Contact lenses aren't just for the main types of vision impairment such as long sightedness or short sightedness, they are also available for when the wearer need help with seeing things that are both close at hand and far away. Optometrists know this condition as presbyopia. With this condition you need two types of visual help this is accomplished by having, in effect two different types in the same single set of contact lenses.

Some contact lenses achieve this by having a direct separation between the two different components. This is a very simple approach to the problem and is preferred by many as it gives a clear separation of the two types of visual correction. The advantage of this is that there is no indistinct part of the lens. You are either looking through the shortsighted part, or the long-sighted part. The disadvantage of this is that there is no transition between the two, the wearer is looking either through one or the other.

The second kind of bifocal contact lenses are lenses that do not have a clear line of separation between the two types, and rather a progressive changing of the prescriptive powers of the contact lenses from close vision to far vision assistance. Some wearers find this preferable to standard bifocal contact lenses because there is a more natural progression between the different characteristic of the two sections of the lenses.

There are a wide variety of Bifocal contact lenses available. Soft lenses and rigid gas permeable contact lenses can both be ordered with a standard bifocal prescription. A lot of people find the soft lenses are more comfortable to wear and not so hard on the eyes, especially when wearing all day, at the office for example. And many wearers prefer then for this reason.

The new gas permeable bifocal lenses also known as RGP or rigid gas permeable lenses are much more comfortable than the old hard bifocal contact lenses. Some people whom have tried them believe that although not as comfortable as the other variety they do actually give a clearer vision than their soft counterparts.

Also available on the market now are disposable bifocal contact lenses. These are a very convenient way of avoiding the daily tasks of soaking and cleaning the standard reusable contact lenses. There is no cleaning involved, you simply take then out of the eyes at the end of the day and throw then away. The next day you simply use a new pair. There are many companies now supplying these and the prices, after considering the higher purchase cost and ongoing costs of cleaning materials etc, are not too much higher than their reusable counterparts.

Some people who are considering bifocal contact lenses worry that the lenses will be positioned incorrectly on the eye giving the wrong part of the prescription for the thing looking at. But if positioned correctly from the outset this is not really a problem as the contact lenses will normally center themselves giving the correct visual assistance to the eye and the appropriate prescription for whatever the wearer is looking at.

It is even possible to get prescription contact lenses for many formally uncatered for conditions such as astigmatism. As well as the now standard bifocal contact lenses it is now possible to get lenses for more difficult eye conditions that require a more varied refocusing such as trifocals.

Occasionally it can take a while to get used to wearing bifocal contact lenses. Sometimes the vision may seem blurred or indistinct. It is usually worth persisting and these problems usually fade quickly and the wearer wonders how they ever coped without them.