Reading glasses

[porschebabe]

Are reading glasses that are sold in supermarkets anby good. I don't want to pay out alot as I have had my eyes tested and they are ok. I find I have been reading numbers incorrectly.

[gilf]

No. Well yes but dont buy them, I think they are OK but if you have had an eye test and everything was OK you will risk damaging your eyes permanently if you wear any type of glasses. When you say reading numbers incorrectly what do you mean, I believe there is a type of dyslexia which only effects your ability to read numbers, I think I have it at times.

[porschebabe]

I work in a large office, I can see the time on the clock over the other side of the room, by where the hands are but I cannot read the figures. Perhaps I do have this number dyslexia. I get 5 & 8 muddled. I can't read captions on the tv without squinting. But what getsme, is the opticians says my eyes are fine. Bit worrying!!

[honkytonkman]

The reading glasses that you buy in supermarkets are basically magnifying lenses, for people who are long-sighted and can't read things close up. The old joke is that as people get older their 'arms get shorter' as they have to hold books further away at arms length to read them. As we age the lens in the eye loses it elasticity to contract and expand, so reading becomes tricky. If you're this side of 40 ish then that's not the problem. A friend of mine is 23 has is very slightly long-sighted so has a weak prescription of glasses to prevent headaches when reading or watching telly. I'd try another optician for a second opinion.

[honkytonkman]

One thing I forgot to say, is that to achieve a 'normal' reading from an eye test, your eyes don't actually have to be that good. I wear contact lenses and my optician showed me what the minimum standard for driving is.. I was horrified as a lot of what I take for granted disappeared into a blur. So perhaps your eyesight is up to standard but not as sharp as you'd like. I'm particularly fussy, so if I can't read the tiny writing at the bottom of the eyechart then I'm not happy. My optician explained that some people prefer pin-sharp vision whilst others are happy with the average standard, it's somewhat down to your personality. Hope this has shed some light on it all..

[porschebabe]

I think that might be the case. I can see perfectly well. I think its just as I get older my eyes get slower. When I wake in the morning if I try to watch the tv the caption are all fuzzy for a few mins. I will just keep an eye on them. The eyes not the captions!! Eye on them He he!!

[Gef]

I have reading glasses which I need for smallish print especially in dim light. I paid over �100 for them about 6 years ago. I have also tried, the much cheaper, supermarket version and fing them just as effective although the frames are not as nice. If you can feel the strain in your eyes you need specs. If the specs get rid of the strain then they are fine whether from the opticians or the supermarkets.

[gazzawazza]

I totally agree with Gilf about the number dyslexia. At my last eye test (July '02) I was told I still have perfect vision yet I find myself making mistakes regularly when reading numbers with more than three digits in them.

This has become so common with me now that I almost expect to make a mistake and therefore overcompensate by reading them and checking them twice! (Good job too, I did it three times today!!!)

I also agree with honkeytonkman saying that some people are willing to accept corrected eyesight which is not absolutely perfect. For many years my wife would come away from the optician's with her new glasses and freely admit that she still could not see with perfect clarity. I thought that she had finally got over this when she started wearing contact lenses, yet not long ago she admitted to me that her latest lenses "aren't very clear" but she didn't complain because the optician (female) had "seemed annoyed with her" when she couldn't decide where the line crossed the numbers etc.

Next time I will go to her appointment with her, I don't see why anybody should have to endure blurred vision just because an optician had lost her patience...