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Glasses

Neil P

Neil P

pfm Member
I've had my eyes tested at one of the high street chains, and decided to try one of these new fangled online glasses shops.

1. The eye testing shop didn't tell me anything about my prescription... What it means, what I need, etc. they just gave me the paper prescription and left me to it.
2. I've never worn glasses before
3. The online shop made me up some varifocals (it was an option on the online form to generate the quote, but they didn't discuss anything let alone pos/cons/need)
4. After trying the varifocals for 2 weeks they don't improve my vision for using a phone, reading a book, using a screen.
5. I called the online shop who said my prescription is zero for distance, apart from correcting an astigmatism.

So my questions:

1. Do I just need "near" glasses?
2. Can one set of near glasses cover book/phone use and computer use? What about TV watching across the room?
3. What were my varifocals transitioning between... Near and... Nothing?!

Maybe I've just had a bad experience but these seems very complex and convoluted.
 
It'll take more than 2 weeks to get used to varifocals, especially going from no glasses to regular specs use . I went from no glasses to varifocals and it took me over a month to get accustomed, completely, to them. I had to take them off for weeks. going down steps or stairs ! Near/reading glasses will cover reading and phone but you'll need either standard distance glasses or persevere with the varifocals for tv, monitor screen. I'd stick with the varifocals, I use them for tv, pc monitor, at football.. I reckon around 80% of my specs use is varifocal....:cool:
 
I had the high st store make me varifocals a few years back and have stuck with them....got a couple of new pairs last time I was home and they took a little time to adjust to.

I also had some made up here in PRC which I wore for a week before deciding that death would come knocking if I continued to wear them.
 
you will need near for phone, reading etc, intermediate for computer work and distance. From what you say you don't need distance, but you do need correction for an astigmatism - which will impact both distance and near

My Mrs has the same, an astigmatism and near - our optitians made her lenses to suit, but they are not varifocals.

Your varifocals will transition through distance, intermediate and near. The space for this transition is related to the height of the lens, and dictated by your chosen frame. I recently wanted some frames reglazed with varifocals, but the shop advised me it wasnt a good idea as the lens would not be tall enough for a good transition. Of course your prescription will also correct your astigmatism.

Transitioning to varifocals can take weeks. In my case my brain sorted it out within days, but I have been wearing mono vision (one eye for distance, one eye for near - and both correct an astigmatism) contact lenses for many years.

I find online retailers OK for things like readers for near only. But typically they use an app to measure pupillary distance to know where you look through the lens, and will impact on its manufacture. Your pupil needs to be centred in the lens to avoid peripheral distortion. This is more important with varifocals. You can do this with an app but I've not found them to be very good.
 
I have used £2-5 per pair readers from Tesco/Amazon for way over ten years, perhaps nearer twenty, and still do for routine daily use.

About 2 years ago, these did not make reading easy and I realised I needed glasses for driving, so I now have 3 pairs - the cheap ones for round the house and computer screen, one for reading and one for driving.

I had varifocals made for work about 8-9-10 years ago and they were horrible. I don't know if the method has changed, but designing where the maginifications changes, how, was calculated guesswork and was miles out in my case.
 
cheapo readers are just fine, I have a few pairs to wear with my contacts when the reading part of my contacts needs a magnification boost. Of course they won't correct any myopia or astigmatism.
 
It's possible you were given glasses with no correction for distance vision, but a correction for long sightedness on the lower, "near vision" part of the lens. These are a handier replacement for separate (and loseable) reading glasses if you find you have to read at arms length.

If you're wondering what all the numbers mean: A glasses prescription is at minimum three numbers: The first, Sph, which can be positive or negative is the spherical correction: this corrects for near (negative) or long (positive) sightedness. That is the most important number for most people. The next two are called the cylindrical (Cyl, a decimal number) and axis (degrees), and are to account for astigmatism. Varifocals will have a adjustment number ("Add") which is the difference between the spherical value for the top(far) and bottom (near) parts of the lens.
If the script you have uses them, the heading "OD" is the right eye, "OS" is the left.. (it's Latin). My optician uses R and L.

If that Spherical number plus the Add figure is smaller than plus or minus 0.2, you probably don't need glasses (unless they're both bigger, but cancel out when added)

The UK high-street chains have form for prescribing to people with normal vision. Given the cost of lenses and frames, it's genuinely worth spending the money and having an experienced optometrist do your eye test. The ones in the chain stores are well qualified, but they aren't given enough time to advise the customer, and are often under pressure to sell glasses.
 
As a long-time (60 years) specs wearer, I got used to varifocals very quickly. It seemed quite natural - you look down to read and up for everything else. Did I need computer glasses? asked the optician? No, said I. But after a while, I noticed that I was getting a rather stiff neck. Then I realised what I was doing - I was automatically reading the computer screen through the reading part of the lenses and tilting my head back so that I could do this. So it was back to the optician for computer glasses. I've lived quite happily with both pairs (well, three actually - the cycling glasses have only the distance lenses).

I also found that paying for good stuff works. My (Swiss) optician chose very expensive (but very good) glass for the lens, so that the lenses could be as thin as possible. As a result, Mrs Tones's glasses went from something that looked like milk bottle bottoms to something rather slim, and she was delighted. Once in Belfast, I thought I'd be smart and get a second pair of glasses on the cheap, so I went to Boots and asked them for a duplicate. No problems, said the Boots man, and then stopped and examined them - and examined them more closely - and then said, "Where did you get this glass? This is one expensive glass!" So I told him, and he said that, to duplicate it would cost something very close to the Swiss price. The Swiss optician thought this was hilarious.
 
i am quite impressed by the high street chain we use for eye tests etc. My experience of an eye test is they take all the time you need to get the correct responses for your prescription. They also have dispensing opticians who advise on fit, lens type and take measurements associated with the frames etc, and finally they have the sales people. I buy my "everyday" frames from them and contact lenses of course. I never interact with the sales people.

My contact lenses are great for distance, screen work and driving, i have one contact lens for distance and one for nearer stuff - the brain just works it out. My contact lenses also sort out my astigmatism, which is different in each eye. For close up reading and very small print, i use cheapo readers over my contact lenses. My optician advises me not to wear contacts for more than 8 or 9 hours a day - so glasses form an important part of what i need. I am very short sighted. Contact lenses are a compromise, as they can only be normally bought in fixed graduations, and they are dispensed in the values that are closest to your actual prescription.

Glasses are part of my life, so i tend to have several pairs bought from bricks and mortar shops depending on my mood. I bought my last pair a few weeks ago

These are my current goto distance only glasses:

20240303_084643 by uh_simon, on Flickr

They are distance only, so anything close up needs a different solution. They are good for computer work and ok for driving. I have just bought my first pair of varifocals - i had to pay attention to the height of the frame so they could fit in a nice transition. As it happens i am returning them to the place on Saturday - to swap the frame for same model but in a different colour.

These are the readers i use when out with my contact lenses - i wear them on a loop around my neck. Never lost or broken a pair (unlike traditional readers with arms)

nooze by uh_simon, on Flickr

I have different readers on my desk for work. 2 pairs here -on the left, and some distance ones on the right

20240314_091428 by uh_simon, on Flickr

whilst i have bought online, i have rarely had success. My wife who despite having Glaucoma has more success buy glasses online.
 
tones said:
I also found that paying for good stuff works.
Click to expand...

i agree - and i only buy the thinnest possible high index lenses. It is worth spending the money IMO.

It is so important to have regular eye tests - even if you dont need corrections, they test for so many other eye related conditions
 
Been wearing glasses for nearly 60 years and varifocals for 20 (give them time), but I've never been able to adjust to using the varifocals for computer use, I need a pair with an intermediate prescription.

I've found that online retailers are fine for near and distance vision spares, but don't go near them for varifocals.
 
I’ve been wearing multifocal contact lenses for about ten years.

In my job, glasses were a real pain to use. I pop em in first thing after a shower, don’t remove them until bedtime. They’re a revelation for me while working on aircraft.
 
narabdela said:
I've found that online retailers are fine for near and distance vision spares, but don't go near them for varifocals.
Click to expand...
This is the advice I've been given by a friend in the trade. It's a lot more important to get the fit right for varifocals.

I've been using an online glazer for years with no problem for single vision lenses.
 
You can't, or shouldn't, but varifocals on line because the height that they sit relative to your eyes dictates where the transition happens. For this you need to measure in situ. I've had them for 4 or 5 years now, they work but the last fitting at Specsavers was wrong, it took months to get it right. In the end they went back to the last successful prescription having said it was slightly out. Working now though. My local branch of SS is good, they took their time but got there in the end with my bastard of a prescription (3.5 short, astigmatism, and a prism).
You don't need anything for distance, so my guess is that a set of readers for close work will do. TV is far enough away and the monitor you can probably sort out by getting nearer or dumping the readers and sitting back unless you do a lot of it.
 
cheap reading glasses are ok . sometimes one eye will be different to the other causing the need for prescription glasses .

I always use high street for glasses , if there is a problem i can go back and they check everything ok. costs more but sight is everything
 
I use cheap readers, the number has gone up over the years and I am now at +3. I use a independent local optician for eye tests and they made up my distance glasses. They also verified +3 for my readers were perfect me. Problem for me is changing glasses from reading/laptop usage to watching the tv, but that's life as one gets older.
My thoughts are before getting varifocals it is best to get used to wearing glasses.
My brother has used varifocals for years and is more than happy with them, he uses the same optician as me.
 
I went to varifocals when I got tired of swapping glasses when I was all gowned up in the factories where I work. In the office it was OK, I used to have readers on my head or in a shirt pocket and normal vision on my face. Close work, swap to readers. Cue a factory inspection, I'm wearing coat , hairnet, and probably ear defenders, my hands are occupied with a clipboard. Look up, inspect the factory, look down to make a note, can't read anything, put down the clipboard, take off distance glasses, generally getting tangled up and removing ear defenders and hairnet in the process. Replace these, put on readers, getting tangled up in the hairnet again, make a note. Look up at the factory to do some more inspecting, can't see anything, Oh FFS, change back to distance, put everything down yet again. No thanks. Varis work for everything other than extensive computer work where I get tired of having to peer through a small sweet spot to get the monitor distance right.
 
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