so if you're wearing progressive lenses for the first time you probably put them on and
you're like whoa these things make me feel weird and in this video i'm gonna share with you five
tips all about progressive lenses and how to get used to them faster let's roll that Intro!
hello and welcome this is dr Allen here from the dr eye health show if this is our first time here
this channel is all about helping people learn about the eyes figure out cool things about their
glasses so that you can see your best not only today but also tomorrow if you like learning
about cool things with the eyes tips and tricks then make sure to subscribe to the channel so
you don't miss any of our future videos now if you just got progressive eyeglasses and you're having
problems or you're about to get progressive lenses and you're thinking about getting some
then these tips are going to help you out because believe me if you're a first time wearer
in progressives it's going to feel weird and different at least at first so let's see what
we can do tip number one is to have your glasses professionally fit and adjusted for you this
is a big deal especially with progressive lenses because they have a very specific spot you need to
be looking through and if they're just not sitting on your face right they're kind of crooked then
you're likely going to be experiencing not just blurred vision but more distortions everywhere
you look we recently had a patient just the other day whose lenses were too tilted like this on his
face which we call a pantoscopic tilt and once we had them just adjusted here in the optical
boom he was just like oh wow that feels so much better so if you want to have a better experience
right away get them adjusted all right tip number two and this may sound funny to hear but you need
to wear the glasses and yes i can almost guarantee you the first time that you put on a pair of
progressive lenses it's gonna feel weird you're gonna see these distortions your field of view is
gonna feel like you're swimming or something and it's probably gonna feel like this for at least
a few days and if you just happen to be somebody with a high prescription or you've just never worn
glasses ever before in your life it might even take up up to two weeks hopefully not but that's
a consistent amount of time i hear experienced opticians say it can take up to about two weeks
to fully get used to it but i've had some of my patients even say that yeah they first wore them
it felt really strange for a few days and all of a sudden boom their brain snapped into it and it
felt much more comfortable but this transition period of getting used to these lenses is gonna
go faster if you try to wear your glasses all day long if you wear them longer you're gonna make it
easier for your brain to adapt and if you happen to have an older pair of glasses that don't make
you sick try not to switch back and forth between them because switching to your older glasses that
don't give you that distortion feeling again it's going to make it harder for you to get used to
using your progressive lenses now tip number three has to do with how to use progressive lenses and
this should help you out a lot because i think that's one of the biggest issues with progressives
is that you have to use your eyes differently than you've ever used them when wearing glasses before
and the important tip is to try to point your nose at whatever it is that you are trying to focus on
and look at you see progressive lenses have these distortion zones off to the sides
and kind of in between and if you happen to shift your eyes to look at something
and you look through that distortion zone things are gonna feel even more just weird off and blurry
so all of the usable magnification in progressive lenses are really right in the middle so if you're
looking at a computer screen point your nose at the computer screen if you're going to be reading
a note a medication or your phone you want again face directly at the object that you're looking at
and then from there it's all about what distance you are looking at that object and knowing which
part of the lens you need to adjust and look through now assuming your glasses are put on and
you're looking straight ahead into the distance right where your eyes are set and to the top
of the lens everything should look good for the distance but when reading up close all the reading
magnification is at the bottom of the lens so if you tilt your head down like you normally would
you're still looking through the top portion of the lens which is your distance so
things will seem out of focus so what you want to try to do is that for near objects you want
to look down through the lens so right now i'm trying to keep my head up straight and i'm looking
down through the bottom of the lens that's where all that reading magnification is and things look
pretty good now early on in this process feel free to even tilt your neck up a little bit to try to
find where that magnification zone is i personally don't like it when people use their neck a whole
bunch to kind of go up and down because that can lead to neck and shoulder issues but early
on just trying to get used to them trying to find where that power is where things look good
i think that's fine especially just again trying to figure it out but again the important thing to
understand is that the power's at the bottom so you need to look through the bottom of the lens
and same thing kind of goes for the intermediate distance such as a computer it's not far away it's
not way up close but it's kind of in the middle of the lens and it'll just take a little bit of time
to figure out that sweet spot now an extra pro tip that i just thought about has to do with going up
and down stairs and if you're getting in and out of a car for example in these sort of situations
you're going to be making kind of quick and dynamic movements where you need to have secure
footing if you're a first-time progressive wearer the magnification at the bottom of the lens may
kind of jump out at you and kind of throw off your footing in a way so in these situations i
think it's best to take it slow and try to point your nose toward the ground and look through the
top portion of the lens so that you're not thrown off by that distortion and again just take it easy
because nobody wants you to trip and fall and hurt yourself but again hopefully by looking down kind
of figuring out where your footing is you'll be able to avoid any mistakes now tip number four
is to make sure that your glasses are clean i know this sounds like kind of a no-brainer but
if you are already having difficulties getting used to progressive lenses then if your lenses
are all smudged up it's going to be difficult for you to see at any distance if you haven't seen our
tip video all about how to clean your glasses the best ways i'll put that in the video description
below the one about using dish soap is honestly i think probably the best one now tip number five is
all about progressive lenses and using them for the computer now progressive lenses should work
for viewing the computer screen and anything intermediate but if you're somebody who's
having a hard time finding the sweet spot in your glasses and you sit in front of a computer screen
for long hours it may lead to like neck and shoulder pain if that sounds like you
then you may want to consider getting a dedicated pair of computer glasses or maybe an office based
progressive lens and if you're not sure which type of computer glasses would be best for you
or the different options out there i did a video about that recently and you can check that out
by clicking or tapping the screen right over here otherwise i hope this video helps you out
and you're able to adjust and get used to your progressive lenses faster see in the next one