Patients often ask me this question. The subject of eyeglasses can be quite confusing – they serve many purposes, from looking at medication labels to helping you read subtitles in a foreign film festival. To add more confusion, eyeglasses can also be seen as a fashion statement with all the shapes, sizes, and materials that eyeglasses are made from and the different brands that make them. So, let’s dive in and talk about the difference between reading glasses and prescription eyeglasses.
The Tale of Two Glasses
Let’s put a magnifying glass on these two types of eyeglasses and hash out what their differences are.
Reading Glasses (The Specialist)
First, let’s define what reading glasses are to most people. Reading glasses are specifically designed to help you see up close. From your books, computer screen and phone texts, reading glasses help to magnify what you’re seeing so that your eyes exert as little effort as possible to see it clearly. They’re your go-to pair when reading the pill bottle print in the middle of the night. If you have no distance prescription, astigmatism or any undiagnosed vision problems, reading glasses work quite well to help you see at near.
Reading glasses come in a variety of powers from +1.00 to +3.00 – think of it like choosing your coffee: light roast or “I need this yesterday” strong. Not all reading glasses are the same and I would recommend buying it from a trusted seller since you have the assurance that the reading glasses are of good quality and will last a long time.
With today’s advancements in reading glasses, you have a variety of choices from single vision reading glasses, progressive bifocal and computer reading glasses depending on what your specific needs are.
Prescription Glasses (The All Arounder)
When it comes to covering all aspects of your vision needs, prescription glasses are the right choice. They are specifically designed to correct any of your refractive errors such as your nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism or that “over-40 surprise” called presbyopia. Not only do they help you see up close like reading glasses that magnify what you’re reading but they also focus for you so that everything is crystal clear.
Prescription glasses are tailored to your specific visual needs and come in a variety of forms such as distance only, reading only, bifocals, progressives, and computer eyeglasses for the “I live on Zoom” crew. They are meant for all day and daily use. Do you need to see the street signs at night? Prescription glasses have got you covered. Need to see your computer screen while looking across the room? Prescription glasses have got you covered.
The Verdict: (Near vs Everywhere)
So, what’s the difference between them? Reading glasses are specifically used to see up close. If you don’t have any nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism or any other vision problems, reading glasses are your go-to solution for daily tasks such as computer work, reading your favorite book and looking at your phone texts.
On the other hand, prescription glasses are the Swiss Army Knife of all your daily vision needs since they are specifically made to your exact visual needs and meld seamlessly to your daily life.
It would be great to get an eye exam to get a good idea to see what your vision status is as well as if there are no underlying eye diseases. Your eye doctor will also answer any questions about what’s right for you in terms of eyewear.
