Biofinity toric multifocal for the high myope

November 30, 2020 6:54 PM

Aging eyes have meant the end of contact use for me, because my combination of serious astigmatism and severe myopia (-6.5/-9.5) has meant that there were no mass-market multifocal lenses for me. I understand that CooperVision has recently released a toric multifocal in a range that seems to include my prescription. Has anyone with a similarly wonky pair of eyes tried these? Are they comfortable? (In early days I used monthlies and wasn't thrilled with their comfort over time.) Easy to get used to?
posted by praemunire to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

My prescription is not near as strong as yours; I just have astigmatism in both eyes and slight macular degeneration. But I have been wearing the Biofinity toric lenses (but not the multifocal) for about a year and a half and I think they’re really comfortable. Caveat: this is my first contact; I used to just wear glasses or suffer. That being said, they’re super nice until the last few days of the month when they get pretty itchy to me. Even with my allergies, I only have to use regular old eye drops maybe once or twice a day, and I wear them from about 7 AM through 10-11 PM.

Apologies if not helpful.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 7:18 PM on November 30, 2020

Not as extreme as you, but I have -4.25 in both eyes and I've worn the Biofinity Toric for years. I really love it, way more comfortable than any other contact I've tried.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:33 PM on November 30, 2020

My eyes are pretty wonky (I do have toric lenses) but not as wonky as yours. That said, I was incredibly dubious about multifocal contacts until I tried some. Holy cats, they actually work! My multifocals come in dailies, which I love.
posted by cooker girl at 7:08 AM on December 1, 2020

I have a very similar prescription as yours and wore the Biofinity Toric for many years. Very comfortable and probably my favorite contacts (if such a thing is possible). Over the last few years I’ve really wanted to move to dailies because of the hassle of cleaning. Like you, I’ve found most of them to be pretty horrible, just uncomfortable and not good for actually correcting my vision. However, I did recently start using the Acuvue Oasys toric dailies and am pretty happy with them. Not as comfortable as the Biofinity but much, much better than any of the other daily torics I’ve tried.
posted by scantee at 6:35 PM on December 1, 2020

Response by poster: I was using the Oasys toric dailies before I developed the need for multifocals and I was reasonably happy with them. Alas, there was only a brief window in between my being able to afford contacts and my needing progressive lenses. Unfortunately, it seems that only the Biofinity toric multifocals are (or might be, I haven't confirmed with the optometrist yet) made in my prescription. It's them or nothing (except maybe expensive custom-mades), at least for now. Just trying to figure out if it's worth the time, FSA money, and leaving the house in the pandemic to try them now.
posted by praemunire at 7:40 PM on December 1, 2020