Is wearing bifocals or progressive lenses (trifocals) not good for you if you don't really need them?

Question:

I have severe myopia (-7 diopter) and I asked my eye doctor about bifocals. so I got new glasses with the prescription -7 and +2.25 for the add power (this cuts back the power to about 4.75 for close up) so because of this the lense inside my eye doesn't have to accomodate when I have to do close up work, meaning the muscles in my eye don't have to work as hard. Is this in any way harmful to my eyes, possibly making the muscles lazy? (since I don't really need the add power, it is just for comfort) Will this have any harmful effects on the muscles? could it possibly cause them to get adapted to not working hard and therefore make it so I actually need the bifocal?

Answers:
I am in a similar position; I use 'reading glasses' for close-up work to make my contact lenses 'weaker', since my contact lenses are my distance lenses. My understanding is that it indeed makes the muscles work less to help reduce near-point stress...it is the near-point stress that makes it more difficult for us to focus. Using the 'reading glasses' regularly seems to make my distance vision sharper. As for whether using them makes it a 'crutch' for close-up work, making the eyes lazier...I would say no because you are exercising your eyes when you focusing on near and far without your bifocals during other times of the day. But this is a great question to ask my ophthamologist (say if you used it for ALL close-up focusing)...let us know if you find out anything else.

I would say YES!

Is wearing bifocals or progressive lenses (trifocals) not good for you if you don't really need them?

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