Steve makes a great comment in the forum:
I can definitely relate to the cranking it to 11 tactic. Years ago, I always wondered why my optometrist kept going even after I could see the bottom line (20/15) quite clearly already. Of course, that was before I knew about overprescriptions and before I even knew this site existed. But I ate up the minus lens and followed the herd.
Now, I let them bring me to 11, then say “ok, so now, correct me to 20/25”.
One step I think many optometrist and opticians skip is an overprescription check at the end. Mine cranks to 11 for each eye individually, then opens up the phoropter (technical name for the lens clicky thing) for binocular vision and asks when the 2nd line (20/20) becomes too blurry to read. My last appointment took 6 clicks (!!!) before I couldn’t read the 20/20 line at all. So the difference between super-human, x-ray vision and roughly 20/25 was, according to Mr. Phoropter, 1.50D. Pretty shocking!
Don’t take the cookie!
Every diopter you accept that is not required to clear your vision to your currently used distance, is going to create a myopia-inducing stimulus.
In other words, the more you go over, the higher your risk for increasing myopia.
Of course this applies in particular for using your distance prescription for close-up (the biggest of all no-no’s). But even for distance use, correcting past the necessary focal plane change is absolutely going to increase progressive myopia risk.
Try Steve’s overprescription test. Be ware that it’s at the optometrist’s discretion whether to do it, and avoid any argumentative behavior. Some optic shops are like French restaurants, and you can’t always tell the chef that you want less salt in your soup.
Mais non, imbecile! I put the salt, you eat it.
In other news: I’ll address the new minimum age rule for BackTo20/20 participation shortly. It is indeed now 25 and up. That may sound counterproductive, with youth needing a lot of help, but I’ll explain the rationale in another upcoming post.
Cheers,
-Jake
