Optometrist experience: thoughts?

[MontyAC]

Try using Costco's eye center. I think they charge $49 for the exam.

 

[brainhulk]

if the glasses are sitting on the bridge of your nose incorrectly, it can alter the focus. have walmart check your fit, maybe they can adjust the nose pads for you

 

[Carson Dyle]

I am having real issues with this now. I wear contacts and they just can't seem to find a way to correct for both presbyopia and my nearsightedness. I end up wearing multifocals and still have to use reading glasses when wearing the contacts. I don't bother with bifocal glasses since when I am wearing glasses and want to read I just remove the glasses and I can read just fine.

It's a real pain in the ass.

When I wear contacts I need to have a pair of reading glasses at hand. Like you, when wearing glasses, I just take them off and can read just fine. The latter seems easier to me and the reading is more relaxed, so I find myself wearing glasses more and more, and mostly just wear contacts for sports and outdoor activities where I know I'll be wearing sunglasses.

 

[HumblePie]

hate the whole optometrist scam bit. Doesn't take a doctor in today's modern world to figure out a persons eye sight level at all. Just worthless middle step man in the way that are only there now due to union protectionism that makes consumers pay more for a service that they shouldn't have to.

 

[boomerang]

Yeah, I think that's about the long and the short of it. When I look dead-on, things are crystal clear. Peripherals, not so much. It's a weird kind of buggy, fish-eye quality on the edges, enough to be pretty bothersome, with everything skewed and blurred in my periphery. Is it poor fitting glasses or a bad prescription? Who knows. I may just need to bite the bullet, go back to the good optometrist, and start fresh. This will have been about a $100 mistake, all told, but what can you do?

I thought I'd try contacts about six months back. I adjusted to them very quickly, loved the vision quality especially the peripheral vision. The problem I had was I couldn't read and couldn't use the computer. Tried the monovision thing and other iterations that aren't fresh in my brain right now but the bottom line was I was going to need glasses. The contacts corrected my nearsightedness but I was still going to have to haul around bifocals with the top having correction for the computer and the bottom for reading. Didn't make much sense to me and I wasted my coverage for a year.

Back to glasses with progressive lenses that give me correction for everything. Near, far and middle.

 

[drinkmorejava]

My optometrists have always been something like $50 for eye-exam + $50 for contacts. You're getting ripped off.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Presbyopia.

Yep. That condition happens to the vast majority of people as they age.

http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/presbyopia.htm

 

[poofyhairguy]

Make sure to get a full exam at least once a year. A lot of Optometrists only crank out glasses, but good ones will also look for eye disease.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

For those who are not aware, Costco will do lenses for frames you didnt buy from them. They charge $18 on top of your lenses, but even then, they come out cheaper than a lot of places. Granted they are not Zenni cheap, but IMHO, the lenses are a far better quality, I have bought from Zenni and 39 Dollar Glasses. I know I am paying more at Costco, but I like the personal fitting they do and like having a person to deal with face to face.

 

[JEDIYoda]

all told, but what can you do?

call Ghostbusters....

 

[CA19100]

Your prescription may well be fine -- based on my experiences, it's highly likely that Zenni screwed up your glasses.

I used them a while back to try them out. Put the first pair on, and bang -- instant headache. I took them to my optometrist to see if the prescription was right. It was, but the optical centers of the lenses were way off-center. As in, one was up and to the right, the other was down and to the left. That's why I got the headaches; the lenses are supposed to be centered over your pupils.

I had Zenni replace the pair, and the second pair was just as bad. I found out (too late) that Zenni sends your prescription to China, they assemble them there, and ship them here. Maybe that explains the complete lack of attention to detail; I dunno. All I know is that the workmanship my wife and I have gotten from them have been just terrible. I won't use them again, even if they were free.

 

[Bacstar]

I started using an optometrist chain several years ago when I first moved to Alaska since my insurance had a yearly benefit for exam/glasses (free/$200). Going with the chain, I had to replace the glasses each year, and I'd have to pay an extra maybe $100 to get the lenses I wanted. The frames were pretty cheap and flimsy.

A couple years ago, I decided to try the optometrist that set up office at my primary doctor's clinic. Let's just say, I ended up paying an additional $600 for a new pair of glasses; however, the frames were of significantly higher quality, and the lenses have a life-time warranty. As long as I don't sit on them or my eyes don't get worse, I think I can get several more years out of them.

 

[sdifox]

I started using an optometrist chain several years ago when I first moved to Alaska since my insurance had a yearly benefit for exam/glasses (free/$200). Going with the chain, I had to replace the glasses each year, and I'd have to pay an extra maybe $100 to get the lenses I wanted. The frames were pretty cheap and flimsy.

A couple years ago, I decided to try the optometrist that set up office at my primary doctor's clinic. Let's just say, I ended up paying an additional $600 for a new pair of glasses; however, the frames were of significantly higher quality, and the lenses have a life-time warranty. As long as I don't sit on them or my eyes don't get worse, I think I can get several more years out of them.

The coatings on lenses do wear down. So you have to get new lenses every few years.

 

[Muse]

I'm a 24/7 glasses-wearer, and since it's been a few years since my last prescription change, I knew it was time for an update. Thing is, my employer dropped the VSP from my insurance plan last year. So, deciding to try to save a few bucks, I went to the "optical center" at my local Target. I was the first appointment of the day, but the doctor was extremely late getting into the office. Maybe for that reason, my appointment felt extremely rushed-probably less than 10 minutes total. Nevertheless, I got my prescription, went online to Zenni Optical, and ordered a new pair of glasses. They came a couple days ago, and I'm extremely disappointed. The prescription doesn't seem quite right, the frames don't fit very well at all, they look nothing like the picture, and it's really cheap, crappy quality. I know, I know: what did I expect? You get what you pay for.

So I thought about chalking it up to a learning experience, eating the cost of my Zenni glasses (not much), and returning to the optometrist who I used to see when I had insurance. He always did really great, thorough work, and I've always been happy. But I called his office to see how much an appointment costs without insurance: $125. Ouch. And I'm sure that the cost of new glasses from his office would also be quite high.

So, I'm feeling pretty dumb at the moment. Maybe eyewear wasn't something smart for me to skimp on. Am I the only one who's been burned by the big box store optometrists?

I have been getting glasses from Zenni. The first ones I got were el cheapo and very disappointing. However, I started buying a little better quality and I'm quite pleased. Plastic frames, the ones I get now are these:

Frames:
#270524 $15.95 (the "blue" look like they glow in the dark, which they don't, but I've gotten dozens of complements on them)

#270523 $15.95

#270515 $15.95

I get good lenses with the best coatings. Costs a little more, but I figure that's worth it. Here are the specs on the lenses I have gotten from Zenni recently:

1.50 Standard Single Vision FREE (for one pair)

1.59 Polycarbonate Single Vision $9.00 (for my other pair)
AR Anti-Reflection Coating

Oleophobic (oil and fingerprint resistant) premium anti-reflective coating $14.95

The best optometry service I've gotten is at the university, their optical clinic. Professors of optometry overwatch students, and overall I've gotten very thorough examinations. Price right now is around $75. It's at UC Berkeley.

 

[johnjohn320]

So I went back to the better optometrist, gave him the whole story. He did an exam on me for free; his free exam was infinitely more thorough than the box store one I had before. He arrived at a prescription that was "pretty close" to the one I got at Target, but he tweeked the astigmatism angle a bit and refined a bit more. They checked out my Zenni glasses; as another poster described, the prescription was correct but the centers weren't quite right. (They checked my PD, and yes, I had measured and submitted correctly to Zenni).

So, I'm shipping my Zennis back for a 50% refund, and bought some nice frames from thr optometrist, whose staff spent considerable time helping me get frames that will fit my face, and lens type, properly. I gues that, for me, it's worth it to go get some hands-on help with new glasses.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm a 24/7 glasses-wearer,

It must suck to have to wear glasses to sleep. Does that help you see your dreams better?

Costco eye exam, $55.

I wish...Costco eye exams here are $80.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

It must suck to have to wear glasses to sleep. Does that help you see your dreams better?




I wish...Costco eye exams here are $80.

I believe those are $80 here if you get your eyes dilated.

 

[Red Squirrel]

hate the whole optometrist scam bit. Doesn't take a doctor in today's modern world to figure out a persons eye sight level at all. Just worthless middle step man in the way that are only there now due to union protectionism that makes consumers pay more for a service that they shouldn't have to.

They do check other things you know, like they can see in your eye to see if anything serious is developing or what not. This is why you go to a real optometry office for a checkup and not a retail store lol. Anybody can print letters and put them on the wall and ask you to read them, but there is more to an eye checkup than that.

 

[Mike64]

A poor (or at least superficial) optometrist's exam and a bad pair of glasses from Zenni are separate issues. What measurements did you have for the frame? Did you have accurate PD numbers? Did you get the new lenses double-checked for accuracy at an optician?

As for it being Walmart, I've never had an exam there, but frankly, I doubt their optometrists are any worse than those you typically find at opticians (though of course that also varies from person to person, and being in a rush is never a Good Thing.) And for that matter, as far as basic vision correction goes, I don't think they're generally any worse than ophthamologists. And for that matter, in my own experience - 44 years of wearing glasses 24/7 - optometrists have often better than MDs when it comes to the vision correction aspect of eye exams. (Keeping in mind that I don't have unusual vision problems. I'm near-sighted and astigmatic, but nothing drastic in either case. And apart from needing to move to bifocals several years ago, it's been a very long time since I needed any sort of significant adjustment to my basic prescription.)

I get ophthamological exams regularly (though no longer annually) to check for medical issues apart from basic, more or less automated glaucoma testing, and for whatever their reasons, the MDs I've seen have been much more likely to have "quirky" ideas about what constitutes "proper" correction rather than just listening to me when I tell them "I can see better with this prescription"...

 

[MrSquished]

Costco or go to your old guy. Buy the glasses from Warby Parker, surprised nobody mentioned them yet. My experience with WP is that they are fantastic.

 

[Mike64]

They do check other things you know, like they can see in your eye to see if anything serious is developing or what not.

For that, I go to an ophthamologist. A particularly talented optometrist might be more knowledgeable/experienced as far as significant medical issues are concerned, on a more or less "intuitive" basis, but without pupil dilation, you simply cannot see anything in great detail or very far back into the eyeball, and I don't think I"ve ever even heard of an optometrist doing that. I've certainly never had one give me that sort of exam.

 

[sdifox]

For that, I go to an ophthamologist. A particularly talented optometrist might be more knowledgeable/experienced as far as significant medical issues are concerned, on a more or less "intuitive" basis, but without pupil dilation, you simply cannot see anything in great detail or very far back into the eyeball, and I don't think I"ve ever even heard of an optometrist doing that. I've certainly never had one give me that sort of exam.

Optometrists up here check your retina and pressure. If they find something they don't like, you get referral to ophthalmologist.

 

[Mike64]

Optometrists up here check your retina and pressure. If they find something they don't like, you get referral to ophthalmologist.

Interesting. Never had an optometrist even mention possibly dilating my pupils to do a retinal exam. (For that matter, if I'd been asked, I couldn't have said with certainty that their state licenses allow for that...) Intraocular pressure, yes, always, but that's pretty much it (apart from vision correction.)

 

[who?]

My optometrist has a camera that takes pictures of my retinas that he looks at on his computer monitor as BIG circles with no dilation needed.

 

[johnjohn320]

Interesting. Never had an optometrist even mention possibly dilating my pupils to do a retinal exam. (For that matter, if I'd been asked, I couldn't have said with certainty that their state licenses allow for that...) Intraocular pressure, yes, always, but that's pretty much it (apart from vision correction.)

Yeah, most optometrists do the dilation, in my experience...