Will Glasses Make My Eyes Worse?

 
Man wearing SALT glasses

WILL GLASSES MAKE MY EYES WORSE?

Many people require prescription glasses to correct their vision; whether it be short-sightedness (myopia), long-sightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism, or just for reading (presbyopia). A common misconception people have when they first purchase prescription glasses is that their vision declines from using the glasses. this is not the case, as the function of glasses is to make vision clearer or to reduce eye strain. There is no scientific evidence that wearing glasses results in worsening vision, however, there are a couple of reasons it can appear like this.

 

FIRST TIME GLASSES WEARER
For someone who has a prescription but has never worn glasses before, their “normal” visual perception of the world is actually sub-optimal, but they don’t realise it.When wearing glasses for the first time, the tailored prescription lenses make the world crystal clear, and when taken off, the original “normal” vision now looks more noticeably blurry. In this scenario,  it can appear like vision has declined since using the glasses, however, it is actually that now the individual can see how clear the world actually is. 

 

PRESBYOPIA & READING GLASSES
Unfortunately, one of the things that declines with age is the ability for eyes to focus on objects/words at a close distance - and this happens to everyone at some stage in their life. It is usually first noticed between the ages of 40-50 years (depending on visual demands & lifestyle) and this condition is called Presbyopia. It is when the lens in your eye gradually loses its ability to focus due to a change in its structure, and the solution is reading glasses or progressive glasses. This condition is purely to do with the way the lens in the eye loses its ability to focus as we age and will occur regardless of whether you wear glasses or not. For a person who has never had glasses before, in a relatively short period of time they can go from still being able to read the fine print on packaging without any glasses, to needing glasses to be able to see a text message on their phone. This decline in reading ability is nothing to do with using glasses, it is actually a natural decline in the reading ability of a person’s eyes associated with age, that would have happened whether they had reading glasses or not. Reading glasses function to make reading easier and less strained for you. 

 

SHORT-SIGHTED CHILDREN (MYOPIA)
Myopia (short-sightedness) is a condition that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the population, especially children, for a number of factors. This is thought to be mostly due to increased near work by children (long periods using phones/tablets/reading) and decreased outdoor activities/time. It is a common misconception that wearing glasses that correct this in children can make short-sightedness worse, however, a study on Malaysian children by Daniel O’Leary of Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge in 2002 shed some light on this. He highlighted that under-correction of myopia actually accelerates the progression of short-sightedness. So, even for children, wearing glasses will not make their eyes lazy or worse. 

Overall, the decline (or improvement) in your prescription is a natural change that occurs regardless of whether glasses are worn or not. Even a  wrong prescription will not permanently affect your vision - it will just cause temporary eyestrain. The function of glasses is to make your vision clearer and your life easier, they will not negatively impact your eyesight. 

 

REFERENCES

  1. Chung K, Mohidin N, O'Leary DJ. Undercorrection of myopia enhances rather than inhibits myopia progression. Vision Res. 2002 Oct;42(22):2555-9. doi: 10.1016/s0042-6989(02)00258-4. PMID: 12445849.

  2. Pärssinen O, Kauppinen M, Viljanen A. The progression of myopia from its onset at age 8-12 to adulthood and the influence of heredity and external factors on myopic progression. A 23-year follow-up study. Acta Ophthalmol. 2014 Dec;92(8):730-9. doi: 10.1111/aos.12387. Epub 2014 Mar 27. PMID: 24674576.

  3. Walline JJ, Lindsley K, Vedula SS, Cotter SA, Mutti DO, Twelker JD. Interventions to slow progression of myopia in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011 Dec 7;(12):CD004916. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD004916.pub3. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Jan 13;1:CD004916. PMID: 22161388; PMCID: PMC4270373.

 
Guest User