I am slightly nearsighted (20/30 on my left, 20/40 on the right) and I have a pair of glasses that I keep near my bed so I can read the menu on the tv. But they’ve recently broken, which means I’ll have to go to the eye doctor and get a new pair that will probably set me back a $100-200 or so, plus the inconvenience and cost of the appointment.
So here is my question: why can far-sighted people buy mass-produced reading glasses in varying prescriptions at the drug store for $10, yet near-sighted people have to go to the optometrist to get their glasses? IOW why don’t/can’t they mass produce glasses to correct myopia too? I realize some myopic people have additional complications like astigmatism that must also be corrected, but can’t they mass produce some glasses for the teaming millions that simply are slightly nearsighted? Or is there some complex reason why this can’t be done?
Do you have your prescription? Because that would be a first step.
Eyeglasses with positive prescriptions can be bought cheaply because they can be bought without a prescription. If eyeglasses with negative prescriptions could be bought in the same way they would be just as cheap. It has just been accepted that older people can get by with eyeglasses which mey no be a perfect fit but are “good enough”. This is probably because they only use the eyeglasses momentarily for reading and have noticed they could borrow each others’. Note that simple reading eyeglasses have the same prescription on both eyes and only spherical correction, no cylindrical.
Near sighted people on the other hand tend to use their eyeglesses most of the time and would want a better prescription fit. If they have slightly different prescription in each eye and/or astigmatism, they would want that corrected. But there is no inherent reason why eyeglasses for near sightedness should be so expensive except that they have become designer items, where you are paying more for the frame than the lenses and then you are getting luxury lenses with tinted windows, power steering and all the crap.
I have been buying my eyeglasses in China for many years now and I pay only a small fraction of what it costs in western countries. It seems a great part of Chinese people wear eyeglasses and they could not afford to pay western prices.
Also, you can’t use the drugstore glasses for driving. That would be my main concern, someone driving with glasses that are a bit off, or correct one eye, but the other eye is still off (which may cause double vision, depth perception problems, making them keep that eye closed while driving, or them getting annoyed and just taking them off altogther).
Actually, the glasses you buy in the drugstore are for presbyopia, not far-sightedness. If you actually need a different power for each eye you need a prescription, even for presbyopia. You’ll find that the lenses in drugstore reading glasses cannot be easily removed and interchanged.
Also, when at my local scuba shop recently, I noticed that you could buy negative diopter swim goggles for near-sightedness without a prescription. A very welcome change and perhaps a sign of better things to come.
In your case, take your glasses to the optician that you got them from and ask for repair of the frames (presuming that’s what broke). You should come out much cheaper than what you seem to be anticipating. If your prescription is less than 2 years old, you can order new glasses online or go to an inexpensive optician if you want or need new frames and lenses.
Oooh, this reminds me. A while back there was a thread about colored/Halloween contact lens. While checking out the site, I found that you could get them in your prescription, you could even get them in clear. Now, they were quite a bit more expensive then regular lens, but it seemed odd that at this one little corner of the internet, you could buy contacts with no script (or even a measurement).
Contact lenses are more critical in fitting because besides the power you need an additional measurement which is the radius of the curvature of the cornea which is not needed for normal eyeglasses. So I can’t see how they can sell contacts without any kind of prescription or measurement.
And, I have met several people with broken eyeglasses who could not afford to buy new ones and I am always amazed how clumsy people are and how little handy with things because I always managed to make a repair which might not have looked the best but returned the frame to usable condition and they could use them again. A little practice, a little glue and a little patience do wonders.
Another thing not mentioned is that even if you knew your exact prescription in diopters, changes in the back vertex distance (the distance from the lenses to your eyes) will cause changes in the power that you require. This doesn’t make much of a difference to a one or two diopter myope, but it can make a significant difference as the prescription amount increases.
Additionally, if the interpupillary distance is wrong, you can have unwanted prism, which can be very annoying and even cause you to see double in some cases.
At least if you buy glasses at an eye doctor’s office or an optician’s office, these things will (hopefully) be taken into account during dispensing, and corrected if the values are off.
There’s nothing wrong with buying glasses online, but problems tend to be more likely as the prescription increases. People with higher prescriptions and high cylinder will have less margin for error. And no, I wouldn’t really want to drive on roads where people are routinely using non-prescribed glasses for their distance vision! As Flex727 pointed out, those drugstore glasses are used by presbyopes, for reading, and are best for people who either don’t have a prescription for distance, or wear contacts to correct for distance.
Of course that’s true. On the other hand, most people with vision below 20/20 have had a while to get used to their particular level of visual perception. I’d wager a guess that someone whose vision becomes 20/30 due to a new pair of slightly-off spectacles that he dons right before getting into a car is more likely to get into an accident than someone who has been 20/30 for the past 10 years.
And of course, that’s not taking into account problems due to unwanted prism, which wouldn’t affect your distance Snellen acuity at all but could lead to problems with spatial awareness/depth perception.
Well, any complex prescription, positive or negative, would require a visit to the optometrist. But that is not really the question asked in the OP. I think the question is why do they sell simple eyeglasses, with only spherical correction, no cylindrical, up to 3 or 4 diopters, only for positive corrections and not for negative corrections. And I agree that it is a valid question because many people with very mild myopia could probably get by with standard eyeglasses without needing anything made to order. Anyone with, say, under -2.5 diopters, less than 0.5 difference between eyes and less that 0.5 astigmatism (which covers a huge segment of the population) could benefit from cheap eyeglasses with equal strength in both eyes.
I have worn eyeglasses all my life and I have to say that they try to make you believe all this is more critical than it really is and that you risk losing your precious eyes unless you follow their advice. In fact I have noticed that the prescription is not something set in stone and which varies along the day and with tiredness etc. So .25 or even .50 up or down is not a huge deal. Similarly with Astigmatism. I always had between .25 and .5 and I really did not notice that much difference between correcting it or not but at the store they always wanted to sell me the astigmatism because it made for more expensive lenses.
One significant problem is that people are much better at self prescribing the power needed for presbyopia, just by reading, than the power needed for myopia because myopia happens in younger people who still have adpative capability and they tend to overprescribe which means the eye would be in constant work. I think this is the main problem. people would choose prescriptions which are too strong for them not knowing the are too strong. This does not happen with old people who have presbyopia.
Go to Glassyeyes Blog and check out the links to retailers on the left. You can pick up a pair of prescription glasses starting at $8. No lie.
I’ve ordered about 10 pair from the retailers listed there and have been very happy with the service and quality of my glasses. All you need is your prescription and PD. You can measure your PD yourself, there’s information about how to do that on the blog.
Probably another reason eyeglasses need a prescription is the lobbying interests of optometrists. I have seen the progress in some states and countries where any eyeglasses , eye contact liquids etc can only be sold by licensed profesionals who watch out for your health and take a big cut. Then people are allowed to buy reading glasses and saline solution at the drugstore and unsurprisingly people do not start going blind.
One thing I like about China is that in the store they will test and prescribe. The person doing it is not very qualified, certainly not by American standards, but they do a good enough job and the do not charge except on selling the eyeglasses. And If I tell them my opinion they listen to me. And when I say I’d like a diopter more or less they happily oblige and do whatever I want. Whereas western optometrists would consider it an insult that I would even have an opinion when they are the know-it-all experts.
The whole thing is overrated because I have been doing my own prescription for years now. I have one of those cases with 200+ lenses and I can test prescriptions for hours, under different conditions, etc. I have got prescriptions in the store which later did not work out well whereas with this system I can be sure I am getting the best all around prescription.
On the other hand, only an idiot would buy eyeglasses on the Internet not being sure of the prescription. Chances are he’ll get something useless. But it is his money.
Your doctor is required by law to give you a copy of your prescription if you ask for it. The websites that sell prescription glasses do not require a copy of the prescription - you just type in the numbers for OS/OD, Sphere, Cylinder, etc. So you need to know your prescription, but there’s no legal requirement that you have a prescription before you can order.
Can’t move the tv closer since it’s built into the wall, and there is no way I’m getting out of bed to read the menu due to laziness, so I’m off to buy an extra pair from that website (thanks, XJETGIRLX).
FWIW I also keep a pair of prescription sunglasses in my car so I can read road signs. In my state (California) I do not need corrective lenses to drive (the cutoff is 20/40) but I honestly can’t read the signs without my glasses.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Very educational.
