Using reading glasses

[Imzadi]

Unfortunately, Lasik will not correct the "over 40 getting old" reading problem. This is caused by aging of your lens. It's getting more rigid and is not focusing as well as it used to, close up.

I was just about to write this, but scrolled down to see if someone already posted what many of us already found out.

The reason one needs reading glasses when they age is that the eye muscles are not as elastic & flexible as they used to be. So one can't change from distance vision to up close vision as easily. . . then at all. And one develops more long distance vision that before. So, if you can only read things at 12 inches away now, it will become 16 inches later, etc. We can only hold things so far out with our hands.

Contacts can only do so much. It still is the change in near & far vision that is the problem. If you want contacts that can do both, you will have to get bifocal contacts. Be warned, once you get them and your eyes become used to them, you won't be able to switch back to single vision contacts or glasses. Your eyes will become dependent on bifocals.

 

[disneychrista]

Yep, magnifiers won't work for any type of distance seeing. I go to the dollar store and buy several pairs so I have a pair in my purse, by the bed, by the couch, etc. I wear everyday glasses too and finally had to break down and do bi-focals. But if I am doing a lot of reading, I prefer reading glasses.

 

[DisneyHardin]

My DH recently needed readers, but with his job, he couldn't be taking glasses off and on 100x a day. He ended up getting his from the eye place and got regular glasses that are no-line bifocals but are just clear at the top. They were pricey because they were done there, but he really likes them.

 

[runwad]

As soon as I know the exact strength of my readers I'm buying the bifocal readers from Amazon for work! Thanks for the poster who mentioned that. And they even have them in sunglasses so I can read at the pool, GREAT!!

I had the problem with going from looking down thru my readers then looking up and it being blurry and me getting dizzy, but I think I had readers that were too strong. After I got a lower number and I can't remember if it's just magnifying or 1.00, I didn't experience that anymore.

 

[Imzadi]

Make sure you guys measure the size glasses you need before ordering then online. Go to the dollar store or drugstore and try on a bunch of the cheap reading glasses. You will find that some of them are wider & narrower. Glasses are sized in millimeters. Usually between 48mm - 56mm wide. Also, the bridge, (the section across the nose,) is also different sizes. Knowing how narrow of a bridge you need is key so they aren't slipping down all the time. It is one thing to have the glasses perched low on the nose vs. having them continually sliding down too far because the bridge is too wide.

 

[Christine]

Yep, magnifiers won't work for any type of distance seeing. I go to the dollar store and buy several pairs so I have a pair in my purse, by the bed, by the couch, etc. I wear everyday glasses too and finally had to break down and do bi-focals. But if I am doing a lot of reading, I prefer reading glasses.

Actually, they do work for me. I have always been far-sighted, but according to my doctor, when you're young your eye muscles can compensate for it. So for most of my life I've had extremely sharp vision, both near and far. Now that I'm in my 50s and my eye muscle/lens is now aging, I'm losing both my near and far vision. So my close up vision is 2.50 and my distance correction is now about 1.25. So I can buy readers for both problems. But I'm an unusual case.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Just wanted to come back here and report that my new bifocal reading glasses that I ordered arrived yesterday and I am wearing them today at work. Things are much better! I can look back and forth between my desk and my computer now without issue. No more having to take the glasses on and off or perching them on my nose and trying to look over them! I also got a lower magnification which helped as well. The ones I had before must have been too high for me, because now the difference between the magnification portion and the glass portion is not so disorienting. Doing my job is much easier now that I can see clearly at both distances!

Thanks so much everyone for your help!

 

[runwad]

I just got Bifocal Sunglasses today from Amazon. Can't wait to check them out at the pool! I can't read without my sunglasses on cause its too bright. These will be great!!

 

[loves to dive]

I've been wearing them for over 20 years now. I started just sort of perching them at the end of my nose and looking over the top of them. Then as they got stronger, I bought the half glasses. Now I'm back to the normal sized ones but the don't sit all the way up on my face but don't perch on the end of my nose either, sort of a little way down and I look over them when I'm looking away. I wear them all the time at the office, at home they sit on the top of my head and I slide them down when reading. I have them on right now and glance over them to see the TV. I actually have a pair in my bedroom, a pair in my bathroom, an old pair in my closet,a pair in the living room, a pair in an upstairs bedroom, a pair in basement in my work out room, a pair in my purse, a pair at the office, a pair in my car, a pair in honey's truck and 3 or 4 "travel" pairs that are a little lighter and smaller that I can can hang on a necklace and not worry about them falling off. I also have little stick on ones I stick on my dive masks. I used to wear prescription ones because I my eyes are different strengths by +.25 but I got tired of paying to get new ones every year so I just buy them at the drug store and grocery store and at readers.com now. I even have bi-focal sunglasses, about 6 pairs of those.

 

[manning]

 

[Imzadi]

I used to wear prescription ones because I my eyes are different strengths by +.25 but I got tired of paying to get new ones every year so I just buy them at the drug store and grocery store and at readers.com now.

I wonder if you can just buy 2 of the cheaper pairs,both with the exact same frame. One in each prescription you need and pop out only one lens, the wrong prescription lens in one pair, and take the prescription you need from the other pair and pop it in. You'd only have one pair that fully works, but it would be a lot cheaper than the expensive custom order pairs you have to order.

 

[loves to dive]

I wonder if you can just buy 2 of the cheaper pairs,both with the exact same frame. One in each prescription you need and pop out only one lens, the wrong prescription lens in one pair, and take the prescription you need from the other pair and pop it in. You'd only have one pair that fully works, but it would be a lot cheaper than the expensive custom order pairs you have to order.

I just buy cheap drugstore glasses in my strongest eye strength. I've gotten so used to it I don't even notice the difference unless I close one eye. For my dive mask,I do use two strengths, when you are 80 feet under the ocean and looking at a dive computer the size of a digital watch on your wrist, you don't want to have to think about which eye to look out of.

 

[wgeo]

I thought it was interesting - at my last optometrist visit - after figuring out my distance perscription, the dr asked me to look at a few clost up things and asked if things seemed "extra small", and I was like well yes, yes they do. So she "cheated" my prescription down a little bit so that my contacts would still work for both distance and close up and said that it would get me through a few years so I could avoid the reader glasses. I hate glasses with a passion, so I'm not sure what I'll do when this stops working for me.

 

[Imzadi]

I hate glasses with a passion

I'm pretty sure only Clark Kent likes wearing glasses.