Don’t Buy Glasses Online If You Have a Strict or Complex Prescription
When shopping for new eyewear, online shopping can be a simple and often cheaper alternative to visiting a traditional eyewear store. It turns out that depending on your prescription, it could also mean that the glasses you bought might not be as useful.
The problem comes from the fact that you can’t actually try on these frames, so the person making them doesn’t know how you’re going to view them , Wirecutter says .
Specifically, online eyewear manufacturers make frames so that the vertical center of vision (where your eyes look through the frame) is in the center of the frame. Optician in the store; however, it will measure where your center of vision is, and will instead place that center of vision where it really is.
Wirecutter has tried out a ton of different online eyewear manufacturers . While Flex + Iris did include a marker in their home fitting kits so you can mark your center of vision, none of the others did. Instead, they essentially guessed it by placing it in the center. For some shots, this is fine. For others, you may be looking more at the top or bottom of the frame than at the center, which means your glasses won’t be as effective.
It’s not just the glasses. We are all arranged a little differently, so the same frames will probably suit me a little differently than you, which means that we will both have a different center of vision.
Wirecutter notes that if you have a weak recipe, this is unlikely to make a big difference. According to Dr. Neil Pence , Associate Dean of Clinical Services and Patient Care at the Indiana University School of Optometry who spoke to the site, in general, your prescription needs to be about -4 to +4 for it to be a problem, but then it might be a pretty big problem.
People with stricter prescriptions will also have thicker eyeglass lenses. In the center of the lens, the glass will be thinner. When yours is off, you will be looking through thicker glass or, oddly enough, through thick and thin parts, which will make everything look distorted or you will feel squint.
Websites can be a great option for finding deals, but if you end up with opaque glasses, the savings may not pay off.