Expecting Too Much From Reading Glasses?

Hello!

46-year-old male. Over the past several years, fine print has become harder to read. ("They keep using smaller and smaller fonts!") So far, a mild inconvenience. I went to an optometrist last May to have my eyes tested for the first time in memory. Just wanted a baseline and to make sure my eyes were healthy otherwise. (Those retinal photos sure are cool--I really appreciated how he took the time to explain to me what I was seeing and what he could tell by examining them.) He agreed that glasses were not really necessary yet.

I then found out that I had some vision care benefits which I was going to lose if I didn't use them by the end of September. I went back in September, had another partial eye exam and a got a prescription for reading glasses, which I had filled in the optometrist's office. They are a mild prescription (1.0? both sides? with a slight correction for astigmatism in the left eye.)

I have been using them occasionally and they do make print larger, clearer and easier to read. However, I noticed that if I cover one eye and then the other, the correction for my right eye is not as good as for the left: compared with the left, print is smaller and blurrier.

I went back to the optometrist's office recently and told one of the staff what I was experiencing. She checked my file then told me that what I was experiencing was normal--that I just had to wear the glasses more often and my eyes would get used to them.

Does this sound correct? My assumption was that the glasses would correct each eye individually so that the resulting image would be approximately the same size and clarity for both eyes. Perhaps I was expecting too much.

Thanks for any experience and insight you can provide.

Cheers!

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

I don't think she could figure out everything by just "checking out  your file."  It sounds like you maybe needed to be re-examined and that you might need a little more power in right eye.  Call office back and ask to be rechecked by doctor.

MJK MD