What are these spectacles for!?
February 16, 2010 10:56 PM Subscribe
Why do I need reading glasses? None of my doctors have adequately explained this to me.
I've had prescribed reading glasses ever since I was in eighth grade. Multiple eye doctors have confirmed this diagnosis. (Initially, they were prescribed when I got frequent headaches.) I have always been really, really bad about wearing them -- and honestly, never thought they made much of a difference. Friends that try them on don't think they look any different either. So why do I have them? Could I just have been suckered into buying them from the eye doctors? -- yes, I know that makes little sense, as they didn't sell me the actual physical glasses.
Doctors have always told me I am kind of cross-eyed (or, at least, that is how they have explained whatever I have). I do not look cross-eyed, although I definitely see where they are coming from with that diagnosis -- doing those 3-D eye puzzles have always been really, really easy for me. Do my corneas point in the wrong direction from inside my eye or something like that? Until this past year, I've always had very good vision beyond this abnormality.
I think my lenses are curved somewhat? I wish I could tell you the actual prescription, but I left it in Chicago. I've begun wearing them more often lately because my eyesight in general is getting worse/blurrier and have noticed they actually help in a very subtle manner, especially when using the computer. They flatten out the screen. It seems curved when I take them off after wearing them for a long time -- almost like by wearing them my eyes have gotten more cross-eyed. They also make images seem 3-D, sort of like polarized lenses in a theater. Using a random Flickr example, the lighted row of people in this image pop right off the screen. It's really weird.
OH! and something else I just noticed: When I am wearing the glasses, it is harder to cross my eyes. It is really easy with them off.
I hope the information provided is helpful. I know YANMD etc. but this isn't really a pressing issue, I'm away from home, and I'll see a doctor within the next three or four months about my increasingly blurrier vision anyway. Let me know if I can provide anymore information. I'd really just like any technical explanations you might have that could lead to understanding wtf is going on inside my eyes.
I've had prescribed reading glasses ever since I was in eighth grade. Multiple eye doctors have confirmed this diagnosis. (Initially, they were prescribed when I got frequent headaches.) I have always been really, really bad about wearing them -- and honestly, never thought they made much of a difference. Friends that try them on don't think they look any different either. So why do I have them? Could I just have been suckered into buying them from the eye doctors? -- yes, I know that makes little sense, as they didn't sell me the actual physical glasses.
Doctors have always told me I am kind of cross-eyed (or, at least, that is how they have explained whatever I have). I do not look cross-eyed, although I definitely see where they are coming from with that diagnosis -- doing those 3-D eye puzzles have always been really, really easy for me. Do my corneas point in the wrong direction from inside my eye or something like that? Until this past year, I've always had very good vision beyond this abnormality.
I think my lenses are curved somewhat? I wish I could tell you the actual prescription, but I left it in Chicago. I've begun wearing them more often lately because my eyesight in general is getting worse/blurrier and have noticed they actually help in a very subtle manner, especially when using the computer. They flatten out the screen. It seems curved when I take them off after wearing them for a long time -- almost like by wearing them my eyes have gotten more cross-eyed. They also make images seem 3-D, sort of like polarized lenses in a theater. Using a random Flickr example, the lighted row of people in this image pop right off the screen. It's really weird.
OH! and something else I just noticed: When I am wearing the glasses, it is harder to cross my eyes. It is really easy with them off.
I hope the information provided is helpful. I know YANMD etc. but this isn't really a pressing issue, I'm away from home, and I'll see a doctor within the next three or four months about my increasingly blurrier vision anyway. Let me know if I can provide anymore information. I'd really just like any technical explanations you might have that could lead to understanding wtf is going on inside my eyes.
Oh, and this is a fairly good site to find information and answers to questions about corrective lenses. There's info on prisms about halfway down the page.
posted by qwip at 2:50 AM on February 17, 2010
posted by qwip at 2:50 AM on February 17, 2010
They flatten out the screen. It seems curved when I take them off after wearing them for a long time -- almost like by wearing them my eyes have gotten more cross-eyed.
It's more likely that without glasses, you are always unconsciously focusing your eyes in a slightly strained manner in order to compensate for what sounds like astigmatism. When you wear glasses, your eyes relax. Then you eventually take them off, and your eyes don't instantly 'tense' again, so you feel like your vision is worse.
posted by jacalata at 9:54 AM on February 17, 2010
It's more likely that without glasses, you are always unconsciously focusing your eyes in a slightly strained manner in order to compensate for what sounds like astigmatism. When you wear glasses, your eyes relax. Then you eventually take them off, and your eyes don't instantly 'tense' again, so you feel like your vision is worse.
posted by jacalata at 9:54 AM on February 17, 2010
Response by poster: Ah, I am not quite getting close to 40... I just turned 21, haha. But prism lenses definitely sounds right. As does what jacalata explained.
posted by elisabethjw at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2010
posted by elisabethjw at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2010
I have bifocals; the top part is to correct my myopia, the extra power in the bottom part of the lens acts as a corrective measure for my esotropia. If I had contacts in to correct for the nearsighted-ness, I still would need reading glasses to prevent my eyes from crossing after long periods of reading or other eye-straining activity. Note I don't usually appear cross-eyed, it's just a tendency that my eyes have that gets harder to automatically adjust for when my eyes are fatigued.
posted by alygator at 3:33 PM on February 17, 2010
posted by alygator at 3:33 PM on February 17, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I would be surprised if you were not aware if you needed prism lenses, as they are more expensive and something that would likely have been mentioned by your doctor, but who knows.
For sure it sounds like you have an astigmatism that's being corrected, plus likely a small amount of magnification. That's why your glasses seem relatively fine to other people. Their eyes can compensate for the difference fairly well.
One thing to note is that if you are getting close to 40, your ability to focus closely will become worse (happens to all eyes as they age). If you were nearsighted already, this would make it easier to see far away objects as it gets progressively more pronounces. As you are already farsighted, you will have more and more trouble focusing on close objects/read/etc.
posted by qwip at 2:45 AM on February 17, 2010