to question how I am meant to get my child glasses?

[SometimesIquestionmyownsanity]

My ds has poor eyesight. His prescription is so strong that he HAS to have the lenses thinned.

Today I have contacted 3 opticians to ask if they can supply any glasses (specsavers, vision express and an independent) for his prescription that don't require me to pay anymore. All 3 have said no and I have to pay for the lenses to be thinned on top of the NHS voucher.

This has ranged in price from £60-£120.

My ds is currently wearing an old pair of glasses, as until next payday I cannot buy these for him.

Not benefit bashing, genuine question, what do/or should people do who are on benefits or very low incomes do? Do their child not get the glasses?

All 3 opticians have said they are unable to make the prescription up, as they would not fit into any frames they have without me paying for them to be thinned.

AIBU to think this is shocking?

I have never paid to have DD's glasses thinned. Though this may be because of the thick lens only being needed on her left eye? Could be because they would look really uneven? Even so you can still notice a difference in them.
Anyway I have went to Vision Express twice and Optical Express once for her glasses. She has had to wait a few days for them to get sent away to be thinned. The hour wait service does not apply to her prescription!

www.apollooptical.dsl.pipex.com/WEBPAGE/indexx.html are very good. They're a local manufacturer who carry frames rather than an optician. Hopefully they're either close enough to be useful or there's something similar near you (or come down for a holiday)

www.apollooptical.dsl.pipex.com/WEBPAGE/indexx.html sorry

Wait til get he gets older.... My eyesight is about -11.5 , my last pair of glasses cost me £450. I have a complex prescription and get free eye tests. The voucher they gave me was worth about £13. I always choose cheap ish frames (under 100) it's the lens that are so expensive but I do get mine thinned.

There are tricks tho, I have plastic frames which hides the thickness and also get the smallest frames I can, as the lass gets thicker as it goes out o you need the actual eye bit of the glasses to be as small as possible.

I dread needing new glasses.

Frame recommendation will vary with the prescription. OPs DSs has different needs to you seventies chick, with a +ve not -ve prescription like you.. Although a thicker frame edge will help cover the thickness of any lens rather than a thinner frame edge.

My dd is a +7 in both eyes and we get the lenses thinned for free at Boots. They also do free repairs - I was shocked that one of the high street chains wanted to charge a monthly fee for insurance against repairs. Mine breaks her at least once every 3 months. We have only ever paid for one frame - as it broke for £20. They did once accidentally come back without the lenses thinned. They sent them back and changed them for no charge to us.

hi - i might be able to help you a little but im afraid that the nhs voucher does only cover standard lenses. I worked for 10 years in and independent, then a couple of years for a specsavers before changing jobs, - we always tried to do something to get the price down for kiddies with a high RX.

can you post or pm me exactly what his RX is? like this? it will look something like
R) +8.25 either + or -0.25 x 90 for example and the same format for the left. there will be 3 parts to the rx sphere, then cyl which can be either + or - and then axis.

if he is a high + lens, a small, roundish frame will help cut the blank size down - the smaller the blank the more it helps.

but, the best results that rely solely on frame choice alone are with - (minus) lenses, which doesnt help your little lad with a high + (plus)

Go for a plastic frame not a metal one - that will help disguise some of the thickness, and also be more comfortable to wear as the weight tends to be more evenly distributed with a good fitting plastic frame, it must fit nicely on the bridge of his nose though to be comfortable.

i would shop around, and ask what the very best price they can do for you for thinned down lenses, and i would go for the highest index you can afford - at least a 1.6 index to start seeing decent results.

with a high + the thickest part of the lens is the middle - (as opposed to a high - where the thickest part is the edge) so the frame choice does limit how thin the result - but small, roundish, will cut the blank size which will cut down the thickness a little.

hth a bit.

I am really confused after reading this thread.

Do the NHS pay for children,s lenses to be thinned or not? Os it at the discretion of the optician?

On Saturday Vision Express quoted me £30 to have DSs lens thinned (+6.5), but I declined. Ted Baker frames are usually £70, but with NHS voucher actually cost me £40.

In your position I would ask Vision Express to find a free pair which can hold the frame.

Yes sorry I meant you find our own tricks regarding which styles of frames can mask your lenses ....

you should not have to pay for repairs as standard - the nhs has a system of repair vouchers, but again its at the descretion of the individual optician as to whether it covers the full cost of thinner lenses as opposed to standard index lenses.

thinned down lenses are not covered by the NHS voucher scheme - BUT some opticians will sort something out for high prescriptions in little ones, again its at their discretion.

there is no standard. unfortunately. the voucher system covers the cost of a standard index voucher only - strictly speaking it doesnt even cover the frame though most opticians do throw in a free frame for kids.

my advice - shop around, and see my post above on how to pick frames to help with a high rx. different rules for both plus and minus lenses and minus lenses do get the better result when dependent on frame choice only (ie - if you cant afford/dont want to pay for thinner lenses)

minus lens = thickest at the edges
plus lens = thickest in the middle

the smaller the blank to start with, the thinner the lens, more so in minus lenses than plus ones but still holds true to some extent in plus.

i would advise anyone with a high or complex RX ask to see or speak to the dispensing optician for help in choosing the best frame to get the best results.

Haven't got his prescription on me but
Right eye is +8.25 -2.00 x.9
Left eye is +8.00 -2.00 (can't remember axis on this side)

Re plastic frames are they the ones that have the fixed moulded nose? If so he can't wear those ones as he has a broad nose, so they have to have the flexible nose pieces.

Conversation always goes like this with dispensing optician:

"Which glasses do you like?"

"Those ones don't fit your nose"
"Those ones are too narrow for your face"
"Those are too wide for your face"
"You can have these pink ones or these silver ones"
"You can only have these ones with thinned lenses"

It is a very frustrating process, my ds bless him just says fine, he wears his glasses 24/7, and just wants to be able to see through them.

Dunno where you go, but I took DS3 to specsavers yesterday ...NHS 'voucher' covered it all - his frames and lense price was £85..... you pick a frame and they order in according to head measurement.

I'm myopic and need beer bottle lenses, and I have to pay to have them condensed - I fail to see why the NHS should foot the bill TBH for what amounts to cosmetics. You either accept what taxes pay for or you go private.

hi op

effectively the -2.00 cyl will cancel out some of the thickness - so its not quite as bad as it seems.

yes the plastic ones are the ones with a fixed bridge - how old is your boy? little ones tend to have snub noses and wide bridges....changes as they get a bit older, and there are some great plastic frames about - plastic frames tend to hold thicker lenses in better too.

if you really cannot afford to have the lens thinned then follow my advice in the above posts re small roundish frames - i mean small lenses with a soft roundish shape - not too small frames so that they have his head in a vice like grip!

really frame choice could help with the thickness - small blank - thats what you want - how old is he?

Or go to Asda

DH is about +5.5 and even with thinned lenses, he has to go for a very small frame size to get glasses that aren't really heavy and uncomfortable. At that prescription, there's a lot more choice of small frames for kids, and I do agree, it would be difficult to have lenses that aren't thinned, even for kids.

at people insisting that the need for thinned lenses at the OP's DC's prescription is purely cosmetic.

Have youtried an online optician? I have used Glassesdirect, Speckyfoureyes and Posheyes for me and DD1. We are both very myopic with astigmatisms. All of these will phone you if you ask and talk through the order and have been really helpful. They do take vouchers as well.

its not purely cosmetic at all - heavy glasses are uncomfortable and dig in, if you have to wear something 24/7 (as i do) then comfort is premium.

ouryve - get your dh to see a proper qualified dispensing optician to help choose his next pair - your dh rx isnt too bad - he could get some decent results with the right frame and the right index lens - thats another one where people fall into the trap - it depends on the index of the lens as to the result. a 1.7 index lens gets way better results than a 1.54 for eg - with the right frame results should be quite good for your dh - its combination of frame choice and right index lens for the rx.

OP - I was the child with the milk bottle bottoms, the pink nhs frames and the pink elastoplast eye patch. I got contact lenses for my 16th birthday but inside I still feel plain and bespectacled.

I think the nhs should help you because of the negative impact of self esteem on your son. You shouldn't have to pay but please do everything you can to minimise his discomfort/embarassment.

I think the idea of contacting your local eye hospital is a good one.

Good luck.

troisgarcons, have you actually read the thread? We're not just talking cosmetic reasons here. Some families will really struggle to provide glasses for their DC. Especially if DC tend to loose/break them. An extra £30+ every couple of months is not funny for some people, and a child who desperately needs them will have be without glasses for a while.

noooooooooo to online optician

ive no vested interest in telling you this - im not in eyes anymore but i would not ever touch an online optician with a barge pole.

the measurements - pupil distance measurements matter with a high rX or you can end up with prism - very uncomfortable to wear as prism "pulls" yoru eyes - can make your eyes ache and give you raging headaches.

we did an experiement with an online optician - our boss once ordered a pair of specs in a huge huge metal frame with an rx of something like -12.00 in one eye and +8.00 in the other - and they actually made them - no questions asked - trust me - if you were that prescripton there should be alot of questions asked!

they are selling. thats all - fine if you just want a cheapo pair of reading specs but id not touch them for a high or complex rx - not ever. bad bad idea and could be a waste of money

I used a fantastic optician (unfortunately they sold one of their shops to a chain and I can't get to their other branch) they had a policy that if you had a voucher you couldn't afford to pay more so would make the lenses up and not charge the difference. So when I was working and could afford my designer lenses guess where I went?

They also had a range of £10 frames that were actualy nice - try phoning around and I hope you find a good one.

I get my ds glasses from an independent and they charge £10 for the lenses to be thinned.

When I bought my glasses from specsavers, they never asked me and I ended up with really heavy glasses - I took them back and they replaced them with thinner lens free of charge.

Now what I don't understand, is why in this day when probably most people have thinned lens do they not just sell them as default and forget the thicker lens, they could easily accommodate that into the price of the glasses and then everyone would be happy.

marriedinwhite I wasn't allowed the pink ones my parents preferred the brown ones with a plain Elastoplast patch - and I was 9!

my ds used to get his glasses thinned free at an independent and they were really thin but I had to pay for a spare pair and he once was 10 days with no glasses. Last time I went to vision express where I got 2 free pairs. They were thinned free of charge but were not as good as the independent ones. However the spare pair make that a small sacrifice.

I'm a -5.5 and have been told (by people not trying to sell me anything) that my glasses would be falling off my face at standard thickness.

Childrens glasses should be as light as possible so they can concentrate on being children