February 4, 2010 — 
We keep hoping that someday one contact lens company will perfect a multifocal contact lens so that our patients who need help reading and seeing far away (presbyopes) will get great vision without reading glasses. Over the years, since the original Acuvue Bifocal, our patients have had to compromise in some way in order to avoid the readers. Well, I finally got to try the newest multifocal lens: the Air Optix Aqua Multifocal lens and I’m happy to say that my first patient really liked the comfort and vision.
Now I always temper my patients’ expectations when trying these lenses, telling them that there will be a compromise of some sort and hoping that they will be pleasantly surprised. She was very happy with her overall vision and despite having very steeply curved corneas (48-49, my OD friends), the lenses fit very well. Hers eyes were even slightly dilated due to the eye drops!
So stay tuned, I will see her back in two weeks. If you’ve tried multifocal soft lenses before and didn’t like them, consider asking for these new lenses. They still haven’t been perfected, but they seem to be better. Not every eye doc’s office may have these in stock yet, but they should be available to order if that’s the case.
Have you had a good or bad experience with wearing multifocal contacts? Let me know!
Was a case study for the new Air Optix Multifocal contacts. Although we had to do some “tweaking” to get the right ones I really enjoyed them!
Unfortunately the material was too bothersome (as were the O2 Optix in the past) for my eyes so I wasn’t really a good candidate for them. I love the concept and the clarity I was surprised to find though so I’m hoping there will be more options in the future.
~Gina
Sorry it didn’t work out for you. I’m still working with this patient. After wearing them for a few days, she was wishing the near and distance was better. Now I’ve really got my work cut out for me! I fit her in a medium add lens in both eyes and we’ll see what happens.
I have been recently searching more about contact lenses. The updates and researches about it. And it is good to know that there is an improvement from time to time. Technology advancement has already set in our lifestyle so consumers expect for the best. Nowadays, we can wear lens to improve our vision, play actively in sports and use it as fashion accessory as well.
The article is good. How good are this Multifocal Contact Lens? Maybe we need testimonials.
Hi Claudia, thank you for reading and for the comments. The Air Optix Multifocals have become my number 1 multifocal, but they do not satisfy the vision needs for every patient. Like I tell my patients, if they really worked as well as we wished, you wouldn’t see so many people wearing glasses.