My sensibilities have finally overuled my stubbornness and after too long a time holding items at as good as arms length in order to read something I've bought myself some off the shelf specs, 1.5 strength for the princely sum of £7. It's been a revelation, I tell you!
It has got me wondering though - they're certainly doing the job vision wise however are there any drawbacks to using these cheap glasses vs something that an optometrist would recommend? I know that a full and proper eye test checks out more than just your vision however are there any short/medium/long term negatives to supermarket spectacles?
I think I was in the same position as you are now, 18 months ago. I still use 1.5s for reading, but after an eye test, I also bought some proper prescription specs, albeit from an online store. I find myself using the £7 Hema, £7 Flying Tiger, pairs far more often. They're disposable and comfortable. I'll continue with the eye testes very two years or so, but as long as there's no great difference between your two eyes you should be OK!
I am in the same exact boat at this very moment. I am waiting for my prescription glasses from the optician, but am using the cheapo Amazon ones for the time being. Even though my prescription says 1.5, I find the cheapies a bit too strong, so am really curious what the proper ones will be like.
I’ve worn glasses for 40 years so I got through the ‘ denial’ phase a long time ago. Strongly recommend regular eye tests and glasses that are correct for you, even for reading. If you end up needing varifocals always buy get them from an optician, the fitting is absolutely crucial to getting a successful result and this cannot be done properly if buying on- line. I’ll save money on some things but I don’t try to scrimp and save on glasses. Also worthgetting the health of your eyes checked, any problems are best picked up early.
^^ this many times over.
I did online for my standard vision glasses and still do, I also have varifocal ones, again done online. The transition and quality is great, but I think if I’d been to a proper optician the area of transition would have been lower - I often have to tilt my head forwards in the car to see what I need to.
I only wear them for work as prefer my standard lenses for everything else. I’m lucky at the moment I can see ok just about for reading with the std lenses or removing them as required as I’m only on a +1 Rx.
At some point that won’t be an option, so will bite the bullet and pay to have it done properly.
I’d personally love lens replacement surgery, but deemed too young for that, yet at the older end of the scale for laser as will still need corrective reading lenses, which for me negates the purpose of doing it.
Varifocal contact lenses are interesting, in theory they’re the panacea but when I tried them it reminded me of having concussion in the past! Eyes worked but it was a conscious effort to focus, definitely not a success.
I've worn glasses most of my life because I had quite bad astigmatism. I had lasik three years ago with the understanding that I would need reading glasses due to my age. Sure enough, astigmatism is gone, far vision is superb, and is even sharp at my reading distance, but since I work on detailed art, I need to focus at about a foot away, which requires help now.
The cheap 1.5 glasses I got magnify and distort too much. I definitely wouldn't want them for the long run, but as a stop gap for a week or so until my proper ones arrive they are OK.
Thanks for your responses chaps - appreciated and noted. I really should book myself in for a test as I've never had one before.
To be more precise in my query - are the quality of the lenses likely to be detrimental to the health of my eyes and the quality of my eyesight? My head can't get around how something so cheap (compared to prescription lenses) can't have any drawbacks.
I also can't get my head around how two pairs of quite decent glasses, with sprung hinges, decent weight, and prescription lenses can cost £7 (which is what I paid). I expected something akin to those throwaway 3D cinema glasses, so was really surprised. However, as noted, I don't trust the prescription and there is some distortion throughout the lenses, but they do the job. I think if they are wrong for you, you'll start feeling eye strain and eventually headaches. Not sure about permanent damage.Originally Posted by CardShark
My proper glasses (not counting the test and scan) ended up at about £600, 200 for lenses alone... which seems nuts, come to think of it.
I tried one varifocal and one fixed (as can’t correct astigmatism on a daily lens with varifocal). My brain could not quite get used to the different views, and felt a lot of effort.
Tried switching eyes as my correction is the same but it always felt like a compromise too far.
My mum has varifocals and been using the same local optician for years paying £250-£300 per pair.
Long story short they messed up her last order and scratched lenses and broke the frames.
She was recommended the opticians inside Asda, same glasses and lenses £50 a pair and a free pair of sunglasses, she’s over the moon.
If you are buying glasses from a high street optician, then any decent one will adjust or reglaze until you are satisfied with the result, at no additional cost - you are paying for this service, and not just for the glasses.
Going to the optician should not just be about getting a prescription - there are many health checks the optometrist can do when examining your eyes, e.g. glaucoma, macular degeneration, colour blindness, astigmatism etc.
Be careful with this, my Mum developed Vascular Dementia and one of the symptoms is ‘disbelief of vision’, she kept getting her eyes tested and getting new glasses , which she would then complain about , asking for reglazes. We only found out when visiting as she had been banned from every optician for Mike’s around and we needed to get her glasses fixed as she sat on them ?
When I managed to talk to her GP, this was one of the signs that guided them to her diagnosis , VD is a horrible form of dementia, turned my mild mannered loving Mum into an aggressive sweary Mary , and even with medication she never truly recovered.
Ready readers are a very variable thing. If they are made correctly, by which I mean actually being the prescription they say, lens centration being equal both sides and the lenses being of decent optical quality then they can be perfectly usable. But these won't be the ones from the pound shop, you'll need to spend more than that. I found a pair on my drive that some workman had dropped and the lens quality was so poor there was only an image the very centre of each lens.
There will be vanishingly few people for whom they are the correct prescription but they will be close to that of lots of people. Even where the prescription is correct for an individual the lens centration won't be. They simply put the lenses geometrically central in the frame. None of these will harm you in any way but more prolonged work at that distance will be more fatiguing and will give you headaches. The blur that remains when using an inaccurate prescription will simply be enlarged by ready readers and large and blurred is better than small and blurred!
This all for single vision reading spectacles. These are the only things that are legally sold without prescription.
To answer the OPs question, specifically about reading glasses. Having worn glasses for distance vision for some 25 years (though only -0.75 dioptres), I started using reading glasses around 5 years ago. As previously stated, as long as your eyes are similar, the cheap online reading glasses are absolutely fine and are all I buy (+1.25). I have several pairs dotted around the house and a pair in each of three work laptop bags.
I have had two pairs of varifocals; the first pair were good but the second that I currently wear are not so good, and I'm not convinced I'll bother with another pair of varifocals. I'm fortunate enough that I can sit at my PC (and work PC) and watch the TV without the need for glasses.
I use readers, +1.5. It’s a pain and I have about 15 pairs in various pockets and places.
I have 4 prescription pairs I use for sustained reading / computing. They are better but the off the shelf ones are fine for short periods.
I have my peepers tested every two years. They're perfectly fine but I need reading glasses for close up stuff when I'm tired as my arms aren't long enough.
A £6 pair of +1.0s from Amazon work perfectly for me. I wear them for minutes at a time.
Oddly I'm typing this on my iPhone which is close to my face and I have no focal problems at all. But I'm not tired at the moment.
Blows with the wind really, but not worth spending oodles of wonga on prescription glasses. Perhaps when my eyes are worse I will.
The problem with pound-shop style cheap readers is that each eye is different and obviously they can't cater for abberations like astigmatism.
However if you can find two identical but different strength cheapies with screwed in rather than bonded lenses swap the lenses to suit each eye, say 1.5 right and 2.5 left. Top tip.
This.
I have been wearing glasses for 45 years. Distance-wise I can’t even make a guess at top line unaided. Corrected, I’m better than 20:20.
After prescription good optician spends as long if not longer with fitting more computer wizardry maximising effective areas of varifocal this & that specifically for my eyes and my chosen frames.
Certainly more expensive than chain/getting prescription filled online, but worth every penny imho.
A proper optician will do so much more for you than correct vision though a high st specialist better than any chain. I went for my annual check up and hadn’t noticed how poor vision in left eye had deteriorated. Not only that, but using latest eye photo gizmo, he was able to detect macular degeneration in left eye requiring immediate attention.
Long story short I’d been lax in testing and medicating type 2 diabetes in addition to having bit more odd treat than good for me. My guy immediately emailed Consultant at NHS eye clinic. I got a phone call within days telling me I needed a series of eye injections to left eye.
I’ve had first one and not nearly as horrific as I feared. It’s to side of eyeball; you don’t have to watch needle coming straight at you as I’d feared! Huge difference already. Two more injections to go.
Most on this forum know exactly why they will happily pay £££ for a quality watch rather than under a fiver for something from petrol station.
I value my eyesight and comfort of vision. If you do too, don’t stint on yours.
For avoidance of doubt I’m not connected with or related to anyone or business other than my own as self-employed Advocate.
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When I did lots of swimming in the past I used to wear optical goggles which were roughly correct for my short sightedness but not exact, I bought the step equal or lower and they worked fine, but you don’t need to see perfectly in a swimming pool so there was no point in paying more money for bespoke ones.
Surprising how many folks hadn’t heard of these and didn’t know they existed, I’m equally surprised that high street opticians don’t sell them.
Any experience with masks & diving? Still yet to find a good solution for twice a year, and the contacts we have already raised. Guess I don’t need varifocals so could go std vision.
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Never been diving so I can’t advise, I’m sure some of the shirt- sighted divers on here could.
If you are driving, get yourself one of those prescription windscreens,
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Maybe I'm a few years ahead of the OP but that's kind of where I was four years ago. I get my eyes tested every couple of years and was at +1.5 for reading and work (computer screen) with no glasses (or peeping over the top of my readers) for everything else. About 2 years ago I moved to using +2. My optician was candid in that they'd like to sell me some lovely designer glasses but functionally my cheapo Amazon specials would be fine - the may smudge more or scratch more easily but optically they would be OK. In part this is because both eyes were getting old at roughly the same rate.
Moving on to this year's eye test and I'm told that my near vision (reading) hasn't gone off much but my general vision is now on the slide to the extent that my left eye is "borderline legal for driving". I'm still fine for driving as it's borderline legal not borderline llegal, also I tend to keep both eyes open behind the wheel.
So I've ended up in a situation where I'm +1 for driving, +1.5 for work and +2 for reading (and more importantly changing a strap on a watch). I decided to invest in a pair of +1 glasses for the car and it was a revelation! I was legal/safe before but they really did make a difference. And then I popped them on to watch TV too - another revelation. This led me to try a pair of varifocals from one of the online companies. I didn't want to spend too much as a couple of people I know haven't been able to adapt to them. Fortunately the prescription provided by my optician had all the info required for varifocals too - some don't give you the inert-pupil distance which is required. They took some time to get used to but I'm really glad I did now. I think it just takes time to adjust to instinctively look through the right part of the lens.
Sounds unpleasant.
If I was at home now I'd be searching the internet for a comical image to post.
But I'm at work, on a work computer, in an open plan office. So I won't.
2 pairs of prescription glasses for £14 from Glasses Direct. When you can get them this cheap for prescription glasses, why buy off the shelf. Each eye is different.
I buy AndI style for readers and they are very good. I buy 4 pairs at a time so I can leave my readers in different places.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/4022637
To be fair, most of the cost for prescription glasses is in the lenses, coatings, weight, etc, so while she may have got the same frames and prescription, she probably didn't get the same glasses.
M
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