Optician confusion

[EmeraldRoulette]

I've had an opticians appointment today and I'm not sure it makes sense

The background, last year I was given reading glasses and I don't really know what that was about. I forgot that I had them! And I didn't use them. This was from a High Street optician.

Then in the last month or so, I've noticed something wrong with my eyes. Particularly with depth perception.

Had an appointment today. They have said that they feel there's a couple of options.

One is varifocals

The other is to have a set of glasses for reading and a set of glasses for distance. (my late father had that because he didn't need glasses for walking around, but he did need them for driving and reading).

But they were extremely keen to sell varifocals - while simultaneously saying that they don't feel I need glasses just to wear while walking around, and if I was driving, I would be fine to drive without glasses. So why do I need varifocals at all?

generally, I walked away from the appointment feeling like they're trying to sell me expensive glasses. They seemed really quite annoyed when I said I didn't want to make the varifocals straight away and want some time to think about it. This was with an independent place.

Anyone else had similar experience?

The reading glasses that I was given last year aren't helping. And that makes perfect sense because I'm now longsighted in one eye and shortsighted in the other apparently.

Why would they not just make up a pair of glasses to sort that? I can't help wondering if it's just an exercise to sell the most expensive sort of glasses. Are varifocals the most expensive glasses?

Advice gratefully received. My eyes tired some days but not all days.

Hi I was a senior optical consultant for many years and it sounds like you were given confusing information without them discussing the reasons or options available to you .

firstly you don’t have to use the independent opticians that you went to . You can take your prescription to any opticians and see what is available to suit your needs and your price bracket .
Personally I would get quotes from all the opticians if you can , and that way you have an idea what it is that you are happy with . Failing that you might be happy with the next opticians you go to .

without seeing your prescription I can only go from what you have said or what you was told by the optometrist. You currently need reading and distance glasses , the latter for driving and watching TV.
The only difference between the two pairs of glasses and the varifocals is you won’t need to keep swapping the glasses , it also has an intermediate lens which can be used for anything you do at arms length ( if you stretch your arm out infront of you that’s the distance as far as the intermediate lens will work) the reading is just for reading close up .
with the varifocals you don’t have to wear them all the time walking around , they are just more convenient to have all the lenses together than carrying multiple cases with you .

the prices of the varifocals are set from low to high . You can choose what you pay . They will only guide you and explain how much soft focus you will have to tolerate . Some people go for the basic lens and have no problems at all . Remember you can always revert back if once you have tried them and you cannot get used to them .

Check the store you go to for their terms and conditions.

I have varifocals and they were the best decisions I made My sister tried them and couldn’t get on with them at work , she was fine at home , so she went back to 2 pairs .

I hope I have tried to explain it to you and not confused you further .

@Amore03 thank you

The bit specifically that confuses me is that they said I didn't really need the distance ones. I tried to clarify this by saying to them would I need them if I was driving? And they said "well, you don't need them no - you can drive fine without them". Which leads me to wonder why they think I need distance glassesat all. Does that make sense?

if I don't need the distance glasses, then surely the varifocal thing is redundant?

I understand the reading glasses, that's fine.

I have no idea what the soft focus lens thing is about, but I will look it up tomorrow

Can you post the prescription they gave you?

Some opticians unfortunately do try and get you to purchase a pair of distance glasses say if you distance prescription is 0.25 which you really don’t need it . But as the other post said it would help further if you could post your prescription to help you further .

The varifocals will help specifically with the "depth perception" issue you're experiencing.

When you have one long sighted and one short sighted eye, you tend to use one eye primarily for distance and one for close up, this reduces your depth perception (called stereopsis). The only way to address it, is to correct the vision in both eyes, for that you need a varifocal lens.

Thanks, this makes sense.

I couldn't understand the optician saying "you should have these distance glasses, but you don't actually need them" - in which case, why "should" I have them?

she was weirdly dismissive of the need for the distance glasses - while simultaneously being incredibly keen to sell me varifocals. Nothing about it made sense. unless it was a hard sell. there's a separate sales team, I had an initial conversation with that guy and he looked really disappointed when I said I was more likely to go for two pairs of glasses.

But one reason I wanted to walk away and think about it, is that the distance pair don't make sense.

Thanks, everyone, you've helped clarify it in my head.