For many years, I wore CooperVision CV 43 FW (flexible wear). I have been told I have a "steep cornea," and many standard contact lenses are uncomfortable for me and/or make my eyes painfully sensitive to sunlight. The CooperVision flexible wear lenses were thin enough to be comfortable, but thick enough to be easily handled. One pair lasted me at least a year. (I cleaned them nightly and used an enzyme cleaner once a week.)
Now, in my late 40s, single vision lenses don't work for me. I tried Baucsh and Lomb Purevision Multifocal, and found them uncomfortable after about 8 hours, and my eyes were overly sensitive to sunlight when I was wearing them. I explained the problem to my eye doctor, and she fitted me with Acuvue Bifocal lenses. I am getting decent vision correction with Acuvue Bifocal. I still need reading glasses for reading in low light, but I can read most things when lighting is good, and the lenses definitely take care of medium-range (3-4 feet) correction. (My motivation for not going with single-vision lenses and reading glasses is that I was no longer seeing clearly in the 3-4 foot range with single-vision contacts.)
With Acuvue Bifocals, my vision also seem a bit prone to cloudiness, maybe because the lens is actually folding in on itself while I'm wearing it. I sometimes have to remove the lens and reinsert to get rid of the cloudiness, much more often than I ever had to do with my beloved CooperVision lenses.
Acuvue Bifocal lenses are MUCH thinner than the B&L multifocals, but so thin that they are very difficult to handle. If you put a lens on a finger that isn't completely dry, it will invariably turn in on itself. Dry your finger, then you have lint. (I usually wipe my finger on my shirt or on my other hand to try to avoid getting lint on my finger.) It's also very difficult to tell when the lens is inside out. I think the "123" on the lens is meant to let you know if the lens is right side out, but my eye doctor's fitting person didn't tell me that.
I've been wearing Acuvue Biofocal lenses for just a month or so, and I tore a lens this morning. That happened maybe twice in many years of wearing CooperVision flexible wear. If I hadn't been wearing contacts for 30-plus years, I would have thrown the Acuvue Bifocal lenses away in frustration long ago.
I definitely wouldn't recommend these to first-time contact lens wearers or someone who isn't HIGHLY motivated to wear contacts. For people who do not require lenses that are thinner than normal, there must be other lenses that aren't so difficult to handle. (For those who need a thin lens and only single-vision correction, I highly recommend the CooperVision lenses mentioned above.)
Note: this same review somehow showed up in the section for Acuvue 1-Day. This review applies to ACUVUE BIFOCALS.
