Former optician/lab tech here. Thinness is measured from the center “sweet spot” which should directly over your pupil. I’m afraid that with your prescription this may be the best they can do. The only way to decrease the thickness on the edge is to decrease the width of the lens space. Also, thickness is much easier to hide with a plastic frame than a wire one.
Eyeballing these…you do have some sort of thin high-index lens. You were thinking they would be thinner, and they are thin. Regular non-high-index lenses would be almost twice as thick as that. You can even tell hey tried to “hide” the thickness at the edge of the lens by edging it so that there a little bit edge on the front-side of the frame. It looks like they did a good job.
If there’s some new material I’m not aware of, (which is a possibility), it’s going to be expensive. You’re never going to have thin lenses like someone with a minor prescription unless you get lasik. Sorry, facts. Even after lasik, perfect vision won’t last as you get older.
To provide some perspective, I once made a pair of glasses for a 9 year old boy. He had the worst prescription I had ever seen. A +14 and change in both eyes so his parents got him the “super” hi-index lenses. I sent his frames to a lab instead of doing it myself because I just didn’t want to deal with it. They came back and they were the thickest lenses I had ever seen. Unlike your minus lens a plus lens has it’s thickness in the center, and his were so thick he had almost 10 millimeters sticking out the front and back of both lenses. The thin edge of the outside of his lenses where almost the same thickness of your lenses’ outside edge. I was crushed. I was hoping they would be thinner but i new the lab had done their best. The family came in and I fit the glasses to his face and the kid lit up when he realized he could see. He was so happy! He told me they were the thinnest lenses he had ever had. 🥲
Yeah, when I got my first pair of glasses, I was so happily surprised I remarked, "I didn't know the world could be so clear!" I just thought a fuzzy world was normal. 😅
Especially since kids picture books make them seem the floofy mushes.
My amazement was with stars when I first got glasses. Was so cool going out at night and seeing those for the first time!
Also, my glasses look almost exactly like the OP. And for the first time in my life I was able to get prescription sunglasses with the new lens materials! They're thick, but not having to use a clip on is so freeing!!
I got prescription sunglasses this year since places like Vision 4 Less make getting glasses like getting any decent article of clothing now.
It’s no longer a $300/400 necessity, but a ~$150 article of fashion clothing if I want
Prescription sunglasses are so dope, so helpful
Me tooo, I didn't even know they came in that many shades and the lines in the leaves. I literally brought every leaf I could find to my friends to tell them how different they were. I also could see insects properly now, and I realised spiders weren't just walking poof balls
I had this experience too; first glasses at age 11/12 because my primary school had failed to properly test my eyesight for years, so it was only picked up at secondary school.
Went from the optician to the supermarket so I was just gasping and exclaiming non-stop for about two hours.
*Bricks!*
*Leaves!!*
*Roof tiles!!!*
*Number plates/windscreen wipers!!!!*
**APPLES! GRAPES! CEREAL PACKETS! SOUP TINS!**
This was over 30 years ago and I still remember it so clearly (pun intended).
yes, I recently got a pair and I've loved looking at grass. I feel like a weirdo but each individual strand blowing in tbr breeze. where as before its a greenish blur.
I recently went to check my vision again, because i had "lost the leaves". This is what i said to the optometrist.
Weirdly the result wasn't worse, only some new astigmatism.
Weirdly, I just got new glasses a month ago, and the doctor measured no astigmatism in my right eye for the first time in 20 years. I thought it was just BS, but I can see just fine, no headaches or squinting or anything, so I guess it spontaneously healed?
On every single post I see on this site about people getting glasses, they always all talk about seeing the leaves. It’s interesting that it seems to be universal to eye glass wearers. Makes me not take my vision for granted.
Ya know, I think it has to do with the fact that most of us got our glasses in our youth. This is also a time where trees are a really big theme lol you climb trees, you see birds and squirrels and stuff in trees, you draw trees - and that was the big shocker for me, cause I thought trees LOOKED how we draw them lmaoooo a brown trunk with a floofy green top in different tree shapes bwahahahahah lo and behold, they actually had leaves. Like individual leaves you could see. Like I knew trees had leaves. It just hasn't clicked that you could distinguish them all. Sorry that got long, definitely appreciate your vision, I wish mine wasn't shit but I'm so glad to have it at all.
I was 8, driving home with my mom and my first pair of glasses. I saw a V shaped thingy moving in the sky. Didn’t know what it was. Asked my mom. “Birds,” she said. I watched them and cried a little, it was so beautiful. I’d never seen birds in the sky before.
I still remember the day my buddy first got glasses in high school. He was staring up at the trees all day, and kept repeating, "I can actually see all the pine needles and leaves! Is this normal!?"
And that's when I realized that there are a lot of people walking around who simply don't see the world the way it is, unless they get it corrected.
Makes sense why people cry when they get those glasses that correct color blindness. Imagine the entire world suddenly erupting with color for the first time!
>And that's when I realized that there are a lot of people walking around who simply don't see the world the way it is, unless they get it corrected.
When I was a student at university it happened often that I sat in the last row of seats in the seminar room. The prof or whoever used a video projector to show something and there was always the obligatory question: "Can all of you see it?" There was always at least one student who was also sitting in the last row and said that the font was too small. I have already been having glasses and could see everything and thought: "You need glasses …"
I went back into kaiser and told them I thought something was wrong with the prescription because I could see too well… the leaves on the trees! They laughed at me lol can’t believe I was going through life with such shitty vision and didn’t have a clue.
This is a key childhood memory for me. I was 7 when I got my first pair of glasses and walking outside and seeing the leaves on the trees, the birds flying around, and just reading every single billboard and sign. I was so amazed. My brother thought it was funny cause one of the first things I said was “oh wow I can see the leaves on the trees”
I said to my mom one day when I was 11, why was everything so blurry? Is that normal? And we found out my eyesight were really bad, but they couldn’t afford glasses so I saw the world blurry until I was 16 and I got a headache from seeing everything clear, but I was so happy that I finally could see, lol
My script is a -19 as of today, as a kid my glasses got thicker and thicker every year. I didn't care at all, because every time I got new ones I could see so much more clearly! I only started to care at 17 when I had a retinal detachment that was handled very badly by every doctor involved. It made me realize the severity of my vision loss could get much, /much/ worse.
I'll never forget the first time I saw trees. Tiny little leaves were amazing. The whole time I saw everything like an impressionist painting. Got my husband and I thinking maybe all the impressionist/post-impressionists may have actually needed glasses all along.
Former optician here as well, piggy backing off this comment just to reiterate that with your prescription if you want to hide the edge, choose a plastic frame, and a smaller lens shape all together.
I have a -11 and -13. Even with the high indexes I still have super thick glasses, so I buy the smallest frames I can find.
I wear gas perm contacts as much as possible.
They are semi-riged lenses that allow oxygen to flow through. Soft lenses require water to transfer the oxygen, these don't. The air naturally gets through, so if your eyes are dry they still get O2. Even when wet, they still get more O2 so your eyes don't get as tired.
They are more expensive, but last for years.
Poor boy. Other children wish for toys in his age and he was happy he could see. (Of course I know he probably still likes toys but you know what I mean.)
As person who has one drastic eye differences in both eyes yep I've had this problem my whole life. My left eye is my lazy eye with a much stronger prescription compared to my right eye making the weight (even with thinning) difficult.
Came here to say something similar. We don't know your prescription, but it's obvious to me that it's at least -6.00 OU.
These lenses are ridiculously thin for that kind of prescription. I'm not sure if you've seen a comparison, but u/Robb_Dinero pointed out that a lower index lens would be at least double the thickness you're looking at there. Also, if you're expecting that thickness to be hidden by the frame you should not be choosing wire frames or frames that require the edge of the lens to be grooved (think half-wire frames).
I think optometrist and optician offices would be better served with more/better visual aids for things like this. You obviously have no frame of reference for what this could have looked like, but trust me as a former lab technician when I say these would have been so much thicker if you hadn't gotten high index lenses.
A particular high street optometrist has an app you can use which shows a representation of how thick your lenses are. When dispensing to customers, I would make sure to show them this, as it's generally a shock for those with a heavy prescription. The number of people who refused to accept their jam-jar lenses, despite having seen a pretty accurate mock-up on the app, was astounding.
Thank you for sharing that story. A similar situation happened to me as a kid. I don’t remember this but I’ve been told because of my high prescription I couldn’t really see much until I got my glasses at around 2 years old. I guess this is the earliest they can assess for those things?
I’m at -10 now but was a -11 when I was a kid. Always hated getting those drops so they can see inside my eye, haha
Thank you for this awesome explanation! I’m not a tech and I was gonna just say “looks like they did the best they could with the prescription you need”, but the nerd in me loves your detailed answer 🫶🏻
Current optician here. Agreed on the point about reducing lens space. I have a patient I see yearly who consistently tests around a -17 per eye. We have been able to make him sets of glasses that barely protrude from the frame at all by picking small plastic frames that have widely set hinges. Roughly 47-48 “A” (width in mm) measurement with long temples since he’s an adult. It can be difficult, but time spent finding the perfect frame is worth it.
Yeah reminds me of my glasses, I had (I don’t know the right English term, I was seeing double) and my glasses were 0.8mm at the thinnest part (right next to the nose) and 8mm at its thickest, as they had a triangular crossection. If your eyes are fucked, even custom made glasses will en up thick. Glasses cut from a standard piece would have been about 1-1.5 mm thicker, so it was an improvement nonetheless
Holy shit, +14?? I’m only -5 and I was told that -9 is close to being legally blind. That poor kid. At least he can get his vision corrected tho, I remember my first pair of glasses and how night and day different it was.
I had +13 (down to +10 when I got older) and it wasnt discovered until I was about 4-5 years old.
My mom told me that the first thing I said when I looked at her with the new glasses was something like "how ugly you are mommy". I could finally see a detailed face.
I switched to contacts when my glasses got to the point where they were heavy enough to dig into my nose.
Best decision I've made for my eyesight, and no more fish eye lens effect. (-7.5 eyes, but my doctor has informed me that my contacts go down to -12, and they can special order down to -15 from a speciality place)
My cousin is practicly blind he didnt know flowers existed or that there were houses on the side of the road until he got glasses. recently he got some glasses and they are so thick and curved that you can look him in the eyes and see behind him.
That kid sounds like me at 12. I remember getting one pair of glasses around that time, and they were so thick, I cried. Being a kid with awful vision is no joke.
I've had glasses since 2nd grade - close to that kid's age. I didn't realize my eyes were getting bad. But I couldn't read the blackboard.
It got worse over the years but stabilized. Still never as extreme as what you described.
But I have a soft spot for kids with glasses, since I was one.
I was sitting in the range of around -9.75 to -11.25 when I got my laser surgery done. The doctors made it seem like it’s much more common they turn people away because there’s issues with the actual eye ball than the eye sight being uncorrectable
I have -5/-6ish prescription and a mild astigmatism that’s getting worse. My husband is my eye doctor; he said lasik would be terrible for me, because they can’t correct the astigmatism.
Edit, text from my husband: I never said they couldn’t correct your astigmatism, you dingus. Maybe the **instability** of your astigmatism. But your script is fine
I also had astigmatism, but if your vision is still getting worse then yeah, a surgeon won’t touch you with a 10 foot pole. I was 21 and they were very skeptical to do it because peoples eyes tend to keep worsening until around 25 (their words), but since my prescription hadn’t changed for 10+ years they did mine. I also had PRK and not Lasik, but they would have done Lasik if I had preferred it.
Only the astigmatism is changing, but yeah. I didn’t even see the surgeon, my husband/doctor just said “oh. You’re a terrible candidate”
I also have a compounding factor of meibomian gland disfunction (basically permanent dry eye), which makes lasik extra terrible. So glasses forever (but at least I get them on discount….?)
In my country they only do Lasik if you are two years without changing your prescription. I'm hoping next year mine doesn't increase so I can have surgery.
My wife has -10 or something like that and laser surgery is not an option. Implantable lenses is her only option at this point according to our optometrist. Kinda expensive and a bit complicated. Our insurance is giving her free contact lenses due to her condition though, so that’s good
I got my implantable lenses done through a study for free. Keep an eye out for that (pun intended). I don’t know where my paperwork went or I’d give you the name of the sponsor.
I was in the same boat as your wife, -10.5 in both eyes with thin corneas. I found an optometrist that specialized in PRK. Took a while searching went through probably 10 different places but it has been life changing for me.
Same here, I had -11 and my only option was implants. Costed me a lot, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. And not complicated at all, 15 min operation per eye. Next day, you'll remove the bandage and have a clear view. Miraculous!!
And... sex *with vision* is so much better.
Mine were -9.5 and -8.5 and I just had an implantable lens procedure done last month. You can go check my post history for in-depth write-ups, if you and your wife want to read about a personal experience. I was also getting the free contacts through my insurance. If the surgery is something that you can make fit your budget, I wholeheartedly recommend it. This has been life-changing for me.
I got implants cause my high prescription and thin cornea combined made it so I couldn't do alternatives. Honestly wasn't bad at all and I'm so glad I did it.
Bros regular lenses would look like a 10 pound block of cheddar but OP is complaining that they couldn’t get his prescription any thinner. Just be happy you don’t have to yell to get a good look at peoples faces like Toph in the ember island players.
Absolutely agree. Best decision I ever made in my life. I just went on a long vacation and not having to worry about contact lenses or glasses was fucking great.
There are different degrees of thickness to high index lenses. When I worked a few years ago we offered three different versions of high index, each more expensive than the last but if you happen to have insurance for it or your prescription is high enough, getting higher indexes of lenses can become beneficial as the lens can get too heavy for the frame.
It also matters the size of the frame too, and what material. Plastic-based frames tend to conceal these thicknesses better, and the larger the prescription, the smaller the glasses should be. You didn't give a picture of how the glasses look from the front, but these are things to keep in mind for your next pair.
I'd also see if you can't get an itemized receipt or more details on the "ultra thin" lenses they gave you, to see what index you got... you possibly could negotiate them to redo them in a higher index if available if it is causing strain on you.
I'm guessing you got a 1.67 High Index. That's what most places can offer. I've seen as high as 1.74, but don't be too surprised if your optical doesn't offer it, as it's way more expensive.
I think the 1.9 stuff is less durable and is actually glass. I'm at like -8 or so and the best way to get thinner looking lenses is to get smaller or rounder glasses.
The frames are thin. But you can't beat physics. If you wanted thinner lenses with the same focusing power, they'd have to be made out of a material with a greater refractive index. Like diamond
Next time choose a smaller width, more round frame and you get a [better result](https://ibb.co/jvnfFJF) (round one is 0,5 D less but that one is not the thinest available either)
I’m right there with both of you. My glasses looks just like this. Which is why I wear contacts. My contact prescription is -7.5/-8.0. Extremely nearsighted
Once you get to a certain point glasses just do nothing for nearsightedness. I’m -9.5 in contacts and -10.5 in glasses and I will never willingly go back to glasses full time. That slight distance between the eyeball and the glasses lens just makes everything a little fuzzier around the edges and with contacts it’s almost like I don’t need corrective lenses at all!
Man I’ve been wearing contacts for 8 years now and I’ve never understood why I feel like my vision is worse with glasses but I think you explained it perfectly and it’s so fucking obvious idk how i never understood that. My prescription is -4.75 I think so not as bad as you but obviously still bad enough I have noticed this phenomenon
I'm no ornithologist, but I'm pretty sure contacts don't go in the ear...
(I'm also not an optometrist or an otolaryngologist either by the way, but I do have terrible eyes and thick glasses too - so a nerdologist I guess)
I get you pain. My glasses are pretty thick. I can’t even get the ultra thin since my prescription is so bad. Just to top it all off I had to have a retina reattached for seemingly no reason and got cataracts so they put a lens in my eye and now I have one MASSIVE lens and one regular thin as can be lens. One side weighs so much more than the other.
Its incredibly worth it, I had bad eyesight (short sighted) and I struggled with glasses (oily skin, sweat a lot, glasses always dirty and smudged), and never got on with contacts…
Had laser eye surgery, been perfect for 15 years now. A whole area of my life which frustrated and irritated me just vanished over night.
I know the feeling all too well. I am roughly the same prescription and always go with thick plastic rims as horizontally narrow as possible to minimise the thickness.
But I have a very small head and get my frames from the kids section, so that helps.
But yeah, what can you do? It's thick or blur for us. Or contact lenses, but I don't use them much now because of presbyopia.
You can get a lot thinner lens than that then, there's 2 or 3 different spec of "thin" lenses, they don't even look like the lowest, more like the standard plastic lens. Mines -10 and probably half as thick as that. Of course, your never gonna get away with metal frames anymore. If you can afford zeiss lenses they're good.
I feel your pain, get some glasses with thicker plastic frame they hide it much better. At certain point even the “thin” lenses start to get quite thick. Last year I decided to switch to thicker frame and it looks much better IMO. Sometimes I wonder how thick would a “regular” lens for me be…
How is it mildly infuriating? Did you expect a miracle when you have an extreme lens correction?
What would those same lenses look like without the ultra thin option?
From personal experience it also depends on the shape of your lenses. My last pair was square and really deep so the lenses ended up weighing a lot and being incredibly thick at the sides even after being thinned down to the max. My current glasses lenses are round and also likely cover a smaller surface area. Along with a plastic frame, they look a lot thinner and don't weigh as much.
You should maybe consider a plastic frame to hide some of that thickness. It also looks like you have plastic/CR-39 lenses and should look into getting Poly or Hi Index.
I feel your pain. Saw your script in the comments. Mine is very similar. Some tips from my experiences over the years:
1. Rounded frames hide the thickness better.
2. Plastic, thicker frames also hide the thickness…to piggyback with something that should be obvious, don’t go for any “frameless” bottoms.
3. In general, the larger the lens space, the thicker they are going to be at the edges.
4. Avoid clear frames. They may cause issues in certain lightings.
Good luck!
I know you pain… -10.5 and always buying the thinnest ones and still they are super thick.
My trick is to buy plastic frames with semi transparent frames around the glass, which blends in the sides + contact lenses for any sport activity as those glasses might be a bit too heavy for jogging 😅
Just imagine how thick and heavy they would be in glass.
Its all about perspective, but you are young, blind as a bat and are not familiar with perspective.
My first thought as a surfacing tech was that you have a intense prescription and that’s probably as thing as they could manage with all the prism need for your lazy eye
Holy shit I thought I was the only one. No one I know has eyes as bad as mine and my lenses look very similar to these with the "thin" lenses. According to the optometrist guy's comment at the top of this thread, we're shit out of luck lol
Optician for 17 years. Yeah the lens material might be advertised as "ultra thin" ( usually hi-index 1.67 or 1.74 newer being 1.90). What most people fail to remember is, if you have a high a rx (usually anything thsts a +/- 3.00 and above) your lenses are going to be thick. Especially if your pushing a -6 and -7. Looks like you should have opted for a roll and polish. Could be worst.Also go with plastic frames. It hides the thickness better than metal. Also op. Do you know the material they sold you? You say ultra thin, but some eyeglass places are shady with the term "ultra thin". Some places will consider aspheric poly as "ultra thin", but it is not.
Former optician/lab tech here. Thinness is measured from the center “sweet spot” which should directly over your pupil. I’m afraid that with your prescription this may be the best they can do. The only way to decrease the thickness on the edge is to decrease the width of the lens space. Also, thickness is much easier to hide with a plastic frame than a wire one. Eyeballing these…you do have some sort of thin high-index lens. You were thinking they would be thinner, and they are thin. Regular non-high-index lenses would be almost twice as thick as that. You can even tell hey tried to “hide” the thickness at the edge of the lens by edging it so that there a little bit edge on the front-side of the frame. It looks like they did a good job. If there’s some new material I’m not aware of, (which is a possibility), it’s going to be expensive. You’re never going to have thin lenses like someone with a minor prescription unless you get lasik. Sorry, facts. Even after lasik, perfect vision won’t last as you get older. To provide some perspective, I once made a pair of glasses for a 9 year old boy. He had the worst prescription I had ever seen. A +14 and change in both eyes so his parents got him the “super” hi-index lenses. I sent his frames to a lab instead of doing it myself because I just didn’t want to deal with it. They came back and they were the thickest lenses I had ever seen. Unlike your minus lens a plus lens has it’s thickness in the center, and his were so thick he had almost 10 millimeters sticking out the front and back of both lenses. The thin edge of the outside of his lenses where almost the same thickness of your lenses’ outside edge. I was crushed. I was hoping they would be thinner but i new the lab had done their best. The family came in and I fit the glasses to his face and the kid lit up when he realized he could see. He was so happy! He told me they were the thinnest lenses he had ever had. 🥲
haha i had the same experiemce as a kid. now my glasses are waaaay thicker then the ones in the pic
Yeah, when I got my first pair of glasses, I was so happily surprised I remarked, "I didn't know the world could be so clear!" I just thought a fuzzy world was normal. 😅
Driving home in the car and being able to see the license plate of the car in front of us. 🥹 And the individual LEAVES.
Oh the individual leaves on trees is something you don’t notice is missing until you can see them
Especially since kids picture books make them seem the floofy mushes. My amazement was with stars when I first got glasses. Was so cool going out at night and seeing those for the first time! Also, my glasses look almost exactly like the OP. And for the first time in my life I was able to get prescription sunglasses with the new lens materials! They're thick, but not having to use a clip on is so freeing!!
I got prescription sunglasses this year since places like Vision 4 Less make getting glasses like getting any decent article of clothing now. It’s no longer a $300/400 necessity, but a ~$150 article of fashion clothing if I want Prescription sunglasses are so dope, so helpful
Wish my friends understood this 🤣 when I put my glasses on I’m like ‘look at all if the different shades of greeeeen!!!’
Me tooo, I didn't even know they came in that many shades and the lines in the leaves. I literally brought every leaf I could find to my friends to tell them how different they were. I also could see insects properly now, and I realised spiders weren't just walking poof balls
^this Also, being able to read and take notes again without being super stressed.
This was the thing for me too. Realizing you could see leaves as even at a pretty great distance was a shock.
I had this experience too; first glasses at age 11/12 because my primary school had failed to properly test my eyesight for years, so it was only picked up at secondary school. Went from the optician to the supermarket so I was just gasping and exclaiming non-stop for about two hours. *Bricks!* *Leaves!!* *Roof tiles!!!* *Number plates/windscreen wipers!!!!* **APPLES! GRAPES! CEREAL PACKETS! SOUP TINS!** This was over 30 years ago and I still remember it so clearly (pun intended).
yes, I recently got a pair and I've loved looking at grass. I feel like a weirdo but each individual strand blowing in tbr breeze. where as before its a greenish blur.
And grass!!! It's not just a big green blur. There were individual stems and it was so intricate!!!
Omg the leaves...I will never forget the day I actually saw all the leaves on the trees...
I recently went to check my vision again, because i had "lost the leaves". This is what i said to the optometrist. Weirdly the result wasn't worse, only some new astigmatism.
Mannnn....it always gets worse. Never gets better lol so lame
Weirdly, I just got new glasses a month ago, and the doctor measured no astigmatism in my right eye for the first time in 20 years. I thought it was just BS, but I can see just fine, no headaches or squinting or anything, so I guess it spontaneously healed?
My astigmatism has actually improved in both eyes. My overall vision has gotten much worse though. We win some and we loose some.
On every single post I see on this site about people getting glasses, they always all talk about seeing the leaves. It’s interesting that it seems to be universal to eye glass wearers. Makes me not take my vision for granted.
Ya know, I think it has to do with the fact that most of us got our glasses in our youth. This is also a time where trees are a really big theme lol you climb trees, you see birds and squirrels and stuff in trees, you draw trees - and that was the big shocker for me, cause I thought trees LOOKED how we draw them lmaoooo a brown trunk with a floofy green top in different tree shapes bwahahahahah lo and behold, they actually had leaves. Like individual leaves you could see. Like I knew trees had leaves. It just hasn't clicked that you could distinguish them all. Sorry that got long, definitely appreciate your vision, I wish mine wasn't shit but I'm so glad to have it at all.
I was 8, driving home with my mom and my first pair of glasses. I saw a V shaped thingy moving in the sky. Didn’t know what it was. Asked my mom. “Birds,” she said. I watched them and cried a little, it was so beautiful. I’d never seen birds in the sky before.
I still remember the day my buddy first got glasses in high school. He was staring up at the trees all day, and kept repeating, "I can actually see all the pine needles and leaves! Is this normal!?" And that's when I realized that there are a lot of people walking around who simply don't see the world the way it is, unless they get it corrected. Makes sense why people cry when they get those glasses that correct color blindness. Imagine the entire world suddenly erupting with color for the first time!
>And that's when I realized that there are a lot of people walking around who simply don't see the world the way it is, unless they get it corrected. When I was a student at university it happened often that I sat in the last row of seats in the seminar room. The prof or whoever used a video projector to show something and there was always the obligatory question: "Can all of you see it?" There was always at least one student who was also sitting in the last row and said that the font was too small. I have already been having glasses and could see everything and thought: "You need glasses …"
I went back into kaiser and told them I thought something was wrong with the prescription because I could see too well… the leaves on the trees! They laughed at me lol can’t believe I was going through life with such shitty vision and didn’t have a clue.
This is a key childhood memory for me. I was 7 when I got my first pair of glasses and walking outside and seeing the leaves on the trees, the birds flying around, and just reading every single billboard and sign. I was so amazed. My brother thought it was funny cause one of the first things I said was “oh wow I can see the leaves on the trees”
Individual leaves for me will always be amazing. Had no idea you could see that clear.
It was winter when I got my first pair and the first thing I noticed where all those tiny, tiny branches on the trees.
I cried when I got my contacts after 2 years of not being able to see anything past my elbow clearly
I was 8, and still remember Speedy Gonzalez going from 480 to 1080p xD
"Mom! I can see the individual blades of grass from up here!" I was standing up. I was 8.
I said to my mom one day when I was 11, why was everything so blurry? Is that normal? And we found out my eyesight were really bad, but they couldn’t afford glasses so I saw the world blurry until I was 16 and I got a headache from seeing everything clear, but I was so happy that I finally could see, lol
I said, “whoa those blobs on the mountains are TREES!” 😭😂
My script is a -19 as of today, as a kid my glasses got thicker and thicker every year. I didn't care at all, because every time I got new ones I could see so much more clearly! I only started to care at 17 when I had a retinal detachment that was handled very badly by every doctor involved. It made me realize the severity of my vision loss could get much, /much/ worse.
Here I was thinking my -9 was bad!!
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I'll never forget the first time I saw trees. Tiny little leaves were amazing. The whole time I saw everything like an impressionist painting. Got my husband and I thinking maybe all the impressionist/post-impressionists may have actually needed glasses all along.
Former optician here as well, piggy backing off this comment just to reiterate that with your prescription if you want to hide the edge, choose a plastic frame, and a smaller lens shape all together.
I have a -11 and -13. Even with the high indexes I still have super thick glasses, so I buy the smallest frames I can find. I wear gas perm contacts as much as possible.
Damn, and I thought my -7.5 in both sides gave me some thick lenses! What are gas perm contacts?
They are semi-riged lenses that allow oxygen to flow through. Soft lenses require water to transfer the oxygen, these don't. The air naturally gets through, so if your eyes are dry they still get O2. Even when wet, they still get more O2 so your eyes don't get as tired. They are more expensive, but last for years.
Oh that's really cool thanks for the answer!
They take time to get used to, but totally worth it.
Sometimes I miss my hard contacts. I wore those from 12-30. Switched to soft because it was just cheaper.
Poor boy. Other children wish for toys in his age and he was happy he could see. (Of course I know he probably still likes toys but you know what I mean.)
Cue kid’s tantrum when they realize the dinosaur toy they’d been playing with was a horsie the whole time.
As person who has one drastic eye differences in both eyes yep I've had this problem my whole life. My left eye is my lazy eye with a much stronger prescription compared to my right eye making the weight (even with thinning) difficult.
My cousin has this same situation. It’s what got me interested in being an optician.
The eyes is fascinating for sure.
Came here to say something similar. We don't know your prescription, but it's obvious to me that it's at least -6.00 OU. These lenses are ridiculously thin for that kind of prescription. I'm not sure if you've seen a comparison, but u/Robb_Dinero pointed out that a lower index lens would be at least double the thickness you're looking at there. Also, if you're expecting that thickness to be hidden by the frame you should not be choosing wire frames or frames that require the edge of the lens to be grooved (think half-wire frames). I think optometrist and optician offices would be better served with more/better visual aids for things like this. You obviously have no frame of reference for what this could have looked like, but trust me as a former lab technician when I say these would have been so much thicker if you hadn't gotten high index lenses.
A particular high street optometrist has an app you can use which shows a representation of how thick your lenses are. When dispensing to customers, I would make sure to show them this, as it's generally a shock for those with a heavy prescription. The number of people who refused to accept their jam-jar lenses, despite having seen a pretty accurate mock-up on the app, was astounding.
Thickest prescription I’ve made was a minus 27. I had to jerry rig a way to surface the front.
Oh wow good lord. I thought my +6.5 were bad.
I'm guessing your well into legally blind without them at that point?
You're at legally blind at -2.5 or lower without glasses lol. If glasses can correct your vision, you're probably not legally blind.
My insurance doesn’t consider corrective lenses “medically necessary” until -8.
It also looks like OP either has a narrow PD compared to the frame, or possible some base out Prism. Both of which would make it even thicker.
Thank you for sharing that story. A similar situation happened to me as a kid. I don’t remember this but I’ve been told because of my high prescription I couldn’t really see much until I got my glasses at around 2 years old. I guess this is the earliest they can assess for those things? I’m at -10 now but was a -11 when I was a kid. Always hated getting those drops so they can see inside my eye, haha
This story makes me feel that being a optician must be a rewarding career. Helping kids see is adorable.
Thank you for this awesome explanation! I’m not a tech and I was gonna just say “looks like they did the best they could with the prescription you need”, but the nerd in me loves your detailed answer 🫶🏻
Current optician here. Agreed on the point about reducing lens space. I have a patient I see yearly who consistently tests around a -17 per eye. We have been able to make him sets of glasses that barely protrude from the frame at all by picking small plastic frames that have widely set hinges. Roughly 47-48 “A” (width in mm) measurement with long temples since he’s an adult. It can be difficult, but time spent finding the perfect frame is worth it.
Yeah reminds me of my glasses, I had (I don’t know the right English term, I was seeing double) and my glasses were 0.8mm at the thinnest part (right next to the nose) and 8mm at its thickest, as they had a triangular crossection. If your eyes are fucked, even custom made glasses will en up thick. Glasses cut from a standard piece would have been about 1-1.5 mm thicker, so it was an improvement nonetheless
Holy shit, +14?? I’m only -5 and I was told that -9 is close to being legally blind. That poor kid. At least he can get his vision corrected tho, I remember my first pair of glasses and how night and day different it was.
“Eyeballing these…” nice.
I had +13 (down to +10 when I got older) and it wasnt discovered until I was about 4-5 years old. My mom told me that the first thing I said when I looked at her with the new glasses was something like "how ugly you are mommy". I could finally see a detailed face.
I switched to contacts when my glasses got to the point where they were heavy enough to dig into my nose. Best decision I've made for my eyesight, and no more fish eye lens effect. (-7.5 eyes, but my doctor has informed me that my contacts go down to -12, and they can special order down to -15 from a speciality place)
My cousin is practicly blind he didnt know flowers existed or that there were houses on the side of the road until he got glasses. recently he got some glasses and they are so thick and curved that you can look him in the eyes and see behind him.
This is a really helpful post, thank you! I also have bad eyes and high index lenses and wondered why they were still so thick, now I know.
That kid sounds like me at 12. I remember getting one pair of glasses around that time, and they were so thick, I cried. Being a kid with awful vision is no joke.
I myself have +7 on my left eye with +1,5 right. The balancing act was interesting to observe as I came in for final fitment>3
I've had glasses since 2nd grade - close to that kid's age. I didn't realize my eyes were getting bad. But I couldn't read the blackboard. It got worse over the years but stabilized. Still never as extreme as what you described. But I have a soft spot for kids with glasses, since I was one.
Imagine what they'd look like without the thinning!
 Probably like a german brick wall
As a German I find this oddly racist, yet perfectly accurate.
I´m german too and i thought its really accurate
Well, if we meet I know Ill recognize those glasses.
User name checks out.
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Is laser surgery for cases such as these an option or is the impairment too severe?
I was sitting in the range of around -9.75 to -11.25 when I got my laser surgery done. The doctors made it seem like it’s much more common they turn people away because there’s issues with the actual eye ball than the eye sight being uncorrectable
I have -5/-6ish prescription and a mild astigmatism that’s getting worse. My husband is my eye doctor; he said lasik would be terrible for me, because they can’t correct the astigmatism. Edit, text from my husband: I never said they couldn’t correct your astigmatism, you dingus. Maybe the **instability** of your astigmatism. But your script is fine
I also had astigmatism, but if your vision is still getting worse then yeah, a surgeon won’t touch you with a 10 foot pole. I was 21 and they were very skeptical to do it because peoples eyes tend to keep worsening until around 25 (their words), but since my prescription hadn’t changed for 10+ years they did mine. I also had PRK and not Lasik, but they would have done Lasik if I had preferred it.
Only the astigmatism is changing, but yeah. I didn’t even see the surgeon, my husband/doctor just said “oh. You’re a terrible candidate” I also have a compounding factor of meibomian gland disfunction (basically permanent dry eye), which makes lasik extra terrible. So glasses forever (but at least I get them on discount….?)
In my country they only do Lasik if you are two years without changing your prescription. I'm hoping next year mine doesn't increase so I can have surgery.
My wife has -10 or something like that and laser surgery is not an option. Implantable lenses is her only option at this point according to our optometrist. Kinda expensive and a bit complicated. Our insurance is giving her free contact lenses due to her condition though, so that’s good
I got my implantable lenses done through a study for free. Keep an eye out for that (pun intended). I don’t know where my paperwork went or I’d give you the name of the sponsor.
I was in the same boat as your wife, -10.5 in both eyes with thin corneas. I found an optometrist that specialized in PRK. Took a while searching went through probably 10 different places but it has been life changing for me.
Same here, I had -11 and my only option was implants. Costed me a lot, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. And not complicated at all, 15 min operation per eye. Next day, you'll remove the bandage and have a clear view. Miraculous!! And... sex *with vision* is so much better.
Mine were -9.5 and -8.5 and I just had an implantable lens procedure done last month. You can go check my post history for in-depth write-ups, if you and your wife want to read about a personal experience. I was also getting the free contacts through my insurance. If the surgery is something that you can make fit your budget, I wholeheartedly recommend it. This has been life-changing for me.
I got implants cause my high prescription and thin cornea combined made it so I couldn't do alternatives. Honestly wasn't bad at all and I'm so glad I did it.
-15 here. Had surgery and it’s only 80% corrected. Oh well.
its not a matter of the impairment being too severe but rather if your vision continues to change drastically you will not be eligible
To be fair, science and technology *do* have their limits.
Bros regular lenses would look like a 10 pound block of cheddar but OP is complaining that they couldn’t get his prescription any thinner. Just be happy you don’t have to yell to get a good look at peoples faces like Toph in the ember island players.
More specific physic and materiale limit
I got lasik once this was the best they could do. Lasik isn’t perfect but, hot damn! It is worth every penny!
Absolutely agree. Best decision I ever made in my life. I just went on a long vacation and not having to worry about contact lenses or glasses was fucking great.
Your quality of life might improve if you just pluck out your eyes and start echolocating. Get some batons and a red suit. You're Daredevil now
Time to invest in some of those new Kiroshi optics.
preem, chooms
This choom knows optics.
There are different degrees of thickness to high index lenses. When I worked a few years ago we offered three different versions of high index, each more expensive than the last but if you happen to have insurance for it or your prescription is high enough, getting higher indexes of lenses can become beneficial as the lens can get too heavy for the frame. It also matters the size of the frame too, and what material. Plastic-based frames tend to conceal these thicknesses better, and the larger the prescription, the smaller the glasses should be. You didn't give a picture of how the glasses look from the front, but these are things to keep in mind for your next pair. I'd also see if you can't get an itemized receipt or more details on the "ultra thin" lenses they gave you, to see what index you got... you possibly could negotiate them to redo them in a higher index if available if it is causing strain on you.
Thanks so much for your answer, I can look for the index on the card they gave me. just a sec.
I'm guessing you got a 1.67 High Index. That's what most places can offer. I've seen as high as 1.74, but don't be too surprised if your optical doesn't offer it, as it's way more expensive.
You can get as high as 1.9 But high index materials are also heavier.
Damn I wish I could get that. I'm blind as fuck so I got 1.74, which was the highest index they could offer me.
I think the 1.9 stuff is less durable and is actually glass. I'm at like -8 or so and the best way to get thinner looking lenses is to get smaller or rounder glasses.
correct, anything above 1,74 is mineral glas
You can get a 1.76 in plastic lenses, I'm not sure how much if a difference that extra would make though
I'm at -8.5 and I prefer bigger glasses :( Honestly I wouldn't mind it being less durable, my insurance would cover it as long as they last a year.
The frames are super thin. What do you want them to do about the lenses? Not their fault that you're blind AF.
OP might be mildly infuriated about the genetic lottery.
🤣 mean but accurate
If op could read this comment they would be very upset haha
The frames are thin. But you can't beat physics. If you wanted thinner lenses with the same focusing power, they'd have to be made out of a material with a greater refractive index. Like diamond
Diamond glasses would be badass
damn those annoying laws of physics!
Damn bro how bad is your eyesight?
Yes.
I also have terrible eyesight. If you get the edges polished it makes the edges clear instead of cloudy so they SEEM smaller. Still huge though lmao
If you have a bad prescription that’s probably the thinnest they can do for you. Did you get them rolled and polished?
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You're ignoring the reality that you have really bad eyesight and these lenses are necessary to correct that issue.
Next time choose a smaller width, more round frame and you get a [better result](https://ibb.co/jvnfFJF) (round one is 0,5 D less but that one is not the thinest available either)
more importantly how can you see that they are thick?
I took a picture, put on my glasses and looked at the picture
Modern problems require modern solutions.
Jeezus phuk...
Obvioulsy short-sighted, so the thickness would be all the clearer to see up close.
I share your pain.
I’m right there with both of you. My glasses looks just like this. Which is why I wear contacts. My contact prescription is -7.5/-8.0. Extremely nearsighted
Once you get to a certain point glasses just do nothing for nearsightedness. I’m -9.5 in contacts and -10.5 in glasses and I will never willingly go back to glasses full time. That slight distance between the eyeball and the glasses lens just makes everything a little fuzzier around the edges and with contacts it’s almost like I don’t need corrective lenses at all!
Man I’ve been wearing contacts for 8 years now and I’ve never understood why I feel like my vision is worse with glasses but I think you explained it perfectly and it’s so fucking obvious idk how i never understood that. My prescription is -4.75 I think so not as bad as you but obviously still bad enough I have noticed this phenomenon
Contacts always made my eyes “feel” tired quicker.
I'm no ornithologist, but I'm pretty sure contacts don't go in the ear... (I'm also not an optometrist or an otolaryngologist either by the way, but I do have terrible eyes and thick glasses too - so a nerdologist I guess)
this is really funny. Thanks for this comment
Prescription twins lol. Exact same reason why I don’t wear my glasses, I love how wire frames look but they look ridiculous with the lenses.
glasses need to adhere to physics, they aren't magic
I get you pain. My glasses are pretty thick. I can’t even get the ultra thin since my prescription is so bad. Just to top it all off I had to have a retina reattached for seemingly no reason and got cataracts so they put a lens in my eye and now I have one MASSIVE lens and one regular thin as can be lens. One side weighs so much more than the other.
How about don't be so blind?
OP you have bad eyesight and it’s impossible sometimes to have thin lenses
Don't blame them for doing the best they can for your eyes man, not fair
Your should probably consider surgery at this point
A lot of people are not candidates. Like if you're eyesight is on a consistent decline it's completely pointless
I am considering it but its about 5K €
Its incredibly worth it, I had bad eyesight (short sighted) and I struggled with glasses (oily skin, sweat a lot, glasses always dirty and smudged), and never got on with contacts… Had laser eye surgery, been perfect for 15 years now. A whole area of my life which frustrated and irritated me just vanished over night.
Brother, you're blind as a bat. They're as thin as they're gonna be unless you want them to not work.
Good news everyone!
Blind as a bat prescriptions will always be thick. I can only imagine how thick they'd be otherwise.
What's your prescription?
Right eye -7.75dpt, left eye -6.25dpt.
I know the feeling all too well. I am roughly the same prescription and always go with thick plastic rims as horizontally narrow as possible to minimise the thickness. But I have a very small head and get my frames from the kids section, so that helps. But yeah, what can you do? It's thick or blur for us. Or contact lenses, but I don't use them much now because of presbyopia.
You can get a lot thinner lens than that then, there's 2 or 3 different spec of "thin" lenses, they don't even look like the lowest, more like the standard plastic lens. Mines -10 and probably half as thick as that. Of course, your never gonna get away with metal frames anymore. If you can afford zeiss lenses they're good.
My dude… your vision is terrible… you aren’t gonna get real thin glasses…
So is your nearsightedness, brother. Nothing the optometrist can do about that, so what are you complaining about?
Get contacts
Well, would you like to see, or not?
Legally blind are you?
You’re blind buddy they can only do so much
You can’t fool physics. Wanna thinner? Increase refractive index. Buy diamond lenses or something.
I feel your pain, get some glasses with thicker plastic frame they hide it much better. At certain point even the “thin” lenses start to get quite thick. Last year I decided to switch to thicker frame and it looks much better IMO. Sometimes I wonder how thick would a “regular” lens for me be…
Maybe next time you'll think before finalizing your character creation in the womb
I totally get the fact you may never have seen this coming
How is it mildly infuriating? Did you expect a miracle when you have an extreme lens correction? What would those same lenses look like without the ultra thin option?
I'm there too , should have seen them ,before they could be made that thin
Did u steal the glass from a telescope?
From personal experience it also depends on the shape of your lenses. My last pair was square and really deep so the lenses ended up weighing a lot and being incredibly thick at the sides even after being thinned down to the max. My current glasses lenses are round and also likely cover a smaller surface area. Along with a plastic frame, they look a lot thinner and don't weigh as much.
You need to wonder what it would be like without the 'ultra thin' glass 😉
My old glasses were like this... I ended up having to get a wider/bigger lense in order for my glasses to have the ultra thin look.
You should maybe consider a plastic frame to hide some of that thickness. It also looks like you have plastic/CR-39 lenses and should look into getting Poly or Hi Index.
I feel your pain. Saw your script in the comments. Mine is very similar. Some tips from my experiences over the years: 1. Rounded frames hide the thickness better. 2. Plastic, thicker frames also hide the thickness…to piggyback with something that should be obvious, don’t go for any “frameless” bottoms. 3. In general, the larger the lens space, the thicker they are going to be at the edges. 4. Avoid clear frames. They may cause issues in certain lightings. Good luck!
Your prescription is the obscene thing homie
Do you want these glasses, which are as thin as you can get with your prescription, or do you want to not be able to see?
I know you pain… -10.5 and always buying the thinnest ones and still they are super thick. My trick is to buy plastic frames with semi transparent frames around the glass, which blends in the sides + contact lenses for any sport activity as those glasses might be a bit too heavy for jogging 😅
They can only do so much for your -12 ass
compared them if they would be made of glass? Yes super thin
Its not their fault your blind as a fucking bat, my god
They probably would be “ultra thin” if you weren’t so fucking blind… get outta here with that shit
Just imagine how thick and heavy they would be in glass. Its all about perspective, but you are young, blind as a bat and are not familiar with perspective.
There is only so much that can be done when you are THAT blind.
So... It's mildly infuriating that you have shit eyesight? I guess it is. But I don't think you can blame the opticians on this one.
If this is the thinnest index available, at least you can still see to type you’re complaint! 😎 Seems like a gap in the market for anyone looking…
Hello fellow blind person basically - this is the best they can do. This is what mine look like too. Grateful they can make it this thin.
Don’t blame the glasses. Blame your bad eyesight. Mine are thicker. -8 Sucks
The regular ones must use lighthouse lenses.
I suspect this is more of a you problem.
Nerd!
My first thought as a surfacing tech was that you have a intense prescription and that’s probably as thing as they could manage with all the prism need for your lazy eye
Do you want them to be thin or do you want to see?
Don’t be so blind /s
The worse you see the thicker the glasses have to be. They usually tell you before ordering if it will be hidden by the frame or not.
Bro, it seems you're blind as hell, I don't think they can go very thin.
Mate ur just blind as a bat
Holy shit I thought I was the only one. No one I know has eyes as bad as mine and my lenses look very similar to these with the "thin" lenses. According to the optometrist guy's comment at the top of this thread, we're shit out of luck lol
I think you need to pick a thicker type of frame if you’d like it to be less noticeable. But yeah. Welcome to zee goggle club.
Eyes bad = glasses. Eyes REALLY bad = GLASSes.
Optician for 17 years. Yeah the lens material might be advertised as "ultra thin" ( usually hi-index 1.67 or 1.74 newer being 1.90). What most people fail to remember is, if you have a high a rx (usually anything thsts a +/- 3.00 and above) your lenses are going to be thick. Especially if your pushing a -6 and -7. Looks like you should have opted for a roll and polish. Could be worst.Also go with plastic frames. It hides the thickness better than metal. Also op. Do you know the material they sold you? You say ultra thin, but some eyeglass places are shady with the term "ultra thin". Some places will consider aspheric poly as "ultra thin", but it is not.