In my experience…in the beginning they were great. I have always worn glasses but didn’t have to wear them full time until I hit my mid thirties.
Because times were tough, I started to wear those store bought for reading.

As time went on, I noticed it took longer for my natural vision to recover and had finally reached a point that I couldn’t see at all anymore without them. I went to the optometrist and was told that these glasses are fine for every now and again, but for those who need glasses all the time, they will progressively make your vision worse. Store Bought readers have standard prisms in the glass that do not match everyones eyes. The length and width of the pupil, the position and the depth of your eyes all has to be accounted for when being fitted for prescription glasses.

So they are great to get by with, but if you want to keep your eyesight a little longer, it is best to be fitted with corrective lenses made to fit YOU.

I wear contacts & I asked my eye doctor about OTC reading glasses. He gave me the green light & even told me what strength to buy. I have recently gotten multifocal contacts which are about 4 times as expensive as my Accuvue 2 contacts. Although I find myself reaching for my readers less, I don’t think they were worth spending 80 dollars a box on. (I need two boxes because of different vision in each eye. I still keep the reading glasses handy. I have about three pair so I can find at least one.

I am an optometric tech part-time now. Was an Optician before. OTC glasses will never hurt your eyes. They will also not make them worse.

My opthamologist recommended OTC reading glasses to me. He said I didn’t have a problem severe enough to warrant spending the money on prescription glasses.

I have been using OTC glasses for years. No problems whatsoever!

Hi and welcome to the club! :)

I can only speak through experience, that I’ve been using drug-store-bought reading glasses for, oh, around 2 years now, and there have been no ill effects as far as I can tell. I do wear contact lenses, and use the glasses only when I read.

My optometrist told me an alternative is to switch to bifocal contact lenses, but … ack, bifocals?! Me? haha

All the best to you! :)

My eyes are very important to me. I always go to an optometrist for my glasses. My glasses are my eyes to a clear world. I love my eyes!

Oh Geez!!!

I got me some new high-powered contacts and found I couldn’t see a lick up close. Hubby got me some OTC and Voila! Awesome! I love e’m. I even got ’em hung around my neck.

Now when I say high-powered I mean HIGH=POWERED! How ‘bout -9.0 and -8.5 and these were a new prescription. So when I got home and couldn’t see to fix supper..there was a problem.

So instead of buying 2 sets of contacts within 48 hours yes I got OTC ones.

But when it is time for my yearly visit I will get bifocal contacts because like you, I notice that it takes a little bit for my eyes to adjust after I take off the OTC’s.

I went to the eye doc and got reading glasses, I then tried on a pair from a local drug store, a bit stronger and they work better for me, that was about 3 years ago, and no problems here either.

I use OTC reading glasses and have for years. The trick is to find the correct strength.

I was prescribed bifocals some years ago. I was told that it would take some getting use to (a few weeks). Years later I still can’t get use to them! I have a pair of prescription (weak bifocal) sunglasses which (for some reason) are fine for me when I drive (seeing far). At home, I really don’t wear glasses except for readers when I’m doing close work.
As far as driving goes…I am more comfortable wearing no glasses than wearing those #$^$# bifocals. I tried about 3 times getting rechecked and new bifocals but still the same results.

I have no problems with readers from the store.

It takes a bit of trial and error to find OTC readers that work. If I wear my contacts, I have to use readers for close-up. I’d rather not wear bifocals (at least not yet!).

OTC [over the counters> thanks!