I have mixed opinions about the use of plus lenses.  My recent forum reply to a plus related comment sums up my position fairly well:

I’m not a huge proponent of plus in general. For kids and prevention, yes. For professionals who need insane distance vision, yes. For those who need a lot of stimulus to make progress, yes. 

Generally, for the large majority of myopes, with the standard lifestyle (lots of close-up at work, not much outdoor time, a lot of playing on smartphones and TV), not so much. If you’re just looking for 20/20, not needing glasses in generally all conditions, it’s just not a necessary component in a lot of cases.

He says, adjusting his plus lenses while writing this post.  ?

Plus is one of those things that’s got as many downsides as potential benefits. If you’re headed towards presbyopia, plus is risky business. You might substitute plus close-up for an extra hour of outdoor time, the latter of which would be more beneficial and give you better than equal results compared to plus use. But knowing you can just grab plus and work another hour, I’m not the biggest fan of. It’s also more lenses, which I generally like to get away from when there are natural focal plane alternatives. The whole thing of where we love to reach for some kind of tech, a product, a “solution”, I try to limit that reflex. Instead find that internal space, taking that breath, accepting a real world, appreciating it (ommm shanti, Jake). You want that good vision to go see good things. 

If you like the plus, you’re getting stimulus, use it. If it’s experimenting, you like to try something new, it’s cool and curious, by all means. Use it. Above is just a bit of additional perspective. 

As always, don’t go monkeying with lenses, unless you really know what you’re doing.  An open minded (and actual science minded) optometrist is always a potentially handy guide in this process.  

Semi-related, some thoughts on “plus lens therapy”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4k30dbjSc0

For those who get all huffy when I poke at plus lens therapy:  It’s  all not to say that plus lenses are bad.  It’s just potentially misleading to refer to a focal plane stimulus based approach by a specific lens type.  Great way to confuse people, and it’s also far too lens-centric of a thought process to make me feel comfortable.  What helps your eyesight is strain reduction and positive stimulus.  The kind of lens you may or may not need for this, secondary (and different for one person to the next).  

Cheers,

-Jake