Glasses... a love hate relationship

[PitCarver]

Love/hate, for classes?
I feel quite lucky to have passed my driver's license eye exam, with flying colors, at 64, without glasses.
I did, however, have to use my dollar store readin' glasses to fill out the paperwork. Seems like all of my family wears glasses, except me. What gets me is my wife has to take her prescription glasses off to read anything then she'll give it to me and I have to find my cheaters.
¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

 

[olbriar]

My lack of stellar vision messes with my depth perception. I have had the restriction on my DL forever. Bravo for you in passing the exam without glasses. How my father was a pilot in WWII I'll never know. I don't remember him without wearing glasses. Nobody in my family enjoyed good vision. Both of my parent's families all wore glasses. We were all four eyed freaks.

 

[Steven58]

My story: Early to mid 50s I started needing reading glasses. That went on (annoyingly so) for a bit, then I got multifocal contacts, which were weird because I only needed them really for reading. Then slowly I needed them for true multifocal. About a year and a half I invested in my first pair of progressive lenses. (polycarbonate: strong but scratches more easily).

I came into this ignorant but learned a lot quickly. I banged my head and was seeing stars so I went to an ophthalmologist (covered by health insurance). She did all the same tests my optometrist (not covered by insurance. Covered by eyeglass insurance (a waste of money).)

The ophthalmologist gave me all my eyeglass and contact lewith ns prescriptions (free because the opTHAmologist is covered by traditional insurance, because they are medical doctors). I went to Zenni and got good glasses (The doctor checked them and the prescription they did was accurate). I get my contacts at online discount outlets. My brand is Air Aqua Multifocal. They are the most comfortable and cost-effective for me.

I get my progressives with transitions. I like having my glasses turn to sunglasses and block my UV rays. In fact, I wear my glasses (I have two pair of ray bans and several Zenni) pretty much solely, now. It's cheaper to wear them than contacts and more convenient. I will wear contacts during rainy cloudy weather, as there are less UV rays during rainy/cloudy days. Contacts are in now, in fact.

Factoid: I learned never to put too much pressure on my lenses when wiping them with microfiber because if there is dirt or dust on them, the polycarbonate scratches easily with pressure. This has been successful.

I spoke to the lady at Costco. She told me that if I'm comfortable with Varilux (upgraded progressive area), then Costco would be hard for me to get used to. I don't know how accurate that is because Zenni premium progressives work fine for me.

 

[olbriar]

My buddy, early adopter of plastic glasses, told me I should rinse the dust off of my glasses prior to washing them. I personally think that if they are that fragile and difficult to clean they should still offer glass lens options. I worked most of my life as a carpenter and I had to blow off or wipe the dust from my glasses constantly while working just to see. I'm glad that I never dealt with plastic lenses until after I retired. They seem far too vulnerable now that I'm retired.

 

[PitCarver]

My lack of stellar vision messes with my depth perception. I have had the restriction on my DL forever. Bravo for you in passing the exam without glasses. How my father was a pilot in WWII I'll never know. I don't remember him without wearing glasses. Nobody in my family enjoyed good vision. Both of my parent's families all wore glasses. We were all four eyed freaks.

My dad was a Navy pilot in WWII also, though he didn't get glasses until later in life.
Mom didn't either, but she developed cataracts, had lens implants and wore contacts before she passed.

 

[olbriar]

My father was Army Air Force and flew P51's . His eyesight had to be great or he would have never been accepted. I was born in 52 and by the time I can remember anything, he was wearing bifocals. A bit over a decade and his vision went way South.

 

[Steven58]

The benefit of Polycarbonate is its lightness, especially in big prescriptions. It's a trade-off.

 

[Milo Williamson]

My father never had to worry about glasses, only reading glasses, I can remember him reading the news paper, it wasn't until he was in his fifties he would wear them, my mother on the other one has transmission bifocal ones, myself never even had glasses, just sunglasses.
Passed with flying colors my last exam was early 2017 when I had everything paper worked for social security.

 

[mikedt]

My only experience of having to wear glasses started about 4-6 years ago, when I realised I could no longer easily read small print in low lighting. So I bought a pair of reading glasses from Poundstretcher, that cost me £1, plus £1 for the case. Given the price the frame and lenses seem good quality.

I don't know if it's mainly Chinese or Asian thing, but I've seen mostly younger people wearing glasses just for fashion and looks. With plain non-presciption lenses, or sometimes wearing just the frames, without any lenses at all. That said, as a teacher of thousands of students over the years, from what I've observed myopia(short-sightedness) seems to be very common amongst Chinese, sometimes quite extreme. Where students just can't read what's on the blackboard, unless they come up close.

 

[olbriar]

It humors me how time changes acceptance. I needed glasses by the time I was in middle school but ignored the problem out of fear of being labeled a four eyed freak. Between sports and girls, I wouldn't have been caught dead in a pair of glasses. Now they are fashionable. Crazy! I don't know that wearing glasses in the states is now fashionable but I'm sure it doesn't have the stigma that existed when I was young which is all good.

 

[The_Chief]

I wore glasses for nearsightedness from age 13 to age 57... and I developed cataracts literally overnight. Nearly transparent cataracts that didn't affect color, but threw my vision off by four diopters! I was scheduled for cataract surgery and can now see every leaf, on every tree, way out there: and my night vision is incredible! Since the lenses are a fixed focal length, however, I need glasses for reading and computer work. The VA provides my glasses - although I have Solos smartglasses with lenses ground to my prescription. And they are awesome.

 

[mikedt]

It humors me how time changes acceptance. I needed glasses by the time I was in middle school but ignored the problem out of fear of being labeled a four eyed freak. Between sports and girls, I wouldn't have been caught dead in a pair of glasses. Now they are fashionable. Crazy! I don't know that wearing glasses in the states is now fashionable but I'm sure it doesn't have the stigma that existed when I was young which is all good.

It was same in the UK when I was young. I remember my sister having to wear glasses from the age of 12, she's now 58. She absolutely detested them, and was often teased in school, called "four eyes" etc. As soon as she was 18 she wore contact lenses ever since. My mum needed glasses to see properly, but she often wore contact lenses as well.

In the Harry Potter movies, the character Moaning Myrtle talks about been teased because of her glasses...

Apart from Harry Potter himself, most of the other principal characters are seen not to be needing eyesight correction. J.K.Rowling meant to show Hogworts as sort like life in a British public school in the 20th century, apart from all the magic stuff that is.

I'm sure in China, and other Asian countries like Korea and Japan, such prejudices against glasses have never existed. And may have been considered a sign of intelligence at one time. In Cambodia apparently the Khmer Rouge(1975-1979) actually believed that. In my school I estimate about a third of the students wear glasses, and many staff do as well.

 

[olbriar]

I'm not in the know of the percentage of students here wearing glasses. I'll ask my youngest daughter who is a teacher at a public school. I've seen a picture of her present second grade class but paid no attention. I'm guessing few if any at that age wear glasses. Her school teaches first though sixth so she should have some idea. I'll be astounded if the number is anywhere near one third.

I understand your sister's dislike of glasses. At her age and at that time it was a social hurdle not easily cleared.

 

[mikedt]

I've seen a few times, where a student who doesn't usually wear glasses. I've asked him or her to stand up and read aloud something on the blackboard or screen, and they've hurriedly borrowed another student's glasses, so they can see it. Also on the grade 8 lost property shelf, which is for 1,100 students, there's currently ten pairs of glasses waiting to be claimed.

All junior and middle school students in China must do mandatory "eye health exercises" 2 or 3 times a day.
Which goes like this...

Basically they're touching and massaging certain acupuncture points around the eyes.

 

[olbriar]

As luck would have it, I received a text today from my optometrist giving me the option to move my appointment up 9 days. I was playing golf and my phone was in my golf bag. By the time I saw the text and responded the opening had been filled. You snooze you loose. I would have loved shaving a week and a half off my wait for an exam. Now that I finally broke down and called them, I'm now actually anxious. I'm also more than curious as to why the vision in my left eye has degraded so since my last exam.

 

[mikedt]

Something I think that's made glasses lose their stigma and become like fashionable. Is name brand designer frames, from the likes of Gucci, YSL and Giorgio Armani. In the UK in the 50s, 60s, and 70s you had a choice between state NHS(National Health Service), that could be had for free or very low cost, but looked awful especially for a young person, with thick black or brown plastic frames, or John Lennon and Mahatma Gandhi style....

...or you could go private and have a better choice of styles, but many of those could be really expensive. School kids would generally end-up with something that looks like the first picture. Think my sister had them in tortoise shell brown.

I can still remember my young sister having to be dragged to Dunscombe & Co Opticians in Kingswood, Bristol. And I would relunctantly go as well, because I also had to have periodic eye tests.

I have an eye test every year, as it's part of the annual general physical exam that all foreign workers and foreign experts have to do here.

I just remembered annoying my mum once back in the 80s. Dad and I were watching the first Terminator movie on VHS, and in the scene where he's fixing his eye with a scalpel in the hotel room, and the front cornea part plops out. I quipped "That's mum taking her contact lenses out."

 

[mikedt]

The prices for frames is insane or should I say ripoff. The first time i got glasses, they told me to pick a pair of frames that I like. I picked a pair and they were $160 for that little piece of plastic. I wonder how frame pricing is in Europe. They normally have better ripoff protection for consumers.

I always say yes to all the optional coatings. I always wonder how legitimate the coating and cost are.

I think it's the same pretty much anywhere, like some frames can be stupidly expensive for what you get. Lenses also seem to vary enormously in prices as well, like paying a hefty premium for a "special coating". A British colleague of mine wears so-called rimless glasses, where the arms and nose bridge part are basically stuck to the lenses. And he paid some horrendous price for them in the UK, like £800 GBP. I paid £1 for ready-to-wear reading glasses, and they're fine for what I need.

 

[olbriar]

If online sites and places such as Costco or Sam's club can sell quality frames and provide lenses from your last prescription at such a discount, why is there such a markup at an optical examiner / retailer? It's not like they don't charge a handsome rate for their time in examining your vision. And it's not like they are sitting and waiting in hopes they might have a customer. My appointment is a matter of waiting in line for three weeks. I think there are six optometrists employed at the vision clinic I patronize. As the old saying goes... they are making money hand over fist.

 

[Hadron]

I wear rimless glasses, have done for a long time. Relatively high-end ones, but still far, far less than £800! But unobtrusive, almost weightless (yes, plastic lenses), and don't slip no matter what I do, that makes them worth paying a bit of a premium.

Only problem is that if you are the sort of person who puts them down and forgets where they are(*) they can be quite hard to spot, especially when you aren't wearing them!

(*) which fortunately I'm not, at least so far...

 

[olbriar]

I've always worn rimmed glasses and have mostly stayed with an aviator style frame. Now that I'm retired, I might just get out of that groove and try a smaller lens and frame.
I once knocked my glasses off while I was mowing. I immediately hopped off the mower and very slowly tried to locate them for fear of stepping on them.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Something I think that's made glasses lose their stigma and become like fashionable. Is name brand designer frames, from the likes of Gucci, YSL and Giorgio Armani. In the UK in the 50s, 60s, and 70s you had a choice between state NHS(National Health Service), that could be had for free or very low cost, but looked awful especially for a young person, with thick black or brown plastic frames, or John Lennon and Mahatma Gandhi style....
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View attachment 166740

...or you could go private and have a better choice of styles, but many of those could be really expensive. School kids would generally end-up with something that looks like the first picture. Think my sister had them in tortoise shell brown.

I can still remember my young sister having to be dragged to Dunscombe & Co Opticians in Kingswood, Bristol. And I would relunctantly go as well, because I also had to have periodic eye tests.

I have an eye test every year, as it's part of the annual general physical exam that all foreign workers and foreign experts have to do here.

I just remembered annoying my mum once back in the 80s. Dad and I were watching the first Terminator movie on VHS, and in the scene where he's fixing his eye with a scalpel in the hotel room, and the front cornea part plops out. I quipped "That's mum taking her contact lenses out."

(The top one one of my friends, well exes used to wear.)

 

[AugieTN]

I received my Zenni glasses. I ordered progressive glasses. They were $200. I paid $300 for progressive glasses at my last exam with insurance, so I saved $100. The progressive glasses from Zenni are fine Eyeglasses Online | Eyewear for Everyone™ | Zenni Optical

Due to the price difference and insurance I think glasses are a racket.

 

[olbriar]

I received my Zenni glasses. I ordered progressive glasses. They were $200. I paid $300 for progressive glasses at my last exam with insurance, so I saved $100. The progressive glasses from Zenni are fine Eyeglasses Online | Eyewear for Everyone™ | Zenni Optical

Due to the price difference and insurance I think glasses are a racket.

View attachment 166806

I think it's a racket. And it cuts deep into folks like me that haven't any optical insurance.

How do you like you Zenni discount priced glasses?

 

[AugieTN]

I think it's a racket. And it cuts deep into folks like me that haven't any optical insurance.

How do you like you Zenni discount priced glasses?

I'm very happy with the discounted price of the Zenni glasses. The frames are sturdy, plus I got all the lens enhancements. They even sent a blue light so I could see how good the blue light filter on the lenses work

 

[olbriar]

That's great! I've been very happy with my Zenni purchases as well. When I get my new prescription, I'll be buying a spare pair from them before too long. I have two pair now that are work worthy ( both have marks on the coatings ) Though the correction isn't right anymore, I hate to buy a new pair, even at a discount, only to ruin the coating in a week or two of mowing.