Reading Glasses

Believe me, your eye doctor sees it every day.

Someone (almost always over 40) comes into the office and complains: “Doc, my arms are too short!”

What’s happened? You’ve developed presbyopia, which is a natural loss of near vision that occurs as we age. (See also the article Presbyopia.) Even if you’ve been wearing glasses all your life, it still happens!

If you are already used to wearing glasses, all you do is sigh when the doctor suggests a bifocal. But what if you’ve never worn glasses before, and don’t need them to see at a distance?

It’s time for reading glasses! These glasses magnify what you’re looking at up close. The plus-powered lenses serve to replace the plus power that your eye (more specifically, the crystalline lens inside your eye) has lost.

You’ll notice several things about your reading glasses. First, if you try to look through them at a distance, everything will be blurry. You should take them off to drive (and to walk, too, if that bothers you).

Another characteristic of reading glasses is that they’re focused at a specific point, usually 12-16 inches. Thus, the reading glasses you use for the newspaper may not be clear when you look at something on the table. (A common complaint is the inability to see price tags on shelved items at the grocery store!) This is not a problem with the glasses or your eyes, it is something you must adjust to. Talk to your eyecare physician about other options.

Jan Ledford, COMT
EyeWrite Productions