Bifocal Contact Lenses

Today's featherweight plastic contact lenses are invaluable to many nearsighted and farsighted people. But those who need bifocal correction still cannot use them. Reason: it is useless to place a reading prescription in the bottom of a contact lens because the tiny plastic disk, resting in a shallow bath of tears, rotates once or twice a minute.

Last week Optometrist Newton K. Wesley of Chicago's Eye Research Foundation announced an ingenious solution: a bifocal contact lens with the distant-vision prescription in the center, enclosed by a surrounding area that corrects for closeup reading. Rotation therefore makes no difference. Wesley, who tried the first pair on himself, reports that 65 people who have worn the new lenses for as long as five months are enthusiastic. If they look straight ahead with eyes wide open, they see through the center lens. When they look down, the contact lens rises, so that they see through the outer circle. As they look up again, a blink slips the lens back into place.

Price range of bifocal contacts: $200 to $500 a pair.

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