They are progressive lenses. I think there is something wrong with the left lens. It tends to distort a bit on the outer edge.
The thing is, since these are my first pair, I’m not entirely sure if they are actually messed up, or if my mind is just playing tricks on me.
My unscientific way of testing this was, I took off the glasses, held them at arms length looking through them at the script on my tv screen.
The script “arches” when looked at through the lens in this manner. The arch in the left lens is clearly different than the arch in the right lens. So, I’m guessing the screwed up.
Is that most likely the case?
Remember, this is my first time dealing with prescription eyeglasses.
It’s possible to have very different prescriptions in each eye. The right lens in my glasses is quite a bit thicker on the outer edge than the left one.
Progressive lenses can also take a bit of getting used to.
However, if you are still in doubt, you should go back and have the optometrist or his/her assistant take a look and see if they are sitting at the right level on your face.
You mention they’re progressive, but I want to clarify that you’re also saying it’s your first time wearing glasses every, right.
Glasses always feel ‘wrong’ when you first get a new pair. I’m sure progressives are worse and even more so if you’re getting used to wearing glasses at the same time. It’s only been a few hours. I’d give it a few days and see if you start getting used to them and then run them back to the store and have them take a look, but going from nothing to progressives might take you a good week of wearing them nearly all day to get used to them.
I’ve been wearing glasses for 25 years and even just bumping up my script a little bit takes me a day or two before I’m convinced they’re actually right.
Another thing, does the top half have a prescription? If they’re only bifocals you could pick up some cheaters that use the same prescription as the bottom half (or just try them on at the grocery store/Walgreens) just to see how they compare.
I have astigmatism, and every new prescription makes it look like the ground is curving away from my feet. Very disorienting, but perfectly normal, and you get used to it in a day or two.
My first pair set me off to! I was ready to return them, I swear!
But it turned out that they take some getting used to AND if they aren’t fitted just right they seem all wrong. A slight mistilt, not sitting in the right spot on your nose, the smallest thing can make the biggest difference!
In my experience each office has one person who is gifted at getting glasses fitted just right for even the fussiest customer. Find out who that is and make an appointment. (They won’t be surprised by your experience, don’t worry!)
I’ve been wearing glasses over 40 years now. For single-vision lens changes it takes me less than 24 hours to get used to them, but when I first switched to progressives it was a solid week before I really got used to them, and going down stairways took even a bit longer than that. So, an adjustment period is normal and typical.
Yes, give it a week or two. Progressives are notorious for being distorting for peripheral vision, anyway. It took me a solid week to adjust when I first got progressives from single-vision, and two to get used to stairs. You have to give your brain time to adjust to what your eyes are seeing. It’s a lot different from what they’re used to!
Trifocal progressives, first time wearer. It could take you weeks to get used to them. If ever. Never for me. Not willing to go through the pain. They’re solving three problems, actually four: Three vision problems and one vanity problem. There are compromises. Lots of people can do it. But I truly doubt that it’s your glasses. It’s the way they are. Like my Mom’s $3000 hearing aids. They help, but they don’t exactly do what you thought they would.
QFT, and something that neither the ophthalmologist nor optician bothered to mention when I got mine. Once I researched the issue I was more than a bit perturbed that it was not mentioned, especially since I had specified that I would be wearing them primarily while driving. A bit dangerous to turn on to a busy road with screwed up peripheral vision. As others have said, though, your brain will adapt.
The deal with progressives and the “get used to them” advice is that there is actual science behind it that not many people explain properly. Your brain actually learns to compensate over time for the side distortion picked up by your eyeball. It can take a few days for some people, a few weeks for other people.
I’ve had progressive reading glasses for a few years. Once they’re properly fitted and your brain has adjusted to them, they’re great. But I think getting to that point is such a hassle, I will probably go back to standard glasses next time.
My first glasses were progressives, and it took me a week or two. Stairs were especially tough, since looking down through the “reading” portion to see the stairs and my feet was not what my brain was expecting to see. I also mis-timed walking around corners, clunking my shoulder on the edges of walls.
Grrr!, you wrote that you were holding your first pair of glasses at arm’s length when you noticed this distortion. The lenses weren’t intended for use 24" or so from your eyes. Put them on your face and see if you notice the distortion.
Bottom line: It’s unimportant. Don’t worry about it. If you want something to be confused about, as I’ve gotten older, my nearsightedness has improved. The last time I renewed my driver’s license, just for the heck of it, I took the vision test without wearing my glasses. For the first time ever, I don’t have to wear corrective lenses when I’m driving now.
I first needed glasses when I was ten. I spent an hour outside walking around, marveling at how crisp and clear everything was. I had no idea.
Not this pair, but the pair before (Visionworks, yuck, never again) I put them on and it was WAY messed up. Immediate headache inducing. The guy tried to tell me I had to get used to them but I knew from my experience wearing glasses that new glasses NEVER affected me like this.
He checked the right lens, it was fine. I closed my right eye to look through the left lens and it was the blurriest it could possibly be. They’d messed up on the prescription. I had to wait another two weeks.
On top of that, they didn’t tell my husband the frames he’d picked out were not strong enough to support the thickness of the lens he would need. They chipped and cracked less than three months after we go them, and they told us, “Too bad, so sad, yeah, that’s the wrong frame, the guy who fitted you no longer works here, on your way.”
Me too. I just picked up my new pair yesterday. The prescription changed just slightly, and I didn’t wear them home because I didn’t want to drive with them on, a change like that gives me motion sickness until I get used to it.
That said, I have two pairs of glasses with the exact same prescription. The eyes are shaped differently in each, and when I wear one pair for a long time and then put on the other it takes a bit of time to get used to them. I think it has to do with one set of lenses being a different size from the other.
I had a similar experience. After using readers for a few years, I got my first pair of ‘real’ glasses at age 56. They were progressive trifocals. My vision was fine mid-distance, but needed correcting at near and far levels.
They literally made me nauseous the first few days. Taking the stairs while wearing them was tricky, heck, even walking was tough. I nearly fell on my face stepping of a low sidewalk curb!
I stuck with them, swapping them off for my former readers when the nausea got too bad. It took about 2 weeks before I could successfully walk or drive with them on. But I did. Now I’ve been wearing them for 4 years and have only required one minor lens adjustment. I do dread when my prescription changes again, but I’m positive it won’t be as bad as the first time.
I’d advise hanging in there for a few days and see if you feel any better about the glasses. If not, then go to your eye doctor and have them evaluated.
I was a kid when I got my first glasses. Everything was much clearer, but I nearly fell down stepping off a curb. I got used to that in a few days, and I got the same thing every time I got a new prescription. When I got presbyopia (damn you, Rev. Taggart!), getting used to bifocals took a week or so. The doc joked about aerobic reading and seniority stripes.
When it was time for trifocals, they talked me into progressive lenses. They just didn’t work for me. When I raised my head enough to get something in focus for the right eye, it was blurry in the left, and vice versa. Good to their word, the shop switched me back to the stripes at no charge, and everything was fine.
The ads talked of people embarrassed by bi- and trifocals, but that was never an issue for me. I got over being embarrassed by glasses when I was a little kid, and the seniority stripes were just another pair of glasses.
Some people take a few hours to get used to glasses. Some a few days. Some a couple of weeks. My brain refuses to deal with it – I get seasick and can’t do stairs – so I wear contacts. If you never do find the sweet spot with your new specs, you can look into bifocal contacts + reading glasses, or some other combination like that. Best of luck.