As a guy closing in on 50, losing my near vision really annoys me. And the current solutions are weak at best, which annoys me even more. These and the other companies working on similar sound great. But someone tell me why I would need a prescription for them? And is that true in the EU? The article makes it sound like getting them approved to be prescribed is a big hurdle. They seem like better reading glasses, which I don’t need a prescription to buy.
And prescriptions for glasses in general bug me. The only argument for requiring them and having them expire I have heard is that the wrong perscription could be dangerous while driving and such. But heck, we don’t make you retake the drivers test every 2 years, and people’s driving skills certainly decrease with age. So why prescriptions? Seems like another one of those good for business and not for people laws.
How do prescriptions for glasses even work on your side of the pond? I assumed it was just jargon of a sort, because round these parts I just go to a glasses seller and ask him for his strongest glasses. Then he says “no traveller, my strongest glasses are too strong for you, you can’t handle my strongest glasses” and does the eye test with me before making lenses at the proper strength.
You go to an eye doctor, they do the various tests and create a prescription with the necessary details to get you the right glasses. For the next year, you can use that prescription to buy glasses anywhere you want.
I thought you got at least 2 years…
You can just go online and buy them, they don’t care about “expired” prescriptions, they only need the numbers.
Sure, but I shouldn’t have to. Seems like more of a reason that requiring perscriptions isn’t really about anything but money.
True for glasses, illegal for contacts. It’s the dumbest shit ever. I don’t need a prescription for band aids, why do I need one for eye correction?
$$$
For contacts I kinda get it.
You could have eye conditions that make you unsuitable to use contacts.
For glasses, its absolute bullshit.
An “incorrect” lens placed on the exterior of your face will not harm you (other than making you a bit dizzy).
The thing is, if you’re eyes are unsuitable for contacts, you’ll know really quickly. I would think almost anyone that would buy contacts without an active prescription, has already tried contacts. You still have to know the numbers, so at some point there was an active prescription. I’ve never been to an eye doctor that didn’t give free contacts samples, so there’s that option too.
Can’t you buy colored contacts with no correction? Seems like if you can do that, the issue with your ryes being unsuitable isn’t the reason.
Valid point. Which makes it even dumber that I can’t buy corrective lenses with a prescription a doctor once gave me that arbitrarily expired. It’s not like eye prescriptions tend to change significantly, and if it’s like other drug prescriptions, no need to worry about me growing an addiction to contacts, I’m already there.