A question about adjustable focus lenses came up again in the forum, today.

The idea here is that you can buy a pair of glasses, that are not a fixed focus, but instead can be adjusted.  So depending on how much correction you want, you can increase or decrease the strength of your glasses.

A number of companies make them, like SuperFocus, EyeJusters, or Ad Lens.

Superfocus - Adjustable Focus Lenses

Superfocus – Adjustable Focus Lenses

Great idea, at least in principle.

The question on whether to use adjustable focus lenses for myopia rehabilitation is a recurring subject, both in e-mails and occasionally in the forum.

Here is my general opinion, posted in the forum response:

quotesThere is technically nothing wrong with adjustable focus lenses.

But, I don’t like them.

For one, the optical quality is  lower, than a traditional lens. And optical quality is very important.

Also, I find that you get much more stable improvement, by being ‘forced’ to stick to a specific, static prescription. It adds too much confusion to keep adjusting the focal distance, as well as physical distance. Measurement logs get more complex. You don’t feel the same reward as you do when you start consistently get a bigger distance, with your static lens.

All that said, some people like it, and it does work for them.

There is a lot of compromise and shortcut (and cheating opportunity) in that approach, though. Your eyes slowly adjust to rehab, so you really don’t need an actual change / reduction more than once every month (or every few months, further on). The only reason to adjust in the interim, is for lowered distance – which should really just be seen as too much strain, poor lighting, etc. rather than having a lever on hand to just change the focal distance.

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Note that I am not against adjustable focus lenses.  If you have a strong preference for them, and they just work better for your lifestyle, by all means, use them.

Be sure to keep track of what you are doing in your log.  Of course this adds some more necessary detail to your log – but to have a history of changes, you will need to include the used focal distance along with your centimeter results.

If you are not getting the improvements you are looking for, switch back to static lenses.

In general, remember the ground rules for prescriptions.  We want to avoid all complexity that we don’t need.  The glasses are a temporary clutch, to get us clear vision, but with the opportunity to challenge our eyes just a little bit.  A static lens prescription fits this task perfectly.

Meanwhile, if you do use adjustable focus lenses and are enjoying them and getting good improvements, do share your findings.  I don’t want to become the old man, opposed to change and new ideas!