensive type and are redoing the glasses with another make of lens (the same as the ones I have at present)

In all it took me a week to get used to them, and I am still careful when trotting down the spiral stairs at Lancaster Gate
Stairs can be a problem with positive (long sight) varifocals as well. The downward peripheral vision has a blind spot.

Sheepshanks

32,519 posts

118 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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Reg Local said:
I've worn glasses for most of my adult life - I'm short sighted, so my distance vision is poor.

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that my "close up" vision is starting to deteriorate a bit. My optician told me this is perfectly normal and many people experience the same thing in their mid-40's. It's not really caused me any major issues - I just need to take my glasses off occasionally to read very small print.
Same for me and my missus and we got varifocals a few years ago. I'd read all the horror stories but had absolutely no problem with them.

What make and model of lens have you got? There must be hundreds, if not thousands, and I do think it's an issue that the differences are not explained to people.

Our whole family wears glasses so I have a lot of experience of all types of optician. We got our first varifocals from Specsavers at the same time, both had no issues and I feel a lot of that was because we had a very good dispenser. She used Essilor Varilux Panamic lenses for the main pair and Specsaves own (branded Pentax as they bought the name) for the photochromic second pair.

We couldn't tell any difference between them. Put them on and they just worked. Amazing!

We both changed a few years later. Based on the Pentax lenses seeming OK, I went for those in both pairs (at half the cost). They felt weird. Turned out they'd been made with a split prism which seems to be designed to make the lenses appear equal thickness top and bottom. It had the effect of making things jump about. Specsavers remade them without question although the new pairs are still not as awesome as the first pairs seemed to be.

Based on that, my wife got hers replaced at Costco as they use Essilor Varilux lenses, but Panamic wasn't available and they used Physio. The measuring and fitting didn't seem very thorough and again she's not as happy with them as she was with her first pair.