Finally Found Something that Works! [Vision related, not dry eye]

[jackolso]

I finally solved my vision issues with dry eye. It's only taken me about 5 years of searching and trying everything I could find.

I’m 60 years old, so of course I have presbyopia also. If that weren’t enough I’m diabetic. All this adds up to eye lenses that don’t ever bend.

I wear progressives and have to have them checked constantly. Early in the morning I can read, work on the computer and see distances fairly well. I’m a plus prescription so my reading is the issue. The more I write or look at my computer screen, the worse it gets. As I work throughout the day, my vision becomes progressively worse. By early evening I can’t see much that isn’t blurry or distorted. Sometimes by dinner time, I can no longer read at all, or if I do read I have live with the blurry words. I’m normally a very fast reader, but I can’t read fast when I can’t see.

I’ve followed this forum for a long time and been a member for a couple of years. I never posted anything because frankly there wasn’t much to say that was encouraging, but this forum has been helpful. I’ve read The Dry Eye Remedy by Latkany and Reversing Dry Eye Syndrome by ******. The books were okay, but not earth shattering. I literally tried everything in them except getting my tear drains plugged. I bought a humidifier. I’ve used every eye drop known to man—literally. I tried TranquilEyes, which helped a little.

The best thing I found was washing my eyes a few times a day with a really hot towel. I guess the damp warm air and the cleaning helped. My eyes always have crust bits and pieces in them so the towels cleans those out. I also think the heat stimulates fluid flow and blood flow, which may make my lenses softer. Whether I use heat or drops, they only help for 20 to 30 minutes. Especially if I'm on the computer.

I read three newspapers every morning—the local “going broke rag”, USAToday and the Wall Street Journal. In September I read an article about a pair of glasses that had won the Journal’s Silver award for innovation. Essentially, the glasses have a lens in them that bends just like the natural lens in a human eye. In front of the inner lens is another lens that has an individual’s prescription in it. That means that in addition to your specific prescription, the focal length is adjustable up to an add of 2.75. It's the same as having a variable lens like they use in your eye doc's office to fit you with glasses.

I was really surprised and immediately thought these might solve the problem of my vision deteriorating during the day. The company had been selling these for about a year. It had taken them 11 years to develop them. In order to get a pair, you have to have a fairly new prescription so I called by eye doc and sort of forced my way into an appointment the next day. As soon as I got my script I sent it in. Unfortunately, with articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, I guess everybody else sent in their scripts too, or at least a lot of people did. Instead of the usual two weeks to get the glasses, delivery jumped to 8 weeks. I was disappointed but excited and hopeful. If you’ve got dry eye with constantly changing vision, you understand the hope thing.

The Trufocals range in price from $700 to $900 a pair. There’s only one size lens in only one shape—round. It’s 36 mm so it’s small. These guys ain’t pretty, that’s for sure. For me, with new frames and my super digitally ground progressive lenses that I normally wear, it costs me about $600 for new glasses anyway. So what's a couple of hundred more?

For $600 some people expect to look like Tom Cruise. I look more like Tom Arnold but most of the time for the $600 I can at least read a few of the words in a sentence. I had a promo code so I got 10% off, so the total on the Trufocals with shipping was close to $700. Trufocals has a 30 day, no questions asked money back guarantee. No one I talked to who has these ever asked for a refund, but it’s their policy just in case you’re skeptical. The way I looked at it, it was a no lose situation.

I waited everyday like a little kid at Christmas for these to come in. Finally a couple days ago after 7 weeks of waiting and asking my wife to check the porch for packages, they came in.

Because they arrived early in the morning, that wasn’t a good time to really test them out, but I did play with them. I also had to have my high buck optician shop fit them to my face.

When the optician was done, I looked like a geeky mafia accountant with a visor and beady-eyes in back room counting money, but I didn’t care. Not a bit. These work just like I was hoping. As my vision declines during the day, I move the slide on the glasses which then bends the internal lens just like my eye would if I could bend my own lenses. Everything comes back into focus. Unbelievable!

I’m writing this at 6:00 in the evening, and I can still see the computer screen. When I get new glasses, to test my traditional progressive lenses, I print out a paragraph in 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4 pts. Usually I can read most of the 6 pt in the morning. By night time, I’m lucky to read any of the 8 pt and most of the 10 pt. (I stopped writing for minute, picked up my test sheet, and this late in the day I can read the 4 pt font paragraph. That’s so amazing, I’m having trouble not calling up people at random and telling them how happy I am. It’s been years since I could do that. Years! I don’t mean to sound like a 16 year old kid in love who has a burning desire to write poetry, but it’s close.)

Anyway below are the links to the WSJ article, the Trufocals website and a couple of my favorite reviews. There are tons of reviews hitting the internet and youtube. I’ve only seen one whiner who must have a problem with someone at the company because they running down the concept that make these glasses work, and yet they don’t own them. Every owner I’ve spoken with refuses to part with these at any price. I feel the same way. I’ve waited too long for some relief from dry eye, presbyopia and diabetic issues.

Trufocals just changed their name to Superfocus because some marketing guru told them it was a better name. Go figure. Anyway the links explain everything.

If you give them this code when you order by phone or online SO-001153 they’ll give you a 10% discount. (There's a code ending in 698 that I've seen on the net. That one does not work because it does not belong to a real Trufocals customer, so skip it if you see it.)

Give them the code and tell them James sent you, if they ask for a name. They'll give you a 10% discount and sell me my second pair cheaper. Yes, I’m buying a second pair in case these ever break. If I had to send them in for repair, it would be like sending in my arm for a manicure and waiting three weeks to get it back. If your prescription changes, you don't need to re-purchase the glasses. The front lenses are removable so you only have to buy a new set of prescription lenses for $80 to $180 a pair depending on coatings etc.

The code works just like a coupon. I don’t know how much longer they’ll leave the promotional code out there because of the huge jump in demand based on the articles, but it’s still good as of Nov 2010. If you find your optician listed as selling these, you can give your them the code and they’ll give you the same discount.

Check these out for yourself. I’ll report back in a few more days, but so far this is the best solution I’ve found for my variable vision caused by dry eye and the rest of my eye issues. My eye doc thinks that by being able to refocus as I need to, it will cause less eye strain thus less vision drop off during the day. Of course that’s only a theory. I won’t know for awhile if that’s true, but it sounds logical. I was waiting for him to check off some billing code for logical theories shared with patients but I got lucky, and he didn’t charge me for it.

Anyway, check the Superfocus glasses out for yourself. NASA bought them for the space shuttle. And they won the Popular Science 2009 Best of What’s New Award also.

[david2404]

hmmm, call me a sceptic but...one too many links in there Jack.

[hirentherock]

hmm seems phishy...as i always find with newbies with so many links

[Rebecca Petris]

Thank you for sharing. Glad it worked for you. I don't see relevance of this post to dry eye, so I'm going to remove the links (see policy please). Our members can google it if they want more information.

[jackolso]

too many links

Those links are for people who want to check out the glasses to see if they might help with their different vision problems. Each of the links has a different perspective on the glasses and some show how they work. There are new links coming up all the time, so I'm sure they'll be more if someone google's them.

I think it's hard for a lot of people to order something that costs this much and is custom to them without ever having tried them on or seen them. I wasn't sure if they would help me initially. I called the company a dozen times with all kinds of questions before I ordered them, and the 30 day money back guarantee helped, that's for sure. I just hate to rely on those kinds of guarantee's. I just want stuff to work rather than having to send it back.

In a year or so there will be more optical shops that carry them so potential customers will be able to see them before they order. It's really hard to understand how effective they are at helping dry eye, presbyopia or diabetic vision problems until someone has a pair. Demonstrating them is a bit of problem because the front lenses are ground to each individual's prescription. My wife is a minus prescription and I'm plus so she can't put them on with the front lenses attached because they make her a little dizzy. Without the front lenses she can see how they work, but it's not the same sharp focus and clarity that I see with.

Since I've been retired, I do a lot of writing and my ability to work on the computer was decreasing rapidly. Most of the time I couldn't write effectively more than a couple of hours a day. As I said, at night I couldn't read or write. About all I could do was watch TV. It's been that way for the last couple of years. It was very frustrating and made me angry because I felt like I was losing my ability to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.

I've only had the Trufocals a few days but they have made a huge difference. I can read and write all day long again. The one thing I can't do with these is read a book and watch TV at the same time. When I look up from the book the TV is out of focus. I can refocus them on the TV, if I'm going to watch it for a few minutes before reading more. I just can't look up and down frequently. That's not a major problem given the fact that I can work again without so much aggravation.

I'm getting a second set of lenses that will give me an even wider range of focus options. The second set of lenses only cost me $79 so even if they don't solve any occasional problems like I think they will, it's not a major cost. Those aren't guaranteed, so the risk is mine.

I don't think I'll need those often but I'll have them if I do. Since getting these, my eye doc and optician have come up with an idea for a set of glasses that would allow me to read and watch the TV with both being in focus. It sounds like a bifocal when I describe it but remember my vision changes all day long so a single script doesn't do much for me. They would only work for that situation, but I'm excited to try those also. Those will cost me another $600 but again, it's worth it to get rid of another frustrating circumstance.

After seeing the Trufocals and using them a bit, my local optician is going to sign up to carry them. I go to a specialized optician that works with difficult to treat conditions, so they charge big bucks for everything but they'll make lenses over multiple times until they actually work right.

Anyway, I hope these work for a few people on here that have vision issues. I can only describe how they've helped me with my particular problems. The people in the links have other issues which I don't have.

If you feel like there's too many links, don't waste your time opening any of them. It sounds like the glasses wouldn't benefit you.

[jackolso]

Removing Links

No problem, Rebecca. It's your forum.

However, the glasses have everything to do with dry eye. Before my dry eye started I had typical presbyopia. I wore progressives.

The problems began after I retired and started spending more time on the computer doing research and writing. Of course, my eye doc speculates that a lot of my dry eye is caused by working on the computer. He is seeing a lot more of it. But it could be my age, etc. He thinks that wearing these glasses will reduce my eye strain from struggling to focus, and that will in turn cause less dry eye symptoms. I can't tell if that's true. I haven't been wearing the Trufocals long enough to know.

I don't know what caused my dry eye, but once it started it really messed up my vision. The worst symptom was declining vision throughout the day. It only takes an hour or so on the computer for it to start up. Just writing these two posts throws my eyes off and the blurry vision starts. It's a pain.

For anyone interested in reading the reviews, they can google both Trufocal reviews and Superfocus reviews. They may have problems finding a link to the Wall Street Journal article or to the one in Popular Science, but internet posts are no problem. I posted them as a courtesy.

[Rebecca Petris]

Thanks for the response. Since you've been reading here for awhile, I think you probably understand how it can appear to readers when someone who has never posted before posts a lot of links and even a promotional code. However well intended, it looks suspicious to people. This kind of thing is more likely to be well received when you've previously introduced yourself to the community and they know your story.

[jackolso]

Looks suspicious

Yeah, I noticed my post got labeled a newbie even though I've been a member for a couple of years.

I belong to a lot of forums. I don't post unless I have something to write about that actually makes a difference. There's a whole lot of people who post their opinions without regard to any facts or even logic often. So there's plenty to read without my posts. In addition, good posts take a lot of time to write, and I've been fairly busy writing money management articles for 5 years, and now for the last two years hospital management articles, so I don't have time to post much anywhere.

I would encourage anyone who thinks that what I posted is not real for any reason to completely avoid looking at the Trufocals as a possible solution to their vision problems. I've bought a lot of products based on recommendations on this forum and so far nothing has helped much, but I was willing to try anything. I even looked for a compound pharmacy that would make me a custom blend of purified cod liver oil and fish oil with the ethanol removed. That turned out to be a problem because of the special hood needed for the pharmacist to sterilize the drops. Not cheap and messy to use. (Don't put regular cod liver oil in your eyes!)

My dry eye seems to fall between stage 2 and 3. Some days it feels like it's stage 2 and other times it's worse. Even with the glasses I still have to wash the crust out of my eyes a couple of times a day. The redness doesn't bother me. My eyes don't burn or itch so that's not an issue.

The next step for me would have been to have the puncta drains closed temporarily or permanently. It may still come to that. I don't know, but at least now I can manage the blurry vision part of the dry eye. The rest of the symptoms aren't really a factor. Annoying, yes, but at least I can work and see.

One of the odd characteristics of my dry eye syndrome is my right eye is worse than my left eye. While my left eye will still be in focus my right eye will be getting continually worse. First thing in the morning they will both be about the same. Then when I sit down at the computer to write or do research for something I am writing, my right eye starts the downward spiral. In about an hour, my vision is fuzzy. Of course I take breaks but they don't seem to help much.

As my right eye gets worse, it causes my vision to decline into blurriness even though my left eye might still be fine. The Trufocals seem to help prevent that from happening and I can adjust them as my vision declines.

Drops and other stuff only give me 10 to 15 minutes worth of relief, so I've just about stopped using them. Drops are a pain if I have to use them 10 times a day. Once or twice is okay. Hot towels a couple of times a day is okay for what they are worth.

I'm going to do an experiment with a pair of progressives. My optician is going to make me a set of lenses that have a larger add in the right eye, thereby compensating for the right eye loss in vision. The issue is in the morning when my eye sight seems balanced, I may not be able to wear those. Since I now have the Trufocals, I'm not as worried about whether that will work or not because if it doesn't it appears that it won't matter. Trufocals are not progressives. The prescription lenses in them are single focus lens ground to solve the nearsightedness (minus correction) or farsightedness (plus correction). The bendable lens takes care of the changes in focus needed for driving, using the computer or reading so the lenses don't need to be progressives. In addition, unlike progressives I don't have any distortion anywhere in the Trufocal's lens. The entire lens area is in focus. That means I don't have to turn my head to see my two computer screens or when I read. That's a big deal because my neck gets tired. The disadvantage is I have to move the slide to refocus the Trufocals. That doesn't bother me, and I haven't found anyone yet that it does bother after the first week or so of using them.

The Superfocus folks (their new name) asked me to post a description of my problems on their website because they don't advertise the glasses for dry eye or diabetic vision issues, just presbyopia.

I'll take these posts and cut & paste portions into a post suitable for them.

Once again, anyone who is suspicious of my posts should stay away from the Trufocals.

One problem with any supplement for any health issue is the placebo effect. I've done a lot of research on the placebo effect, and I'm a strong believer in sugar pills if their specific placebo effect is strong enough. For example, in depression treatment, placebo's work just as well as SSRI's, which is approximately 50% of the time. In teenager's, they are superior to SSRI's. (I'm not recommending placebos for your depression so don't even think that. I'm just telling you what I've read. Your treatment is between you and your doctor.) Other supplements for non-brain related problems have placebo effects that range between 20% and 60%. In other words, the person taking the placebo sees in improvement in their problems up to the level of the placebo effect regardless of what's in the supplement. What surprised me was how often the placebo impact is equal to or better than the medication it was being tested against. Of course, the true placebo results are rarely released to the public. I think they should be printed right on the bottle so people would know what's going on with medication effectiveness. Often a drug company deems a medication a huge success if it works only a few percentage points above its placebo effectiveness.

There's an article in Psychological Science that says there's a placebo effect in vision also. The problem with the research done in the article is there isn't a defined time during which the placebo effect on vision lasts. It seems to be temporary just during the testing period.

I'll post on here if I find that any of my vision improvement with the Trufocals is due to the placebo effect. So far there's not evidence of that, but I've only been using them a few days.

[jackolso]

Astigmatism and dry eye

I just got back my corrected right lens with the proper astigmatism diopter in it. That change has really helped.

I've read several research papers that contend that astigmatism adjustments are often done poorly, and that some people are very sensitive to small changes in astigmatism corrections or changes. Based on my own experience I think that's true.

For some reason the proper astigmatism adjustments for my right eye are harder to do. In addition, my right eye is impacted by dry eye more than my left. The vision in my right eye declines faster during the day.

A couple of the articles said that small astigmatism corrections are often ignored by eye doctors and that is a mistake. When the small corrections are overlooked, it causes increased eye strain which can be substantial in some people.

Another thing I've noticed is the background color of my computer screen seems to affect how long it takes for my vision to get blurry. I think lower screen brightness with less white works better than a really bright white screen.

I'm still waiting on the corrected right lens for my Trufocals.

[msny]

I have two doctors.

One for my prescription, who also specializes in double vision
and knows a lot about dry eye. The other, takes care of of eye
plugs, and did my retinal detachment surgery.

While those glasses might be a good idea, I think finding the
right doctor who can fit you is more important. In my case
the specs had to be exact. Going to regular walk in exam
for me, would be useless.

My exams typically have taken two hours with great
results. Since I have a prisms, in both eyes
I doubt these would work for me.

I often have problems late in the day from eye strain and
dryness. I find that punctal plugs, restasis and the rice
baggy have done the trick for me just fine.

[jackolso]

msny

Here are the limitations of the prescription portion of the superfocus glasses. However, this is what I'm aware of. Things may have changed. So it's best to call them and see what's available currently. They are expanding their line of lenses and frames.

· Sphere: -12.00 to +4.00 diopter (step 0.25D)
· Cylinder: 0.00 to -3.00 diopter (step 0.25D)
· Prism: 0.0 to 3.0 prism (step 0.5Δ)

I don't know if the glasses would help you, but there's no risk for the first 30 days. You have to have a fairly new script. The better the script the better the glasses, obviously.

Initially after I got my first pair, I only put them on after I had been working for a couple of hours and my vision was starting to decline. Now I start wearing them first thing in the morning. By putting them on at the beginning of the day, they seem to eliminate more eye strain as the day goes on, which means I have better vision at night after I'm done working on the computer. (I think dry eye, CVS and declining vision are like pain. The sooner you treat it, the less treatment it requires.)

At night I prefer to read with my progressives, if my vision hasn't declined to the point where I can't read with them. If it has, then I have to use the superfocus glasses to read.

Something else I noticed is that the computer screen is much sharper with the superfocus glasses than with my progressives even early in the morning. In addition, the superfocus lenses are single vision so I can see the computer screen in focus throughout all of the lens, so I'm not moving my head so much. I have dual monitors also. The wider viewing range really helps.

My new astigmatism correction lenses were shipped on Friday, and my 2nd and 3rd lenses for my right eye are going to ship on Tuesday. I'll update when I know how those work. My second pair of glasses are due to arrive Feb 1. Those have lenses designed just for computer work. Currently my lenses allow me to drive, use the computer and read. The lenses just for the computer will only allow me to work on the computer and read down to 4 pt font. The lenses from the first pair and second pair are all interchangeable so the second pair function as a backup pair also. Since I use the superfocus glasses to work, I don't want to do without them now that I've used them.

I read the article from a link on computer vision syndrome in the Workplace section someone left under my first post. Good article. Computer vision syndrome is a big problem now that everyone is working on computers all day long and then sometimes at night too.

I'm lucky because I can afford this solution.

Happy Holidays and maybe next year, there will be new and better ways to treat dry eye.

[jackolso]

Update New Lenses

I finally got my new Superfocus lenses for my right eye. It took about 4 and half weeks to get them.

I got three new lenses this week. One was a re-grind for my astigmatism correction that the eye doc's tech messed up the first time around. Of course that makes a difference right off. The other two lens increased the sphere by a quarter to one half a diopter with the same astigmatism correction.

As I mentioned in my original posts, the Superfocus glasses help my blurry vision that is caused from dry eye which is aggravated by working on the computer too many hours a day. The glasses also eliminate a lot of eye strain. Unlike a pair of computer glasses, these allow me to refocus as many times as I need to in order for me to see the entire screen clearly. That has been a big plus for me.

With the new lenses, I've been able to bring the screen into better focus because my right eye often declines faster than my left. Because of the binocular effect between my eyes, I could refocus my glasses so the left eye was very sharp and clear but the right eye would still be off just a bit. The two together were pretty good, but not as good as if both eyes were sharply in focus. The new lenses allow me to compensate for the right eye differences. This brings both eyes into really good focus.

With an astigmatism correction, it's almost impossible to get really sharp vision correction because astigmatism compensation is not measured in the eye doc's office, it's estimated by experimentation and patient feedback. Since the focal conditions outside of the exam room are normally very different, astigmatism corrections are generally imperfect.

The new set of lenses cost me $79 minus my 10% discount, so the total was about $72. Changing lenses is easy on these glasses because the lenses with my script attach to the glasses using small magnets on the back. The system works very well and allows me to change lenses in a few seconds with the proper orientation, etc.

I ordered a second full pair of Superfocus glasses 4 weeks ago. They're suppose to be delivered at the end of January. I wanted a backup pair in case something happens to my first pair, and I also had ordered a set of lenses that are scripted for only working on the computer or reading. The script is increased by three quarters of a diopter in each eye. This gives me more adjustment ability when working on the computer and reading, but it means I can't drive or do distance work with the glasses on. For me, that's not a problem because I didn't use them for that anyway. I use my progressives for general everyday use things like driving. I don't need the extra sphere corrections right now, but when I get a new script I probably won't have to order more lenses, at least not anytime soon.

I'm happy these help me as much as they do. They've improved my life a lot. The less eye strain I have, the lower my dry eye symptoms. My vision at night is much better when I'm reading. A lot of nights I no longer have to wear the Superfocus glasses, my progressives work pretty good. I have learned that I need to start the day wearing the Superfocus glasses to keep eye strain to a minimum. Originally, I would wear my progressives to work on the computer until my vision started to decline. That isn't the best way to avoid problems. Starting with the Superfocus glasses right from the beginning works the best. My other posts explain more, if anyone is interested.

Happy Holidays and I hope others find something that works.

PS I'll post a link to this post in the Workplace section.

[spmcc]

RE: superfocus

I really dislike the look of those glasses. Only Andy Warhol could pull them off.

I'm going to wait for something like this... emPower http://pixeloptics.com/pages/electronic_eyewear.html

[jackolso]

spmcc

Yeah, the Superfocus glasses aren't very stylish. Since I only wear them when I'm working or reading, I don't care what they look like.

They look better on smaller faces. I think about half the people that have bought them so far wear them all day long and about half are situation specific users like me. Currently these are the only continuously adjustable variable focus glasses on the market. So I didn't have a lot of choices in style.

The Superfocus lens has to be round in order for the embedded movable membrane lens to stay in focus across the entire diameter of the lens. The lenses are 36 mm across so they are on the smaller side. My progressive lenses are 52 mm but they aren't round. To make the Superfocus lenses bigger, say 45 mm, the flexible portion that houses the membrane would have to be thicker, which creates weight and size issues. I guess the current shape and size is the best compromise the manufacturer could come up with.

When Pixel Optics finally releases a commercial version of their electronic lenses, I'll buy a pair. The biggest problem for me is that they are fixed focus across the range. In other words, they are static lenses at each setting. When the intermediate focal length is engaged, the sphere power is fixed. While there is some ability to vary the focal length, it is limited. Their advantage is that there is less image jump and more clear vision across the lens. Essentially these work like progressives with a larger field of vision. The small amount of power from the battery in the frame changes the refractive index of the liquid crystal film in the lens. That is an improvement over the current progressives. That is my understanding of the Pixel Optics technology.

Superfocus lenses are dynamic. That means the sphere power is adjustable from the base correction (your script) to 2.75 diopters higher. In my case, when I need a different correction in my right eye so I can keep both eyes balanced, I simply attach a different right lens to the Superfocus frames.

Pixel Optics has announced various release dates including Dec 2010, but so far they've missed them. I'm guessing they'll be available sometime between June and Dec of 2011. Panasonic is making the lenses so the lens quality will be good.

As I mentioned, as soon as they are available I'll buy a pair and test them out. Anything that can help is on my list to try.

One question for both of these glasses is their durability issues. I haven't been wearing the Superfocus glasses long enough to know the answer to that, but both seem less durable than regular progressives. That's why I bought a 2nd pair.

For the majority of people with dry eye blurry vision issues, looks are secondary to function, I imagine.

It looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of money each year on new glasses as the technology comes to the market and each company improves on it.

[Rebecca Petris]

A more appropriate forum for discussing these optical products and issues is www.optiboard.com.