Bifocal Contacts

Innovative New Lens Designs

Dr. Winkler is one of the first optometrists in the country to offer the new Biofinity Multifocal® contact lens. Our office boasts an extensive inventory of diagnostic lenses for many different brands of these contact lenses, including the Biofinity Multifocal®, Soflens Multifocal®, PureVision Multifocal®, AirOptix Multifocal®, and the Acuvue Oasys for Presbyopia®. Please note that bifocal contact lenses and multifocal contact lenses are not eligible for our $149 package price advertised elsewhere on our web site, but our contact lens professional fitting fees are the same as for standard contact lenses, whereas many offices charge a much higher fee to prescribe more complex lenses such as these.

Modern advances in lens technology have greatly enhanced the success rate with bifocal and multifocal contact lenses. Many patients who had been unsuccessful in wearing these types of contacts in the past are now enjoying essentially glasses-free living.

Bifocals/Multifocals vs. Monovision

Presbyopia is the condition where the lens within the eye loses its flexibility so that it becomes difficult or impossible to focus upon nearpoint objects. There are three ways to correct for presbyopia with contact lenses: simply wearing a pair of reading glasses over distance-correcting contact lenses, bifocal/multifocal contact lenses or monovision.

The most common type of bifocal & multifocal contact lenses are called simultaneous vision lenses. Simultaneous contact lenses bring images at two or more distances into focus in the eye at the same time. Simultaneous lenses are essentially classified as either bifocal or multifocal lenses. Bifocal contact lenses focus light from two different distances (near and distance) onto the back of the eye (the retina) at the same time. Multifocal contact lenses focus light from multiple distances (typically near, far, intermediate) onto the retina at the same time.

Monovision, another common method of correcting presbyopia with contact lenses, involves correcting one eye for near vision and the other eye for distance vision. Although this might sound somewhat awkward, patients who successfully utilize monovision report that it is in fact a very natural way of seeing.