Good Eyes, But Need Reading Glasses Question

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I had my eyes checked a little over a year ago, the doctor said, they were fine, but I need reading glasses, he told me to go to the drug store and get a pair.

And he’s right, so far I see just fine, except when I read, the print is small so I bought a pair of 1.25 glasses. Now I noticed those glasses are fine but 1.5 or 1.75 is a lot easier when I read.

So I bought a pair of higher magnification glasses. I guess I should get my eyes check, but sans insurance, it’s not high on my priority since my eyes don’t hurt and I see fine for everything except reading. I’m 45 years old. For the computer my eyes work fine. I can see this clearly. It’s just reading.

My question is to people like me who have good vision but need reading glasses.

How often did you require an update to your magnification. And does it get progressively worse, at least for you. Or does it slow down or stop, and eventually you get by with say 1.50 magnification for years?

I just thought I’d get some opinions of people who have good vision but need reading glasses, so I’d kind of know what to expect.

#2

I think everyone will be different, depending upon heredity and environment.

My eyes started to go at about age 42 or 43, five-ish years ago. I got prescription reading glasses that I’m still wearing at this very moment. I believe one eye was diopter 1.5 and the other 1.25. I don’t need glasses for driving or for seeing just about anything at a distance of, say 15 feet or greater.

However, for small print I need more powerful lenses now. My latest pair of off-the-shelf reading glasses are 1.75. They are great for small print, but very uncomfortable for general reading of normal stuff, like computer screens and grocery prices.

My eyes are worse now than they were 5 years ago when I first started wearing reading glasses, and will probably continue to degrade with time. I can’t imaging I’ll turn into Mr. Magoo anytime soon though.

#3

There is a condition called presbyopia that gets everybody sooner or later, usually at around age 40. This is also called accommodation failure. The tissue that controls changing focal length stiffens up over time and the eye has to work harder to go from distance to close, or fails to do it altogether. This is completely unrelated to whether you are nearsighted or farsighted or have astigmastism.

Yes, everybody’s different, that’s why all those strengths are available. I am 52 and started using 1.25 reading glasses when I was about 40. I still use 1.25 for reading, but keep a high-powered pair around (2.00) for reading really small print on various things.

#4

I’m up to 2.5s for reading and for knitting socks (damn, those are some tiny stitches), though my computer pair is I think only 1.5 or 1.75 (so old the numbers are rubbed off).

I’m 54 and have been using drugstore readers for almost 10 years. No, you don’t need a doctor’s appt. just for reading glasses, but when you’ve got insurance again, get your eyes checked for general health reasons.