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any opticians online or eye experts - confused

6 replies

elliot3 · 27/04/2007 20:44

My ds who is 7 , I took to the opticians today after a while of worrying about his eyes - which I've talked about in another thread. i thought he was sitting too near TV or playing play stataion for too long etc but it turns out he needs glasses, Here's what I'm confused about - he's longsighted and the optician rated it ot whatever the word is at a 6 which she said made his eyesight pretty poor. But he couldn't see the first letters on the board which were pretty big and certainly couldn't see the bottom letters- but if he's long sighted shouldn't he be able to see things at a distance? Anyway the upshot is that he's to wear gasses full-time for three months and then has to go back and get the prescripton changed and maybe after 6 months he won't need any glasses. What i'm wanitng to klnow is does the 6 mean his eye sight is bad and what the heck does long sighted mean?

OP posts:
elliot3 · 27/04/2007 21:29

bump

OP posts:
marthamoo · 27/04/2007 21:33

Long sighted is not being able to see things close up (typically, as you start to get older you lose your near vision - that's why older people hold books far away from themselves).

Short sighted is when you can't see things far away.

I can't help you with what 6 means though, sorry.

elliot3 · 27/04/2007 21:36

thanks for that mathamoo very helpful
D

OP posts:
Sugarmagnolia · 28/04/2007 08:06

I'm not an expert but I think the way it works is that vision is rated as + or - starting from 0. If you are very moderately shortsighted you might be -1 or -2. If you are like me you might be -7 or -8. Same with longsightedness. The "reading" glasses they sell in most pharmacies will be +1 or +2. So I guess +6 is quite high. But I don't know why he wouldn't be able to see distances either and I don't know why you r optician thinks it might be cured in 6 months. If you are confused you should definitely phone them back and ask them to explain it again.

NotQuiteCockney · 28/04/2007 08:09

Sugarmagnolia is right, about the + and - thing. I think +6 is quite longsighted. I'm -6, and that means I wear glasses all the time.

I think longsightedness is pretty common in children, and can be corrected, as your optician is talking about.

I'm shortsighted, so I don't really know what longsightedness is like.

fuchsia0703 · 28/04/2007 09:54

If you don't understand what you have been told pop in or telephone and ask them to explain it to you .. I'm sure they won't mind .. it's their job!

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