Once you begin to actively working on improving your vision, prescription lenses become an important part of of your efforts.

You will of course want a much lower prescription to use when you are focused up-close (or plus lenses, if you have low myopia). Add to that a lowered distance vision prescription, and all the prescription changes you will make over the course of your recovery. Having a quality and reliable source of prescription lenses will make life so much easier (and save money, too).

I am not always the biggest supporter of local optic shops.  If you do prefer to go local, you will want to choose to spend your money with a place that supports your efforts. My input on a recent forum discussion, touching on the subject:

There are some discussions on here about local shop vs. Internet. Bruno and Jake in particular, I think, talked about it a few times.

My stance is this:

We have to give them some latitude, since many of them are just simply not familiar with behavioral ophthalmology and rehab. Also, its not fair to them to ask them for measurements and then buy glasses elsewhere. Online shopping in particular, threatens their business.

There are significant upsides to supporting the local business:

You can buy one frame, and then just have them swap in new lenses for you. If they have reasonable prices, I am all for keeping money in the local economy. Consider their overhead, maintaining a location and inventory. If the glasses are 20% more expensive, consider what you may get:

– An office full of measuring tools. Great to have.
– Opportunity to try on a wide selection of frames.
– Quick swap out for new lenses.

If you make friends with them, like Jake did, they may also let you use their test lens kit. Very handy to fine tune your future normalized prescription.

On the flip side:

If they are massively overpriced, and have a bad attitude about giving you lower prescription lenses, they are not worth supporting. Some shops just worry about liability, or simply don’t believe that your body is capable of ever functioning without crutches (which conveniently, they sell).

No big deal. Maybe one in five, or one in ten shops, could be worth your time. Depending on your preference, internet shopping of course is cheaper and you can order whatever you like – no hassles.

Enjoy!