In the supermarkets you can buy reading glasses, can you also buy glasses for di!

In the supermarkets you can buy reading glasses, can you also buy glasses for distance reading.?

The "cheaters" that you can buy at the grocery store or drug store are only magnifiers. Its almost like buying a magnifying glass...they come in strengths and the stronger strengths make things bigger. They are called "cheaters" because they will get the job done, but not as well as actual prescribed glasses from your Optometrist's office that have your exact prescription and measurements in them. So because they only magnify, they are able to be sold pretty much anywhere from Walmart to flea markets.

Distance prescription lenses however, MUST be prescribed by your doctor. When lenses are put in a frame for a patient, most people don't realize that there is a lot more to it than just cutting lenses to fit the frames. There are measurements that must be taken into consideration in order for the patient to be able to see properly. In magnifiers, these measurements USUALLY don't really matter much and I say that because for the most part, ANYONE can use magnifiers and they are very standardized. They come in strengths, usually starting at like a +1.25 or +1.50 and can go up to a +3.00. But distance prescriptions range anywhere from (+ ) or ( - ) 0.25 all the way to (+) or (-) 20.00 and up, depending on if the person is near or farsighted. Then there is astigmatism to take into account, which can have the same range. And when there is astigmatism, there needs to be an axis and that ranges from 0 to 180 degrees. Then there are things called prisms, which some people require and prism can be prescribed to shift an image up, down, in, or out and you can have prism in both lenses in a million different combinations. And the more difficult the prescription is and the stronger the lenses have to be - (remember the measurements that I mentioned above?) the more a person is more sensitive to the measurements and the positioning of the lenses on there face. Pupillary distances and optical centers need to be taken into account when making prescription eyewear, ESPECIALLY for those with tricky Rx's.

So because all of that must be taken in consideration in order to make a pair of glasses for a distance correction, they cannot be sold at the local drug store. Distance lenses come in a few million types of combinations, and there would be NO WAY to standardize to sell them over the counter. Even twp people with the exact same prescription would not see the same way out their glasses because they each would have a different pupillary distance and optical center most likely. There really is no "one size" fits most type deal when it comes to a distance prescription.

Back to the magnifiers - Even with magnifiers, most people wind up either over-correcting or under correcting their near vision because the powers are very standard. Not everyone is a +1.50 in each eye, or a +2.25. Most people actually do have astigmatism that should be taken into account and when you get the cheaters, you are missing that correction. Things are clearer with the cheaters, but probably not as clear as they would if the lenses were custom-gound to your refractive error. Things look better with the store-bought readers, but things don't look as good as they could.