A lot of people walk into the optometrist’s office thinking that getting a prescription is a simple procedure that takes five minutes. Unfortunately, that is not always the case because your optometrist needs to check your eyes, test your visual acuity, and often times you wind up with a new prescription. If your exam takes under ten minutes, it wasn’t performed properly. Besides that, there are common complaints that come with vision care and their fixable solutions.
Eye Diseases
Complaint: “I can’t see!” “My vision is still weak – you need to make my glasses stronger!” “I used to be able to see more and then something happened…” “Why is one eye blurry when I cover the other one? It never used to be this way!” “I’m seeing double and that’s never happened before.”
If some of these sound familiar, it’s time to make an appointment with your ophthalmologist. Chances are good that you may be experiencing some kind of eye disease or condition. Poorly corrected vision can often stem from diabetes, high blood pressure, inflammatory conditions and arthritis, neurological conditions, issues with medication, and even just having dry eye syndrome.
Solution: For the severity of some of the conditions listed above, it’s extremely important to go to see and ophthalmologist. You need to have the condition diagnosed, treated properly, and then you need to hit a point of stability. The process may be long and you may be sent to various specialists before a diagnosis is reached.
Wrong Prescription
Complaint: “I can’t see anything.” “My left eye looks normal but my right eye is blurry.” “If my prescription hasn’t changed, why can’t I see out of these new glasses?”
On occasion, if you can’t see after getting your new glasses, it could mean that you were accidentally given an incorrect prescription. This can happen two ways: your doctor misdiagnosed your prescription during the exam; or your prescription was made incorrectly.
Solution: Simply return to your eye doctor if you’re having discomfort with your new glasses. They can best diagnose whether your glasses were made incorrectly or if the prescription itself is faulty.
Inability to Read
Complaint: “I don’t think my bifocal is strong enough.” “It’s hard for me to read in these glasses – I have to keep moving my head!”
If you’re nearing or over 40 years old, it’s a safe assumption that your vision is deteriorating and you need an additional prescription. This additional prescription will help you read and see up-close and is the most common additional prescription given to the over 40 crowd.
Solution: If you are over 40, chances are you will need a bifocal lens added on to your existing prescription or you can opt for progressive lenses that will take the line out of the bifocal – making seeing easier. If you are under 40, your distance vision may have decreased substantially and it may take some time to adjust to a new prescription.
Regardless of the visual issue, you should always take your vision seriously. Often times all you need is a new eyeglasses prescription to help alleviate any visual problems. If a new pair of eye glasses doesn’t do the trick, head straight for your optometrist or ophthalmologist for a proper diagnosis.
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.