If you can see so well, why were you getting glasses? Sounds like a bunch of money down the drain to buy glasses when you can see fine.
They don’t need to dilate your eyes to check for basic function. You can check someone’s visual acuity, pupils, pressure, refract them (test for glasses prescription), and do an anterior segment exam without dilation. The dilation is so they can see your retina well, and it’s in the retina that you’ll find signs of diseases that can blind someone. People our age can and do have things like retinal detachments, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, even in some cases macular degeneration. It’s less common than in older people, but it does happen.
Seriously? Every drug store sells reading glasses for about $15 a pair. Target sells them, Costco sells them in sets of 3. They may not have the scratch resistant or anti-glare coating you can get from “real” eye-glasses, but many people my age have a couple of pairs around. Did you consider these? Because it sounds like they would handle your eyesight issues, without the Optometrist involved.
For years, and I mean 10-15 at least, my eyes didn’t change one bit. Then I went back and found out they had gotten much worse. Don’t be surprised, especially with looking at the computer all day, if your eyes don’t suddenly just go south rather quickly.
I don’t think the actual exam is a scam (I never get my pupils dilated with my annual eye check-up, though, but they also do a computer scan - maybe one has replaced the other), but I think the glasses are. I made an error in judgement and bought my glasses from my optometrist, and paid about $1000 for them. Then I got a pair online for about $50, and there is no significant difference between them - last time I ever buy a pair NOT from an online store.
Now, can you guys convince my husband to get his eyes checked once in a while? He has better than 20/20 vision at 42, but the need for glasses isn’t the only thing they check for, and he just won’t go.
I just bought glasses today and was marveling at what a racket it was. The total came to about $460 but they just randomly gave me $100 off- I don’t even know why. The only reason I got new glasses (aside from sort of needing them because mine are an outdated Rx) was because I had $325 in flex money about to expire at the end of the month, so I only had to pay $40 out of pocket. I was amazed at how expensive the glasses were, and that they could cavalierly just knock $100 off. I suppose I could have gone to Target or something but I had that chunk of money that I pretty much could only spend on glasses, contacts, or prescriptions.
But I love my eye clinic because the contact tech was in Lipps Inc. He has platinum records on the wall. How cool is that!
fancy frames make glasses expensive. safety glasses are required in many occupations, frames are made in huge quantities for these, get these low cost quality frames and you will save money.
I live in Australia, where we have evil socialist health care. Eye tests and spectacles prescriptions are covered. In other words, I pay nothing for that.
Sadly, the specs themselves are not covered, though it is possible to get low cost subsidised specs if you qualify.
I paid quite a lot for my regular specs from a local store, but I also got a few backup pairs and some prescription sunglasses from various online places. The quality of the lenses from the online sellers is comparable to the expensive locally made ones. I wear my sunglasses all the time, they’re great.
The eye checkup is still a good idea, but as long as your eyes aren’t wildly different in terms of reader prescription needed, I agree with the above. Even the ophthalmologists I work with suggest drugstore reading glasses for the average person who needs them.
Don’t confuse “optician” with “opthalmologist.” The former simply determines what, if any, lenses you need to correct your vision. The latter can do that part, but can also diagnose and treat eye diseases and disorders.
For most people, their corrective lens needs stay pretty much the same from early adulthood until middle age. At that time the dreaded presbyopia may start to occur, causing one to need reading glasses. Or, as in my case, trifocals.
As others have said, however, the older you get, the better idea it is to see an opthalmologist every couple of years or so. You cannot know if you have glaucoma, for example, until it’s probably too late.
If your optometrist fronts you the cash for your glasses and exam, then each week requires you to pay the vig on the initial loan, well that’s a racket.
Actually, an Optician is someone who is trained to fill eyeglass prescriptions. They will (or should) measure you to make sure the frames you have picked out are suitable for the lenses you need and for your head/face/pupil size, etc, will do physical adjustments on eyeglasses and other activities.
An Optometrist determines what you need to correct your vision, will do pretty thorough health check and writes prescriptions for lenses (eyeglass, contact, etc) and some drugs. Optometrists also often fill the optician role at small practices.
An Ophthalmologist is an MD and can do all of the above plus surgery and prescribe the really good drugs.
I got contacts late in life; my simple myopia & advances in contact tech made them easy to wear. But they interfered with my close vision, which is still good. So the optometrist suggested I get readers at the drug store–for when I’m wearing contacts.
Bust I still mostly wear regular glasses–especially since I found a cheap source for cool frames. I just take them off for reading & computing…
