Foo - Any Optometrists in the Foo House?

Ok, I'm about at my wit's end with my new glasses. This evening I went and picked up my second new pair of glasses and I'm still having issues with distortion and I'm beginning to think it is the polycarbonate lens more so than the prescription (this time around).

Long story: First prescription I got with my new frames I had a high Cylinder number (2.50 I think) in the right eye. As soon as I put them on I immediately knew something was wrong. I was feeling almost like vertigo when I was trying to walk and my depth perception was all thrown off. Looking at a computer screen I could see a very pronounced Trapezoid shape to what should have been a perfectly square screen. I went back to the Optometrists and we adjusted the Cylinder down to largely eliminate that effect.

Now I'm seeing a lot of distortion at the outer edges of my glasses, I can actually look at the top of a telephone pole, nod my head up and down slightly and see the pole get stretched with the angle that I'm looking through the lens at.

So, any input? Honestly, the gentleman who I'm getting the glasses through has fairly broken English and trying to discuss this with him isn't going very far. And I have this feeling that the optometrist I went through is quite happy kind of fishing for the right numbers and blaming the polycarbonate lens for problems. Guess it's one of those you get what you pay for kind of deals. :(

I'd like to stay with a lightweight polycarbonate lens if I can, esp since one of these are going into a set of cycling sunglasses.

Is this your first time in Poly?

There is for sure more distortion in a poly lense as you have noticed...there is also hi-index lenses....less distortion but more weight....

Are you in bifocals as well?

Ok, I'm about at my wit's end with my new glasses. This evening I went and picked up my second new pair of glasses and I'm still having issues with distortion and I'm beginning to think it is the polycarbonate lens more so than the prescription (this time around).

Long story: First prescription I got with my new frames I had a high Cylinder number (2.50 I think) in the right eye. As soon as I put them on I immediately knew something was wrong. I was feeling almost like vertigo when I was trying to walk and my depth perception was all thrown off. Looking at a computer screen I could see a very pronounced Trapezoid shape to what should have been a perfectly square screen. I went back to the Optometrists and we adjusted the Cylinder down to largely eliminate that effect.

Now I'm seeing a lot of distortion at the outer edges of my glasses, I can actually look at the top of a telephone pole, nod my head up and down slightly and see the pole get stretched with the angle that I'm looking through the lens at.

So, any input? Honestly, the gentleman who I'm getting the glasses through has fairly broken English and trying to discuss this with him isn't going very far. And I have this feeling that the optometrist I went through is quite happy kind of fishing for the right numbers and blaming the polycarbonate lens for problems. Guess it's one of those you get what you pay for kind of deals. :(

I'd like to stay with a lightweight polycarbonate lens if I can, esp since one of these are going into a set of cycling sunglasses.

OK, not an Optometrist but my best friend is, a top notch one and his wife teaches the subject at top level. I have a fairly highcylinder as well ( higher than yours) so i know a little.

Sounds like they have the cylinder component (which is for astigmatism) at the wrong angle. It has to be fairly precise, the higher the figure, the better the accuracy needs to be. i have one friend who has nothing but cylinder ( astigmatism) at around a value of 4! If her glasses are tipped at 5 degrees she cannot see anything!

Heres a way to check it. Have another optician run a test on on your new lenses and your old. ( if you can ) the angle for the cylinder component should be fairly close, unless there has been a significant change in your prescription. Polycarbonate lenses are the norm now and very good optically speaking.

Are these Varifocal lenses? Are you over 40 and need a reading add? Never mind, read it again and am fairly confident they have the angle wrong. Take off your glasses and hold them close but don't use the arms, revolve them around the axis of your eye (right eye) See if you can get them to look right by changing the angle. if so, either the optician is useless or the lab who made the glasses is worse. get your money back and go somewhere else.

Heres an example, my glasses are 14(?) years old now and I know I need a new prescription. If i tilt my right lens 10 degrees, the vision in my right eye is markedly better.

If you have a fairly strong prescription then high index is good because it keeps the thickness and weight down, another thing to consider is aspheric as well, this uses a computer calculated changing of the strength as you go outwards from the center. this allows a better edge to edge performance ( less distortion as you look through the side of the lens)

it is possible that you have a good Opthalmic optician and a useless Dispensing Optician. In the UK these are distinct jobs (skills) and either one can screw up the work of the other.

Excuse me replying to myself but i've had a drink or two and not quite straight in the head.

If he got the cylinder right, thats what you need.

Reducing that to reduce the distortion is nonsense! I think you have a prat for an Optician.

Wonder if that word will make it through the filter?

Thanks for the great information so far. It seems that I am/was dealing with two issues. The first was largely resolved by changing the Cyl value from 2.5 back down to what it was in my old prescription. Alas I can actually walk without tripping over my own feet! What a strange feeling it was to feel like I was higher off the ground and expected to step down and thus stumbling.

Little background (that I suppose I should have included in the OP):

Age: 26
Single vison glasses
Slight astigmatism in both eyes. Old Perscrpt is now I think 3-4 years old.

First Perscipt:

Sph: -0.50 Cyl: -2.50 Axis: 020
Sph: -0.75 Cyl: -1.00 Axis: 010

Current Perscript:

Sph: -1.50 Cyl: -1.75 Axis: 015
Sph: -1.00 Cyl: -1.00 Axis: 015

The current perscript is a large improvement over the first in many respects. I can sit at a computer screen and not have it look like a lopsided trapezoid. However it is still distracting and disconcerting to have the odd visual effects at the edges of the glasses. Something that I can not ever recall seeing with my old set of glasses over the years. I don't have that prescription written down to compare to. But do know that they are not a polycarbonate lens. Figured I'd go "for the good stuff" this time, esp in the Rx insert in my new riding glasses. Uhg.

Did he retest you for the second prescription?
Was he super cheap?

I hear that jsharr is a pretty good optometrist. You should probably ask him for advice.

Did he retest you for the second prescription?
Was he super cheap?

1) Wasn't so much as a full retest than using the values from my old glasses prescrpt I think. :rolleyes:
2) Target Optical... so yeah, discount. :o

Taerom - yeah, I hear he uses the super industrial strength eye wash before the exams. Makes sure nothing is clogging up your tear ducts! :eek:

I would try cleansing both eyes with drain opener.

Yeah, because that would solve all my problems. :p Been wearing the new perscription all day and other than the distortion when I nod my head I haven't had any problems with them. Eyesight is clear. :)

I did learn one interesting thing that with the Cylinder adjustments, not looking through the center of the lens will cause some blurryness, well my sunglass Rx insert apparently the center isn't centered properly because I have to look through the very bottom of the glasses to get the clearest vision! :( :mad:

I know you got a lot of info here but did you get a chance to talk to Luwin?

Yeah, I've got a couple PM's from Luwin so far. Thanks! :)

I know you got a lot of info here but did you get a chance to talk to Luwin?


Siu, I was a patient counselor for a laser eye surgeon at UCLA and then private practice in Beverly Hills, so I'd be better at answering questions about LASIK. I'm no optometrist but tried to give whatever information I could.

I left that field and became a flight attendant for several years, returned to grad school for marriage/family therapy and just finished this past June. I'm now a full-time therapist intern working to get hours to get licensed. So if you have issues yourself or relationship issues, fire away. j/k :o