They seem to be everywhere, your local pharmacy, the dollar store, near every checkout line you go through. But can cheap reading glasses really work as well as those with higher price tags? After all, glasses are glasses, right?
Not all reading glasses were created equal and trusting your vision to just any pair could actually be detrimental to your health. Poor optics can result in everything from common headaches and eyestrain to missing chances to detect more serious issues like cataracts or macular degeneration. It’s clear that understanding more about the readers you choose can save you from experiencing long-term vision issues.
So, whether you’re someone that has been wearing reading glasses for years or your starting to do research for your first pair, you’ll definitely want to educate yourself on the potential risks associated with poorly made, inexpensive reading glasses as we discuss below.
Note: For the purposes of this article, we consider bargain, discount, or “cheap” reading glasses to be those that are typically $20 or less for 1-4 pairs (or more). While this doesn’t mean you can’t find a great pair of readers in this price range, there are certain facts outlined below explaining those results are not commonly found.
Featured Topics
Reasons You May Need Reading Glasses
You develop the need for reading glasses when the lens of your eyes lose flexibility and thus, their ability to focus on close up objects. When this happens, you may find it more difficult to read your phone, a book, or the menu at your favorite restaurant. This effect is called presbyopia, meaning elder vision, and usually happens as you age. However, it isn’t uncommon for people in their late 20’s to early 30’s to need reading glasses. Especially when you consider the increasing barrage of computer and phone screens most of us subject our eyes to every day.
Stress and damage from overuse may also lead to needing reading glasses earlier in life. If the effects are mild enough, you can typically get by with an over the counter pair of reading glasses. This obviously is preferred when possible due to the huge cost savings when compared to traditional prescription glasses bought from your local eye doctor.
How Reading Glasses Work
Reading glasses are actually simple optical devices and work very similarly to magnifying glasses. The lenses feature a magnification or a “power” which will enlarge close up text or objects in your fields of view. Lens magnification/power typically ranges from a +0.5 diopter (magnification power) to a +3.50 diopter, with some as high as +5.00.
However, if you find that a lens power of +3.50 isn’t strong enough for you, we would recommend you visit your ophthalmologist for a full exam. It is likely that you would not be a good candidate for off the shelf reading glasses in this instance. It’s likely your magnification needs would be better met by traditional prescription glasses.
Getting By With Cheap Readers
In most instances over the counter reading glasses will work for nearly everyone, as long as they choose a reasonable lens magnification as we discussed above. Most eye doctors would even admit the occasional use of such devices won’t cause any damage or long-term vision effects.
“These glasses may be fine for people who need the same refraction in both eyes or who have vision in only one eye. I tell patients who are in these situations to go ahead and use them.”
– Dr. Eli Peli, professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School – Read more from Dr. Peli here.
Issues commonly arise when you start to overuse your readers, or poor build quality affects the outcome. Discount reading glasses typically lack quality materials and this presents a significant problem, especially when the quality of the lens comes into play.
When Cheap Reading Glasses Become a Problem
Forgoing Regular Eye Exams & Check Ups
By far the most serious concern about discount reading glasses is they might empower you to avoid the eye doctor altogether. Put differently, people tend to self-diagnose their eyewear issues with ready-made reading glasses found in stores and online. A routine eye exam can help to catch and prevent serious eye issues like cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetes or even brain cancer. That is a steep price to pay by avoiding a simple eye exam.
You may also be surprised to learn your eye doctors opinion on off the shelf reading glasses. Like Dr. Peli quoted above, they probably won’t have any issues with you occasionally using store-bought reading glasses. They could possibly even direct you to a better quality pair for an affordable price.
Choosing the Wrong Power
Selecting the lens magnification or power will immediately set you off on the wrong foot. The tendency is to choose a lens power that is much too strong for your needs. You probably get so tired of squinting while reading that you tell yourself, “I’m going to get a more powerful lens to correct this issue once and for all.” If we just described you and you proceeded with this thought, you have likely already experienced the eyestrain, headaches, and even double vision that can be associated with this problem.
There is also a chance that the power listed on the frame is considerably off the mark itself. For example, if you are comfortable with a +1.00 magnification in one brand, this doesn’t mean another brand’s +1.00 will also work for you. We have found that most discount reading glasses have little to no consistency in their optics and the magnifications are typically flawed. This effect can be quite dramatic which we’ll discuss a little farther down when we dissect the specific issues many cheap lenses have.
Non-Symmetrical Vision
Not everyone has symmetrical vision across both eyes, meaning they would actually benefit more with a different magnification for each eye. In fact, most people have a dominant eye which means each eye would need a dramatically different lens power. This isn’t a huge deal, but it is difficult if not impossible, to find a pair of reading glasses that offers different powers for each eye.
Fortunately, cheaper readers make it easy to purchase two different powers to swap lenses out if you’re able too. If you’re unable or unwilling to take this extra step, the prolonged effects of unbalanced vision will almost certainly lead to eyestrain and headaches.
Subpar Materials & Build Quality
Unfortunately, it’s all too common to find quality issues with cheaper reading glasses. To keep costs microscopic, manufacturers will often scrimp on their processes to be able to produce glasses as cheaply as possible. In fact, many of the discount glasses are barely held together by more than a couple of screws and some glue.
Misaligned Optical Centers on Lenses
As we dig deeper into the general quality of budget readers, specifically the lenses, we find an all too common situation which can undoubtedly affect vision quality and health. Many reading glasses found at the dollar store seriously lack quality consistency when it comes to how their lenses are produced. Often times you will find the optical center of the lens is unsymmetrical with the other.
It’s important to understand that the stronger the power, the less room there is for error in this regard. When you consider the power of a +3.00 diopter or above, the power of a lens can be off by as much as +/-1.00. Even if the optical center is off by as little as 0.25mm the resulting effect will, of course, leave you with headaches and eye strain when trying to focus your vision. You should also inspect any pair you are thinking of purchasing for any obvious impurities or distortions in the lens. These too can be common in more inferior reading glasses.
No UV Protection Present
Without UV protection in our eyewear, you would be incredibly susceptible to the sun’s UVA and UVB rays which can lead to serious long-term damage. This would include skin damage, cataracts, macular degeneration or even cancer. Even more alarming remains the fact that reading glasses will actually intensify the sun’s UV rays with their inherent magnification effects Readers that don’t feature proper UV protection will exponentially increase your odds of permanent eye damage long term.
Since quality isn’t necessarily at the forefront of the minds of the manufacturers producing discount readers, I would suspect many lack sufficient UV protection. Whether or not your beliefs are aligned with ours, we wouldn’t risk our vision health to save a little money by choosing these reading glasses. However, you could probably get away with them if you predominantly use your reading glasses indoors away from bright windows.
The Solution: What We Recommend
Though discount reading glasses may dominate the checkout aisle and google searches, there are optical quality reading glasses available over the counter. There are many eyewear companies with significant experience in prescription glasses and quality optics that offer reading glasses over the counter.
They typically use the same high-quality acetate frames, made available for prescription glasses, to produce their reading glasses under a different brand. Most are run by current and former opticians that know a thing or two about quality lenses as well. You can find unique designs in beautiful acetates that compare to $400+ glasses in quality and optics for a fraction of the cost.
For our money, we have been really happy with the performance of both Scojo New York and Eyebobs reading glasses. Other high quality over the counter reading glasses we enjoy include Kate Spade and Corinne McCormack. All of these brands offer acetate frames with high-quality lenses that feature anti-reflection, scratch resistance, and UV protection. Of course, they cost more than typical drugstore reading glasses ranging in price from about $40-$85. Despite this, your search for reading glasses will all but end once you try out a pair of premium, off the shelf readers.
Purchasing Quality to Actually Save Money
There will be a portion of you reading this that will no doubt say that you prefer cheaper reading glasses because you tend to break or misplace them frequently. The fascinating fact is that most people will actually take much better care for items that you spend more money on. It’s also easy to lose track of just how many cheap pairs you go through when not keeping track. This is why we believe that properly caring for a slightly more expensive pair of readers would actually save you money in the long run.
Conclusion
Depending on your situation, your budget may not allow room for an expensive pair of reading glasses for the select times you use them. However, this shouldn’t be taken as an invitation to go bargain hunting when it comes to the health of your vision. So is the search futile? Are we doomed to spend hundreds of dollars at our local eye doctors office? Not at all! For those searching for their next pair of reading glasses check out our curated collection of reading glasses to see the many styles available to you!
To learn more about reading glasses or other eyewear, please check out some of our related articles below. If you are looking for a new pair of reading glasses, you can start by browsing through our carefully curated collections (Coming Soon). Here you can sort through dozens of styles to find the best style, color, brand and price for you!
Did we miss something? Have more questions? Let us know in the comments below!
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Are Cheap Reading Glasses Bad For Your Eyes?
They seem to be everywhere, your local pharmacy, the dollar store, near every checkout line you go through. But can cheap reading glasses really work as well as those with higher price tags? After all, glasses are glasses, right?
Not all reading glasses were created equal and trusting your vision to just any pair could actually be detrimental to your health. Poor optics can result in everything from common headaches and eyestrain to missing chances to detect more serious issues like cataracts or macular degeneration. It’s clear that understanding more about the readers you choose can save you from experiencing long-term vision issues.
So, whether you’re someone that has been wearing reading glasses for years or your starting to do research for your first pair, you’ll definitely want to educate yourself on the potential risks associated with poorly made, inexpensive reading glasses as we discuss below.
Featured Topics
Reasons You May Need Reading Glasses
You develop the need for reading glasses when the lens of your eyes lose flexibility and thus, their ability to focus on close up objects. When this happens, you may find it more difficult to read your phone, a book, or the menu at your favorite restaurant. This effect is called presbyopia, meaning elder vision, and usually happens as you age. However, it isn’t uncommon for people in their late 20’s to early 30’s to need reading glasses. Especially when you consider the increasing barrage of computer and phone screens most of us subject our eyes to every day.
Stress and damage from overuse may also lead to needing reading glasses earlier in life. If the effects are mild enough, you can typically get by with an over the counter pair of reading glasses. This obviously is preferred when possible due to the huge cost savings when compared to traditional prescription glasses bought from your local eye doctor.
How Reading Glasses Work
Reading glasses are actually simple optical devices and work very similarly to magnifying glasses. The lenses feature a magnification or a “power” which will enlarge close up text or objects in your fields of view. Lens magnification/power typically ranges from a +0.5 diopter (magnification power) to a +3.50 diopter, with some as high as +5.00.
However, if you find that a lens power of +3.50 isn’t strong enough for you, we would recommend you visit your ophthalmologist for a full exam. It is likely that you would not be a good candidate for off the shelf reading glasses in this instance. It’s likely your magnification needs would be better met by traditional prescription glasses.
Getting By With Cheap Readers
In most instances over the counter reading glasses will work for nearly everyone, as long as they choose a reasonable lens magnification as we discussed above. Most eye doctors would even admit the occasional use of such devices won’t cause any damage or long-term vision effects.
Issues commonly arise when you start to overuse your readers, or poor build quality affects the outcome. Discount reading glasses typically lack quality materials and this presents a significant problem, especially when the quality of the lens comes into play.
When Cheap Reading Glasses Become a Problem
Forgoing Regular Eye Exams & Check Ups
By far the most serious concern about discount reading glasses is they might empower you to avoid the eye doctor altogether. Put differently, people tend to self-diagnose their eyewear issues with ready-made reading glasses found in stores and online. A routine eye exam can help to catch and prevent serious eye issues like cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetes or even brain cancer. That is a steep price to pay by avoiding a simple eye exam.
You may also be surprised to learn your eye doctors opinion on off the shelf reading glasses. Like Dr. Peli quoted above, they probably won’t have any issues with you occasionally using store-bought reading glasses. They could possibly even direct you to a better quality pair for an affordable price.
Choosing the Wrong Power
Selecting the lens magnification or power will immediately set you off on the wrong foot. The tendency is to choose a lens power that is much too strong for your needs. You probably get so tired of squinting while reading that you tell yourself, “I’m going to get a more powerful lens to correct this issue once and for all.” If we just described you and you proceeded with this thought, you have likely already experienced the eyestrain, headaches, and even double vision that can be associated with this problem.
There is also a chance that the power listed on the frame is considerably off the mark itself. For example, if you are comfortable with a +1.00 magnification in one brand, this doesn’t mean another brand’s +1.00 will also work for you. We have found that most discount reading glasses have little to no consistency in their optics and the magnifications are typically flawed. This effect can be quite dramatic which we’ll discuss a little farther down when we dissect the specific issues many cheap lenses have.
Non-Symmetrical Vision
Not everyone has symmetrical vision across both eyes, meaning they would actually benefit more with a different magnification for each eye. In fact, most people have a dominant eye which means each eye would need a dramatically different lens power. This isn’t a huge deal, but it is difficult if not impossible, to find a pair of reading glasses that offers different powers for each eye.
Fortunately, cheaper readers make it easy to purchase two different powers to swap lenses out if you’re able too. If you’re unable or unwilling to take this extra step, the prolonged effects of unbalanced vision will almost certainly lead to eyestrain and headaches.
Subpar Materials & Build Quality
Unfortunately, it’s all too common to find quality issues with cheaper reading glasses. To keep costs microscopic, manufacturers will often scrimp on their processes to be able to produce glasses as cheaply as possible. In fact, many of the discount glasses are barely held together by more than a couple of screws and some glue.
Misaligned Optical Centers on Lenses
As we dig deeper into the general quality of budget readers, specifically the lenses, we find an all too common situation which can undoubtedly affect vision quality and health. Many reading glasses found at the dollar store seriously lack quality consistency when it comes to how their lenses are produced. Often times you will find the optical center of the lens is unsymmetrical with the other.
It’s important to understand that the stronger the power, the less room there is for error in this regard. When you consider the power of a +3.00 diopter or above, the power of a lens can be off by as much as +/-1.00. Even if the optical center is off by as little as 0.25mm the resulting effect will, of course, leave you with headaches and eye strain when trying to focus your vision. You should also inspect any pair you are thinking of purchasing for any obvious impurities or distortions in the lens. These too can be common in more inferior reading glasses.
No UV Protection Present
Without UV protection in our eyewear, you would be incredibly susceptible to the sun’s UVA and UVB rays which can lead to serious long-term damage. This would include skin damage, cataracts, macular degeneration or even cancer. Even more alarming remains the fact that reading glasses will actually intensify the sun’s UV rays with their inherent magnification effects Readers that don’t feature proper UV protection will exponentially increase your odds of permanent eye damage long term.
Since quality isn’t necessarily at the forefront of the minds of the manufacturers producing discount readers, I would suspect many lack sufficient UV protection. Whether or not your beliefs are aligned with ours, we wouldn’t risk our vision health to save a little money by choosing these reading glasses. However, you could probably get away with them if you predominantly use your reading glasses indoors away from bright windows.
The Solution: What We Recommend
Though discount reading glasses may dominate the checkout aisle and google searches, there are optical quality reading glasses available over the counter. There are many eyewear companies with significant experience in prescription glasses and quality optics that offer reading glasses over the counter.
They typically use the same high-quality acetate frames, made available for prescription glasses, to produce their reading glasses under a different brand. Most are run by current and former opticians that know a thing or two about quality lenses as well. You can find unique designs in beautiful acetates that compare to $400+ glasses in quality and optics for a fraction of the cost.
For our money, we have been really happy with the performance of both Scojo New York and Eyebobs reading glasses. Other high quality over the counter reading glasses we enjoy include Kate Spade and Corinne McCormack. All of these brands offer acetate frames with high-quality lenses that feature anti-reflection, scratch resistance, and UV protection. Of course, they cost more than typical drugstore reading glasses ranging in price from about $40-$85. Despite this, your search for reading glasses will all but end once you try out a pair of premium, off the shelf readers.
Purchasing Quality to Actually Save Money
There will be a portion of you reading this that will no doubt say that you prefer cheaper reading glasses because you tend to break or misplace them frequently. The fascinating fact is that most people will actually take much better care for items that you spend more money on. It’s also easy to lose track of just how many cheap pairs you go through when not keeping track. This is why we believe that properly caring for a slightly more expensive pair of readers would actually save you money in the long run.
Conclusion
Depending on your situation, your budget may not allow room for an expensive pair of reading glasses for the select times you use them. However, this shouldn’t be taken as an invitation to go bargain hunting when it comes to the health of your vision. So is the search futile? Are we doomed to spend hundreds of dollars at our local eye doctors office? Not at all! For those searching for their next pair of reading glasses check out our curated collection of reading glasses to see the many styles available to you!
To learn more about reading glasses or other eyewear, please check out some of our related articles below. If you are looking for a new pair of reading glasses, you can start by browsing through our carefully curated collections (Coming Soon). Here you can sort through dozens of styles to find the best style, color, brand and price for you!
Did we miss something? Have more questions? Let us know in the comments below!
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