Lenses · Reading and close work
This is a guide, not an eye test — any change in your vision is an examination first.
Almost nobody arrives at this question because of a number. They arrive because of a routine they have stopped noticing — a pair pushed up onto the head, a phone held a little further out, a second pair kept by the kettle. The routine is far more useful to us than your age, because it tells us what your close vision is already costing you, and whether one lens or two is the more comfortable way to carry it.
The clue
These are the behaviours the Lens Profile asks about, in the same words it uses. None of them is a problem on its own. Together they are usually the honest answer to “when did this start?”
Usually the first one. The glasses come off for a menu, a label or a phone, and go back on for the room — a dozen times a day before anyone calls it a pattern.
The tilt of the head that says the bottom of the lens is not carrying the job any more. It is quick, it works, and it is easy to do for years without mentioning it.
Two pairs, two places, and a running tally of where each one is. Some people are entirely happy with this; others are quietly tired of it.
Holding the phone or the paper a little further out to bring it into focus. Arms are a fixed length, which is generally how the habit gets noticed.
The reason these are worth saying out loud is that people rarely report them. They are adaptations, not complaints — which is exactly why they get left out of an eye examination unless somebody asks.
The honest sequence
First
Whether you need a reading addition at all — confirmed before any lens. Small print getting harder in your forties is usually a prescription question before it is a lens-design one, and the two have completely different answers. We settle that before naming anything.
Then
Once the addition is known, the decision is about your day, not your prescription: whether the on-off routine bothers you, whether you would rather carry one pair, whether there is a task that deserves a lens of its own. That part is a conversation, and you get a say in it.
Never
The Lens Profile deliberately caps this answer at “worth discussing” rather than letting it read as a strong recommendation, because a reading-addition decision is never strong from a questionnaire. The tool is built to hold back here on purpose — it is one of the few places where it refuses to sound more certain than it is.
Assessment first — When the honest answer is a check before any lens: a reported change in vision, distance clarity on the road, someone who wears nothing yet, an area we can see but cannot size, or several answers you were not sure about.
Adaptation, honestly
Most of what people mean by “getting used to varifocals” is the brain learning where the clear part of the lens is. How long that takes depends less on which design you were sold and more on whether the fitting height, the corridor and the frame depth suit your face and your habits — which is why we measure those rather than assume them.
Frame dimensions and fitting heights measured for this design; corridor length chosen for your frame depth — 10, 12 or 14 mm. Your adaptation history taken into account. And fitting review after you collect — adjusted or put right if needed — if something is not sitting right, that is a fitting appointment, not a shrug.
Some people never settle with a single lens, and we would rather find that out with you than talk you round. If that is you, option one on this page is still available and still honest.
The honest negative
Another reading pair — “You already have and use reading glasses; we would review those rather than add a pair.”
That is the Lens Profile’s wording, word for word, for people whose reading glasses are already doing the job. A pair you use is evidence, not an obstacle — so the sensible first step is to check the prescription in them against your current one, rather than to add a third pair to the pile.
Both can be right, and your age does not decide it — the routine does. If you take your glasses off, look over the top or swap pairs a dozen times a day and it has started to grate, one lens is worth discussing. If separate pairs suit you, keep them: first-varifocal variants: some people genuinely prefer separate pairs — we would not push you into one lens. Either way the reading addition is confirmed first.
Age on its own is not a reason for or against. From about 40 most people need some near support eventually, but when and whether a single lens is the right way to carry it depends on your prescription, your close work and how much the on-off routine actually bothers you. We would rather ask those three things than count birthdays.
Yes, and sometimes that is exactly what we would suggest. Then we keep separate pairs. Some people genuinely prefer them, and the profile says so on the card. We would review the pairs you have rather than push you into one lens.
It varies, and it depends as much on the fitting as on the lens — fitting height, corridor and frame depth all change how the first weeks feel. Your adaptation history taken into account before the design is chosen, and fitting review after you collect — adjusted or put right if needed. Our journal guide on adjusting to varifocals sets out what to expect week by week.
STOTTS. Lens Profile
Three minutes about reading, screens, detail work and the habits you have stopped noticing — and we will show you which of the three options we would discuss, or say plainly that the pairs you have are fine.
This is a guide, not an eye test — any change in your vision is an examination first.
