Earlier this week we had a client come to see us who required “only reading glasses”. These were his exact words and what he meant was that there was nothing wrong with his distance vision. In fact he could see really well in the long distance and was able and legally allowed to drive without glasses. However, he found that he was struggling to see close up and had come across the “arms are getting too short” syndrom a few years earlier already. We examined his eyes and found that indeed, he didn’t require a distance prescription and for his close distance (to read at a distance of 35 to 40cm) he required a correction of +2.25. Easy, right? Just get some +2.25 readers and the problem is solved, right? Well, as is our duty, we tried to find out a little more about his day to day work, just so we could confirm that this was indeed all he required.

It turned out that he was doing a lot of reading, both on hard copy and on the computer. Some of his reading was in cook books because he enjoyed cooking. He also liked playing cards with his friends on a weekly basis. Ah, should probably be said that he was already used to wearing a pair of readers and new how they worked and what they did for him. So, we asked how he found the old readers for all those things he enjoyed doing. His response was that he thought they had been doing a great job so far and he didn’t really have a major complaint about the old ones. Maybe the only thing that was a little frustrating at times was that when cooking he had to have his glasses hanging around his neck, just so he could put them on when trying to read the recipe. Ah, and then the card playing was a bit tricky at times, because although he was able to see his own hand easily, he had to lean forward to see what cards had been played on the table, but that was ok too. Admittedly, computer work could be a little challenging at times, because he found that he had to move really close to the screen in order to see it clearly – but – he had found a solution to that by just buying some slightly weaker hobby specs. Thay seemed to work quite well – provided he could find them when he needed them. But other than that……..

These complaints are typical for many people who wear straight readers. They address the limited focal range and the restrictions of straight reading glasses. Our client was quite aware of this and basically resigned to accepting the visual compromise this meant for him. He wasn’t actually aware that there might be a solution to all of these issues he had complained about. We looked at the different distances he would have liked to be able to see at and found that there were a number of solutions that would address each and every issue he had mentioned earlier. Considering that he didn’t require any prescription to correct his distance vision and really only needed some help for close and intermediate vision, our advise was for an occupational lens or an improved reading lens. Fortunately we were able to demonstrate the differences of each solution and together we came to the conclusion that an occupational lens would do the best job for him. We customised these lenses for him so that they would allow him to see clear from around 40cm to around 200cm.

He collected his glasses last week and called in a few days ago to say that he loved his new specs and wished he had got them earlier. His exact words were: “I love these improved readers”. Nice way of putting it.