OT - reading glasses

[geoff]

There's a place a couple of miles down the road from me that makes lenses

£10-20 a pair of glasses, varifocals with anti-scratch and photochromic lenses in memory metal frames cost me £100

[geoff]

For you maybe - I could never get on with them

[Pete Zahut]

It's great innit? Certainly no need to spend hundreds and hundreds at high street places like Vision Express or Dolland and Aitchison.

[Archon]

When did you last try them? I had them early 90's, hopeless, eyes dried up all the time, but the new ones are like jelly, wear them all day no problems. All the lads at my sons school have contacts, no speccy kids to beat up! Good for sports. JC

[geoff]

Yeah, more than 20 years ago

might just give them another try

I might feel a bit exposed ...

a tad nekkid

[Bob Eager]

Not so easy to find cheaper single vision monocles! Best I could manage was a bit over 50 quid...

[Archon]

So many advantages though, cheap sunglasses, snorkeling without blurry vision. A good optometrist will let you try different makes for comfort. My kid uses daily disposables because he can't keep his fingers clean (my opinion). I use 2 weekly but get 3 weeks or more out of a pair. They actually work out cheaper than glasses as I used to scratch or get paint/solvents on mine, (or sit on them). JC

[Dave Liquorice]

Having watched my sisters faff about with contacts (albeit many moons ago) I just don't fancy the idea of having something in my eye. I've also been wearing glasses for over 40 years and don't find them annoying at all. Indeed they have the advantage in keeping the wind and dirt out of your eyes...

Might, I think eyes exposed to the wind and dust will be more of problem. I know if I take my glasses off and there is much wind about my eyes stream and dirt from miles around makes beeline for 'em as well.

[geoff]

In message , Archon writes

I could wear my ultra-cool 3M safety shades - wow

Aah, I sussed that - I siliconed some old lenses on the inside of a pair of goggles - fantastic except that they are now heavier than water

You have got me thinking now

[Tim Streater]

Do they do varifocal contacts? And I'm at a point where I need varifocals for distance and down to 20ft, and another set for up to 20ft and reading. How's contacts gonna handle that?

[Graham.]

and how they solved it.

mid range short sight.... but thats not the problem

glasses. I went to the optician and they sold me a

put it on show my eyesight was ditzy, besides I have

option they told me was a dedicated pair of reading

some reading glasses from a supermarket but none of

distance) but I cant tell the difference My varifocals are

with distance glasses and take them off ( which isn't

what the little b*ggers are up to whilst reading some

just taking my glasses off or looking over the top of

but the reading section of the varifocals is

distance in my job.

Did they apply the correct pantoscopic tilt to the frame? The bottom of the lens should be closer to your eye than the top. It may not be quite the look you desire, but it's the way that the reading part of varifocals work.

[<me9]

I became allergic to mine. could see better with them, but I couldn't tolerate them for more than a few minutes.

[GAP]

Yes, they do. There are two sorts, one which are shaped like a rugby ball so they stay in the correct orinetation, and the other sort are weighted so they "float" to the right direction. Then when you look down, you look through a different part of the lens just like a varifocal glasses lens. I think they work the other way up though (I can't quite think through the physics at this time of night!) so the reading bit is at the top. Unfortunately for me, the mechanics of my eyes is such that when I look down my eyelid picks up the lens and moves it into the wrong place so they don't work for me.

So, Plan B is that you have one lens set for distance, and the other set for reading (I have about one and a half dioptres different) this is called monocular vision. Somehow your brain figures out which eye to use for each distance, and both eyes for mid range. Some people can't hack it, but if it works for you, it can pospone reading glasses for another several years.

I've currently adopted the rather more radical solution of (unfortunately) accquiring a detached retina, which when being fixed caused me to get a large cataract in my left eye. I had that fixed and when they replaced the lens with a new (much better optically, BTW) plastic one, I got them to install a lens with the right power so I can see distance perfectly (for the first time in 50 years...) with my left eye, retaining the reading contact lens in my right eye.

Graham

[Archon]

Dust when cutting wood etc is a problem, however it reinforces safety, wear your safety goggles! Otherwise I have no problems with pollen etc, my kid lives on Claritin/Zyrtec etc during spring, summer and actually prefers to wear his contacts as his eyes water less. Putting contacts in is so easy once you get the hang of it, the only people who believe its difficult/weird are people who have never tried it. JC

[Bob Eager]

My eyes were actually like that (unassisted) for the first 55 years of my like. I never had any trouble figuring it out. Reading with left eye, distance with right. Now the left eye is gone, I just use reading glasses to assist the other one!

[geoff]

I think the response to that is

marvellous thing the brain

[Harry]

And you claim to be a teacher? Take the things back to wherever you got them from, sit youself down in front of somebody with a clue and tell them your problem. You should have been at least asked to try the spec's before leaving the premises and I can't think why anyone wouldn't.

[Andy Burns]

I don't think she claimed anything more than working in a school. She may be a teacher, a classroom assistant or something else. Easy to jump to conclusions on planetharry isn't it?

[sweetheart]

I used to wear contact lenses and got on fine with them - until I got an eye infection from something. I cleaned the lenses well and never over wore then so never did understand why I got that infection but it put me off.

Around that time they stopped using peroxide in cleaners and the new cleaners also irritated my eyes.

I also found contacts a faff to put in every morning.

Having said that, as I have gotten older, glasses cover a multitude of sins in terms of crows feet around the eyes.

[sweetheart]

Being a teacher does not necessarily make you an assertive person! One is a personality trait, the other relies ( in my case) largely on the ability to communicate and transmit knowledge. I am an academic as opposed to a people person.

I find it very hard to deal with sales assistants and such like.