Buying Prescription Glasses Cheaply

HEALTH · GLOBAL

Buying Prescription Glasses Cheaply

The three numbers you need, where the markup sits, and when to buy in person

Prescription eyewear carries one of the largest markups in retail, and buying online removes most of it. The saving depends on having three pieces of information before you start.

What you need

Your prescription, which your optician must give you after a test — you are entitled to it and do not have to buy from them. It lists sphere, cylinder and axis for each eye, plus an addition value for reading correction.

Your pupillary distance, the measurement between the centres of your pupils in millimetres. It is not always printed on a prescription, and any optician will measure it in a minute.

An incorrect PD is the single most common reason online glasses cause eye strain and headaches even when the lens power is right.

Frame measurements

Three numbers are printed inside one arm — lens width, bridge width and temple length. If you own frames that fit well, those are the most useful figures you have.

Bridge width decides whether glasses slide down your nose all day.

Where to spend

Anti-reflective coating is the genuine upgrade, removing glare in photographs and halos around headlights at night. Thinner high-index lenses matter for stronger prescriptions.

Blue-light filtering is heavily marketed and thinly evidenced.

When to buy in person

A first pair of varifocals, since the lens must be positioned precisely relative to your pupils and a second measurement is usually needed. Buy subsequent pairs online once you know the specification works.

Buy a spare

At these prices a second pair is risk management rather than indulgence. If glasses are how you see, one pair means a single accident away from being unable to drive or work.

Adjusting the fit

Most opticians will adjust frames bought elsewhere for a small fee, and five minutes transforms how a pair sits. If they slide down, the bridge or the temple bend is the cause rather than the weight.

Have them adjusted before deciding a pair does not suit you.

Sunglasses

Ultraviolet protection is separate from how dark a lens is, and a dark lens without it is worse than none because the pupil dilates. Look for UV400 or an equivalent marking.

Looking after them

Rinse before wiping, since grit dragged across a lens leaves marks in the coating that never come out. Store in a hard case rather than loose in a bag, and never rest glasses lens-down.

Use both hands to take them off, since one-handed removal is what bends frames out of alignment.

The eye test is the point

Most prescriptions expire after two years. A test checks eye health as well as vision, and detects glaucoma, cataracts and signs of diabetes before symptoms appear.

WHERE TO BUY

Ready to shop Glasses2You? Use the link below to visit the official store.

→ Shop Glasses2You — official site

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