any opticians around?

[PJ67]

Hi. My 16 year old ds had a routine eye test today at specsavers and was told he needed glasses for concentrated focusing such as the board in the classroom or TV. He was also told he has astigmatism. His prescription says -0.75 for sphere and + 1.00 for cyl, same in both eyes. His last eye test with a different optician was about 3 to 4 years ago and they said everything was fine.

I didn't get a chance to speak to the optician as my ds just came out with the person who helps choose the glasses but my questions are:

1. He says he can see everything fine. Does he definitely need to get glasses? I'm going to get them anyway and he can try them but I suspect he won't wear them in school.
2. I thought you were born with astigmatism and it wasn't mentioned at his last eye test. Is it normal for it to develop.
3. Does shortsightedness always get worse?

Many thanks

1. My youngest was prescribed glassed by an optometrist but I wasn't convinced so I went privately to see an ophthalmologist and he told me that there was no need for glasses because even if he was slightly shortsighted, he could see fine and wouldn't feel the need of them and it would end up in a war to have him wear them.

1. don't know

1. No shortsightedness doesn't always get worse. Mine became dramatically better a couple of years ago going from 4 to 2 in one eye and from 2 to 0.5 in the other. At that time I had bought this app ultimeyesvision.com just when it came out and paid very little for it. Maybe it is a coincidence, but my vision did get better. It is tiring and sometimes hard to get the whole 20 minutes, but why not try it.

I also want to say that supersaver is a glasses shop so their aim is for you to buy glasses.

You can be born with it but sometimes it develops later. its basically something to do with curvature of the eye. I have both this and short sightedness. Sometimes my prescription changes from better to worse and vice versa.

Thanks both, that's really helpf