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non-prescription reading glasses

I doubt that they are harmful. You just won't see as well as with ones that are exactly adapted to your eyes.
 
If you are far-sighted and using them in place of prescription glasses, then it's probably better to at least find out your actual prescription first, then buy a pair that match (or two pair with identical frames if you need significantly different correction for each eye, so you can pop the lens out of one and into the other). If you have fairly good distance vision and are wearing them for the nominal purpose (close work), then no problem.

I have a retired optometrist sitting here next to me, and he shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know."
 
jimtron said:
It's in an optician's interest for me to buy prescription reading glasses. I do plan to get an eye exam and talk to the optician about it, but I'd also like to hear from less biased sources.
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It is not in an optician's interest for you to buy reading glasses. An optician makes lenses ("reading glasses" are cheap)- opticians do not diagnose or prescribe. You mean an optometrist (or, ophthalmologist, an MD). Both of them are "biased" towards towards assuring the best vision-care for you. There is no downside to that.
 
JJM said:
It is not in an optician's interest for you to buy reading glasses. An optician makes lenses ("reading glasses" are cheap)- opticians do not diagnose or prescribe. You mean an optometrist (or, ophthalmologist, an MD). Both of them are "biased" towards towards assuring the best vision-care for you. There is no downside to that.
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In my limited experience eyeglasses are usually sold at the same place where most people get eye exams, and I've heard they have a steep markup.
 
I will also add that the retired optometrist who is now in the next room watching "Boston Legal" buys his reading glasses off the rack at the dollar store.
 
JJM said:
An optician makes lenses ("reading glasses" are cheap)- opticians do not diagnose or prescribe. You mean an optometrist (or, ophthalmologist, an MD).
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So I went for an eye exam, and the guy said, "I think that as you continue to get older, your eyesight is going to keep getting better and better."

I said, "Uh... are you an ophthalmologist, or an optometrist, or what?"

Turns out the guy was an optimist.
 
Modified said:
I will also add that the retired optometrist who is now in the next room watching "Boston Legal" buys his reading glasses off the rack at the dollar store.
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I have been using reading glasses for about the last fifteen years (since I was 45). The best ones I have found so far are the dollar store ones.

I am amazed at how good these things are. I was paying about $6 bucks a pair for the ones packaged three to a box at costco and occasionally have paid $12 bucks or so a pair at a drug store. But the ones I like the best are the dollar store ones. The lenses actually seem more scratch resistant than the more expensive ones. They also come with the somewhat larger lens sizes I prefer.

I prefer plastic ones to metal frames. I find that the metal frames get bent a little and then the glasses won't stay on well and then I try to fix it by bending them back but I never get them to the exact correct configuration after I bend them back so they are never quite right again.

I've never had my eyes examined nor have I tried custom fitted glasses. I don't know exactly how I'd deal with handling the glasses. Right now I carry them in my pocket and when they break or get scratched I throw them away. I'd have to do some very different with $150 glasses.

What is the evidence that expensive glasses professionally prescribed would be better for somebody like me?
 
Dymanic said:
So I went for an eye exam, and the guy said, "I think that as you continue to get older, your eyesight is going to keep getting better and better."

I said, "Uh... are you an ophthalmologist, or an optometrist, or what?"

Turns out the guy was an optimist.
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The other day, I saw a sign for an Optimists Club. I thought about joining, but figured they probably wouldn't accept me.

davefoc said:
I've never had my eyes examined nor have I tried custom fitted glasses. I don't know exactly how I'd deal with handling the glasses. Right now I carry them in my pocket and when they break or get scratched I throw them away. I'd have to do some very different with $150 glasses.

What is the evidence that expensive glasses professionally prescribed would be better for somebody like me?
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I don't know that the glasses would be any better for you, but, even if you choose to continue using the off-the-rack ones, you should seriously consider getting your eyes examined periodically. Optometrists don't just check your eyesight, they also check your eyes for other potential health problems.

Just because you get your eyes examined doesn't obligate you to buy glasses from them. In fact, some optometrists don't even sell glasses. The doctors that are co-located at most (all?) LensCrafters locations, for example, are independent businesses. They'll give you your prescription, and then you can choose whether to go next door to get glasses from LensCrafters.
 
As far as I have ever been able to find out, nothing you DO with your eyes in the way of looking at things that are of a normal brightness can harm them at all. But don't look at the sun or welding sparks.

Readers are just magnifying glasses mounted in a frame, nothing more, nothing less. Can't hurt you.
 
ZirconBlue said:
I don't know that the glasses would be any better for you, but, even if you choose to continue using the off-the-rack ones, you should seriously consider getting your eyes examined periodically. Optometrists don't just check your eyesight, they also check your eyes for other potential health problems.
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I agree. I had an exam a couple years ago and plan to have another in the next year or so.
Just because you get your eyes examined doesn't obligate you to buy glasses from them. In fact, some optometrists don't even sell glasses. The doctors that are co-located at most (all?) LensCrafters locations, for example, are independent businesses. They'll give you your prescription, and then you can choose whether to go next door to get glasses from LensCrafters.
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I am aware that it's not necessary to buy glasses where you get your eyes examined.

eta: Zircon Blue: are you sure that Lenscrafters optometrists don't get any commission on glasses sales? I don't know that they do, I'm just wondering.
 
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I wore off the shelf reading glasses for years before an eye test told be that I had problems with both reading and long distance vision, so I needed multi-focals, which you can't get off the shelf.

What I found here in Australia is that optometrists make most of their money off the frames, and they try to push the "trendiest" and most expensive frames. This was reinforced when I got new lenses. I insisted on having them fitted into my existing frames. The optometrist was aghast, saying that there was no guarantee with the old frames, and strongly recommending that I get new $A300 frames. I resisted and the old ones work fine.
 
My optician told me to just get reading glasses as that is all I needed. So I do. Get them from Sam's at about $15 for 4 pair.
 
Luckily, both my eyes need +1.75 diopters for reading, so the dollar store glasses work just fine. Since my internal lenses are plastic, I don't worry about astigmatism.
 
Unless you have a problem needing more than a simple correction e.g. significant astigmatism, there seems to be no reason to shun the simple and cheap reading glasses. A significant advantage is that you can buy multiple pairs and leave them lying around for your convenience. I personally use +1 diopter lenses for general reading in low light and +3 to +4 diopter lenses for close detailed work. My optometrist agrees with my approach.
 
Dymanic said:
So I went for an eye exam, and the guy said, "I think that as you continue to get older, your eyesight is going to keep getting better and better."

<snip>
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Are you short sighted? If so that could be a reasonable statement. People generally get longer sighted as they get older.

However the down side to aging is that the eye's lens get harder so you do not get the range of distance as you once did.
 
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