Progressive lenses can be an incredible boon to people with astigmatism and other refractive errors, but they also tend to be expensive. Good-quality progressive lenses can cost up to $1200—considerably more than your average pair of standard lenses.
What’s the reason for the price tag on progressive lenses? Moreover, is paying extra for progressive lenses worth it? Don’t worry; the team from Aurora 2020 is prepared to answer these questions and more. We’re happy to share our eyecare experience with you so that you can make an informed choice about the lenses you use.
What Do Progressive Lenses Do?
Progressive lenses differ from traditional ones by allowing you to focus at a variety of distances. Most standard lenses have a single prescription, which only allows the wearer to clearly see when the object they’re looking at is a specific distance away from them.
Some other lenses have surfaces that are broken up into two portions, each with a different prescription. These are called bifocal lenses.
Bifocal lenses usually have one prescription for helping the wearer focus on faraway objects and one for assisting them to focus on nearby items.
Trifocal lenses also exist, in which the surface of each lens is divided into three separate areas with distinct prescriptions. Trifocals and bifocals are both examples of multifocal lenses.
Progressive lenses take a different approach than other multifocal lenses. Instead of breaking up each lens’s surface into distinct areas, progressive lenses have a gradient that allows the prescription to change gradually from top to bottom.
As such, wearing progressive lenses enables you to focus at any distance within the range of your lenses by looking through a different part of them.
Who Are Progressive Lenses For?
Many people can benefit from wearing progressive lenses, but these lenses are particularly useful for correcting a few specific vision problems. Progressive lenses are generally a good investment for people with:
Presbyopia: an age-related condition caused when the lens inside the eye begins to harden. Presbyopia typically affects people over the age of 40 and makes it difficult for them to focus on nearby objects.
Accommodative dysfunction: sometimes, people have problems focusing their eyes for reasons that are unrelated to presbyopia. Most types of accommodative dysfunction occur when the muscles that help the eyes focus do not work correctly, causing difficulties when switching or trying to maintain focus.
Progressive lenses may also be a strong choice for people who are unhappy with bifocal or trifocal lenses. Traditional multifocal lenses can jar the wearer’s vision when switching focus at significant distances, which some people find distracting when driving or completing other sensitive tasks. Progressive lenses offer a much smoother transition when viewing objects at different distances.
One reason progressive lenses cost more than other kinds is that they’re harder to make. Cutting and shaping the gradient on progressive lenses is simply a more delicate and time-consuming process than cutting a lens with the same prescription throughout—or even one with multiple fixed prescriptions.
However, progressive lenses are also more expensive than other lenses because they tend to be much more versatile. Below, we’ll examine how progressive lenses stack up to other multifocal lenses.
Many people also prefer the appearance of progressive lenses. Bifocals and trifocals are split up by lines that run across the lens (1 line for bifocals; 2 for trifocals). These lines can reflect light awkwardly in photographs, and obscure the wearer’s face. Progressive lenses have no lines, giving the lenses a seamless appearance.
High-Quality vs. Low-Quality Progressive Lenses
Not all progressive lenses are the same. Investing in a pair of high-quality progressive lenses can be more expensive than buying cheaper varieties, but it can also provide you with several advantages.
Making the gradient for progressive lenses creates a certain degree of peripheral distortion (sometimes called the “fishbowl effect”). There are 2 main causes of peripheral distortion:
Too narrow reading/near vision area
Too short of a drop (the distance between far vision and near vision prescriptions)
Positioning the drop lower down on the lens can reduce peripheral distortion, but it can also make the lenses uncomfortable to use. Cheaper progressive lenses often position the drop too far down the lens, which causes difficulty for the wearer.
Conversely, higher-quality progressive lenses position the drop so that the wearer can look through it naturally, and reduce peripheral distortion by making the viewing area wider.
These changes make the lenses more expensive, but result in far better comfort and vision quality.
Popular Progressive Lens Types
Most progressive lenses fall into one of several categories:
Standard progressive lenses: these lenses often have a medium-sized reading area, but have a longer drop between focus points. As such, they often require larger frames than premium progressive lenses.
Short corridor progressive lenses: these alternatives to standard progressive lenses are designed for smaller frames, but they often have smaller reading areas as a result. They produce more peripheral distortion than other progressive lenses.
Near variable focus lenses: progressive lenses that are designed for indoor applications, like computer use. These lenses usually provide clear vision within a small range of distances and are not intended for focusing on objects that are more than a few feet away from the wearer.
Premium progressive lenses: brands like Nikon produce progressive lenses with wide reading areas to eliminate peripheral distortion, and are often described as feeling more natural than other types. They can also be tailored to the individual preferences and needs of each person who wears them.
Find Your Ideal Progressive Lenses
If you are considering progressive lenses for yourself or someone in your family, schedule an appointment to speak with your eye doctor. They’ll be able to help you weigh your options and make a recommendation that fits your budget and lifestyle. Once you’ve been fitted for your lenses and spent some time adjusting to them, you’ll enjoy clear vision at an incredible spectrum of distances.
Progressive lenses, which are thinner and lighter, require a higher degree of expertise and technology than single-vision lenses or bifocals, making them more expensive. They usually have a smoother transition, which makes them cost more, too.
Expect to pay about this much for a complete pair of glasses (frame AND lenses): Single vision glasses: Between $30 and $500. Lined multi-focal glasses: Between $150 and $500. Progressive glasses: Between $250 and $700.
The price of a progressive lense really depends on how important the quality of your lenses are and how much you're willing to pay. Most consumers end up paying around $150 to $250 for their progressive lenses. You can expect to get a good pair of progressive lenses for this price range.
Bifocal lenses provide a clear distinction between near and far vision prescription within the lens. While many people may immediately choose a progressive lens, a bifocal may be a better fit for your lifestyle and vision needs.
Even though a progressive lens allows you to see near and far distances clearly, these lenses aren't the right choice for everyone. Some people never adjust to wearing a progressive lens. If this happens to you, you may experience constant dizziness, problems with depth perception, and peripheral distortion.
A patient who experiences difficulty adapting to progressive lenses might feel they have poor balance or that they walk wobbly with their new glasses. Perhaps the edges of their vision are disproportionately large, or disproportionately small.
2. Progressive lenses cost a bit more than other multifocal lenses. Compared to bifocals and trifocals, progressives may seem like an expensive option. But given their convenient, streamlined design and the fact that they correct vision at so many distances, most wearers find the price to be worth it.
If you only have a hard time seeing things up close, you might just need reading glasses, which you use whenever you read or use the computer. However, if your vision is blurry enough that you can't see near or far things, a progressive set of lenses might be a better option.
Bigger lenses ensure you have ample coverage for each prescription. Most types of progressive lenses fit better in large frames, so you'll need bigger lenses to go with them.
About 80% of the problems people have with progressive lenses come from fitting errors. Once your glasses return from the lab, the optician will have you try them on to conduct a final adjustment check and make sure they properly fit.
Progressive lenses don't work well for computer screens because the intermediate part of the lens isn't wide enough to allow you to see the width of your monitor simply by moving your eyes. This forces you to move your head from side to side to see the entire screen.
Progressive lenses are an all-inclusive type of eyewear that helps you see up close, far away, and everywhere in between. That means that progressive lenses are good for driving, so if you plan to take a road trip or drive to work, you can feel confident in your choice of vision correction.
These are usually recommended for individuals who lost their ability to naturally shift the focus of their eyes due to presbyopia and age. Progressive lenses. If you are over 40, your doctor may require you to wear progressive lenses, which are effective on bringing back your near and far visions.
Progressive lenses tend to be blurry on the sides because each lens promotes three fields of vision: An upper lens segment designed to help the wearer see objects in the distance. A lower lens segment designed to help the wearer see objects within very close proximity.
It takes time to adjust to progressives. You need to train yourself to look out of the lower part of the lens when you're reading, to look straight ahead for distance, and to look somewhere between the two spots for middle distance or computer work. Some people never adjust, but most do.
Progressives are designed to help your eye transition between near and far distances, similar to what the eye does naturally. There are 5 tiers of progressive lenses on our lens options list. Each tier offers different levels of technology. Tier I is the most cost-conscious option, where Tier V has a more natural feel.
Progressives create a smooth, more comfortable transition from distance to near and back. Progressive lenses are far more sophisticated and technologically advanced than their common name (often called “no-line bifocals”).
Varilux is a brand name belonging to Essilor International, a producer of corrective lenses. The first version of the lens was invented by Bernard Maitenaz and released in 1959, and was the first modern progressive lens to correct presbyopia.
Progressive lenses allow you to see at all distances with one pair of glasses. They start with your distance prescription (if you have one) at the top of the lens and increase as you move toward the bottom of the lens. You simply move your head position to allow you to focus through different areas of the lens.
Who Needs Progressive Lenses? Even if you've never needed glasses before, presbyopia usually occurs in individuals around age 40. As we age naturally, our ability to see objects up close and the computer screen can decrease and can be blurry.
It's recommended that you update your glasses every two years. If you notice a change in your vision, you may need to update your glasses earlier, such as after a year or so.
Your brain has to adjust to different strengths as your eyes move around the lenses. That's why you might feel dizzy. Older people who've never worn multifocals before may need lenses with a big change between the top and bottom of the lens. They may need a little longer to adjust.
', the answer is yes. Here's why: Bigger lenses ensure you have ample coverage for each prescription. Most types of progressive lenses fit better in large frames, so you'll need bigger lenses to go with them.
They can be purchased online and you can even save a substantial amount compared to what you might pay at a local store. Classic Specs offers very competitive prices on progressive lenses, and they are just as high quality if not higher in quality than the lenses you would buy at a local store.
Costco now accepts most vision insurance plans. *Independent Doctors of Optometry are located in or near most Costco locations in most states. Our Kirkland Signature HD progressive lenses use the latest in lens manufacturing technology to deliver high definition vision at any distance.
Yes, but you will have to leave the frame for abut a week or more and they will charge you an extra fee. Everything considered you might want to use a local optician with their own lab that may not charge you extra and you may not have to leave your frame for more than a day.
Progressive lenses provide the most natural vision for the wearer by seamlessly transitioning between near and far prescriptions within the lens. Whereas, a bifocal lens is separated into distinct areas of near-and-far-vision prescriptions.
Introduction: My name is Saturnina Altenwerth DVM, I am a witty, perfect, combative, beautiful, determined, fancy, determined person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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