advice explaining my eye test results

wallofbeans

Hi All,

I've only had to consider wearing glasses very recently. A have had an eye test every couple of years and never had any issue until last year, where they suggested I needed a "reading addition" of +1.50 and I got reading glasses as a result.

In the last few months, it has felt like my distance vision is going a little, so I decided to have another eye test to check. I explained this to them, and then after the test they told me I was right and I had lost some of my distance vision and I now needed varifocals. 

I was then passed to the salesperson, who tried to sell me glasses, but I wanted to wait and shop around first. 

When I got home, I looked at the results, comparing them to this time last year and they don't seem that different. For example, my "reading addition" has gone up to +1.75 but the "sphere" measurement is still 0.00 and a google told that is the one that relates to distance vision.

I tried asking the opticians again, but their reply to my email avoided the question somewhat, and I thought I'd ask here before replying to them. Does anyone know how to make sense of the results of my eye test? And tell me if I'm being told I need varifocals, when perhaps I don't.

I'm happy to get them if needed, but I just want the facts, and am not sure I'm getting that from this optician.

Let me know if anyone can advise.
Thanks all.  

wallofbeans

Here are the results from my eye test this week, if anyone has the skills to make sense of them:

Grumpy_chap

I don't think anyone is allowed to comment within the forum rules to a level that the OP will find meaningfully helpful.

All I can suggest to the OP, if their regular Optician is not explaining in a way that makes sense to the lay-person to take the prescription to a different Optician for an explanation and to buy glasses from there.

Spoonie_Turtle

I'm not an expert but the cylinder means there's some astigmatism; with astigmatism, the further away an object is the more fuzzy it will appear but just along one angle (axis), not equal blurriness all round like it would with a -ve spherical power. 

born_again

As simple as I can roughly speaking

Sph = up/down
Cyl = left/right (180 degree to sph)
Axis = the degree from up/down. straight up = 0 Think of it like a circle with 0 at the top.

So 83 is around 3 o'clock, cyl will be around @ 6 o'clock

Reading is how much extra power is required to correct the eye focus to reading distance.

wallofbeans

I read that my cylinder of 0.5 is within normal range. It was 0.25 according to my last test though. My axis measurement last time was 90 (R) and 95 (left), so I'm not sure what the big change is - and the opticians don't seem willing to explain it. 

I've never used this optician before. I don't have a usual, I just go with where my work gives me a voucher for a free eye test or a deal I see online. So maybe getting a second opinion is a good idea.

All I really want to know is, should I be getting varifocals or am I being advised to get new glasses just because the opticians want to make a sale?

I wish I could see an optician that wasn't connected to a shop that sold glasses. I would much rather pay for a straightforward medical exam only.

Spoonie_Turtle

wallofbeans said:

I read that my cylinder of 0.5 is within normal range. It was 0.25 according to my last test though. My axis measurement last time was 90 (R) and 95 (left), so I'm not sure what the big change is - and the opticians don't seem willing to explain it. 

I've never used this optician before. I don't have a usual, I just go with where my work gives me a voucher for a free eye test or a deal I see online. So maybe getting a second opinion is a good idea.

All I really want to know is, should I be getting varifocals or am I being advised to get new glasses just because the opticians want to make a sale?

I wish I could see an optician that wasn't connected to a shop that sold glasses. I would much rather pay for a straightforward medical exam only.

It just means the axis - alignment/direction - of the astigmatism has changed slightly.  I've worn glasses since childhood and I don't think the axis measurement in either eye has ever stayed the same between eye tests.  As far as I understand, a change of that magnitude is not anything significant.

This isn't medical advice, just sharing thoughts - if it were me, I'd get some cheap reading glasses of +1.75 and see if they suffice, at first.  If the distance vision were a problem I'd likely consider whether getting single vision for the astigmatism would solve the problems, or whether multi/varifocals would be required.  But I'm not an expert and my own experience has only been with myopia (distance vision, -ve powers) so any supposition here can only be hypothetical. 

[Also FWIW when I've had a 0.25 increase of prescription as an adult in the past, I've always been told I could get new glasses if I wanted but it wasn't a big enough change to make it necessary, just depended on how much of an impact it was having on my life.  However that was in the context of consistently having -ve powers of both sphere and cylinder, so again different from yours.]

wallofbeans

Spoonie_Turtle said:

wallofbeans said:

I read that my cylinder of 0.5 is within normal range. It was 0.25 according to my last test though. My axis measurement last time was 90 (R) and 95 (left), so I'm not sure what the big change is - and the opticians don't seem willing to explain it. 

I've never used this optician before. I don't have a usual, I just go with where my work gives me a voucher for a free eye test or a deal I see online. So maybe getting a second opinion is a good idea.

All I really want to know is, should I be getting varifocals or am I being advised to get new glasses just because the opticians want to make a sale?

I wish I could see an optician that wasn't connected to a shop that sold glasses. I would much rather pay for a straightforward medical exam only.

It just means the axis - alignment/direction - of the astigmatism has changed slightly.  I've worn glasses since childhood and I don't think the axis measurement in either eye has ever stayed the same between eye tests.  As far as I understand, a change of that magnitude is not anything significant.

This isn't medical advice, just sharing thoughts - if it were me, I'd get some cheap reading glasses of +1.75 and see if they suffice, at first.  If the distance vision were a problem I'd likely consider whether getting single vision for the astigmatism would solve the problems, or whether multi/varifocals would be required.  But I'm not an expert and my own experience has only been with myopia (distance vision, -ve powers) so any supposition here can only be hypothetical. 

[Also FWIW when I've had a 0.25 increase of prescription as an adult in the past, I've always been told I could get new glasses if I wanted but it wasn't a big enough change to make it necessary, just depended on how much of an impact it was having on my life.  However that was in the context of consistently having -ve powers of both sphere and cylinder, so again different from yours.]

I have reading glasses of +1.50 right now, from my last test - and in terms of reading they work well. The problem is that "reading" glasses are no longer just for sitting and looking at a book - I should really be using them all day long - looking at my phone, my watch, my laptop screen when not at my desk - but i can't wear them all the time because they make everything else blurry. And there's no way I'm going to keep putting them on and off every ten minutes so I end up not using them much at all.

But I have noticed a slight softness in my distance vision. Those black with yellow lettering signs at train stations now seem to require me to stand a little bit closer to be sure of some numbers. The small print on train ads across the carriage aren't as easy to read as they were. So I'm surprised there isn't a distance issue on these results (I thought that was the sphere measurement) and I'm sure in the eye exam, he told me there was.  

But maybe it's the astigmatism you mentioned. I'm just confused and would like to know the facts so I can make an informed decision. 

Thank you for the insight into your experience though, that's incredibly helpful.