Eye test - prescription

[MrsWhites]

DD15 was due a routine eye test and complained a couple of times of blurred vision when reading words on tv last week so we took her for an eye test at the weekend.

Optician said she is borderline for glasses and that he wouldn’t bother, he gave us a copy of the prescription which reads:
R: +0.75
L: +0.5
Recommendation single vision distance anti-reflection

She has been back at school for the last 2 days and says she has struggled to read smaller words on the board during lessons.

Does anyone have any experience of whether the opticians recommendation to not wear glasses would be correct at this prescription. I’m considering a second opinion since she is clearly struggling to read smaller writing at a distance but don’t want to seem too overly cautious.

Eye specialist here. 100% agree with optician.
V normal amount of longsight there that id expect in a 5 year old.

@IKEA888 thanks for your reply.

DD is 15, would you still think that is a normal amount of longsightedness? I was happy with what the optician said and wasn’t concerned until she mentioned struggling with smaller writing on the board. I think for now we have agreed to give it a couple of weeks to see if her eyes adjust to reading the board again after being away from school for so long, if she is still struggling then we’ll give the optician a call to see what they suggest.

Is it definitely a plus sign rather than a minus?

@underneaththeash yes, definitely a + on the prescription for both eyes.

As a general rule, I wouldn't prescribe for that and it's unlikely to cause reduced distance vision. However, there are occasions where I have, especially when the child has reduced accommodation, but it would be primarily for close vision (so reading etc) rather than distance.

I've seen quite a few children over the past few weeks who are struggling on the board and they have had similar prescriptions to your DD. I'm adopting a wait and see with most of them - I think the amount of close/computer work that most children have done during lockdown has potentially made a difference as too may be the slight anxiety of going back to school.

@underneaththeash thank you, that’s really helpful. She has been using a laptop and tablet a lot more in these past few months with home schooling and keeping in touch with friends so we were also thinking it may be just taking a while for her eyes to adjust to reading the board again. We have said we will give it a few weeks, perhaps until half term and then make an appointment to go back to the optician if she is still struggling.

@underneaththeash DD has complained a bit more this week about board vision, it seems to me it is particularly when they use the projector as she says this gives the board a blue ish tinge.

I have spoken with the opticians this morning and they said to bring her in to get the glasses to see if they help but then they rung back and said they had spoken to the optician and that ‘they are concerned because at her prescription what she is saying about the board doesn’t make sense’. They said they would like to do a visual acuity test and that if they were to prescribe glasses at that prescription (R: +0.75 and L:+0.5) that the NHS would question this.

Does that all sound normal to you? I’m just a bit worried now with them saying they were concerned. Thanks!

@MrsWhites no the blue tinge doesn't sound normal. Was she seeing the bottom/second to bottom line on the chart?
I would go and get a second opinion - mention the blue tinge.

@underneaththeash her friend from school said she also thinks the smart boards have a blueish tinge to them sometimes so I’m not sure if that is her vision as such.

I can’t remember how many lines she could read on the test, she could definitely read the top full row and the one below it and the optician commented straight away that that is good vision so didn’t think she would need glasses but that they would obviously check for a prescription anyway.

She definitely couldn’t read the bottom few lines but the optician said that wasn’t a problem.