Why can't we just buy "Near sighted" glasses at the local drug store?

Question

Why can't we just buy "Near sighted" glasses at the local drug store like we can buy "Far sighted" reading glasses for $10 and that's it? It makes no sence. If I just have normal bad eye sight, then why can't I just go to the local store to buy some near-sighted glasses
Near-Sighted glasses are reading glasses also, but just to read further away. If N.S. glasses were sold near me for $10, I wouldn't give myself a stronger pair, maybe weaker if anything as long as I can see everything with them. If one of my eyes were stronger than the other, I would buy 2 of the same pairs of glasses just to get the different powers.
When I went to the eye doctor a long time ago to get glasses for around $150, they also checked my eyes for some sort of diseases, but shouldn't you get that done for getting far-sighted reading glasses?

This question has been buging me forever and ever!!!!!

but shouldn't you get that done for getting far-sighted reading glasses?...

As in get that done first almost like a rule or law.

Nope sorry, if optometrists are soo smart, then how come their pacients get a stronger perscription and their eyes get worse after every visit? HA, that's another question for you people to answer! When I was suppose to get a new prescription, I accidentally dropped my glasses in a lake a few years ago and never got new ones, didn't have the money or really needed them. It took a little while, maybe a month or 2 or 3, but my eye sight got much better, something that wouldn't have happened if I wen't back to the eye doctor.

Still, what would the harm be in a drug store or wherever selling weaker $10 nearsighted glasses for people that have eyesight like maybe 20/40-20/90 give or take? There are people you know that don't have this eye insurance stuff that gives you 90% off or whatever.

I'm sorry, I can't choose as best answer because I don't see one. How about this, if there are soo many different powers to choose from that is if your eyes are different from each other, then why not have a small store, like the size of a hair cutter place that sells lenses for 5 dollars each and then you check the ones that suit you yourself? How do you know that the perscription that was given to you wasn't too strong?

Answer 1

I would assume though that if someone needed glass for more than just 'reading' as reading glasses are mostly for...they'd have to go to the doctor and get prescription ones anyway, right?

Answer 2

Here's a possible way to look at it.

First a little optics.

The power of a lens is equal to 1/d where d is in meters.

So if a magnifying lens was focused at 1 meter away, it'd be a +1.00 lens.

If it were focused at a half meter away (18 inches), that'd be a +2.00 lens.

thrid of a meter, +3.00
fourth of a meter +4.00
sixth of a meter +6.00
twenty-ith of a meter +20.00 (yes there are people who need a -20.00 lens to let them see).

If you are near sighted, you are too much +. If you can see only about a tenth of a meter in front of you, you would need a -10.00 lens to move that focal point OUT to distance, so you could see to,......drive? go to a movie....

Since everybody gets to a point (if they live long enough) where the lens inside the eye is too big to bend, they can't see close to read anymore, they go get readers. That's a LOT of people (everybody).

So they can make millions and millions of readers and sell them everywhere and make lots of $.

But how many people are nearsighted the 'same'?

Next part: When you go to an optometrist and he gives you an Rx, you take that to an optician who measures you with your new cool frames you picked off the wall display. He/she will mark on those frames where the visual axis, the center of the pupil (therabouts) is ON THOSE GLASSES. Then you'll get glasses that are centered to YOU.

If that axis is OFF even a little bit...you get eye strain, pain, tearing, red eyes, sleepy, .....because you're not looking through the center of the lens, but into a side portion which is actually a PRISM which pulls on the muscles as they try to move the eye to see the image off over to the side there.

Optometrists spend 4 years in school to learn this stuff and they are good at it. Ophthalmologists sort of pick the optics portion up as part of a basic science course and learn to do it fairly well, but no where near the knowledge base in optics that an Optometrist has. So it's not 'simple', but it is simple.

Since they'd only sell about one pair of wrongly fitting myopic glasses per 10,000 readers, doesn't make economic sense to make them available.

Answer 3

Those reading glasses you see at the stores are intended for older adults who are losing their ability to see near objects. As people age, the lenses in their eyes start to lose elasticity and so they can't shift their shape to focus as easily. Many of these people have had perfect eyesight for years and they still do, except for now they can't focus on objects that are close up. That's why they get those reading glasses. They're not like me. I've been wearing glasses since the age of 11 and strangely enough, I'm not developing this type of farsightedness even though I am in my 40s.

Answer 4

I wear glasses. I have a mild perscription and it hasn't changed much at all over the past 20 years. I've been to many different docs over the years, so the part you say about optometry causing bad eyesite does not float here.

That is similar to saying that dentists cause cavities, simply because a person who visits the dentist will know about dental problems BEFORE they become painful, and taking care of them right away will prevent the pain and excess treatment being required as a result of waiting to handle it.

I don't about the reading glasses question. sorry.

Answer 5

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Why can't we just buy "Near sighted" glasses at the local drug store?
Why can't we just buy "Near sighted" glasses at the local drug store like we can buy "Far sighted" reading glasses for $10 and that's it? It makes no sence. If I just have normal bad eye sight, then why can't I just go to the local store to buy some near-sighted...

Answer 6

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That means he won't get around the glass in time to catch you running out of the store with your arms full of Colt 45.

Answer 7

Nearsighted Glasses

Answer 8

I just did buy 2 pairs of -1 eyeglasses at Amazon.com for $10 from Hong Kong. I received them for the first time in years my distance vision was crystal sharp. Now I can see every star in the sky, and every crater on the moon. I also use a +1.25 for reading closeup fine print.

Answer 9

I, for example, have vision that is worse in one eye then it is in the other (Though both are below normal). So if I bought some glasses at a store they'd be too strong on one side and too weak on the other so I'd be basically blind.

They need to be custom made. Plus if your paying full price for your glasses then you need better health insurance. My contacts are just short of free.

Answer 10

Glasses are prescribed because everyones eyes are different. Sometimes one eye is different than the other. They would have to have too many combinations in the store and they still wouldn't have all of them.