Steerpike

I have a long history of troubles getting a good eyeglass prescription (at least 20 years now); the glasses as 'filled' never seem to work well, and yet are correct according to the measurements (I've had this issue too many times with too many different eye doctors for this to be simply bad lenses). I've spent a small fortune over the years and visited many different eye-doctors/etc. Dialing back the prescription always seems to be the solution.

The other day I started wearing a pair of prescription reading glasses I originally got about 3 years ago, but essentially abandoned - got terrible headaches when wearing them. Now, they seem 'just right' (as my eyesight has deteriorated over the past 3 years). My current 'distance' glasses are in fact reading glasses from several years ago.

I've also tried varifocals / progressives, but get terrible headaches with them too.

sir_eccles

Getting headaches is fairly common as your eye muscles adapt to the new prescription, I think some places will deliberately under prescribe to alleviate the jump.

As for the cost aspect, Zenni optical.

Bob

Yeah, it takes a couple of days to get used to a new prescription, heck, it takes a couple of days getting used to new glasses with the same prescription if they're a different style.

I get it a little when I swap out my glasses for my shades too, as those different style and type of lens.

johnwoo

I wonder if it's the prescription or the people making the lenses. I have an eye exam tomorrow with an eye doctor, an actual MD. Not all eye exams are with an actual doctor. Never had good results with Lens Crafters.

Nutmegger

My eye doctor always jokes that he's never seen anyone as comfortable as I am with a less than optimum prescription, so I understand you pushing back if the correction feels too strong. Is there a big difference between your eyes? I had bad eye strain headaches all the time and my doc had me try not wearing the contact lens in my "good" eye. Worked like a charm and for 25 years I've used a contact only on my really bad eye, with magnifiers on top for reading. Works really well in my instance!

moneypenny20

I was born with a squint in the right eye, had the op at 3 and was left with a lazy eye which only shows up if I'm really tired and/or look up to the right so not really a big deal but the prescription for that eye is made to pull the eye in slightly. I also have astigmatism and am short sighted, more in the left eye than the right. Makes me a **** up really as regardless of the years of exercises I did on the right eye, my left eye is stronger and it's only when I'm having my eyes tested that it's noticeable that I don't really use my right.

If I have the 'correct' prescription my brain can't handle it. I've tried to get passed that initial 'new glasses' time but both I and the Ophthalmologists I've used have all agreed that it's not worth trying so they reduce the 'script and I can see without vomiting which is always a bonus I think.

yellowroom

I've always had this problem to a degree - I need glasses for distance vision, but I've also got slight astigmatism and I've been told that a degree of my short-sightedness is not due to the eye/lens itself, but the muscles that hold and shape my eyes. I've never had a consistent prescription, it's always changed between check-ups - my eyes get worse if I do a lot of close work (studying/computers) and better if I'm out and about looking over long distances. Add in opticians that like to prescribe lenses that take my eyes to 40:20, then I really struggle.

What I've found the worst is when my eyes are not corrected equally. My current glasses are pretty much perfect for my left eye, but over-correct my right eye, and that imbalance can give me a headache at the end of a long day. And these glasses took a couple of goes to get right at the optician - and to be fair, if my eyes can give different readings on different days, then getting a correct prescription is always going to have an element of luck.

Steerpike

I've waited it out a month or more and still not been able to cope with the new glasses - that's how come I have reading glasses from 3 years ago sitting around (the ones that now magically work wonders!).


I've shopped around a lot on the 'testing' side, totally ignoring the 'insurance' aspect of it (and spent a small fortune along the way). Most recently I went to a 'high end' eye doctor in Scottsdale, and for some reason he was successfully billed to my MEDICAL insurance, not my vision plan. He was the first guy, ironically, to somewhat shrug and say, 'well if a weaker prescription works for you lets do it'. So at least with him I was able to get a prescription that I could use.

Sally Redux

You can see in the distance with reading glasses?

Wintersong

My eldest is far sighted - she's around a +6 in both eyes.

She got her first pair of glasses in Kindergarten and would often not bother wearing them, as she said they didn't make much difference in terms of blurriness - the main effect she noticed was a magnification.

Her prescription didn't change much over the course of a couple of years so we didn't bother with new glasses until this past December. Her prescription still hadn't changed much (increased by about .2 or something) but it was simply time for new glasses. Even though the change in prescription is extremely small, the lenses are noticeably thicker than the old ones.

Since then, she's gone from apparently being able to see perfectly well either with or without her glasses to being totally unable to function without them and I really don't understand why. I know that young kids can compensate for poor eyesight pretty well and maybe she just grew out of that ability, but it seems a little coincidental that it would happen at the same time as she got a new pair of glasses?

Nutmegger

I got my first glasses when I was eleven -- they did an eye check when we entered senior school and I could literally not read one line on the chart with one of my eyes -- with the other I could read every one. I was unaware of having a vision problem, but when I got the specs I realized just how much better I could see (especially when trying to decipher the number on a bus from a distance!) and that I had probably been straining before, but was oblivious to it because for me it was "normal." Perhaps that is what has happened with your daughter.

Wintersong

If it had happened when she first got the glasses, I'd totally agree, but I'm confused as to why it would only happen when she got the new glasses (after wearing the old ones for 4 years) when the prescriptions were so similar

johnwoo

I don't know about your insurance plan, but under Medicare, the difference is if the eye doctor is an Ophthalmologists(MD). An optometrist is not a medical doctor. Well that's what I was told by my Ophthalmologists.

Steerpike

You mention the lenses were 'thicker'. I always used to pay for the lightest possible lenses, which are made with 'high index' material, which essentially means, more 'optical' power with less thickness. Then once, I inadvertently chose a frame which was incompatible with this lens material, and got heavy, thick lenses (same prescription). I had a real hard time with it, and ended up getting rid of them, and once I got back to the high index material, life was better.


Some people are also sensitive to (some term/concept I can't describe right now, would have to research it) that relates to the curvature of the lens. Basically, as you look through the lens, your eye is affected by the 'offset' when looking anywhere but straight ahead. Some sports people have wrap-around lenses, where the entire lens is curved, so that at any point, your eye is looking through the lens at 90 degrees to the surface. I forget what the jargon is for this but worth looking into perhaps.

Steerpike

I can see in the distance TODAY with glasses that were prescribed as reading glasses 3-5 years ago. In reviewing all my past prescriptions, I noticed that the 'reading' prescription and the 'distance' prescription differed only in the magnitude of the 'Sphere' numbers (no change in 'Cyl' and 'Axis'), and with each successive year (or two) the numbers both increased in step. In fact, some prescriptions handle the 'reading' prescription by simply having a column 'Add' (add this amount for the reading glasses).


I should possibly add, what I'm calling 'reading' casually here, were actually requested as 'computer' glasses. I believe 'computer' glasses get less magnification relative to classic 'reading' prescriptions.