Contact lens prescription problems?!
Question: I was fitted for contact lenses for the first time on Dec. 15. My Rx for glasses is: Left eye, -4.75; Right eye, -4.50. The contacts were -4.50 for both eyes. At my followup appt., I told the doc that I had difficulty reading (esp. on the computer), and that my right eye was where the difficulty was coming from. So he bumped that eye up to -4.75. I'm still having difficulty with reading, so I'm going to try to get an appt. again. My left eye is perfect with the contact, and I want the same for both eyes, obviously. Is this a normal occurance when being fitted for contacts for the first time? I feel like if I go back and try a new Rx, the doc will take them away and tell me to go back to glasses. Has anybody else had these kind of problems? By the way, he said my eyes were healthy with the lenses and I evidentally do not have astigmatism, because no eye dr. I've gone to in my life said anything about it.
Answers: I was fitted for contact lenses for the first time on Dec. 15. My Rx for glasses is: Left eye, -4.75; Right eye, -4.50. The contacts were -4.50 for both eyes. At my followup appt., I told the doc that I had difficulty reading (esp. on the computer), and that my right eye was where the difficulty was coming from. So he bumped that eye up to -4.75. I'm still having difficulty with reading, so I'm going to try to get an appt. again. My left eye is perfect with the contact, and I want the same for both eyes, obviously. Is this a normal occurance when being fitted for contacts for the first time? I feel like if I go back and try a new Rx, the doc will take them away and tell me to go back to glasses. Has anybody else had these kind of problems? By the way, he said my eyes were healthy with the lenses and I evidentally do not have astigmatism, because no eye dr. I've gone to in my life said anything about it.
I think you should be wearing -4.25Ds R and -4.50Ds L. If you wanted both the same, I would give you -4.25Ds in both.
When your glasses prescription starts going above -4.00Ds, the contact lens power is less than in the specs. (My husband is -8.00Ds in specs and -7.00Ds in contacts!) So wearing exactly the same power in specs as contacts means that you are actually OVER corrected in the contacts - this can make your near tasks more difficult!
The other thing to note is that contact lenses make the eyes work differently when you read to your specs. So you may find that you will need to adjust to the increased effort, and over time, your near symptoms will settle down.
I have been wearing contact lenses for over 40 years and Ive had very few problems, But I do know the strength in one eye is almost always different than the other. I say seek an opthalmologists opinion that is truly the best . Good luck ZZ.
What you are trying is to have your cake and eat it too.....most contacts people get are for seeing better at distance.....it is hard to read up close with contacts made for distance.......wear reading glasses over your contacts to work on a computer.....I tried "combo" contacts a few years ago that were suposed to work for distance and reading and they were driving me buggy.....do what I suggested.