How to Choose Reading Glasses

When you catch yourself holding the menu or the newspaper at arm’s length, it's time for reading glasses. You have come to the stage in your development that will force you to turn to reading glasses to read anything within four feet of your face. It’s not that big a deal to choose reading glasses that correct your near vision without spoiling your dashing good looks.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Visit your nearest drug store or discount store. Actually, you can find reading glasses in nearly any shop or store that offers personal care items. A learned ophthamologist suggests that it is okay to purchase perfectly good reading glasses “off the rack.”
2. Most kiosks designed to hold reading glasses also have a reading sample to help you decide where to start when selecting lenses of the right power. To get started, test yourself: follow the instructions on the card as they relate to distance and power (for example, If you must stand xx feet away to read this, use 1.25). If there are no instructions, grab a pair of glasses and start reading whatever is nearby.
3. Select a pair of glasses that you think might be the appropriate correction. Don’t worry about style yet; you’re still learning which level of correction works best for your eyes. When you think you have found the right lenses, go back to the reading sample to try them out. If they’re not perfect, put them back and try a different correction.
4. Once you have pinned down the appropriate corrective lenses, start browsing the rack for a style that you like. Some people like reading glasses that sit low on their noses so they can look over the tops of them easily; some people (or some people's children) don’t care for this look and prefer to go with glasses that fit snugly against their faces.

Tips & Warnings

• Take a close look at the glasses you’re trying (if you can see them well enough). On occasion, people who don’t see clearly have a tendency to mix the glasses up on the rack.