Why prescription glasses are better for you than ready-made glasses

Ready-made spectacles are inexpensive glasses that are sold without prescription in pharmacies and other outlets. Although ready-made glasses are often sold as 'magnifying glasses', they are designed to correct presbyopia. Presbyopia is a condition which affects practically all people over the age of about 45 years, in which the eye gradually loses the ability to adjust its focus to see near objects clearly.

Unfortunately people in this age group are also the most likely to suffer from eye diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts, and are likely to neglect having their eyes examined for these diseases because they think that their problems will be fixed by the ready-made glasses. Without a professional eye examination, many serious conditions can easily go unnoticed until vision has been irretrievably damaged.

Ready-made glasses can't correct all your vision problems

Ready-made glasses are also a poor consumer choice from an optical perspective. They have the same prescription in each lens, yet 75 per cent of people who need vision correction require lenses with different powers in each eye. Ready-made glasses also don't correct for astigmatism, despite the fact that 80 per cent of people require a correction for astigmatism. And because ready-made glasses make no allowances for the different distance between peoples' eyes, they can cause some strange optical effects, discomfort and headaches if worn for extended periods.

Pensioners can get presciption glasses for a similar price

Pensioners and other people on low incomes can receive properly prescribed glasses under State government financed programs for around the same cost as the ready-made versions.