Eye test and varifocals

[hellymedic]

I am happy to recommend and use bargain basement generic supermarket medicines.

Optics is rather more complex, especially if complex lenses or high prescriptions are needed.

Depending on the complexity of your visual issues, you might benefit from personal attention and service, which might not come cheaply.

[Jurek]

Methinks Helly has it ......

[Kim]

Quite.  OTOH, nothing wrong with barganacious single-vision lenses from the interwebs if it's not too complicated (I have some prescription safety glasses for cycling, and they're fine).

Varifocals is pretty much the definition of 'too complicated'.

[Mr Larrington]

It's entirely possible to cock the usual assumptions up by positioning your eyes asymmetrically wrt your nose.  If your face is such, it's best to stick to real optiquacks, preferably ones that give a fuck.  (Friend of mine spent a lot on not-quite-right glasses before he worked that one out.)

In my case it's the nose itself which is asymmetric. I have yet to own a pair of bins that don't end up wearing a hole in it after prolonged use.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Helly has it in several posts.

I paid a lot for my varifocals. My dear partner paid very little, got cheap lenses. She was sniffy about how much I paid.

However her prescription is for less than the difference between my eyes (about 1.5 diopter).

As soon as you have prescriptions over 4 diopters (one of mine is well over 5), a less-than perfectly symmetrical face, add in astigmatism to bog-standard short/longsighteness, then you can't use cheap, standard lenses.

[ian]

I got a pair of super-duper varifocals the other week, about £800. There were big words involved (several of them – once I saw the price – were for adults only). They're the ones that are supposed to blend focus seamlessly wherever you look. Honestly, I hate them. I'm at the age were I do the slide the glasses down my nose to read etc. so I get the point, but having to nudge my entire head around doesn't seem an improvement. Plus, because I'm really shortsighted (-7), I can only really use small lens, so there's limited area were the focus is correct and finding it is a pain. Price-wise, these were the most expensive in the price book (for super-duper varifocal and the thinnest lens). Because I'm worth it or something. The only really good thing is that if I rapidly swing my head in a bright room the swiftly changing focus makes me dizzy. I used to have to pay for dubious pharmaceuticals to get effects like that.

I also wasn't super-impressed that the minions in the opticians really seemed to know what they're doing when fitting (and they probably hate me, but I made the optometrist check) – they all looked like, and probably, were sales assistants who had done an afternoon's training in fitting.

Anyway, I don't like them so I'll probably just buy a spare vanilla pair online.

[hellymedic]

Ian has summarised many of the points I've made upthread and in other threads on the subject in the past.

Having to move your head to get the right focus can be a pain in the neck.

Those here who know Mel K might recall he wears spectacles with ENORMOUS (unfashionable and mostly unobtainable nowadays) lenses. Mel is the son of an optician and wears varifocals.

My first pair of varifocals were a disappointment. Subsequent pairs were better. It's not an easy game and varifocals aren't for everyone. Ian H goes for stick-on bifocal inserts.

A decent optician should give you a chance to choose different specs for no extra charge if your spendy specs don't suit.

I know mine does. This might not be possible if you don't live near the optician.

[ian]

I did um-and-ah about taking mine back. I thought I'd stick it out (I mostly wear contacts anyway) and see if they improve, but after several weeks I just really don't like having to shift my head around to see things properly and with small, narrow high index lenses there really is a degree of precision involved. It's a lot more hassle than having to occasionally nudge my glasses down my nose when reading small text. I'll admit they're really good for reading, it's distant focus which is the challenge. They're just not me, I think they're an over-engineered solution to a problem I didn't have.

Opticians seem to have commoditised, it's all designer frames and upsell opportunities. I'll like to find one of the old-school local opticians (in fact, I'm in the market, Vision Express have stopped doing the contacts I use, and I'm uninterested in changing to something else). I'm not really comfortably entrusting what is effectively a medical issue to the hands of a bunch of a bored sales assistants who'd rather be working in Topshop or somewhere.

[hellymedic]

Find a decent contact lens practitioner and get some (possibly several) cheap reading specs from anywhere.

[Mr Larrington]

Update: took mine - distance and reading - in for reglazing a week yesterday. Optician rang today to say both are back and ready for collection.

[Kim]

Opticians seem to have commoditised, it's all designer frames and upsell opportunities. I'll like to find one of the old-school local opticians (in fact, I'm in the market, Vision Express have stopped doing the contacts I use, and I'm uninterested in changing to something else). I'm not really comfortably entrusting what is effectively a medical issue to the hands of a bunch of a bored sales assistants who'd rather be working in Topshop or somewhere.

Completely agreed, but the last time I got glasses from Vision Express, the straight-out-of-Eurotrash sales assistant managed to find a pair of (too expensive, because I was trying to be unfashionable^[1]) glasses that fit my nose in a way that doesn't get irritated when I sweat.  A feat that none had ever managed before.  Witchcraft, I reckon.


_{[1] It's not the 1960s, glasses don't need massive chunks of plastic to hold them to your head, dammit.}

[barakta]

I'm probably not going to risk varifocals and just do a Professor Branestawm cos they're specifically contraindicated for people with balance disorders.

I also prefer larger lenses and fight hard to get them. I've tried small lenses and hate them. My eyes don't move properly and interestingly my current optiquack and fitting bod (who is excellent) both say the bigger the lens and closer to my eyes the better. I try and have my plain and precision tinted spex being physically the same shape so I don't get too much disruption from switching between them.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I was warned that small lenses simply won't work for high-strength varifocals.

[Cunobelin]

I am happy to recommend and use bargain basement generic supermarket medicines.

Optics is rather more complex, especially if complex lenses or high prescriptions are needed.

Depending on the complexity of your visual issues, you might benefit from personal attention and service, which might not come cheaply.

I agree.. for instance, simple things like pupil position and distance can be measured, but will never be as accurate as marking them on the lens

I used to get my Rudy Project Rx lens as the "second pair" from SpecSavers, but (along with others) they now only glaze frames they supply.

I used an online firm, but even after three tries they were not as good

[Mr Larrington]

I was warned that small lenses simply won't work for high-strength varifocals.

This ^^^^. My current frames originally came with lenses about an inch from top to bottom but when they got varifocalised that more than doubled.  After giving up on varifocals I have sought to get the lenses smaller again but the current opticians suck their teeth like tooth-sucking tradespersons and say It Cannot Be Done.  Next time round I'll get a copy of my prescription and go back to the outfit who supplied the frames in the first place.  Even if it does mean going saarrf of the river.

[tonyh]

Having to move your head to get the right focus can be a pain in the neck.

This. Important.

[ian]

I was warned that small lenses simply won't work for high-strength varifocals.

There's a chart, but I'd agree. Most modern frames are the equivalent of 16:9, so changes in focus over vertical lens distance for high prescriptions are fairly extreme, hence the need to carefully learn to position the head. It's made harder – if you're used to high prescription leans you learn to avoid looking anything other than straight-on through the lens, otherwise the high index causes considerable distortion. For that matter, I've no idea why I am so bloody shorted sighted – no one else in my family really even wears glasses (other than the older ones for reading).

Opticians seem to have commoditised, it's all designer frames and upsell opportunities. I'll like to find one of the old-school local opticians (in fact, I'm in the market, Vision Express have stopped doing the contacts I use, and I'm uninterested in changing to something else). I'm not really comfortably entrusting what is effectively a medical issue to the hands of a bunch of a bored sales assistants who'd rather be working in Topshop or somewhere.

Completely agreed, but the last time I got glasses from Vision Express, the straight-out-of-Eurotrash sales assistant managed to find a pair of (too expensive, because I was trying to be unfashionable^[1]) glasses that fit my nose in a way that doesn't get irritated when I sweat.  A feat that none had ever managed before.  Witchcraft, I reckon.

_{[1] It's not the 1960s, glasses don't need massive chunks of plastic to hold them to your head, dammit.}

I'm sure they have an 'incentive' to sell the spendiest stuff, and that to my mind, is just the wrong way to approach a medical issue. But hey, modern life is rubbish. We do have a smaller local optician, though to be honest, it seems to be much of the same as VE, just smaller.

[Mrs Pingu]

It is all the same stuff on sale everywhere, as I may have posted before:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/10/the-invisible-power-of-big-glasses-eyewear-industry-essilor-luxottica
Probably more important is the fitting/dispensing bit.

When I got my varifocals last week, I was told I was borderline and didn't have to have them yet (my 'add' is 100 in one eye, whatever that means). I'm not convinced there's actually anything there as I can't notice any difference, but my reasoning for getting them now was not to wait until I needed a lot of correction in case it made getting used to them harder.
I still look over the tops of my lenses to look at tiny photies on FB on my phone. Go figure.

[Kim]

I'm sure they have an 'incentive' to sell the spendiest stuff, and that to my mind, is just the wrong way to approach a medical issue. But hey, modern life is rubbish.

It always disturbed me that going to the optician was like visiting some trendy clothes shop, when by rights it should be more like an NHS audiology appointment.

(Well maybe not too much like an audiology appointment - I'm not suggesting they communicate everything through the medium of 9pt text, spend an extra day or two closed for training purposes after every bank holiday weekend, and refuse to provide replacement screws for your frames unless you've brought your circa-1983 exercise book for them to scribble in so they can check you haven't had too many.  And "Oh, we don't have funding for varifocals.  I'll put you on the waiting list for the bifocals clinic.")

Of course, in true modern-life-is-rubbish style, opticians are now trying to get into the audiology game.  Designer earmoulds by the end of the decade, you mark my words.

[ian]

A bit like the US then. My health insurer had an option to co-pay for an upgrade to a newer higher resolution MRI scanner. No medical indication required (and a very bad idea, it increases the likelihood of unnecessary treatment, but that's screening for you).

[hellymedic]

When I got my varifocals last week, I was told I was borderline and didn't have to have them yet (my 'add' is 100 in one eye, whatever that means). I'm not convinced there's actually anything there as I can't notice any difference, but my reasoning for getting them now was not to wait until I needed a lot of correction in case it made getting used to them harder.
I still look over the tops of my lenses to look at tiny photies on FB on my phone. Go figure.

The 'Add' thing means your reading adjustment is 1.00 dioptre. A lens of 1 dioptre has a focal length of 1 metre.

If your normal spectacle prescription is for (say) minus 2 dioptres, removing your specs would be the equivalent of 'Add +2', which would be better for looking at titchy stuff close up.

[Mrs Pingu]

Haha, it's over -7, so looking over my specs involves having the titchy writing at the end of my nose...

[hellymedic]

A +7 lens would have a focal length of about 14 cm...