Are Reading Glasses Bad for Your Eyes? (2024)

FAQs

Are Reading Glasses Bad for Your Eyes? ›

But you shouldn't rely on them for every task in your life. Wearing reading glasses all the time won't harm your eyes' health, but you may get a headache from wearing them while driving, playing sports, or other activities that involve a wider scope of vision.

They probably won't harm your eyesight, but you may experience headaches and eye strain if you use them too much. They are a cheaper option than prescription readers. If you're not ready to pay for prescription readers or you don't need prescription glasses yet, they may be fine.

Reading glasses can help you with a variety of things, including improving your vision and making it easier to read. Consider using them if you have difficulty reading small print or seeing close-up objects. They will not only help improve your vision, but they will also make daily activities much easier.

“Many patients come to me panicked because someone told them over the counter readers are bad for their eyes and can cause damage but this is completely untrue.” Inna Ozerov MD Miami Eye Surgeon Director of the Miami Eye Institute says.

Reading glasses will not make your vision worse, but they may not be the best and more comfortable solution for your eyes.

Misleadingly called “magnifiers”

According to the FDA, over-the-counter reading glasses are categorized as “magnifying spectacles”, which is unintentionally misleading to many consumers. This is because the primary function of these convex lenses is to improve the focus of near objects.

If the glasses have a strength that exceeds your actual visual acuity, they force your eyes to work harder. This can result in increased effort, manifesting in the form of headaches, eye fatigue, and even blurred vision. In the long term, overpowered reading glasses could even have harmful effects on your eyes.

A negative number represents nearsightedness, while a positive number means farsightedness. The higher the number of diopters, the stronger the power of the glasses. That means +1.50 diopters are stronger than +1.00 diopters. Or, put another way, the higher the number, the closer you'll be able to see.

Wearing reading glasses all the time won't harm your eyes' health, but you may get a headache from wearing them while driving, playing sports, or other activities that involve a wider scope of vision.

But if your vision is already 20/20, you may still need glasses or contacts to correct other refractive errors like astigmatism or hyperopia (farsightedness), it's possible you may still need glasses.

Do I really need reading glasses? ›

Signs that it may be time for reading glasses

Blurry vision when viewing things at your typical reading distance. Holding reading materials at arm's length to see clearly. Increasing font size when reading on a smartphone, computer or tablet. Needing more light to be able to read.

The higher the number in diopters, the higher the strength. So, +1.25 reading glasses would be less strong than +1.50 reading glasses, which would be less strong than +1.75 reading glasses.

Often times headaches and nausea can result from wearing the wrong prescription of readers or may have optical centers far from your pupil centers. This is why we recommend having an eye doctor specialist do an eye exam.

Over-the-counter readers can hurt your eyes: FALSE

First thing first–using over-the-counter (OTC) reading glasses from a pharmacy or online retailer (versus readers from your optometrist), will not hurt your eyes. OTC reading glasses contain magnifying lenses in different powers that work just as well.

Magnifiers won't damage your eyes, but you may feel your eyes get tired if you're using them constantly. If so, there are ways to use magnifiers for your low vision that won't negatively impact your quality of life and help make you and your eyes feel better.

Don't worry wearing glasses will not weaken your eyes. But, wearing the wrong prescription could be more detrimental to your vision and significantly impact your life.

The reason to use the glasses is to both make you see better and to reduce eye strain that may cause eye aches and headache as well as fatigue. Not using the glasses will not harm you. You just may have some symptoms described above and struggle to focus. This will not cause damage to your eyes.

Wearing glasses will not make your eyesight worse. Refractive errors will progress whether you wear them or not because it is a problem with your eye itself. If you wear the wrong prescription, it could cause eye strain but it shouldn't have an impact on your vision.

Over-the-counter readers do not take this specificity into account, and thus we refer to them as “cheaters” (cheating what our true prescription needs may be). Quality: Reading glasses that you buy over the counter are low priced because they are mass-produced.

If your near-vision tasks are short, like browsing recipes or reading on your laptop for 15 minutes, Madan says drugstore glasses are generally a good fit. If you wear contact lenses and are looking for a crisper image when reading, over-the-counter ready readers are a good option then too, says Yuen.

Are readers as good as prescription glasses? ›

Standard reading glasses are only designed to view objects at close range, which is why bifocals are commonly used to shift between short range and distance vision. Reading glasses are not designed to correct vision problems, and unlike prescription glasses, are not designed for full-time use.

The good news is that wearing reading glasses for long periods of time won't hurt your vision or damage your eyes. In fact, not wearing reading glasses when you need them could actually gradually worsen your eyesight.

Sometimes your glasses may cause blurry vision because they are not clean. Glasses gather oil from fingertips that attract dust and dirt, slowly accumulating and build over a period. This accrued debris can affect the performance of eyeglasses by causing blurry vision that is not as clear as it should be.

They CAN be if you are comfortable using your distance correction for close work . If you find it very tiring to use your distance vision up close then you would be more comfortable with a weaker pair for close work.

Wearing the wrong prescription eyeglasses can damage the eyes. It can take a few days or weeks to adjust to new glasses. If you still cannot see well with your glasses after a few weeks, your prescription may be too weak or too strong. This happens sometimes, and it can cause headaches, eye strain, and fatigue.