Does anyone else have a strong prescription

[desamnik]

for their eyes? I wear contact lenses most of the time but I need a pair of glasses. My lens prescription is -8.50, I don't know what that translates into for the glasses, but apparently its strong.
So strong that the optical place I go to says I can only pick from about 4 glass frames.
Has anyone else had this experience? I'd like a nicer pair of glasses than the ones they are offering me.

 

[maccagerl]

for their eyes? I wear contact lenses most of the time but I need a pair of glasses. My lens prescription is -8.50, I don't know what that translates into for the glasses, but apparently its strong.
So strong that the optical place I go to says I can only pick from about 4 glass frames.
Has anyone else had this experience? I'd like a nicer pair of glasses than the ones they are offering me.

That is not an excessively strong prescription, and with the thin lenses they make these days you should be able to choose just about any frame you want.
I would take my prescription and go elsewhere!

Good luck!

 

[Allison]

Sounds like you need to go somewhere else. If they can't offer a thinner lens that would be appropriate for most any frame, I wouldn't deal with that place.

 

[etoiles]

I have almost the same prescription. When I got glasses a few years ago they didn't limit my selection at all but of course recommended the thinner lenses.

 

[Happy Snowman]

There is no reason they can't make glasses for you with just about any frame. That is about where my son's eyes are and he has fashionable frames and he was not limited in his choices at all. I was concerned because he prescription changed about every 6 months. I asked the dr what the worst he saw that was correctable vision and he said in the -30.0 range.

 

[desamnik]

I am going to take it somewhere else. It seems strange to me in this day and age that I am limited. I think I needed to hear it from someone else that they might not be giving me good information.

YAY!

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

for their eyes? I wear contact lenses most of the time but I need a pair of glasses. My lens prescription is -8.50, I don't know what that translates into for the glasses, but apparently its strong.
So strong that the optical place I go to says I can only pick from about 4 glass frames.
Has anyone else had this experience? I'd like a nicer pair of glasses than the ones they are offering me.

My eyes are about your prescription. There is some truth to limiting your frames, the smaller the frames the thinner they could get your lenses. Also you can't do the wire style as your lenses would stick out way too much (and possibly be too heavy for wires). I just go to LensCrafters, I have found a bunch of stylish frames the would be decent with my rx. They have designer ones from Tiffany, Coach, Prada, etc.

I buy the thinnest lens possible, they aren't cheap but I won't wear the glasses if the lenses stick out too bad.

Good luck in your search!

 

[Colleen27]

Mine is nearly as strong as yours (-6.50) and the only way I'm limited is if I am not willing to pay the upcharge for thinner lenses. I can't imagine not getting the thin lenses, though! And I've also been told the "invisible" frames aren't recommended for very strong prescriptions, even with the thin lenses, but I have no interest in those anyway.

Like you I wear contacts most of the time, but about every 5 years I get a new back-up pair of glasses and I had no problem finding a cute pair last year.

 

[MickeysMommy]

Try -10.5 and -11...go somewhere else. My eye doctor picks out certain frames for my face and I choose from there. I also pay to have the lenses "thinner" but I only wear them at night when I take my contacts out.

Thank God for contacts!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[kate_wdw]

My glasses prescription is somewhere in the neighborhood of -10 and -12. If you get the thinner lens, it will open up a lot of options to you. For example, I was recently browsing for frames at Sterling Optical (I've had good luck at Lenscrafters too) and they showed me how thick my prescription would be with their newest thin lens - it was thin enough that I could have gotten metal frames with some lens overhang (which I just accept will be a given). However, my insurance wouldn't have covered the thinner lens. Keep looking!

Thank God for contacts!!

Amen to that!

 

[IDoDis]

My DH has a VERY STRONG prescription which is a -23 or -24. Years ago he had coke bottle lenses, but the technology has improved so much, that his glasses look pretty normal. He can't ever buy lenses at places like Costco and has to go to an actual optical store. He can't ever get the "glasses made in one day" deal either. He has progressive lenses and they have to be made in a lab somewhere which usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. They also cost 3 times more than my glasses. The smaller the frame, the less thick and less heavy they are. He usually chooses titanium frames. The trick is finding frames that don't look too small for his head size. Nevertheless, buying glasses for him is still way better than it was 20 years ago and his glasses are much more stylish than they were back then, too.

 

[bcla]

Contact lens correction "strength" to correct to 20/20 will actually be a little bit lower than eyeglasses, depending on how strong. My eyeglass prescription was actually about -2 greater in my worst eye. My eye doc explained it to me that it's because they sit right against the eye.

Certainly it's possible to get high refractive-index lenses, but even the highest practical ones will be noticeably thick with most metal frames. They're just no way around it. Additionally, the high-index lenses also have varying issues with color and curvature distortion around the edges. One optician recommended a slightly lower-index lens because the highest was too expensive and has massive color distortion.

The one-hour places can basically process ordinary CR39 lenses in an hour. The newer types of high-index lenses require specialized grinding equipment that's too expensive to have in every retail store. I was getting one-hour glasses from a place that actually predates Lenscrafters. Back then it was mostly CR39, which is cheap and easy to grind.

 

[nephthys43]

I used to work at an eye lab. You can pretty much have any frame you want with the exception of the ones that get attached through the lens (silhouettes & the like). I have a -6.50 and I have all kinds of frames. The thinnest lens is called a 1.74. It's expensive, but very nice. I wear one level thicker (1.67) because I couldn't adjust to the 1.74 for some reason. If you go to the store you can just ask for 1.67 or 1.74 lens and they should understand exactly what you want.

 

[SueM in MN]

My eyes are about your prescription. There is some truth to limiting your frames, the smaller the frames the thinner they could get your lenses. Also you can't do the wire style as your lenses would stick out way too much (and possibly be too heavy for wires). I just go to LensCrafters, I have found a bunch of stylish frames the would be decent with my rx. They have designer ones from Tiffany, Coach, Prada, etc.

I buy the thinnest lens possible, they aren't cheap but I won't wear the glasses if the lenses stick out too bad.

Good luck in your search!

i have about the same prescription and have metal frames for years. In fact, they did not recommend plastic frames because they tend to have more flex and don’t keep their shape.
My lenses are flush to the front of the frame, but do stick out on the back.I do choose smaller frames because i have a small face and, as you say, the smaller frames allow the lenses to be thinner.
Getting the thinnest possible frames really makes a difference.

My DH has a VERY STRONG prescription which is a -23 or -24. Years ago he had coke bottle lenses, but the technology has improved so much, that his glasses look pretty normal. He can't ever buy lenses at places like Costco and has to go to an actual optical store. He can't ever get the "glasses made in one day" deal either. He has progressive lenses and they have to be made in a lab somewhere which usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. They also cost 3 times more than my glasses. The smaller the frame, the less thick and less heavy they are. He usually chooses titanium frames. The trick is finding frames that don't look too small for his head size. Nevertheless, buying glasses for him is still way better than it was 20 years ago and his glasses are much more stylish than they were back then, too.

i agree it’s kind of the pits to have to wait for several weeks for the glasses.
And, the cost is a LOT more. I can never get the “we have lenses on sale” lenses either.

 

[bcla]

I used to work at an eye lab. You can pretty much have any frame you want with the exception of the ones that get attached through the lens (silhouettes & the like). I have a -6.50 and I have all kinds of frames. The thinnest lens is called a 1.74. It's expensive, but very nice. I wear one level thicker (1.67) because I couldn't adjust to the 1.74 for some reason. If you go to the store you can just ask for 1.67 or 1.74 lens and they should understand exactly what you want.

The highest index lenses apparently suffer from massive chromatic aberration as the lens gets thicker. Colors get focused to different points and it looks like the output of a prism. I get mild effects with higher index lenses, but I don't have the highest index ones.

I remember a few coworkers originally from Asia who told me about their super thin lenses they bought in Asia before they came to the US or when returning back for visits. They were high-index glass and didn't meet US safety standards for minimum thickness.