Spectacles - Do Reading Glasses Actually Magnify Text, Or Just Enhance It, Make It Clearer?

[joko]

my mum is struggling with her eyesight and the optician has said that even glasses wont help much - since all they do is make vision clearer
she can read text fine when it is zoomed in, or used with a magnifying glass.

so i was just looking on ebay to see if you could buy something that just looks like a pair of glasses ... but that actually magnifies instead of acting like reading glasses.

something that she could put on in public to look at something and it just looks like specs

So far all the ones the mention magnify turn out to just be ordinary reading glasses.

Can any help me? I'm not sure what to look for, or whether such a thing even exists.

thanks

[jno]

Yes, they magnify text. You might need to try different strengths, and different distances from the page, to see which suit you best if you're just getting them off the shelf at Poundland, or you could get them tailor made after an eye test (I get mine at Specsavers).

[douglas9401]

I used to work with a guy who had 'magnifiers' which were excellent for identifying the tiny numbers on multiplugs in the darker recesses up behind dashboards.
No idea where he got them from but they are available.

Sorry I can't be of any real help.

[bhg481]

Reading glasses are simply magnifying lenses put in a frame. Your eyes are focussed on infinity when they are at rest and to focus on close things you have to squash the lenses in your eyes to alter the focal length. As you age the lenses get stiffer and you can't squash them so, in order to be able to see close objects you have to put an additional lens in front of them, which happens to be a magnifying lens.
If the optician thinks that specs won't help maybe she has another problem with her eyes such as cataracts. The optician should tell her.
Why don't you go to Boots or somewhere similar and get her to try some cheap off-the-shelf reading glasses for about £5 and see if they help. There's usually a load of different strength specs and a little chart hanging up for you to try them out.

[andres]

You could try this website----VisionEnhancers. Might be something on there that is suitable.

[tonyav]

Some high power reading glasses on this link, joko.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/magnifying-reading-glasses/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amagnifying%20reading%20glasses

[EDDIE51]

Why pay £5? Pound shops have reading glasses in strength from 1 to 4 for 'Yes' £1 a pair. I usually buy 2 or 3 pairs at a time.

[Mamyalynne]

BHG is correct, the optician needs to explain more clearly what is causing difficulty with her vision.

Not everyone can buy off the peg glasses ( well they can but they may be useless ) - if her lens is complex ( mine is Minus 20, for example + astigmatism ) then the correction is important but will never be perfect.

[joko]

thanks all , she has already tried various strength reading glasses - thats why the optician said they wont really help
she does have macular degeneration = which is why normal glasses wont help it seems - otherwise he'd have prescribed her some surely
anyway this is why i am just looking for ones that magnify - like a magnifying glass would - i assume shes tried the +4.00 etc, so perhaps needs something stronger

[tonyav]

My aunt suffered with macular degeneration, she had various aids to help with her reading ect. They all only seemed to help for a while as her eye sight continued to get worse.

[Mamyalynne]

Some guidance here...

http://www.webrn-maculardegeneration.com/macular-degeneration-magnifier.html