Do you often have difficulty reading things or seeing things close to you but have no problem with your far away vision? Do you often find yourself keeping a book or any reading material a little further away from yourself, in order to see better? If so, then you may need reading glasses.
What Are Glasses For Reading?
People who have trouble with their near or close-up vision, usually keep reading material at arms length or try and squint to make out the words. Such people have compromised near vision and require glasses for reading.
Reading glasses have a kind of magnifying lens, which magnifies the words on a page so that you can see and read them better. Glasses for reading are mostly useful for reading as well as concentrating on things and items close to you. If you try to see in the distance with your reading glasses, then you will not be able to see things clearly as everything will appear blurry. Thus, eyeglasses for reading are not the same as the regular kind of eye glasses for distance vision correction.
Choosing Reading Eyeglasses
Reading glasses are usually available in two different types.
- The single vision eye glasses for reading with a full frame, meaning the complete lens in the eye glasses is as per the reading prescription.
- The reading glasses with half-eyes, in which the lower part of the lens is made according to the reading prescription, and the upper part of the lens is normal. Such reading glasses are those that sit lower on the nose.
If you need to wear reading glasses for short periods of time, then the full frames may be suitable for you. But, if you wear your reading glasses for long periods, then half-eyes can be considered, so that you do not have to keep removing your reading eyeglasses, every time you need to look into the distance.
Pre-fabricated And Customized Reading Glasses
To get a pair of eye glasses for reading, you do not need a doctor’s prescription. You can go to any store that sells pre-fabricated reading glasses and pick a pair. Such pre-fabricated glasses for reading have a kind of magnifying lens that helps you to see nearer items better. Pre-fabricated or readymade reading glasses are much cheaper than the customized version, and you can thus buy various readymade reading glasses instead of having only one. This can enable you to experiment with different styles and colors of eye glasses for reading.
Readymade reading glasses are essentially ‘one for all’ type of reading glasses. They are not made to your exact eye prescription and can thus give you some problems. If the glasses for reading are too far off from your actual prescription, then using such glasses will put extra strain on your eyes, which could lead to eye strain, head aches, and sometimes even nausea.
If you can afford the extra cost, then buying custom made glasses for reading is certainly the better way to go. With customized reading glasses, the lenses for both the eyes will not be similar and will be made exactly as per your reading prescription. The optical centers in the lenses will be placed according to your prescription and not in a random fashion. Thus, you will get reading glasses, which are optimum for your eyes and will not put any unnecessary strain on them.