I asked my retired, optometrist wife.
She didn’t have time to respond fully because she’s dealing with a plumbing hardware supplier to get a defective toilet tank replaced*, but she sent this:
Those are for adults with presbyopia and near vision. The PD is standard for average adults. If we assume people will get the right distance prescription via over-the-counter means, then who is responsible if they buy the wrong thing and get into a car accident because they couldn’t see at a distance?
I had to look it up, but “presbyopia and near vision” means you used to be able to see up close, but now you’re old and you can’t focus up close anymore. As opposed to: you’re young, but your eyes are the wrong shape.
PD would be pupillary distance, ie the gap between your two pupils. One of the things they measure when they’re ordering lenses for your glasses. As has been explained to me previously, if the PD is wrong, it’s adding prism to the lenses, and headaches to your experience.
* She didn’t retire to become a plumber. We’re getting a powder room renovated, and the tank for the new toilet arrived damaged.
Pupillary distance is more important for looking at a distance than looking at something close and eyes often have different prescriptions. Reading glasses are just magnifying glasses on your face.
Um, there’s a bit more to glasses than that.
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The target audience for the gas-station reading glasses are people aged 45+ that need something good enough to read about 30 minutes per day.
If you are near sighed you’ll probably use them all day every day.
Yeah, my prescription is + and gas station reading glasses are wearable magnifying glasses, not sufficient for “I need vision correction all day” hyperopia.
I think myopic people sometimes assume all hyperopia is presbyopia. For many farsighted people though, its literally just the inverse of nearsightedness. Like, without my glasses my instinct is to hold something at arms reach to try to read it
Nearsighted here, hate holding print away to read it. Having contacts in, gotta use reading glasses. Wearing glasses? Take them off and hold it 1" from my eyeball. :)
Didn’t get lasik after my mother told me she loved it but had to hold her book far away. Don’t think I could live with that. Plus, been waking up blurry for 50 years. Waking up seeing clearly scares the crap out of me because that means I got so drunk I left my contacts in, and that means I got hammered and probably ruined that pair. That hasn’t happened in years.
This is the thing; you can get gas station glasses and you’ll do ok, but nothing like having it dialled in professionally. Besides the risk of developing eye disease and not having it discovered early because no eye exams.
Meh, the ranges of reading glasses are pretty limited and what strength you need can differ .25 depending on optical clarity. I just try them on and find some tiny print nearby. Or, I’m usually wearing a Casio of some sort and those watches have some tiny print.
Or can you get fine-tuned reading glasses where you live? Don’t think that’s a thing in America, or haven’t heard about it.
Got glasses at 5, contacts at 12, readers at 42. Couldn’t read fine print with my new prescription. Went back, doc tossed magnifying papers in my face.
"Hey! That works!
“How old are you?”
“42.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Thought what mother fucker?!
I have no less than 12 pairs squirreled away, everywhere. Wife’s car, my truck, desk drawer, summer and winter hiking packs, overnight bag, on-the-water bag, tool shed at camp, emergency packs, bathroom sink, nightstand, on my face, in my hair, and I can never find a fucking pair. Found 10 for $1/ea. at the thrift, brand new, think I have 2 or 3 left?
If anyone reading needs glasses, lemme shill these. Never broken a pair, even after sitting on them and bending them back out. Popped a lens once and got it back in, which is amazing for glasses having the “underwire” thing, they usually break even worse. Try that with plastic rims and they’ll never quite stick well again.
Yes, they effectively block the blue end of the spectrum. No big deal outside, but nice for working on a computer or at night. (I have a 40" TV for a monitor, so blue blockers might not be such a thing for you. I am bathed in blue radiation.)
They fit my big head, comfortable, all that, hate the nose pads because I flip my glasses into my long hair like a girl and they stick. 🤬 Also, internet expensive, but about the cost of “good” drugstore glasses, still better. I’d like another set, but too rich for me ATM, gotta wait till I break or lose my crappy glasses. Got one left (of 3) after going through a couple dozen cheapos since I got these in 2022. Be perfect if they had the stretchy hinges and flat nose pads.
Some ass will accuse me of marketing. Marketers don’t cuss or say anything bad about the product. I sincerely want to give my experience on the subject. Because for me, reading glasses have been the biggest pain-in-the-ass of growing old.
Those only go up to +4. I haven’t been +4 since grade school
(Crap, back to where I can’t edit my own posts. AGAIN.)
Forgot the important bit! The optical clarity is tight, like none I’ve ever had. It’s like the difference in Foster Grant vs. $1 store specs, and they beat Foster Grant, solidly.
Got a question that may help with us all with future purchases. These are the only reading glasses I’ve ever had where I can walk around (briefly!) with them on (plus contacts). Every other sort makes me vaguely nauseous, whip 'em into my hair the minute I move again. Why?! Is there something I need to look for, some specification? Is this just the aforementioned optical clarity? The cheap shit is good enough for me to read tiny print, but I damned well can’t go to another room wearing them.
The glasses they sell for reading on store shelves are usually nothing more than magnifying lenses with frames.
I’m addition to what was already mentioned, I will say that is not like that everywhere. In Europe I can go to an optician and they will do the eye test and sell you glasses without any kind of medical prescription. I would only see the actual eye doctor if I had some medical issue (e.g. diabetes).
I suspect some of that relates to reimbursement. My insurance in the US covers my eye glasses and checkups. In Europe my glasses were not covered.
That’s what people in the US mostly do.
You are still getting a glasses prescription, but since you are purchasing from the eye doctor who examined you, the “need” for a prescription is abstracted away.
If you called and asked for a written prescription, they would give it to you
I suspect that you are correct about reimbursement.
However, when a person visits an optician or an optometrist, at the end of the visit they receive a set of specifications for correcting their eyesight back to as close to “normal” vision as possible. The catch for those specs being called a prescription is that a person cannot walk in and purchase any corrective lenses that they choose. Instead, they are limited to options that fit their specific corrections only.
Edit: not including reading glasses
Yep. You still get the measurements done and can get a piece of paper with the numbers on it from the optometrist.
Things have improved over time in the US. As someone mentioned, you can submit your prescription to an online store and get cheaper glasses that way. It used to be I had to go to an eye doctor’s office for that.
They still try to convince you to stay with them, of course. When I needed bifocals they tried to tell me I had to come in for training on how to wear them. I declined.
As is typical for the US, if you have good insurance you’re generally in good shape. I haven’t had out of pocket expenses for glasses for years, and I only paid a small amount to have laser surgery later.
Things seems to have got better! My optometrist wouldn’t give the PD, only the prescription numbers. Was so mad I quit going for a few years, but in 50 years of wearing glasses, he really is the shit. So, went back. Now I get my PD and numbers, no hassle.
And yeah, I got my last pair from his office because I had solid insurance. Still could have got glasses from Zenni for the same or less, without insurance.
Are there now better places for specs online? Have only ever used Zenni.
I’ve used EyeBuyDirect before and they were alright. It’s been a couple years tho.
Because reading glasses are very weak and are meant to account for age related vision loss which is typically mild but degenerative.
As someone with eye shape hyperopia (just the inverse of myopia), I’ve never had a prescription weak enough to get otc glasses. Hell, many of us need special lens materials to prevent distortions (and unfortunately prescription safety glasses don’t have those options and so I get fish eye from them).
Reading glasses are super useful though for when I’m wearing contacts and need to do something small and precise.
ETA: hyperopia vs presbyopia Wikipedia articles. Farsightedness is about eye shape and is just the inverse of nearsightedness, while presbyopia is age related changes to the lens of the eye reducing it’s ability to focus.
I just wear coverall safety glasses I don’t know what to call em what fit over my rx ones
I ask myself the same thing.
Fortunately, these days, if you know your diopter and pupillary distance, you can go online to places like Zenni and just order them. That’s nice - I haven’t had to get my prescription re-checked in years (it never changes).
My script used to change yearly, on a serious downwards trajectory. I was 30 and got another “bad” report and started to panic. Thought I’d be blind by the time I was 40!
Doc told me they didn’t know why (this was 1991 or so), but men seemed to bottom out at 40 and not really get worse. I’ve actually had my prescription improve a few times since 40!
Y’all, get outside more. When I was working Lowe’s outdoor lawn & garden, my eyes improved significantly. At first I was squinting at small print and price stickers, after a month I was so much better. Still carried my reading glasses in my tool belt, didn’t use them nearly as much.
I agree it’s a bit silly. One thing I was pleasantly surprised about is that you can get off the shelf prescription goggles for myopia, even for quite strong presriptions! I bought some -7 diopter correction goggles on Amazon for about $17. They work great!
?! What are you using them for? What if your eyes are different (but close enough)? I have many questions.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear…they are swim goggles! My whole life I have always been frustrated that I can’t see shit when wearing swim goggles because obviously I can’t wear the goggles and my glasses at the same time. But I’ve been swimming in these goggles and holy shit! It’s obviously not a perfect match, but I can see so well with them as opposed to not being able to see jack shit! I love it! I can finally see what is going on when swimming in the pool!
They didn’t have my exact prescription, so I went with a slightly less powerful prescription so it wouldn’t feel too strong. So like my prescription is -7.5 and I went with -7 because they didn’t have the exact number. In the past, I have had corrections where my two eyes are different (like -7 and -6.5 for example). In that case I think it wouldn’t hurt to get either a -7 pair as well, but if it was too uncomfortable you could go for -6 instead. It’s not like a perfect science because it’s not going to match your prescription exactly necessarily.
Obviously they aren’t going to have any sort of astigmatism correction either if you need that. But I mean since they are basically almost the same price as regular swim goggles, I don’t see a downside to trying them out. I wish I knew about these decades ago lol.
Readers give me a headache because my eyes are different.
The ophthalmologists in the room have spoken.
I call it bullshit. No ophthalmologist has ever gone to jail because some dude with myopia ran over two cats and a cute puppy dog. Usually, whoever is driving gets into trouble.
But let’s think for a moment. If wearing glasses that are not your prescription actually affect your prescription in some way, then couldn’t we figure out a way to reverse near-and far-sidedness? Like if you’re near sighted and then use +10 (strong positive lenses, thicker in the center) maybe that makes your eye revert to better vision. And vise versa for far sighted people wearing -10 lenses for say 2 hours per day or something.
Instead of the bull, I would love to be able to find some glasses at the Walmart that I can use because I just lost my prescription or something. If there’s a lens center position problem that too could be adjustable.
In short there’s no reason. Its just how dumb things work.
In response to your 2nd paragraph hypothetical, no, because the changes you’re describing are all forms of damage. You’d have to replace or repair the lens in the eye to revert the damage, and simply looking through a different type of external lens isn’t going to achieve that.
Exactly. So the damage doesn’t come from looking thru lenses. Thus not having minus lenses available is pure BS.
The damage comes from strain, which can be caused by trying to see through the wrong prescription of lenses (or no lenses).
Yeah but you get the same strain with positive lenses as you do from negative ones. As an example, I don’t get a prescription to use my friends telescope or to use my optical microscope. I just adjust the magnification until I can see the stuff I want in focus. Lenses are just lame telescopes or microscopes positive or negative. If you could adjust them …by swapping lenses at Walmart for example, I could find a minus pair for reading and another for driving. For driving all you need is a simplified version of the air balloon toy they use to measure your prescription. It would simply present an image set ad driving distance. Then you just swap a few lenses until you get it right.
That would leave the really important problems for the ophthalmologist. Like cataracts or retinal detachment.
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