# Why do I need a prescription for eyeglasses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 13, 2015, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549 "2015-04-13T06:06:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NinthAcolyte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ninthacolyte/32/13676_2.png) [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/21 "2015-04-13T18:47:36Z")
You can definitely order prescription glasses online with an ‘expired’ prescription. It’s usually a lot cheaper than getting them at a store, and they often accept your insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/22 "2015-04-13T19:05:16Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > How about the person you run over because you can’t see well enough to drive? If only there were vision tests when you got a driver’s license. Oh, wait a minute. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/23 "2015-04-13T19:18:04Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > If only there were vision tests when you got a driver’s license. > > Oh, wait a minute. No way that eye sight can change between the years required to renew your license. That never happens. ETA: In my state it’s 8 years. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/24 "2015-04-13T19:19:30Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > If only there were vision tests when you got a driver’s license. > > Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, I did a vision test at the DMV when I got my license. Do you know how many times I’ve had the DMV check my vision since then? Zero. Do you know how many prescription changes I’ve had since I first got my driver’s license? _Significantly more than zero._ ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/25 "2015-04-13T19:27:01Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > If only there were vision tests when you got a driver’s license. > > Oh, wait a minute. I went thirteen and twenty years between eye tests with several changes of Rx in that time. I was past the limit for not requiring glasses for ten years before it was caught. I was driving with glasses the whole time, I knew I needed them. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/26 "2015-04-13T19:59:08Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > No way that eye sight can change between the years required to renew your license. That never happens. Yeah, and then what? You can drive for four years or eight years or 20 years with old glasses and shitty vision, and no one will stop you. But god help you from getting a backup pair of glasses made even if your vision is still fine if your exam was 15 months ago. I have progressive lenses and getting a new prescription is a huge pain. No matter how long they examine me, the vision is never perfect at every distance, and most of the time I don’t like the new prescription as much as the old. But every time I bend or break or lose or scratch my glasses I have to go through the same dance, because another year has passed. I hate it. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/27 "2015-04-13T20:13:23Z")
The state of Georgia prevents you from being sold glasses unless you have a prescription in the last year. When I ordered glasses online from Warby Parker, they required you to upload your prescription if you lived in GA. So, no, you can’t necessarily use an expired prescription. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/28 "2015-04-13T20:24:35Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Yeah, and then what? You can drive for four years or eight years or 20 years with old glasses and shitty vision, and no one will stop you. But god help you from getting a backup pair of glasses made even if your vision is still fine if your exam was 15 months ago. Your license says you are legally required to wear prescription lenses while driving, if your prescription has expired you are not wearing prescription lenses. I’m fine with a legal benchmark for vision required by licensed drivers, and think the government has struck an acceptable balance making it a requirement without involving themselves too much in the process. Don’t like it? Call your congressman. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/29 "2015-04-13T20:34:22Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Your license says you are legally required to wear prescription lenses while driving, if your prescription has expired you are not wearing prescription lenses. Are you suggesting that I’m breaking state law by driving more than a year after my last eye exam? Has anyone been ticketed for that anywhere, ever? > [@Sitnam](#): > > I’m fine with a legal benchmark for vision required by licensed drivers, and think the government has struck an acceptable balance making it a requirement without involving themselves too much in the process. > > Don’t like it? Call your congressman. Driver licensing requirements are set by states. This whole tangent started when somebody suggested that we need laws on opticians creating glasses to weed out unsafe drivers. My point is that driver licensing requirements are a _better_ way to do that than optician regulation. If people who wear glasses are going 20 years between driver vision tests, they _shouldn’t_ be. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/30 "2015-04-13T21:14:44Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > The nanny state doesn’t believe you know enough about vision to detect when you need a different prescription. For some people, that makes sense. For others, including me, it’s ridiculous. When I was 12 or so, my parents and I (and my sister, but she don’t count) took a trip to the United States. We did the whole West Coast, from L.A. to Seattle. Somewhere along the way (don’t ask me where exactly that was, I was twelve fer chrissakes) we had dinner at this hole\_in\_the\_wall dive, and since this was an edumacational trip and all my parents quizzed me on the various signs and posters around the room, see if I could ream them or understood them. Dad pointed to a sign above the door to the loo, which was across the room, and said “what’s that say ?”. I squinted and… nope, no letters. Just mush. I spent an embarassingly long time trying to make him understand that no, no, it’s not that I didn’t grok what was written,\* I saw no letters whatsoever on the bright white rectangle.\* Joke’s on dear old Dad though : last week they figured out the reason he’d been having blistering headaches over the past few years was that his glasses had become three diopters off. WHO CAN’T READ NOW, DAD, HUH ?! Long story short : that’s when we found out that I couldn’t see fuck all beyond ~3 feet. Which, in retrospect, explained why I’d always move closer and closer to the TV over the course of an evening. Or why I held my books inches away from my nose. Or why I sucked in school. **I** sure never noticed I couldn’t see anything whatsoever. Long story shorter : no, \*\*you \*\*can’t figure out when you need new glasses because changes in vision typically happen incrementally over a looooong period of time, with your brain trying (and failing) to adjust all along the way but trying (and succeeding) to tell you everything’s FINE. Long story shortest : get a fucking clue that’s not beamed in from Fox News, man. Who uses the words “nanny state” in earnest ?! ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/31 "2015-04-13T21:31:18Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > “We will verify your prescription with your doctor” > > My doctor is in the Czech Republic while I get my glasses in the USA. There is no way they are going to call my doctor in Europe to check with the Czechs. 😃 Sadly, fewer and fewer businesses accept Czechs nowadays. Cash or credit every time. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/32 "2015-04-13T21:43:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I strongly suspect that the reason they refuse to fill expired prescriptions is that, if they did so, they’d have too many people complaining, “These new glasses you made me don’t work right; I want my money back!” when in fact it was their eyes that had changed. I go along with this answer . I guess the doctor could have the person sign a disclaimer so they can’t complain about the glasses ‘not working’. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/33 "2015-04-13T21:51:32Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > I guess the doctor could have the person sign a > disclaimer so they can’t complain about the glasses ‘not working’. The goggles ! They do NOTHING ! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/34 "2015-04-13T22:46:58Z")
Specific laws will obviously vary by jurisdiction, but in terms of opticians enforcing expiration requirements that they make up themselves, it’s obviously all CYA, as already said. The justification about vision with regard to driving doesn’t make sense in most cases because most jurisdictions don’t require regular vision tests on license renewal. The last time I had a vision test for my driver’s license, the license was chiseled on a stone tablet and it was a license to drive a dinosaur not exceeding 9 tons. Haven’t had a vision test since. Yet I ma sitll blae to tpey. I’ve also at least once obtained new glasses by getting the optician to derive the prescription from my existing lenses. That was a long time ago and may no longer be legal or a condoned practice, but it saved a great deal of hassle as all I needed was different frames. Most of this stuff seems like self-serving bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/35 "2015-04-13T23:17:46Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > To keep you from overdosing. AAAARRRRRGGGHHH HEEEEEEELLLP ME I SEE TOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD,!!!q ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/36 "2015-04-14T01:41:45Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > AAAARRRRRGGGHHH HEEEEEEELLLP ME I SEE TOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD,!!!q I gather you are remembering the episode when Al Bundy got glasses. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/37 "2015-04-14T04:11:08Z")
I think the connection to driving is a red herring. People need glasses even if they don’t drive (which was the case for me until fairly recently); and while ensuring the visual acuity of drivers is a good thing, having a one-year expiration of eyeglasses while mandating vision tests every ten years (as is the case in my state, at least) is a terrible way of going about it. I also wonder whether a comprehensive eye exam is necessary for something as simple as getting a replacement pair of glasses. I’m way too young to worry about glaucoma, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t become colorblind in the few years since my last eye exam. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/38 "2015-04-14T04:37:06Z")
I use [www.eyebuydirect.com](http://www.eyebuydirect.com) and they just require you input your prescription data. There is no “within the last year” check they do. I ordered glasses with a 3 year old prescription and they work fine. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/39 "2015-04-14T05:10:24Z")
> [@Itself](#): > > I also wonder whether a comprehensive eye exam is necessary for something as simple as getting a replacement pair of glasses. I’m way too young to worry about glaucoma, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t become colorblind in the few years since my last eye exam. There is no lower age limit for glaucoma, I wonder where you got that idea? Anyhow - in additional to eyesight changes, signs of other disease can show up in the eye as well. Like diabetes. Of course, that’s not the only exam that might pick it up, but there’s a reason they look at the inside of your eyeball. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549/40 "2015-04-14T13:56:17Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There is no lower age limit for glaucoma, I wonder where you got that idea? Of course not, but I’m young enough (and have none of the other standard risk factors either) that checking for it each year, as renewing a prescription would require, seems unnecessary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-need-a-prescription-for-eyeglasses/717549.md?page=3)