Prescription glasses

[Andy W]

This could easily go into the Good news thread.
My line of work ( construction) necessarily requires me to measure and cut materials accurately . My distance vision is very good, i spot buzzards and red kites from miles away  however my prescription for reading has gradually deteriorated to +2. Rather than ruin expensive£100> glasses at work, i was getting by with £6 pairs.i tired of constantly taking them on and off, so bought some prescription bifocals from an optician. Now not only can i see close up in greater clarity, my distance vision is also improved. Im thrilled. Went for a short bike ride and i can read my computer at a glance and spot potholes even more clearly.
Its cheered me up!

[mrcharly-YHT]

I ended up with varifocals after a series of training sessions, where I had to constantly switch glasses to look between computer screen and presenter's whiteboard.

Being able to see again at most distances is wonderful.

You do get a horrible crick in the neck trying to do close-up work though.

[Regulator]

I have varifocals for everyday life and 'occupational lenses' (which just have the close and middle distance bits of the varifocals, and avoid the crick in the neck scenario) for work, as I spend a lot of time sat in front of a computer screen.  As they're occupational lenses, work paid for them.

[TPMB12]

Planning on getting computer glasses. Finally given up on the slow focusing issues and getting n glasses with a different prescription to read on screen at 80cm away down to 60cm away note taking at my desk. £265 for just the lenses is a big investment!

My requirements only need a simple solution in a reading pair. This will change with age and the optician will have to come up with increasingly complex solutions to cope with this age related change.

Still, my distance glasses don't med changing as my prescription hasn't changed significantly and with glasses my eyesight is doing well.

[hellymedic]

Single vision lenses 'intermediates' optimised for piano & computer screen (80-100cm) for my partner, were not too spendy. He's not very short-sighted and did get anti-glare coating.
Getting the prescription just right was a bit of a battle though.
He has these in a separate pair of spectacles so the full height of the score or screen are in focus.

[Kim]

Single vision lenses 'intermediates' optimised for my partner for piano & computer screen (80-100cm) for my partner, were not too spendy. He's not very short-sighted and did get anti-glare coating.
Getting the prescription just right was a bit of a battle though.

I've recently started wearing some of these.  Precipitated by investing in a 4k monitor and not being able to read the text at the far side of it.

In anticipation of prescription awkwardness, I first measured the distance from eye to screen^[1] at my preferred keyboard posture.  I then mocked up an image containing excerpts from screenshots of various things I read on a regular basis (everything from YACF through terminal windows in various fonts and colours^[2] to source code in a couple of different editors - taking care to include samples of "1Il|", "0Oo" and assorted punctuation), and tweaked this to display on my ageing fondleslab (which is sluggish but has an admirably high pixel density) at the same physical size.

Optiquak was then delighted to hold this at the requisite distance and twiddle settings on the phoropter.  The resulting prescription appears to be spot-on, though like pretty much every pair of glasses I've ever had, I can't get the nose-pieces entirely comfortable.

The anti-reflective coating just seems prudent for screen use.  I see enough reflections of my eyes in them as it is.


_{[1] Which turned out to be 80cm, rather than the 70cm they usually use, presumably on the basis that most people's computers are laptops.
[2] Crucially, I wanted samples of light text on a dark background, which I prefer for reading on screen as it makes the floaters disappear, but is more challenging for acuity.}

[TPMB12]

Measured the monitor distance and desk writing distance.  90cm and 68cm respectively. That information allowed my optician to limit his solution to the most basic,  single vision lenses. My eyesight really is on edge of what stuck lens suits. Any other reading or screen distance I'd met two or varifocals or bifocals.

[mrcharly-YHT]

'Full MOT' is how the optician described it. 2hrs of tests.

Good news; no glaucoma
BN: Right eye has changed, need new prescription.
MBN: historical start of detached retina in one eye. No need for intervention, but will need monitoring.
MMBN: cost of lenses has gone up a lot. Previous Varifocal lenses were about £340. These ones cost £550.

Total bill, for varifocals and occupational glasses came to £880. That's with some discounts.

[barakta]

Even taking my prisms out completely this time, my regular plain thinned lenses (high astimatism) + my blue lenses (less thinned, no anti reflective) cost £1050ish... I'd expected much more as they'd been £950 or something 2 years ago.

Scary that there is no NHS support available for that.

Need to see what Glasses Direct make of my script this time. It was £85ish 4-5 years ago (2 prescriptions ago) for thinned 80% sunglasses which I do need to replace before this summer.

[mrcharly-YHT]

If hadn't had the discounts, mine would have been £1040. So, similar.



I have the money to pay for it, but, blimey, this poor eyesight is costing me over a £1 a day.

[barakta]

I could claim £30ish from work but I'd need to have understood the hidden process in advance to get optiquack to fill in forms and I really cannot be arsed which is of course what they want, to make it so annoying it's not worth my time.

No other discounts available. I do use a small chain of local optiquacks cos their spex fitter guy is very very good which with my wonky face and ears is essential.

If I ever end up unemployed, affording my glasses could be tricky. It boils my piss that there is no financial support there bar like £25 which hasn't kept up with inflation. A friend used to have -12D lenses or something, super expensive, got £25 or something but they cost HUNDREDS and friend was on benefits so had to borrow or scrounge to pay for glasses and a spare cos if they lost 1 pair they were unable to function without them.

[Canardly]

Hospital Saturday Fund may be worth considering if you have an expensive prescription. Claimable each year thinks, following initial waiting period.
https://www.hsf.co.uk/individual

[rr]

I could claim £30ish from work but I'd need to have understood the hidden process in advance to get optiquack to fill in forms and I really cannot be arsed which is of course what they want, to make it so annoying it's not worth my time.

If you need specific glasses for working with display screen equipment then your work must pay for them, regardless of the cost of the lenses. They can limit you to the cheapest frames that will work and refuse to pay for nice to haves, but the optics you need for DSE they must buy. I would argue that you need your tint etc.

[barakta]

I need glasses anyway and the tinted lenses anyway so they only pay a proportion towards the lenses. My boss isn't daft, so she wouldn't fall for a blag either.