Point your nose at what you want to see. Also, smaller lenses don't work as well.

So, I went to the ophthalmologist earlier this year and got my annual eye exam, which showed I needed new glasses. (I wear distance and close up glasses. I hate bifocals and trifocals with the fire of 10,000 suns.) But then I foolishly took my prescription for new lenses to Lenscrafters. I say "foolishly" because the result was the inability to read except by holding things an quarter inch from my nose.

So, then I finally did what I should have in the first place and had the optometrist at Lenscrafters check my vision (versus my eye health) and create a prescription, which worked fine.

These days, optometrists seem to do the best job with creating lens prescriptions. It is something they do day in and day out, and they are good at it. While ophthalmologists are wonderful people and great at assessing eye well being, they are not the best at figuring out what glasses prescription you'll need.

P.S. This time, get reading glasses. And distance glasses. And switch them out. It sounds clunky but it works very very well.

I've been wearing progressive trifocals for many years now and, yeah, initially getting used to them is a royal pain. I've gone through the "re-positioning my head to find the sweet spot" thing and, if it's still happening a week and a half later, there may be something amiss with the lenses. It happens.

The last time I got new lenses, I could never find the sweet spot for anything near to mid range. I had headaches, too. So, I went back to my optometrist and she re-examined me and checked the lenses. Finally, she tried one more test and discovered that the lab had added prism to my prescription for some reason. They had the lenses re-made and all was well.

I also had it happen that an optometrist, unknown to me, had removed all of my astigmatism correction in my prescription. I'll never go back there.

Years ago, I did glasses for sitting at my monitor, and normal glasses for everything else. Personally, I found it to be a huge pain.

Yeah I've been trying to "get used to them" and not switch back to my readers but a few times I've broken down. Especially when I'm in front of the big computer, and it's like I have to turn my whole head left and right to read a line of print. Gonna go check tomorrow at optometrist and see if they need some fine tuning position-wise or lens-wise.

On the other hand I'm loving the new frames. Shuron Ronsir Zyls! Just like Malcolm X and also every stereotypical nerd or conservative 50's guy you've ever seen in a movie.

I just got a new pair and they are larger than my old ones. What a difference! Small lenses just don't work for multi focal.

Small lenses just don't work for multi focal.

Yeah, this is an important observation. Progressives really don't work well in the more fashionable narrow frames. The sweetspots are simply too small. Those Shurons, though, look plenty big enough to have a comfortable progressive lens.

chococat...When you were first examined for these, did you explain, in detail, your work situation with your computer? And your normal reading distance? A good optometrist would ask, but if you're going to a big chain (like Lens Crafters) they may skip it. My optometrist is an independent, and she's very aware of my use needs, and makes sure my script fits those uses.

Anyway, when you go back, make sure you're very vocal about how you have to search for a focal point. Move your head around to show your optometrist what's going on.

Varilux has a new progressive lens that greatly improves side-to-side focus. It's called the S Series. You might ask about those, too. They're more expensive than their standard progressive lens, though. I've work Varilux lenses for years and love them, but haven't been able to pop for the new version.

Thanks, Thorzdad.
Yeah the Shurons are pretty big so that shouldn't be an issue.
Independent optometrist, been there 85 years. He did ask all the questions and I told him I'm on the computer a lot and also do lots of cooking so I need to see knife work clearly. He's suggested progressives as the best option for me, instead of having to switch pairs all the time.
I'll definitely mention all this stuff again though.

Measure how far from the screen your eyes are. That will give the doc an idea of how your script needs to be written.

I've been struggling with progressive lenses for a couple of years now but haven't been able to afford new ones. I've had the same trouble finding a 'sweet spot' for many things. They work fine for reading, including my computer screen but are crap for anything else. There's a tiny section right at the top that works for distance, but it's way too small. Hoping to get a better pair now I can afford it, but really don't want to have to go down the path of multiple pairs of glasses.