Buying things online is easy and convenient.  Even glasses are available to buy online but is that wise?

Everybody wants their glasses to be accurate.  Even if the glasses look great on you, they’re not going to be any good to you if the lenses aren’t positioned properly in the frames to match where your eyes line up.   The PD (distance between your pupils) determines where to place the center of each lens in your frames.  This measurement is critical to make sure that your glasses provide  the best possible vision results without eyestrain.  Measuring your own PD can be compared to cutting your own hair; you’ll never get it right.   Most online retailers highly recommend that your eye doctor  provide this measurement to ensure accuracy. This measurement is normally done by an optician at an optical shop. It is not part of your prescription and is not normally  provided unless you ask for it. Your optometrist or optician can even legitimately charge for the service of providing your PD as it takes time and equipment.  Our opticians use a pupillometer which measures mono-PDs.  A mono-PD is the distance from your pupil to the center of your nose for each eye.  This way, you can be sure that each eye lines up to the optical center of each lens.

The measurements needed for bifocals or progressive lenses can only be accurately  made once the frame is selected and properly fitted to your face. Typically,  this measurement is simply “guesstimated” for online spectacles.  One of the worst screw-ups with glasses can be if the bifocal is too low or too high.  If they’re made too low, you’ll find yourself always having to lift your glasses to read.  If they’re too high, you’ll end up having to pull the glasses down your nose to see far.

A lot of these online glasses retailers have real low prices and oftentimes it’s due to the fact that the frames and lenses are made in China where they don’t have the same break-resistance or accuracy rules that we have here in the United States.  You don’t want to end up with lenses that shatter into your eyes!  Also, you don’t want to have glasses that cause eyestrain because the Rx is rotated or upside down.  We’ve seen examples of both with online glasses!  If your young child ends up with the wrong Rx, it has the potential to cause amblyopia or “lazy eye.”

Our practice highly recommends that you get your glasses made at an optical shop where you can try the frames on to be sure they fit and look good.   You need have an optician physically measure your mono-PDs and multi-focal heights to be sure your glasses are accurate and comfortable.  The opticians in our optical shops are very friendly and very accurate when it comes to measuring glasses.  We have a wide selection of frames and lenses from budget prices to designer frames; just let our opticians at GNB Optical know the look you want and your price range and they’ll be glad to help you out.