PH opticians; is this right?

[Ken Sington]

Being long sighted, I have for some time been using glasses for close up work/reading. As there now has been a bit of age related deterioration in my distance vision, I have been prescribed with varifocals. These are fine for long and medium distance use, but close up and reading is a nightmare as the focus point seems to me to be way too small. For example, if I am reading a book, the middle of the line will be in sharp focus whereas the ends will be blurred, so I have to move my head like a nodding dog to read. I have been back to the optician and he just says "you will get used to it". Surely this can't be right?

[968]

Ken Sington said:

Being long sighted, I have for some time been using glasses for close up work/reading. As there now has been a bit of age related deterioration in my distance vision, I have been prescribed with varifocals. These are fine for long and medium distance use, but close up and reading is a nightmare as the focus point seems to me to be way too small. For example, if I am reading a book, the middle of the line will be in sharp focus whereas the ends will be blurred, so I have to move my head like a nodding dog to read. I have been back to the optician and he just says "you will get used to it". Surely this can't be right?

In a word yes. I'm not an optician, but an ophthalmologist, however I know a little about this. Varifocals do have the advantage of multiple levels of power in the lens, at the expense of a narrow effective reading segment, though you can make that slightly wider, in some cases.