HEALTH Cheap reading glasses could damage your eyes

Off-the-shelf glasses could damage your sight


Áine Higgins

A recent article in the consumer magazine ‘Which’ caught my eye this month. It asked a question that is often asked during an eye examination – “Do shop bought ‘ready-readers’ damage your eyesight?”
People who need spectacles for reading will often self-prescribe with ‘ready-readers’ – those cheap glasses that you can buy over the counter – and use it an excuse not to have an eye test. In my experience, however, people will pick a stronger lens than they need; which is like taking more paracetamol than is required.
The function of the lens is to magnify. People think if the lenses magnify more, they are getting a better-quality set of spectacles, but that is not true. Not everybody requires the same amount of magnification. Off-the-shelf spectacles may allow you to read certain text size, but that does not mean they are the correct strength for you. It is important that the reading correction be balanced for both eyes, and that the magnification is exact. The wrong lenses can cause eyestrain and accelerated deterioration. There are also many problems, such as astigmatism, that ready-readers cannot treat.
In the ‘Which’ article, which was carried in the health section of the November edition, an optometrist was asked to check the quality and prescription of 14 pairs of ready-readers from seven high-street stores and claimed to have found problems with half of them. Higher-prescription glasses were found to have the most serious flaws, and readers were warned that the glasses “could cause eye strain, blurred vision, headaches or double vision.”
Commenting on the article, Lynda McGivney Nolan Professional Advisor at the Assoication of optometrists Ireland said: “The article points out the risks associated with the use of ready-readers. An other danger is that buying ready-readers may mean that the wearer feels that they do not need to have a proper sight test.”
Ms McGivney pointed out that regular sight tests are very important, especially for the population who wear ready-readers (who tend to be over 45 – which is when many people start to find it more difficult to focus on near objects).
She also explained that sight tests also provide a good health check of our eyes and can even detect certain conditions – including fatal ones, such as brain tumours. “It is very important that these people understand that as they get older they need to have regular sight tests, at least every two years, in order to detect any potentially serious conditions early. Everyone’s eyes are different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to spectacles.”
Good advice indeed, and something to bear in mind when tempted by a cheap, quick fix. Ready-readers may save you a few bob in the short term, but they could ultimately cost you your eyesight.

Aine Higgins is an optician based in Mongey’s Opticians, Castlebar and Ballinrobe. She was the first Irish optician to be nominated for the UK and Ireland Optician of the Year 2009.