Question About Eyeglass Prescription

[NaTionS]

I'm hoping an optometrist or someone who knows about eyeglasses can answer this question.

Short Version: Will wearing eyeglasses with a slightly weaker prescription than my normal prescription be bad for the eyes? I'm near-sighted if that makes a difference.

Long Version:
I went to get a vision exam recently and my optometrist says my vision didn't change since the last time. I decided to get another pair of glasses with different frames so my optometrist ordered them with the same prescription. When I got the new glasses, they make my eyes tired after about 5 minutes of wearing. My optometrist thinks the reason my eyes are getting tired is because the lenses are too strong (even though it's the same prescription) and suggested that re-ordering the glasses with a slightly weaker prescription will stop it from tiring my eyes. Will wearing eyeglasses with a slightly weaker prescription than my normal prescription be bad for the eyes?

 

[sho'nuff]

sometimes getting new frames with same prescription will tire your eyes for the first few days or week as the eyes are adjusting to the new curvature of the lense

 

[NaTionS]

Yea, that's what I thought at first but I tried to get used to them for almost two weeks before I returned to the optometrist. It didn't seem to get better at all during that time.

 

[premo]

I doubt anyone here is an optometrist.

Don't ask a carpenter advice about your plumbing.

 

[sho'nuff]

I'm not sure I ever heard of prescribing weaker lenses to alleviate symptoms.
The whole point in getting correct precription lenses is to gain correct vision and to remove any symptoms due to bad vision.
Also as your eyes perhaps get gradually worse with age you are supposed to renew your precription, so going back to a slightly weaker prescription doesn't make sense to me.

I would suspect perhaps the optician miscalibrated your lenses or your optometrist miscalculated your eyesight. I would perhaps look into visiting another optometrist?

 

[NaTionS]

Well my optometrist compared my old frames with my new frames and she is absolutely sure that the two glasses have the exact same prescription. I'm assumung she has some sort of machine that can measure the prescription of the lenses. She said the reason im experiencing discomfort is because the new frames differ from my old frames in terms of distance from the eye, height, angle, etc... and that perhaps the difference is actually magnifiying the effect of the lenses, causing my eyes to tire.

I'm just trying to seek a second opinion here whether wearing slightly weaker lenses will affect my eyesight.

 

[Despos]

Originally Posted by NaTionS

Well my optometrist compared my old frames with my new frames and she is absolutely sure that the two glasses have the exact same prescription. I'm assumung she has some sort of machine that can measure the prescription of the lenses. She said the reason im experiencing discomfort is because the new frames differ from my old frames in terms of distance from the eye, height, angle, etc... and that perhaps the difference is actually magnifiying the effect of the lenses, causing my eyes to tire.

I'm just trying to seek a second opinion here whether wearing slightly weaker lenses will affect my eyesight.

All this can be adjusted for. The lens may not have been prepared correctly, axis may need correcting. I just went through this.

 

[dragon8]

Is your eyesight really bad? My vision is really bad and because of it a simple nosepad adjustment could throw the whole thing off so. I'd take it to another optometrist to figure it out.

 

[NaTionS]

My optometrist spent a long time adjusting the nosepads to try and match my old glasses but apparently the frames I chose didn't allow too much adjustment beyond the nosepads so there's still a difference.

And no, my eyesight is not terribly bad.

 

[Septavius]

A lensometer can quickly read the prescription of glasses, so it's an easy thing to do.

I'm nearsighted, and my vision has gotten a little worse over the years, so I have more than one pair of glasses. I can't see things that are relatively near, like a computer screen, clearly anymore. However, using my current prescription tends to tire out my eyes and give me headaches. My older glasses do not, and work well for that purpose. I asked my optometrist about that, and he said it was perfectly fine to switch to a weaker prescription when I didn't need to see as far. I've been doing it for years now, and my eyesight has been pretty stable since I got my last glasses perhaps five years ago. Now, not everyone is the same, but I think you should be fine.