OK, my girlfriend just bought a pair of $20 reading glasses. They look real nice, but I don’t think she really needs them. We did the little eye chart at the4 store and she did fine. But she says she has a little trouble with small print.
She hasn’t been to an optometrist and there doesn’t seem to be any pressing need. The glasses are only 1.0x magnification (the lowest available, I think). Will these glasses (or reading glasses in general) make her eyes worse over time? That is, will wearing reading glasses make her need reading glasses?
I mean, I thought 5x magnification would make something appear five times as big. if 1.0x makes something appear one time as big… that’s no magnification at all. :]
I’m not any kind of medical professional, just a long-time glasses wearer (now using progressive lenses).
You don’t say how old your friend is, but if she’s over, say, 35 or 40, there’s a good chance she could need reading glasses. The condition is called presbyopia, it’s caused by age, and means the eye can’t focus on close objects as easily as it used to. If that’s what it is, the condition will gradually get worse with age, whether she wears any corrective lenses or not.
However, if she’s old enough to consider reading glasses, it’s time she visits an opthalmologist anyway. Another condition that can creep up on you as you become more mature is glaucoma, which has very few symptoms before it gets into the possible danger zone.
If she’s a 20-something and her ability to see fine print has suddenly changed, I’d think that’s a good reason to go see an eye doctor anyway.
Absolutely not. What happens to some people when they first get reading glasses is that they get used to seeing clearly, and so over time they notice the blurriness without the glasses more. This may make them feel like they suddenly “need” glasses that they once did fine without, but in fact they have just gotten used to seeing correctly.
While I know that internet sources can be dubious, I got my explanation from my ophthamologist, and the same answer is explained a little better at this site.
The glasses are not 1.0 magnification; glasses do not magnify or minimize except as an inevitable byproduct of the lens shape. They are most likely a -1.0 diopter correction. Diopters are the unit of measurement used for corrective lenses.
(For example, I have a -14 diopter correction, which means that I am very nearsighted indeed. As a result, my world looks somewhat smaller through my glasses; the lenses curve so much that they cause things to look small. A far-sighted person would have the opposite result, which is how Emma Thompson looked so strange in the Harry Potter movie.)
No, that would be a +1.0 diopter lens; all reading glasses are plus power. OP, I don’t know wha an eye chart is going to tell you; most are designed for identifying distance vision problems.
aaslatten, the charts provided by in-store reading glasses displays are typically magnification levels: 1x, 2x, 3x, etc. I think this is what you meant in the OP when you said “1.0x.” People talking about diopters are talking about prescription lenses, I believe, not the glorified magnifying glasses sold in drug stores for people who just need the small print to be a little bit bigger.
My apologies if I have just offended anyone who manufactures said glorified magnifying glasses…I’m just trying to distinguish them from prescription lenses.
And I agree with chrisk, who wondered what 1x magnification really means (though that is probably a different GQ altogether)…
34 would be within a typical age range to start noticing close-focus problems. If she does a lot of close-in work - reading, craft work, etc - she’ll notice thing before someone who does more distance vision things like sports and driving. There’s nothing wrong with using reading glasses to relieve eyestrain although, yes, she SHOULD get an eye check-up if she hasn’t had one for several years.
As others have said, using reading glasses won’t make your vision worse - it’s just that 1) you get used to seeing clearly without eyestrain, so you use 'em more and 2) presbyopia gets worse with age, regardless of what you do or don’t do. Eventually, if you live long enough, you need bifocals. Me, I’ll be getting them next year - uh, yippee??? :dubious:
+1.00 diopter does not mean 1x. Diopter is the inverse of the focal length (in meters). +1.00 diopter is a weak correction for presbyopia, but it’s not the weakest available. With some effort, it is possible to find +0.75 diopter. In all my shopping for reading glasses to suit my newly presbyopic eyesight, I have seen only diopters (+0.75, +1.00, +1.25…) and no powers (1x, 2x, 3x…).
Well, your mileage may vary, but I recently went to the optometrist for the first time in six years and found that one of my eyes has become a little stronger since my last eye exam.
