Here are a couple of common reasons why an optometrist might change a patient's current glasses prescription.
They have begun to get headaches when wearing their glasses in certain conditions
If a patient tells their optometrist that they've started to get headaches when wearing their glasses in certain conditions, the optometrist might, after performing an eye exam, either reduce or increase the strength of the patient's glasses prescription. The reason for this is that when a person, for example, finds that they get headaches when using their glasses whilst on their computer or when texting, this could indicate that the prescription is either too weak or too strong and that this is causing eye strain.
When a person's eyes are strained, the muscles of their eyes may contract to the point where they induce a headache. In this situation, the correction of the person's prescription could not only eliminate their eyestrain and the associated headaches but would also provide them with crisper, clearer vision when they wear their glasses. It could also eliminate the need for them to take painkillers to cope with these headaches, which could also benefit their health (as long-term consumption of painkillers can put a strain on certain organs of the body).
The patient is middle-aged, myopic and is struggling to see objects up close
If a person has been short-sighted (or myopic) for a long time but has noticed that as they have reached middle age, they now are not only struggling to see objects far away when not wearing their glasses but are also having a hard time seeing objects up close even when wearing their prescriptive eyewear, their optometrist might need to give them a new glasses prescription.
The reason for this is that when people enter middle age, they may develop presbyopia; this is a form of long-sightedness that is directly linked to the ageing of the eyes. If a person already wears glasses to correct their myopia, their optometrist might not give them a separate pair of glasses to correct their presbyopia, but might instead give them a prescription for varifocals. These corrective lenses are designed to allow a person with both of these eye conditions to be able to see objects that are both far away and up close with one pair of glasses. For a patient like this, varifocals can be much more convenient than having two pairs of glasses with two different prescriptions, that they would need to switch out, depending on what they were looking at.
For more information, contact an optometrist near you.
