# eyeglasses: why prescription? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 18, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955 "2016-10-18T17:08:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![doctorjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@doctorjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctorjohn)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/21 "2016-10-19T09:58:16Z")
Drugstore glasses are “reading glasses”. They are just 2 magnifying lenses attached together with a bridge for your nose and arms to stretch over your ears. They are not balanced to anyones individual eye. They are exactly the same as the magnifying glasses we used as children to set fire to paper on a summers day. If you have normal balanced vision and as you get older , when your lenses get stiffer, you will have difficulty focusing close ip. It is gradual, and you will only need reading glasses when your arms become too short or you borrow someone else’s reading glasses and have an epiphany, and give up being in denial that you need them for reading. You do not need an optometrist , or a prescription for this situation, and over the counter ten bucks reading glasses are perfect. Just keep trying the different strengths until you can read, whatever you want to read , at the distance you want to hold it from you. This is not false economy, but rather stopping yourself being a mug. For all other eyesight queries, visiting the optician/optomotrist/ophthalmologist/family doctor is the thing to do. That is being sensible and not being a mug. If in doubt, get a professional opinion, and if it is only a need for reading glasses, you will not need to return for reviews, just buy the glasses in the drug store / petrol station. If in doubt contact a professional. If not in doubt then DIY. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/22 "2016-10-19T11:02:21Z")
Even if cheap reading glasses are fine for you, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need an eye exam every couple of years. The exam can show up other diseases like diabetes that may not have caused vision problems. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/23 "2016-10-19T12:16:05Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Don’t be silly; people have already posted plenty of reasons why prescriptions are needed. Yeah, those are good reasons for people to voluntarily get their eyes examined and get a prescription. And when you have a stable prescription that hasn’t changed in decades, you’re denied the right to re-use your prescription. The lack of choice is a reduction of your freedom, and these policies are a direct result of rent seeking. > [@](#): > > They also can keep you from getting a full eye exam. You don’t know if you have macular degeneration or glaucoma or cataracts or other eye problems unless you see a doctor for them. Even if you use reading glasses, you should have your eyes checked for anything like that. Agreed, you should have your eyes examined, but you shouldn’t be coerced into it. People with good vision could have many of these problems but yet never have them detected because they don’t see an optometrist. Should we now force these people to see a doctor because you think it’s a good idea? > [@](#): > > Or just go blind. It’s your choice. Yeah, choice is all I’m asking for. But unfortunately, I need a current prescription by a rent-seeking member of AOA in order to get new glasses. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/24 "2016-10-19T13:27:18Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The glasses you buy in the drugstore are all meant to correct farsightness or presbyopia. But most young people who wear glasses need them for nearsightness. Aside from the relevant points made above, you might argue that wearing the wrong prescription while reading is a smaller concern than driving with the wrong prescription! That’s what I was going to say. People with myopia (or bad astigmatism) driving with the wrong prescription is a public safety issue. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/25 "2016-10-19T16:11:05Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Heh. I’m blind in one eye. The optometrists call it a balance lens, and I really don’t know how much of a price break I get. Perhaps you could get a prescription lens fitted into this [item](http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/store/004060.php). ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/26 "2016-10-19T16:16:31Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I remember a charity about ten years ago that sent people’s old glasses to needy folks in the third world. The idea was that glasses picked out of a bag that were close to your prescription were better than no glasses at all. > > I haven’t heard about it since. I assume that’s because “close enough” just doesn’t cut it for glasses beyond basic Walgreen’s readers. Every year my optometrist and several peers make a trip to a fairly impoverished area in Africa where they do eye exams and make a ‘best effort’ fit with the year’s recyclyed glasses they’ve brought along. Efficient? Cost effective? Probably not, but they help a lot of people ---
**Author:** ![ashtayk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@ashtayk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashtayk)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955/27 "2016-10-19T16:28:51Z")
I think the question is not whether a prescription is a important to get the right pair of glasses, but rather why does a retail establishment require it. As long as the glasses are made to spec (see? - the puns keep coming) why should the establishment care? I don’t buy the danger to driving bit, because that is tested by the licensing authority - you cannot read the chart, you don’t get a license. I also don’t buy the bit when people say that wearing wrong glasses can be harmful to your health. At worst you can get a bad headache from the eye strain. But how is that different from getting a stomach ache from wearing too tight jeans (apparently not uncommon) or deformed feet from wearing heels or badly fitted shoes. I rail against this because every time I go to buy glasses I am asked for a recent prescription. And my prescription has not changed for a few years now. Why do they care??? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyeglasses-why-prescription/768955.md?page=1)