Test lens kits. Three little words that get Jakey all kinds of riled up!
I always say that most of modern retail optometry has zero to do with medicine. Look at any optic shop in any mall, and tell me that you expect to get medical advice in there, while looking through their shop window. Rows of fancy glasses, models sitting on the beach, two-for-one offers, sales pitches everywhere.
Come on, what a sham, the whole thing.
16th century invention, not by doctors, sold today in shopping malls next to the GAP and the cell phone store. Causes progressive myopia, repeat customers, feeding a giant industry. You know the story.
But … it’s my *favorite* horse!
One of the pieces of the sales pitch is to get you to imagine that you’re having a medical consultation at a doctor’s office. To that end there’s all the fancy gear to hide the fact that they’re really just measuring distance to blur. That’s all diopters are after all, and it’s something you can measure at home with a 10 cent piece of measuring tape.
You can measure centimeters with measuring tape, convert to diopters. Or you can get full on fancy and buy a test lens kit, and directly assess how many diopters you may want to use, with the kit and an eye chart.
Zero difference to what happens at the optic shop, minus the smoke and mirrors.
And yes, granted. You technically shouldn’t monkey with this stuff, there are things to be learned and understood, having a qualified optometrist do the work is absolutely the way things should be. Should be, except that many of them believe in a (crazy) single prescription paradigm, won’t give you reduced lenses for close-up, and dial you up to 11 for distance. I want to recommend going to an optometrist, but none of that makes sense if you want to stop myopia progression.
*Not medical advice, obviously, anything I ever say.
What’s my point? Look at this post from Toshiki in the forum:
Does that help put a nice, fine point on my little rant?
If you take the time to learn some of the basics about optics and biology, you can grab a test lens kit and figure out that your astigmatism correction was dialed up not only to 11, but rather 14. Now knowing how lens-induced myopia happens, and looking back at your prescription history of increasing astigmatism values, it dawns on you how all this is an industry-created “illness” (it’s not an illness!).
I don’t suggest that you buy a test lens kit, if you’re making good progress anyway, if your focal plane correction isn’t all too complex, if you don’t have unanswered questions about your lens use.
But if you do want to dig in, if you want to go all Sherlock Holmes on your myopia, with all the tools, if you’re willing to put in the time to learn what you’re doing … then by all means, I won’t stop you from going online and buying a test lens kit.
Housekeeping: I literally neglected to pay the bill, and now we’ve got huge meltdowns with free e-mail course sending. Hopefully that’ll all be sorted soon, especially since I did pay the outstanding amount. Real professional, Jake, nice going. :/
Cheers,
-Jake
