Choosing the Best Pair of Reading Glasses

Not many people like to take out their reading glasses when they start to squint and need help reading. Fortunately for people with poor eyesight, reading glasses today come in a variety of fun styles and don't necessarily launch someone into grandmother status. Helping those with poor eyesight to see for the last 800 years, reading glasses have a long history. Although reading glasses today are often used to clear up fuzzy text, they were once used to allow people to see paintings clearly. Reading glasses with the design we see today weren't actually in use until the 1700s, when a London-based optician invented the temple, which are the bars that allow the frames to rest upon the ears. Before his invention, reading glasses often slid down the wearer's face.

One of the neat aspects of American history is the identity of the inventor of modern reading glasses, Benjamin Franklin. Although people around the world used reading glasses for several generations before his work, Franklin developed the bifocal lens because he didn't want to change his glasses back and forth all the time. He read so often that switching glasses back and forth was something he did every few minutes.

Choosing reading glasses requires just a few decisions, such as the type of frames a wearer might prefer, the strength- of the lenses, and the style. One type of reading glasses offers full-size lenses that cover the entire eye while the other style is what most people associate with Ben Franklin (and grandmothers), which sit low on the nose and are half the size of full reading glasses.

The best way to choose reading glasses style is to consider how often the glasses might be used. Anyone who needs to read for a long time, and who probably won't be taking the glasses off at frequent intervals would fare well with a pair of full-size lenses. Reading glasses that offer a half-lens design would be the way to go for anyone who might need to look up from reading on a frequent basis. There are even smaller micro-sized reading glasses that fold up into a tiny pouch or case that may be carried along in a purse or pocket. Small travel glasses make it easier to read something like a restaurant menu where the glasses might only be needed for a few minutes.

Other styles of reading glasses that could come in handy would include those with tinted lenses for use outside, or glasses designed as bifocals, which mean a magnified portion sits on the bottom of the lens while the top might have no magnification at all.

Regarding the strength of reading glasses and how someone might figure out the best option, it's important to understand how the power scale works for grading magnification level. Glasses with a large power number, such as +4.00 will offer a great amount of magnification while glasses with a power rating of +1.25 will offer a much smaller amount of vision enhancement.

When an individual requires reading glasses and isn't going to be utilizing glasses for other reasons, choosing a pair without the help of an optometrist is fine.

Alternatively, individuals who might need significant magnification, or who might require glasses of a different strength for seeing far away, or might have need different power strength for left and right eye, might want to consider seeing what an expert might say about a purchase.

A variety of DIY Diopter tests exist online that may be printed out and held up in front of a person's eyes to determine which power rating would be best. When used correctly, this method should result in proper magnification. We have included one such test at the bottom of page for you to get an approximation of your power strength.

Reading glasses come in all sorts of price ranges and designs, from luxury brand glasses to discount sunglasses that are tinted for use outside. Armed with the right information on design features and uses, anyone can find the perfect fit and design of reading glasses for their face.

By : Upneet Kaur