We are specialists in varifocal lens fitting — both spectacle lenses and contact lenses — across five practices in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.
A significant number of our patients come to us specifically because another optician has told them that contact lenses are not possible for their eyes. Too high a prescription. Irregular cornea. Dry eyes. Previous failed fittings. We hear these reasons regularly. In the majority of cases, we find a way — through more thorough measurement, a wider clinical toolkit including rigid gas permeable lenses that most practices do not offer, and the patience to work through the fitting properly rather than stop at the first difficulty.
If you have started holding your phone further away to read it, or you need your glasses just to look at a menu, or you are switching between two pairs depending on what you are doing — you have presbyopia, and you have more options than you may have been told.
Most patients arrive believing glasses are the only answer. Many do not know that varifocal contact lenses exist, or that they could wear both — glasses some of the time, contact lenses the rest — depending on what their day demands. That balance is something we help patients design every week.
Around the mid-40s, the natural lens inside the eye gradually loses its elasticity. When you were younger, it changed shape rapidly to pull near objects into focus. Over time, that flexibility goes. The condition is called presbyopia — not a disease, simply a normal part of ageing — and it affects almost everyone eventually.
The result is that different optical power is needed for distance and for reading. Glasses manage this with separate zones or separate pairs. Contact lenses can achieve the same thing — one lens, all distances — but fitting them well requires considerably more clinical skill and time than a standard lens fitting, and most opticians are not set up to do it properly.
The most common thing we hear from new patients is that they assumed they had to pick — glasses or contact lenses. They did not know they could have both, or that many people with presbyopia find a combination works far better than either alone.
A patient who wears varifocal glasses at home, and varifocal contact lenses for work and evenings, gets the best of both. The glasses are there for comfort and convenience. The lenses are there for the situations where having nothing on your face matters — meeting rooms, exercise, social occasions, anything where glasses feel like a barrier.
We help patients design that balance. It is not about selling two products instead of one. It is about understanding how you actually use your eyes across a typical day, and making sure the optical solution fits your life — not a generic prescription.
Varifocal spectacle lenses correct distance, intermediate, and near vision within a single lens — no visible line, no switching between pairs. Modern varifocal lenses are significantly better than they were even ten years ago, with wider usable zones, less peripheral distortion, and faster adaptation.
We offer varifocal spectacle lenses across three tiers — Standard, Premium, and Advanced — using Hoya technology at the premium and advanced levels, including Integrated Dual Surface technology and Binocular Harmonisation Technology. The lens we recommend depends on your prescription, your visual demands, and what you have found frustrating about varifocals in the past.
Patients who have struggled to adapt to varifocal glasses elsewhere almost always tried a standard or basic varifocal. A premium or advanced lens, fitted with the correct measurements, is a fundamentally different experience.
Varifocal spectacle lenses start from £229. Full details of our lens range are on our spectacle lenses page.
A varifocal soft contact lens contains multiple optical zones within a single lens — typically a central near zone, an outer distance zone, and a transition between them. Your brain learns to select the appropriate zone for what you are looking at, and most patients adapt within one to two weeks.
We work primarily with Bausch and Lomb as our preferred contact lens partner — their multifocal range, including the Ultra Multifocal and Total30 Multifocal, consistently delivers the clinical results we expect for our patients. The Total30 Multifocal is particularly effective for patients with dry eye tendencies, using a water gradient technology that maintains comfort through a full day of wear.
For patients with higher prescriptions, significant astigmatism, irregular corneas, or a history of unsuccessful soft multifocal fittings, there is a second type of varifocal contact lens that delivers substantially better results — and one that most practices do not offer.
A rigid gas permeable lens — RGP — is a small, precisely engineered disc that sits on the surface of the eye. Unlike a soft lens, which drapes and conforms to the corneal surface, an RGP maintains its exact optical shape regardless of what the cornea does underneath it.
This matters enormously. A soft lens distorts with every blink, with every variation in tear film, with every subtle irregularity in the corneal surface. An RGP does none of that. It creates a stable, consistent optical surface in front of the eye — and for varifocal correction, that stability translates into a clarity of vision that soft lenses simply cannot match.
RGP lenses are custom-made to a precise specification for each eye. They are replaced annually. Adaptation takes two to three weeks as the eye adjusts to a firm lens on the surface — after which the vast majority of patients are not aware of wearing them. Patients who found soft varifocal lenses blurry, inconsistent, or frustrating frequently find RGP varifocals a completely different experience.
A spectacle prescription is the starting point — but it is only a starting point.
When a lens moves from the spectacle plane — approximately twelve millimetres in front of the eye — to sitting directly on the corneal surface, the effective optical power changes. For modest prescriptions this adjustment is small. For higher prescriptions it becomes significant, and using the spectacle prescription directly produces a contact lens that does not correct your vision accurately. We calculate the true contact lens power for each eye individually.
Beyond the prescription itself, we take a series of measurements that determine which lens design we select — and why:
The optical zones in a multifocal contact lens are concentric rings, each handling a different focal distance. The size of your pupil — which varies between patients and between lighting conditions — determines how much of each zone your eye actually uses.
A patient with a naturally large pupil in dim lighting may find that their pupil extends beyond the distance zone into the near zone at night, creating halos or ghosting around lights. A patient with a smaller pupil may not activate the near zone sufficiently for comfortable reading. We measure pupil diameter in different lighting conditions and select a lens whose optical zone geometry matches what your pupil actually does — not what an average pupil does.
This single measurement is something the majority of contact lens fitting appointments never include. It explains why the same lens works well for one patient and poorly for another with an identical prescription.
The base curve of a contact lens must be appropriately matched to the curvature of the cornea for the lens to centre correctly, move correctly with each blink, and deliver the optical performance it is designed for.
For soft lenses, standard keratometry gives us the corneal curvature we need for initial lens selection. For RGP lenses, we take a full corneal topography — a detailed digital map of the corneal surface, capturing its curvature across thousands of points. This map is the foundation of the RGP fitting. It tells us the precise geometry we need for the back surface of the lens, how the lens should vault the cornea, and whether the corneal shape presents any challenges that require a specialist lens design.
Patients with keratoconus, post-refractive surgery corneas, or any corneal irregularity require this level of assessment before any lens selection is made.
A contact lens sits in the tear film, not on a dry corneal surface. If the tear film is insufficient — either in volume or in quality — the lens will not move correctly, will deposit rapidly, and will cause discomfort and blurred vision within hours of fitting.
We assess tear film before any fitting, and where we find dry eye we address it directly. We run a specialist dry eye clinic across all five practices. Many patients who have previously been told they cannot wear contact lenses because of dry eyes have found, after appropriate treatment, that they can. We do not skip this step.
Most people have a dominant eye — one that the brain preferentially uses for distance information. For certain multifocal lens designs, knowing which eye is dominant influences the prescription balance we apply across both eyes. We assess dominance as part of every multifocal fitting.
We work with Bausch and Lomb as our preferred contact lens partner, and that relationship goes beyond simply stocking their lenses. We have direct access to their clinical support team, their full trial lens portfolio across all parameters, and their fitting guides for complex prescription ranges. When a case falls outside standard parameters, we have a clinical resource to draw on that a practice ordering from a catalogue does not.
The Ultra Multifocal for Astigmatism and the Total30 Multifocal for dry eye patients are lenses we fit regularly and confidently. We know how they behave at the edges of their prescription range, which patients they suit, and when to try something different.
All of this comes before we fit a trial lens. The fitting appointment is where we start. The review appointments are where we refine. And the final result is a lens selected and adjusted based on the specific anatomy of your eyes — not fitted off a standard chart.
Patients with straightforward presbyopia who simply want to reduce their dependence on reading glasses. Patients who wear distance glasses and want the freedom of not needing reading glasses on top. And patients who have been told by other practices that contact lenses are not possible for them, for any of the following reasons:
We will not tell you something is impossible before we have assessed you properly.
Specialist contact lens fitting is not a single appointment. It is a clinical process, and the time it takes is directly related to how well the lenses work in the end. We make no apology for that — because rushing it produces lenses that do not work and patients who give up.
A full clinical history, a detailed assessment of your prescription and corneal health, tear film evaluation, and a thorough conversation about how you use your eyes and what you want from contact lenses. For RGP fitting we take precise corneal topography measurements. This is the foundation of everything that follows.
You are fitted with the most appropriate trial lens for your prescription and corneal profile. We assess the fit and optics in practice before you leave. You then trial the lens in real life — driving, working, reading — and report back.
Varifocal lens fitting typically requires two to three review appointments. Each one refines the prescription and fit based on how your eyes are responding. For more complex cases this process takes longer. We do not declare a fitting complete until the vision is right.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard contact lens fitting | £75 |
| Complex fitting — RGP, irregular cornea, high prescription, post-surgical | £150 |
| Soft multifocal — monthly supply | from £29/month |
| Soft multifocal — daily disposable | from £45/month |
| RGP varifocal lenses — custom made, replaced annually | from £180/pair |
| Standard varifocal spectacle lenses | from £229 |
| Premium varifocal spectacle lenses | from £329 |
| Advanced varifocal spectacle lenses | from £429 |
The fitting fee covers your full assessment and all review appointments until the fitting is complete. You are not asked to commit to a lens supply until we are confident the lenses are right for you.
“Three opticians told me my prescription was too complicated for contact lenses. After four appointments at Abra & Co I was fitted with RGP varifocals. My vision in them is better than in my glasses.”
“I tried soft varifocals twice before and gave up both times. The RGP lenses are completely different. I wish someone had offered them years ago.”
“They were clear that it would take several appointments to get right, and it did. But they never made me feel like it was too much trouble.”
“I’m in my 60s and had never worn contact lenses. I assumed it was too late. It wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know you could wear contact lenses some of the time and glasses the rest. I wear lenses for work now and glasses at home. I wish someone had suggested this years ago.”
No. Many of our patients wear both. We design your fitting around how you want to use contact lenses — full time, for specific activities, or as a complement to glasses you already have.
High prescriptions are where the difference between soft and RGP lenses is most significant. Soft lenses have prescription limits; RGP lenses are custom made and handle prescriptions well outside the range of any standard soft lens. We assess each case individually rather than applying a blanket limit.
Dry eye is a contraindication for contact lenses when it is untreated. We run a specialist dry eye clinic and treat many patients who go on to wear lenses comfortably after treatment. If your dry eye is significant we address it first. If it is mild to moderate, the right lens choice often makes it manageable.
In most cases, patients who found soft varifocal lenses unsatisfactory were fitted without pupil diameter measurement, without dominance assessment, and without a lens specifically selected for their corneal profile. RGP varifocals, which most practices do not offer, frequently succeed for patients who found soft multifocals disappointing.
During the first two to three weeks, you are aware of a firm lens on the eye. Most patients describe it as an awareness rather than discomfort, and it reduces progressively during adaptation. After adaptation, the majority of patients do not notice them during daily wear.
For straightforward soft multifocal fitting — three to four appointments over six to eight weeks. For complex prescriptions or RGP fitting — longer. We give you an honest estimate at your assessment.
Yes. Daily disposable lenses are designed for exactly this — open a fresh pair when you want them, dispose of them at the end of the day. No storage, no cleaning, no minimum commitment.
Within the first twelve months, a prescription change is covered by your fitting fee — we refit at no additional charge. For RGP lenses, minor changes can sometimes be accommodated with a lens adjustment rather than a full refit.
Post-refractive surgery corneas can present a challenge for soft lens fitting due to the altered corneal shape. RGP lenses, fitted using corneal topography, handle post-surgical corneas well — the rigid lens vaults the surface and delivers consistent optical performance regardless of its shape.
Keratoconus is one of the conditions we see regularly. RGP lenses are frequently the lens of choice for keratoconus patients because the rigid surface vaults the irregular cornea and creates a smooth optical surface the cornea itself cannot provide. We fit keratoconus patients for both single vision and varifocal correction.
No. We have fitted patients in their late 60s and 70s who had never previously worn contact lenses. Age is not a barrier. The relevant factors are corneal health, tear film quality, prescription, and motivation to adapt — all of which we assess at your first appointment.
Contact lens fitting — £75 standard | £150 complex and RGP
Spectacle lens consultation — complimentary
Middleton · Cheadle · Heald Green · Winsford · Heckmondwike
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