Does everyone eventually need to wear glasses?

RunsWithBees
RunsWithBees Posts: 1,508 Member
edited April 2019 in Health and Weight Loss
I’ll be 45 years old this year and I’ve never needed glasses, my vision is still good both up close and far. I haven’t had a check up at an optometrist’s office before simply because I haven’t needed to. My doc does a simple eye exam with an eye chart at my yearly physical and everything has been normal so far. My father got reading glasses when he was a bit younger than me but still only needs them for reading and he’ll be 75 (mother died younger than me but never had glasses) I notice a lot of people my age hold printed material out at arms length to read it and it seems like so many people wear glasses or contacts these days I was just wondering if it’s an inevitable fact that everyone needs glasses eventually (readers or otherwise) or does anyone know anybody who is significantly elderly and still has good vision? I guess eventually I’ll get a complete eye exam just in case but wondered if glasses are definitely in my future at some point simply due to aging? Does nutrition or exercise make any difference? Just curious B)
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Replies

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)
  • Zinka61
    Zinka61 Posts: 523 Member
    My optometrist said yes when I asked this, but some can get by with grocery store reading glasses.
    I'm still doing that at 58.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)

    This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Zinka61 wrote: »
    My optometrist said yes when I asked this, but some can get by with grocery store reading glasses.
    I'm still doing that at 58.
    I'm 54 and still using little readers from Amazon. Yup.
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
    edited April 2019
    Lorleee wrote: »
    You mention you haven't had a full eye exam. I think they're a good idea every couple of years just for overall eye health and to check for bad things like glaucoma that you can't detect on your own.

    Agree. Working in the eye field, an eye exam is about way more than just checking your vision. There's a number of other things that can happen in the eye from glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, abrasions. Eye health check ups can also detect tumors, heart issues, diabetes. So many things.

    And yes, eventually 99% of people will at least need reading glasses.
  • RowingBill
    RowingBill Posts: 36 Member
    Keeping tract of my cheaters is just one of my issues with reading glasses. Where did I leave them now? Overall, I need them to read what I think of as fine print when actually it isn't fine print.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)

    This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.

    I think this is actually the same thing as people with fine far vision needing readers. According to my optometrist it's the same principle. If I didn't want to take off my glasses, I would need bifocals. I noticed the need to start taking off my glasses to read around 40, about the same time others my age are starting to need readers. I had LASIK 20 years ago to correct the near sightedness, but it's finally degraded enough that I have to wear glasses to watch TV and drive. Honestly I should pretty much wear them all the time now, but I don't yet. And they spend half of their time on my head because I'm always trying to do up close work/read.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
    The 99 percent figure is probably right.
    Not everybody.
    My dad lived into his 80s and never needed glasses to read.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    mom23mangos wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)

    This is consistent with my experience. I've been near-sighted since I was a kid, but around 45 started noticing that reading tiny print was getting harder, and I now take off my glasses to read. But I am also less near-sighted than I used to be.

    I think this is actually the same thing as people with fine far vision needing readers. According to my optometrist it's the same principle. If I didn't want to take off my glasses, I would need bifocals. I noticed the need to start taking off my glasses to read around 40, about the same time others my age are starting to need readers. I had LASIK 20 years ago to correct the near sightedness, but it's finally degraded enough that I have to wear glasses to watch TV and drive. Honestly I should pretty much wear them all the time now, but I don't yet. And they spend half of their time on my head because I'm always trying to do up close work/read.
    Exactly how I understand it too.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited April 2019
    I've been severely nearsighted since 6th grade. After my vision mostly settled, I couldn't see clearly at a distance greater than about 9 inches. In my mid-forties, that moved out to about 12 inches which still isn't very helpful.

    The only time I take my glasses off during the day is to clean them. I use Progressive lenses (no-line multifocals) and my glasses sit high enough so that I can look underneath the frame if I want to look directly at something.

    OP, you will likely need readers as you age and perhaps for distance as well. In any case, you should make an appointment now to get your eyes checked by someone who specializes in eyes. They need a record of changes over time in order to assess and treat issues properly.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
    RowingBill wrote: »
    Keeping tract of my cheaters is just one of my issues with reading glasses. Where did I leave them now? Overall, I need them to read what I think of as fine print when actually it isn't fine print.

    I got near vision (monovision) correction (one eye surgery to see close up) other eye was fine, use it for distance.

    Hated those *kitten* reading glasses.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,135 Member
    edited April 2019
    I am 75 years old, and I started to have vision problems in second grade. Wore glasses on and off for my nearsighted since I was a child. As I got older trying to read without glasses was difficult, but I got better at long distance. I wear bifocals contact lenses but I also have glasses with progressive lenses.

    When I wear my contact lenses, I need sometimes readers for menus or to read labels in the market, specially if the letters are too small. With age, driving at night is also more difficult so I avoid it as much as possible. When I do have to drive at night, the lenses provide better vision than the contacts.

    I was told by the optometrist and eye doctor that genetics plays a factor too. Both of my parents and my brother needed glasses to read, but they were not farsighted as I remember. My youngest son wears glasses most of the time now and my oldest needs reading glasses as well.

    I carry a pair of readers in my purse, I also have one pair in the kitchen, and another one in my home office. I ask the optometrist what is the better power to wear when I have the contacts on and I buy them in Walgreen.

  • NCK96
    NCK96 Posts: 146 Member
    I recently found out that LASIK eventually wears off. No one told me that when I had it done, at least not that I remember. I’m the last of my 3 sisters to have it wear off and it took about 15 years. My optometrist pointed it out at my last appointment. I’m just starting to need cheaters occasionally at 46, and my distance vision is getting crummy again. My doctor said it should never be as bad as it was originally, which is a relief. It stinks not to be able to see close up or far away and I may need to get bifocals because the switching back and forth and taking glasses off is getting annoying! Oh, the joys of aging.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
    NCK96 wrote: »
    I recently found out that LASIK eventually wears off. No one told me that when I had it done, at least not that I remember. I’m the last of my 3 sisters to have it wear off and it took about 15 years. My optometrist pointed it out at my last appointment. I’m just starting to need cheaters occasionally at 46, and my distance vision is getting crummy again. My doctor said it should never be as bad as it was originally, which is a relief. It stinks not to be able to see close up or far away and I may need to get bifocals because the switching back and forth and taking glasses off is getting annoying! Oh, the joys of aging.

    When I had my monivision correction I was told that changes in the shape of my eyes could make the surgery "wear off" just like natural changes to the eye impact vision.

    They didn't guarantee a timeframe but said should last at least 7 years (its past thst) and could have the surgery again.
  • tbright1965
    tbright1965 Posts: 852 Member
    edited April 2019
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    I'd say everyone with "normal" vision will eventually become far sighted. On the flip side, some *near sighted* people find their close vision improves with age. I'm the former. Hubs is the latter. I got my first readers at about 40, but only "wanted" them in the dark. At about 47 I noticed I wore them more. Now I wear them most of the time. My far vision is still perfect. (And hubs has started taking off his glasses to read.)

    I'm kinda in that realm. I'm Mr Magoo without my contacts. Now that I'm a man of that age where my arms are too short and the lights are too dim, I've moved to monovision for my contact prescription. Don't know why I didn't do that years ago.

    My dominate eye is corrected for distance, my near eye, for near vision.

    Now if I'm taking a road trip, especially if there is going to be night driving, I'll wear a distance lens in my non-dominate eye. Then it's where are my readers for restaurant menus. But day to day, I do the monovision thing.

    I'm fortunate that I wear the same distance lens in both eyes, so I just got an extra 6 months of distance lenses for my non-dominate eye.

    I wear day night lenses for 30 days, and then take them out. So I got 18 distance lenses and 12 near vision lenses and I'm good for a year.

    Not everybody can tolerate monovision.

    I tried it over Christmas break, just going without my non-dominate eye correction for a week while I was at home. I could get by, but still had to put things close to my eye to read. The lesser correction in my non-dominate eye lets me sit at a normal vision from my computer or read a book, small print on bottles and packages, etc, without having to locate my readers.

    Of course, on the few days I give my eyes a break from the contacts, I wear my glasses, and like your hubby, I take them off to read, but have to hold things closer than is typical.

    Before that, I had readers everywhere. I bought the little folding ones and even kept a pair with my when I would cycle in case I had to fix something on my bike and needed to see up close.

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