Can you wear reading glasses with contacts?

It might sound counterintuitive to ask yourself “Can I wear reading glasses with contacts?” but the reality is that wearing both contacts and reading glasses is common among older patients who need vision correction to see from a distance and are starting to show signs of presbyopia. It’s one solution to deal with multiple refractive errors that some people may develop in their eyesight during their lifetimes.

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Can you wear contacts and glasses at the same time?

Yes, it’s ok to wear glasses and contact lenses at the same time. People with multiple refractive errors may wear contacts to correct their farsightedness and choose to wear glasses when they need to read. However, while this is one route people can take to improve their vision, it can become bothersome for some people to have to carry around glasses with them all the time.

Luckily, this is not the only option for people who have multiple refractive errors in need of correcting -- there are other solutions, such as multifocal contact lenses, which are specifically designed for people that need vision correction both at close and distant fields of vision.

For people who wear contacts to improve their farsightedness, multifocal lenses are the best contact lenses to start wearing for reading. Multifocal contacts are designed with a gradient of different prescription powers to help the eyes transition focus from distant to close up vision. The convenience of multifocal contact lenses is that you can wear them for extended periods of time without having to take them out, unlike reading glasses, which you have to put on and take off when you need them. See how long you can wear contacts for before you need to take them out.

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What about bifocal contact lenses?

Contact lenses with bifocals, similar to progressive glasses, are a specific type of multifocal contact lens that provides for two different powers, improving sight at a distance as well as up close. Similarly to glasses, bifocal contacts are most often used to correct for distance as well as for reading. Multifocal lenses also improve sight in different fields of vision, but also potential correction of vision at intermediate distances, while providing a smoother transition between them.

Both multifocal and bifocal contact lenses are produced by the biggest brands and so they are available in daily-, weekly-, and monthly-disposable options, making it easy to order contacts online. You can also use your insurance even when ordering contacts online, just choose your lenses, insert your insurance information and pay the out of pocket fee!