How to Get Used to PROGRESSIVE Lenses - 5 Tips and Tricks

Learn how to get used to progressive lenses! - Check out our full series all about glasses lenses and buying prescription eyeglasses

📒 Show Notes 📒
If you are wearing progressive glasses for the first time, you may notice distortions in your vision as well as motion sickness. Getting used to progressive lenses can be challenging and can often take several weeks of wearing your new glasses before you may get completely used to them. These progressive glasses tips should help you better understand progressive lenses and hopefully help you get used to them faster.

⏰ Timecodes ⏰
0:00 Progressive Lenses How to Get Used to Them
0:56 Tip 1 Proper Fit
1:33 Tip 2 Wearing progressive Lenses
2:50 Tip 3 How to Use progressive lenses
5:11 Progressive Lenses Stairs
5:54 Tip 4 Keep your lenses clean
6:18 Tip 5 Computer Progressive Lenses

Lens Coatings Guide: (COMING SOON)

**PRO TIP**
No matter where you buy your eyeglasses it is always best to have them professionally adjusted to improve their fit and comfort. It will help you see better too.

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About This Video: Are you wearing progressive lenses for the first time? If so, you may feel motion sickness with your glasses. In this video, Dr. Allen reviews progressives and how to adopt to progressive glasses. If you are having progressive lenses problems, these tips and tricks should help you with adopting to progressive lenses.

#progressivelenses #progressiveglasses #doctoreyehealth

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[DoctorEyeHealth]

Here are some helpful videos about glasses!

[averageguy]

I wish I had an optometrist like you that thoroughly explained everything instead of rushing me off to see the next patient.

[evlnte]

Great tips, but one big assumption is that the glasses were made correctly. My first pair had the right eye's center of focus way off to the right of the center of my pupil. And, the height where the transitions occur were way too low so I had to tilt my head back to use the intermediate distance. A great video you might consider making is how to train customers to test their glasses to make sure the focal centers and focal heights are correct for them.

[ava.]

I just got my 1st pair of progressive glasses. They call them multi focals in Australia. You explained it much better than the optometrist, I think she was more of a sales lady. She seemed to get frustrated with me. That i couldn't adapt straight away. I found they were distortion in them. It was only when I got home, I felt more at ease wearing them. Your video helped me so much.

[miketron]

Thank you so much for this video. Today is literally my first day going from single vision to progressives . You answered all my questions.

[kenn]

As a long time optical professional, I appreciate the accuracy and clarity of this video.

[pauljrix]

Excellent info. I fly for a living and got my first set of progressive glasses a couple of years ago now…I hated them at first and didn’t feel confident using them for flying for a long time (months) and they would give me headaches. I recently went to a different optician and got my second pair. This time I went into a lot more detail with the doctor about what I needed. For example, I need to read charts that are not at the distance I would want to hold a book but a little farther out.. I also went with slightly bigger lenses so there was more real estate to play with. It made a huge difference… so the one thing I would suggest is to make sure you think about what you want to use the glasses for and explain that to the optician at the time of the eye exam. Doing that changed the whole experience for me.

[lmboh]

I've worn progressive lenses for over 20 years, and have never had a problem adjusting to them. However, I could tell instantly when a lens was made wrong. I have a high prescription and a small prism to correct for slight double vision. I was used to using my pre-progressive eyeglasses almost as tri-focals, my eye doctor noticed that I moved my eyes and tilted my head to use the part of the lens that was most beneficial for whatever it was I was trying to see. He suggested I go to progressive lenses and they have been great :)

[janjilek]

Reasons for non-tol examinations
(Freeman & Evans, 2010)
1. Prescription related 61%
2. Dispensing related 22%
3. Pathology 8.5%
4. Data entry error 6.8%
5. Binocular vision 1.7%

I can confirm (as someone working for a lens manufacturer and solving hundreds of PAL problems for our customers (Optician stores, or rather the end customer of theirs), that the correct prescription is KEY to how you will perceive the world thru the new progressive lenses. From my own experience, if you (as optician/optometrist) do your job right, the success rate is way above 95%, and the 5% is not really people that would not get used to PALs, but they have often unrealistic expectations.

There is only a few people that will not adapt to properly made progressive lenses/glasses.

Cheers,

Jan

[TheEstevenw]

I didn't need glasses at all until I was about 47 when I just bought drug store reading glasses. Eventually I bought percription reading glasses, (paid for under my health plan, please do not wait). Eventually I want to progressives, but I do a lot of reading so i keep my reading glass prescription up to date. May not be the recommended route but makes it so much easier on the neck and eyes.

[anaisrosso]

I watched this video before my progressive lenses arrived, and thank goodness I did! I had a better idea of what to expect and how to adapt. I have had my glasses for two days now, and I can see how people can get frustrated if they don’t know what to expect or how to adjust. Again, it’s only been two days for me, but using the tips and tricks in this video, I am enjoying my new glasses and having little to no issues thus far. Thank you for this helpful information!🤓

[donnaschindlbeck]

Great suggestions! I’ve been wearing progressive lenses for 20 years. I always have my eye professional adjust the frame (nose pads, temples, ear pieces etc.) for the best fit before measuring for the lenses.

[sierrastorm]

Thank you for the tips! I just got my progressive lens glasses today, and I hate them so much!!! They told me to give it 2 weeks to get used to them since I only wore reading glasses prior to these awful things. But I will keep trying not to reach for my comfortable reading glasses.

[acasey]

My tip: Watch out for CURBS!
I have had progressive lenses off and on since 3rd grade (of course back in the day they were just bifocals but I think the tips still apply). The thing that always tripped me up (literally lol) when I would switch back and forth were curbs! Going up and down stairs you know to stop and pay attention those first few days but you don't give a second thought to a little curb.

[loandy]

Excellent advice. Last week I became a first time glasses wearer at 48. It's taking some getting used to my progressive lenses. This video is very helpful.

[jaystone]

I've worn progressive lenses for more than 30 years. They've come a long way since then. I had a hell of a time getting used to my first pair, and there were times when I wanted to to take them off and throw them across the room, so there was for me a two week period adjusting to them. The older progressive lenses had a very narrow central focus, so you had to turn your head and stare directly at whatever you wanted in focus...we're talking little peripheral vision. Progressive lenses today are much better, and there is more than one way to make them too. In the last ten years, the central focus has widened. The trick is, not all optical labs are the same. My optician only selects labs he has great confidence in, and my progressive lenses have much wider peripheral vision than the older ones. Some labs either don't have the expertise to widen the peripheral vision or simply don't bother. But in any case, your first time with progressives will take getting used to. Remember that you see with your brain as much or more than you see with your eyes. For example, the image the eyes present to the brain is upside down. It's your brain that corrects what your eyes see, so you end up "seeing" things right-side up. In one to two weeks your brain will learn "progressive lenses" and everything will just fall into place and be automatic. After that you'll never have to adjust to progressive lenses again with new glasses. It's really important with progressive lenses to have new frames properly fitted to your face. As Doctor Eye Health stated, a slight change in angle or tilt can make all the difference between weird and natural vision. Even more important if you have a very complicated prescription. I would never order progressives online because: one, the lenses must be made precisely to your prescription, with little or no deviation or error; and two, the lenses may be perfect, but you may experience real problems because the frames are not fitted to your face. Even with a trusted optician, you may occasionally need one or more minor frame readjustments with a new pair. All frames are objects that need to be fitted to your individual human face.

[monikatraeger]

I tried progressive lenses a few years ago, and they drove me 🥜🥜🥜.
It would have been helpful to have had it explained to me like you did in this video. I like my bifocals so, I'm good now, but just wanted to tell you thank you for sharing these tips.

[sandycalder]

Thank you! That was helpful! it helps to take away the blame and excuses. I was switching from the simple reading glasses because the reading was merely refined but after I listened to one of the YouTube videos I was able to master my progressive glasses

[michaelcruz]

Was really struggling today with my new progressive lenses.

I thought the lenses had a problem and not done properly by the technician who made these lenses for me.

Happened to come across this video and it really helped me understand these concepts of progressive lenses now and will have in my daily use.

I am so glad to have found this YouTube video to help me out. Big thank you.

Or I would have been in a situation where I would have thought otherwise.

[Glenda-mjhz]

Thanks for the explanation! I just needed a refresher course after getting a new pair of progressive lenses. Trying to see the computer still feels a bit wonky but I will work on it and stop wearing the old progressive lenses. I purchased the glasses from a discount store and didn't get a fitting so I will go back to the eye doctor for that.