How Do You Know What Strength Reading Glasses To Buy?

The need to buy reading glasses bears from a deteriorating age and the consequently weakening vision. But knowing the right strength of the reading glasses is more important than the glasses themselves. That’s because you don’t want to incorporate eye-strains and headaches in your reading experience, especially if you are an avid reader. But how do you know the right strength you need? That is what we tell in this blog. But before that it’s important to find whether your lack of proper vision really needs reading glasses to improve or is it prescription glasses that you need.

Reading Glasses or Prescriptions?

The best way to know if you need reading glasses or not is through an eye test from a professional. If you drop by at any Specscart store, you can get this eye test done for free. But, if you can’t visit the store because of some reason, you can just send us a request and we’ll come to you for an eye test at your home done at minimal rates.

If you still want a quick way to find if you are presbyopic and need reading glasses or not, we suggest you get an eye chart. This chart should have alphabets in bigger fonts on the top row that gradually decrease in size row by row until the smallest fonts are in the lowest row. Keep this chart at a distance of 14 inches and try to read the alphabets. If you find it difficult, then it’s quite likely that you need reading glasses.

What’s the Strength of Reading Glasses I Need?

When we say ‘strength of reading glasses’ we mean its magnification value which is measured in diopters. Most people opting for reading glasses are recommended so by their optometrist for the condition of Presbyopia. This disorder happens to adults of the age that’s above 40 years.

Optometrists might use an age-strength chart like the one below along with a proper eye test to recommend the strength you need. Here, on the left, we have the age range and on the right, the range of magnification value i.e., strength.

• 40 to 44 years old: +0.75 to +1.00 diopters.
• 45 to 49 years old: +1.00 to +1.50 diopters.
• 50 to 54 years old: +1.50 and +2.00 diopters.
• 55 to 59 years old: +2.00 to +2.25 diopters.
• 60 years old and older: +2.25 to +2.50 diopters.

These over the counter reading glasses are available for a power of up to +3.00 diopters, but if you feel even that’s not enough for your vision, it might be time to get prescription glasses made with corrective lenses designed accurately for you.

As a word of caution, you should note that reading glasses bought from a general store may not have any UV protection coating on the lenses. But, that’s necessary because when worn under the sun, the UV rays will get magnified because of the lens’s power, thereby intensifying the harm that UV rays cause.

To prevent this from happening, we suggest you buy reading glasses from a Specscart store near you or on our website. That’s because, at Specscart, we provide free essential coatings which include anti-glare, anti- UV, and the scratch-resistant ones. If you read more on devices like computers, smartphones, and laptops, we recommend also adding a blue light protection coating to save your eyes from the harmful effects of blue light. Don’t forget, the most important coating is anti-UV and that is absolutely free with every pair of glasses you buy at Specscart.