Tri Focal lenses in childs glasses?

Question

My dtr's eye doctors has given her trifocal lenses. The doc said it helps the eyes improve. She has always worn single vision before this. I have been searching the net but can not find this theroy anywhere. Please advise if this is true. My dtr is now 12.

ty,

Diana

Answer 1

When you have bad eyesight, nothing is going to "improve" your vision but good corrective lenses.  Wearing glasses, trifocal or otherwise will not cure bad eyesight.  I suggest a new eye doctor.  He just got you to buy more expensive glasses for no reason.

Answer 2

At her age, it will not help her eyes improve, it will train her to see through trifocals.  If she doesn't have serious vision problems beyond corrective lenses, take her to another doctor for a second opinion.  Trifocals could do her more harm than good in the long term.

Answer 3

As a child, I was somewhat far-sighted. Puberty even knocked my vision out of whack! At 12, my doctor prescribed bifocals (trifocals hadn't been invented) until my eyes settled down. Now I'm near-sighted.

Are you seeing an optometrist or ophthalmologist? The first is an eye doctor who can prescribe corrective lenses. The second is a medical doctor who can perform surgery and dispense prescriptions in addition to prescribing corrective lenses.

If you're not seeing an ophthalmologist, I strongly urge you to do so. If you are seeing a specialist, you need to have him explain this change more fully or get a second opinion. I know the cost is greater but you're dealing with your child's vision.

OR, if you live someplace close to a major university with an ophthalmology department (IUPUI in Indianapolis comes to mind), take your child in for a screening there.

There is another possible way to handle this situation. Many adults wear contact lenses for regular work and put on glasses to aid their distance vision. This might not work for a child since adults usually use this to aid driving.

You're to be congratulated for taking such fine care of your daughter's sight. Keep up the good work, Mom!

Answer 4

It's not widely done, and there are different versions of the underlying theory, none of which have achieved acceptance up to the "mainstream" level.

And I've only ever seen it done with bifocals, not trifocals or varifocals (Did you actualy mean tri-focals: three distinct visible portions to each lens?)

The less controversial usage of bifocals in young people is where there is a tendency to overconverge the eyes for near work..

There, providing a reading addtion to whatever distance correction is required, +or - , can reduce eyestrain and promote the development of stable binocular vision.

At some point eye exercises might be found beneficial as well.

The other usage depends on the belief that excessive accommodating (focussing effort) for close work can promote, accelerate, short-sighted Rx changes.

The idea here is to give a reading portion to the lens such that the eye makes little effort for reading (considerably less than a normal eye has to.)

Some sources stress the importance of this near portion being accurately aligned, as well as focussed, for near.  This often requires the use of a type of lens known as a "prism-controlled bifocal" rather than an ordinary bifocal lens.

There is not just one approach or theory being used in this area, so it's not easy to cover all the variations, but I've never heard of a trifocal or varifocal being employed, and I can think of reasons for that.

Those practitioners who work this way tend to be firm believers, and there is anecdotal evidence of the effect in some cases.  But that can be said of so many things which "ain't necessarily so".

Is this a new step forward in eye treatment, or one more example of optimism over reality, or even "quack science"?

As far as I'm aware, it's not made it through to being taught as orthodoxy in optometric or ophthamological training.

(unless things have changed appreciably in the last 3 years)

Optometrist, retired.