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Corrective Eyewear

Prescription glasses or reading glasses can help improve your vision while creating a terrific new look for you. If you are having problems seeing and suspect that prescription eyeglasses can improve your vision, consult with your eye doctor for an official diagnosis and an exact prescription of your needs. While you may need only magnifying glasses for reading, you could need prescription glasses to help you see at night or in your daily life.

Eye Conditions and Prescription Eyeglasses

Although not all eye problems can be offset by the use of corrective eyewear, those that can be include:

Astigmatism, the most common type of eye problem, can make it hard for people to detect details. People can have astigmatism along with hyperopia or myopia.
Hyperopia, or farsightedness, enables people to see objects that are far away relatively clearly. However, objects that are close are blurry. In some cases, hyperopia is severe enough that objects both close and far away appear blurry.
Myopia, or nearsightedness, prevents people from seeing objects that are far away clearly. However, people with myopia can see objects that are close without a problem.
Presbyopia is loss of vision that occurs naturally as people age. Along with blurred vision, those with presbyopia have difficulty focusing.

Eye Conditions That Corrective Eyewear Can't Help

Some eye conditions cannot be corrected by the use of glasses (or glasses only provide limited improvements to people affected by these conditions). These conditions include:

Glaucoma, if not treated with drugs or surgery, can lead to blindness.
Macular degeneration can lead to blindness. In most cases, macular degeneration is treated with drugs, photodynamic therapy, laser treatments or other types of surgery. Treatments for macular degeneration can only prevent the progression of symptoms, rather than cure the condition itself.

Types of Prescription Glasses

Prescription glasses come in many forms to suit a variety of lifestyles. You can get your prescription in the form of goggles for skiing or impact-resistant glasses to use when playing sports. You can also get prescription sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun's harmful rays.

Prescription eyeglasses are also available in many styles. As you are shopping for your corrective eyewear, choose a style that you can live with for a few years, as glasses can last a long time. Because many companies make frames, you can find a style and price tag to fit your fashion sense as well as your budget.

Advantages of Wearing Corrective Eyewear

Some of the advantages of wearing corrective eyeglasses include:

better vision
lightweight, comfortable frames
the added level of protection from ultraviolet rays
the technological advances that protect your lenses from scratches
the variety of styles that can enhance your sense of fashion and accentuate your features.

Disadvantages of Wearing Corrective Eyewear

Here are some of the disadvantages of wearing corrective eyewear:

Glasses are delicate, making them still relatively easy to break.
Glasses can be easy to misplace if not worn all of the time.
Glasses cannot correct all vision problems.
You might need more than one pair of prescription glasses, depending on your lifestyle.

Costs of Prescription Eyeglasses

The costs of prescription eyeglasses vary depending on:

extra treatments that you choose for your lenses
the frames (and brand) that you choose
the strength of your prescription.

Corrective Eyewear Tips

If you are in the process of purchasing prescription eyeglasses, be sure to shop around a little to find the best deals. You can purchase glasses through a number of outlets, including your eye doctor, retail stores and online retailers. If you do not immediately need your glasses, you are more likely to find a better deal, as you will have more time to shop around. Do not forget to compare refund and guarantee policies.

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