non-prescription reading glasses

TX50 said:
Possibly:

http://www.visionclinics.com/faq.html#glasses5

But why not ask a proper optician?
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Sounds like a "buy prescription lenses from us" answer. If you had really significant differences between each eye, it would be worth getting prescription reading glasses but not for most people.

I just had a full eye exam with an ophthalmologist because I was worried my vision was deteriorating quickly. One question I had was were the reading glasses contributing. He said they do not make your eyes any weaker. The lens just changes naturally with age. Not much can be done.

There is a lasik procedure if you are farsighted and still young that may be worth looking into. But that would likely be due to a too short eyeball not a stiff lens.

If you are getting headaches or really blurry vision you could have eyestrain. I got that once after driving for too long. It was obvious that something was wrong and went away after a day. That would be the only thing that having the wrong prescription glasses on would do that I know of. Otherwise drugstore reading glasses are not harmful.

I have several different strengths. I use weaker ones when I can't see things at medium range, none for long distance vision like driving, a bit stronger ones for the computer and the strongest for reading. The more the merrier, they are all over my house, in the car and in my purse. That way when I constantly take them off I can find a pair when I need them.

:D
 
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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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:D
 
BenBurch said:
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.
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Not that it caused permanent harm but that eyestrain I had was very real. I drove from New Orleans to Colorado straight. That evening at work my vision became extremely blurry. After a day they went back to normal. I have no doubt it was simple eyestrain.
 
Indeed. Muscle fatigue. How many adjustments did your muscles make to the direction and focus of your eyes during that drive?
I'm sure Roadtoad would tell stories of similar , but whole-body fatigue after a day at the wheel. Just sitting there turns to take a lot of effort.
 
jimtron said:
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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No, I'm not sure. I'm going off personal experience rather than research. I know that they are independent businesses, but that doesn't preclude some sort of commission passing one way or the other. It seems to be something of a symbiotic relationship, with the eye doctors doing exams (and selling contact lenses) and Lenscrafters selling the glasses, both co-located for customer convenience.
 
Lanzy said:
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.
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Same as Lanzy. As long as the deficiency is only in focal distance and not an eye imbalance or any sort of astigmaism, then readers work fine, and are much cheaper than Rx glasses. If you have two pair with different strengths, you have bifocals as well.

There is a muscle that squeezes the cornea to change it's focal length. The muscle remains the same through life, but the cornea becomes stiffer and resists squeezing as we get older. If you had good vision as a youth, then the first thing to go is reading distance focus; later focus at midrange distance (say, from 5 to 30 feet), and then bifocals are needed if acuity is required at both reading and mid distances, as well as far distance.

Ain't aging a bitch?
 
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ZirconBlue said:
No, I'm not sure. I'm going off personal experience rather than research. I know that they are independent businesses, but that doesn't preclude some sort of commission passing one way or the other. It seems to be something of a symbiotic relationship, with the eye doctors doing exams (and selling contact lenses) and Lenscrafters selling the glasses, both co-located for customer convenience.
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What do you mean "that they are independent businesses?"
 
I have the normal longsightedness coming in for my age. I bought reading glasses, but struggled with the pc for a while. I found a weaker pair for pc, and the stronger for reading. I found reading a book hard though as I like to read a long chunk in one go and was getting 'watery eyes'. Turns out one eye is stronger than the other, so I was getting eyestrain. The weaker glasses are still fine on the pc so far. But my prescription reading glasses have changed my life..I can read books again.
As a poster above said, sorry can't remember which poster, if you can find which strength for each eye and swap a lens over from two cheap over the counter pairs, end of problem!
 
jimtron said:
What do you mean "that they are independent businesses?"
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The Optometrists are not employees of LensCrafters. This appears to be the norm, but is not universally true (emphasis added):


We care about your overall eye health and vision. To give you the best care possible, most LensCrafters stores have independent optometrists next door who are licensed to examine your eyes using the latest equipment. Since the optometrist, optician and expert stylists are all nearby, we can work together to give you the best care quickly and efficiently.

* In California, eye exams are available at LensCrafters locations from licensed optometrists employed by EYEXAM of California, a licensed vision health care service plan. The optometrists are not employed by LensCrafters, which does not provide eye exams. Eye exams available by Independent Doctors of Optometry at or next to LensCrafters in most states. Doctors in some states are employed by LensCrafters.
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source
 
shadron said:
...There is a muscle that squeezes the cornea to change it's focal length. The muscle remains the same through life, but the cornea becomes stiffer and resists squeezing as we get older. If you had good vision as a youth, then the first thing to go is reading distance focus; later focus at midrange distance (say, from 5 to 30 feet), and then bifocals are needed if acuity is required at both reading and mid distances, as well as far distance...
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Actually, the ciliary muscle controls the shape of the lens not the cornea. As we age the lens becomes less flexible and may become fixed at almost any focal length. This is called presbyopia (old eyes). In my case, I needed correction for driving first, bifocals for driving and reading later.
 
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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Reading glasses are essentially magnifying lenses
so they will harm your eyes no more or less than a magnifier wopuld. They do not substitute for prescription lenses if you truly need glasses - they just handle one aspect of it. Also, your eyes could need seperate levels of magnification for proper reading.
 
Good God Jim, your eyesight is deteriorating, go see a doctor. I've never had a doctor push unnecessary things on me, to the converse, they try hard to avoid it, saying things like "I could perform procedure X on you, but it's very unlikely to tell us anything new at this point, and we can just monitor the progress over the next few days. If it gets worse than perhaps we'll want to do the procedure". Taking several hundred dollars out of their pocket when I'm fully insured, guaranteeing payment and thus my very likely answer of "yes" (since I wouldn't be financially dinged).

Go see a doctor.
 
ZirconBlue said:
The other day, I saw a sign for an Optimists Club. I thought about joining, but figured they probably wouldn't accept me.
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I've given up being pessimestic. It just isn't worth it.


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.
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Aren't drugstore "reading glasses" just magnifying glasses? That's what it's always seemed to me when I've played around with them.
 
pgwenthold said:
...Aren't drugstore "reading glasses" just magnifying glasses? That's what it's always seemed to me when I've played around with them.
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Yes. From this site: http://www.focusers.com/diopter2.html
"Reading glasses compensate for the loss of natural adjustment. Optical power is additive so the correction is straightforward. An optometrist prescribes a lens that increases the magnifying power of the eye, usually in steps of a quarter-diopter over a range of 1 to 3 diopters. A quarter-diopter is a large enough step that most people can self-prescribe their own reading glasses by simple trial and error.

The level of magnification in the lenses of reading glasses is called diopter strength. A very weak magnification would be found in reading glasses with a diopter strength of +.75 or +1.00. Off-the-shelf reading glasses sold in drug stores or elsewhere on the Internet are often offered in diopter strengths that start with 1.50, and with only a few options for stronger lenses."
 
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roger said:
Good God Jim, your eyesight is deteriorating, go see a doctor. I've never had a doctor push unnecessary things on me, to the converse, they try hard to avoid it, saying things like "I could perform procedure X on you, but it's very unlikely to tell us anything new at this point, and we can just monitor the progress over the next few days. If it gets worse than perhaps we'll want to do the procedure". Taking several hundred dollars out of their pocket when I'm fully insured, guaranteeing payment and thus my very likely answer of "yes" (since I wouldn't be financially dinged).

Go see a doctor.
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Roger: Please see the first part of post #14. I'm well aware that it's a good idea to get eye exams by a qualified optometrist. I'm not paranoid or distrustful of doctors--I was just curious to hear opinions from eye doctors as well as non-eye doctors.
 
jimtron said:
Do we know if the optometrists get a commission or not, on sales of glasses?
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I don't know. I've tried researching it, but my google-fu is weak. (Two of the links I found were to this thread.) I did find this, from someone who claims to be a LensCrafters employee:

Dr's are an INDEPENDENT business

[snip]
The Dr's that are located next to LensCrafters are Independent Dr.'s of Optometry (Except in CA and Chicago). They basically just rent the office space from Lenscrafters and the business is their own. It is not run by Lenscrafters. In fact, here in FL, we cannot 'direct' our patients to go buy their glasses anywhere in particular. We must give them their Rx and let them know that they may fill it anywhere they choose. I don't know the regulations in other states but I'm sure they're about the same.
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Please note that I am not particularly enamored with LensCrafters. I've just been following up on previous comments based on my personal experience with them. I am not suggesting in anyway that they are the best choice, here. In fact, some of the information that I found trying to research the commission angle leads me to believe that Costco is probably a better choice for affordable eyewear.
 
roger said:
Good God Jim, your eyesight is deteriorating, go see a doctor. I've never had a doctor push unnecessary things on me, to the converse, they try hard to avoid it, saying things like "I could perform procedure X on you, but it's very unlikely to tell us anything new at this point, and we can just monitor the progress over the next few days. If it gets worse than perhaps we'll want to do the procedure". Taking several hundred dollars out of their pocket when I'm fully insured, guaranteeing payment and thus my very likely answer of "yes" (since I wouldn't be financially dinged).

Go see a doctor.
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Routine exams are important but, don't get too paranoid about it. Like I said, I just went in for a full exam because my eyesight was deteriorating rapidly and there was nothing wrong other than natural aging.
 
I just bought ~12 pairs of reading glasses @ $1.69/each at the Goodwill. I got a range of corrections and a couple in each range.

They are tiny but I hope to have them as reserves in my purse, car, different rooms, when I forget to bring any with me.
 
jimtron said:
Are drugstore (non-prescription) reading glasses harmful to your one's eyes?
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All reading glasses will weaken your eye muscles' ability to try to flatten or increase the curve of the lens in your eye by a process called accomodation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_(anatomy)

Thats is why it is important to wear them only when absolutely neccessary, so that our eye muscles don't become "lazy" and dependent on glasses. My guess is that if the drugstore glasses have a "weaker" prescription than what an optician calculates from giving you a eye test, they will make your eye-muscles less lazy than the optician's pair.

But if the drugstore glasses are stronger than you actually need, your eyes could become even more dependent on a mechanical lens then if you used a prescription pair.
 
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