My New Eyeglasses

Back in 2008 I posted a photo of my eyeglasses prescription in this space, something that, the following year, stood me in good stead when I was away and needed to purchase a replacement pair of eyeglasses. In that spirit, here’s my latest prescription. If you compare to the four year old one you’ll see that I’ve moved into “progressive” lens, which I understand to be “bifocals without all the downsides.” And there are prisms and bumped up strength in one eye. In other words, it’s getting worse. But my optometrist assures me that, even if the trend continues, there’s no point at which my vision will tip beyond the ability to be corrected.

Comments

DerekMac's picture
DerekMac on February 28, 2012 - 17:09 Permalink

I notice that your optometrist has omitted the Pupillary Distance (PD) on the prescription. In BC they are required to provide this, but not elsewhere in Canada. Not having this number (as its name suggests, it’s the distance between your pupils) means that you cannot order (cheaper) eyeglasses online without measuring it yourself, or paying extra to get a willing optometrist or optician to give it to you.

CBC Marketplace had an exposé on the real cost of eyeglasses last Friday night, including the fact that the PD is usually withheld to keep you from buying elsewhere.

Watch it at: http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2012/framed/

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on February 28, 2012 - 18:26 Permalink

Although I appreciate the skills of my optometrist (Charlottetown Vision Care), I purposefully don’t buy my eyeglasses from them, even though they also sell them.

This is partly out of loyalty to Boyles Optical (which sent us to Charlottetown Vision Care in the first place, back in the days before they could offer eye exams themselves) and partly because I want to keep the “diagnosis” and “soluition” parts of the equation separate.

It’s the same reason I’d hire an independent house inspector and a contractor separately.