I've been following the bates method haphazardly for awhile now, but i've finally made a true commitment to this process since I lost my last glasses and had to get a new prescription. I'm fed up with being told headaches and eyestrain are normal and just to keep adjusting as stronger prescriptions are needed.
My latest prescription has me at -4.5 with -0.75 for astigmatism, and my work requires the use of glasses. But these new glasses constantly bring about headaches. My main question is with those of you who have gotten reduced prescriptions, how much did you get them reduced by compared to your main prescription, 0.5, 1, 1.5 ect? and if you had a slight astigmatism did you decided to go without correcting astigmatism or still get it correct for.
I think Nancy would be a good person to comment on that, but I'll put in my 2 cents worth.
I have about a -4 prescription right now without astigmatism. The prescription I had before that was a little over -2, with scratch induced astigmatism every which way from my days of constant cleaning of the lenses. As much as I hate the scratches, I prefer using that over my actual prescription. Right now it's anywhere from 20/50-20/30 with reasonable or good lighting. If you are doing stuff within a foot of your eyes, you can ditch the glasses altogether for work and only use them for driving. Even then, I would get computer glasses which I think are about .75 diopters weaker. As long as you can see 20/40 or better, you are legal to drive or fly a plane not for hire. If flying for hire, (in the US) you must be corrected to 20/20 or better.Â
Basically, figure out the lowest permitted visual acuity for your job and go one notch above that. That is what I would do. Although, if 20/20 is the worst you can get, then just put it to what would give you 20/20. Remember to be safe because you don't want to get hurt.
Yes, I agree with most of what Fiat said. I'm not an eye doctor, I'm a vision teacher. The person who trained me is a behavioral optometrist, and his loose guideline was to eliminate astigmatism correction if it is less than -2, otherwise reduce it by 2 diopters so it's not too drastic of a change for the nervous system. He usually reduced strong prescriptions by a diopter or even more, like my -10 when I started, and weaker ones like yours by .5 but again, everyone is different -- some people get very nervous when their prescription is reduced at all, while others are reasonably comfortable without their glasses even though everything is blurry. If your glasses give you headaches, it's possible they're too strong. If your eye doctor is receptive, talk to him or her about a reduced prescription which will let you see 20/40. If not and you're on your own, take steps slowly to reduce your own prescription, always being safe, especially when driving -- I'm on the roads too and I don't want you to run into me! Get an eye chart and work with it regularly, getting familiar with your own visual habits and acuity. The more you know, the better decisions you can make. One more thing, as Fiat mentioned, do without your glasses as much as you can, as long as you're not straining. You ultimately want to depend on your natural vision to see what you need to. This will give you such a sense of freedom!
Nancy Wrote:If your eye doctor is receptive, talk to him or her about a reduced prescription which will let you see 20/40. If not and you're on your own
Alas, if only that was the case! I believe in the end I'm going to try twice; one with an 0.75 reduction while keeping the astigmatism correction and one without and see where that takes me.
A quick question though for anyone that knows more about prescriptions, as I'm doing this manually, the "cyl" on the prescription is for astigmatism, but that works together with the "axis" for astigmatism correct? so for the pair without astigmatism correction I need to remove both numbers?
smok3scr33n Wrote:A quick question though for anyone that knows more about prescriptions, as I'm doing this manually, the "cyl" on the prescription is for astigmatism, but that works together with the "axis" for astigmatism correct? so for the pair without astigmatism correction I need to remove both numbers?
Right. For the pair without astigmatism correction, you just do the box where it says -4 diopters and leave the other boxes undone. No prisms, no astigmatism, just plain myopia. I forgot to mention that there are a few websites out there where you can buy cheap glasses that get the job done for a much smaller price tag then what buying from your optometrist would usually be. <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.39dollarglasses.com">www.39dollarglasses.com</a><!-- w --> is one website that I found, and if you search, you might find more that are even cheaper. I'd just be careful to make sure you don't get scammed. As always, when looking for super cheap merchandise, there usually do exit con men. So keep that in mind if you go that route so that you play it safe.
Thanks Fiat, I was pretty sure that was the case, but it doesn't hurt to ask questions. I have had some relatives who have order with success from zenni, so I ended up going with them. I decided to just get a few different frames without astigmatism correction but with various reduced prescriptions. We will see where that takes me. Hopefully they look good
@smok3scr33n doesn't hurt to ask at all. Of course, the same question 4 times starts to get old fast, but you only asked once.
Looking forward to seeing how things work out for you!
Btw, if you haven't already done so, it is highly recommended to get an eye chart. You can get a professional one, or print one off the Internet. If you're in the US a few clicks through <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.i-see.org">www.i-see.org</a><!-- w --> will bring you to a printable eye chart from 20/70 to 20/4. It is a really useful tool both for testing and training. I say if you are in the US because we're the last country to use the Inperial Measurement System on a large scale. If you're outside the US you'll want a chart for use at 6 meters instead of 20 feet from the chart. Roughly the same distance, different measurement system.
FIAT2LUX Wrote:.., it is highly recommended to get an eye chart. You can get a professional one, or print one off the Internet.
"Professional"?
What is the difference from eye chart which one gets from internet and prints out?
What I was saying by that is that you can buy a chart from a website or a store that is laminated cardboard, or you can print a chart off the Internet onto normal paper. That's the difference that I was talking about. They both get the job done.
