Is it unusual to be 50 years old and not need any kind of glasses?

[RagAss]

Just wondering, since absolutely everyone that I know around my age has at least reading glasses and in most cases distance correction contacts or glasses.

Is this unusual?

[latebloomer]

1. Yep!

If you're not already nearsighted (I needed glasses for distance at 7), most people start to get far-sighted and need reading glasses in their forties. Often they need bifocals. You are lucky!

[KitchenWitch]

2. I have been wearing glasses since I was 2 years old

You are unusual.

[littlebit]

3. Just a little.

I have been wearing glasses since I was five.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear RagAss!

In my experience, it is very unusual...

I've been wearing glasses since I was five!

Lucky you...

Enjoy!

:hi:

[RagAss]

30. Thanks Peggy. I am grateful and a donor, in case someone wants to study these eyeballs one day!

[Ikonoklast]

5. Not if they get laser-corrected monovision.

OK, I cheated.

[old mark]

6. Unusual and very fortunate - you probably have all your hair and teeth, too

you prick....


mark

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Yes.

You must have good uncorrected vision, and it's very unusual to not need reading glasses after 40.

Us nearsighted types usually need glasses when we are little kids. Then we go into bifocals after 40.

I went to a smart doctor who got me back into contacts, with one eye corrected for near, and one for far (monovision).

[RagAss]

8. Here's the strange part......

I've been a software developer for 25 years....staring at a screen all day!

[ohtransplant]

9. Yes!

I never wore glasses until age 46. Now 3 years later I wear bifocals. Dr. says it's natural...

[av8rdave]

10. I didn't need 'em until I turned 50.

It goes downhill pretty fast from there!

[RebelOne]

11. No, not unusual at all.

I am 70 years old and have only needed reading glasses for the past 5 years.

[trackfan]

12. I'll be 50 this year, and don't wear any yet.

I have started to notice my near vision isn't as good as it once was, but I still can read pretty small print - say, the states on the Lincoln Memorial on a $5 bill - without help.

[Bake]

13. Count your blessings!

I'm 53 and can't see shit up close without my reading glasses. What a total pain in the ass!

Bake

[musette_sf]

14. i'm 55 and i can get by without readers

*and* still don't have lenses on my driver's license, can still pass the DMV vision test.

i use weak readers, and i have distance correction lenses, but i try to go without them as often as possible. i'm one of those "the eye has muscles, use them or lose them" types.

[Sequoia]

15. I take my glasses off to read.

And when I cook and read. However, I have computer glasses.

[azmouse]

16. I got my first reading glasses when I was 45.

I can read without them but they help if I'm reading for long periods of time. They prevent eye strain.

[Mugu]

17. At 50 I started using 1.25 reading glasses.

Now at 56 I use 1.5 to read, but if I want to see something very small, up very close I pull out a pair of 3.25s.

I still have no problem with the standard eye test chart.

[fishnfla]

18. you may be farsighted in your dominate eye

and nearsighted in the other

with both eyes open it works

[qnr]

19. Do you drink straight from the bottle/tap/milk carton?

note that I did wait long enough to let the serious replies in :)

[RagAss]

21. LOL !

[Midlodemocrat]

20. I was 45 before I needed readers. Then I got an Rx

set of glasses because the readers gave me a headache. Turns out I had an astigmatism, which is no big deal, but needs to be corrected differently.

Now, I am in dire need of a new Rx because this Rx isn't strong enough.

I really wish I was at the point where I needed to wear them all the time; that way two out of my three pairs wouldn't have been chewed up by the puppy. :eyes:

[SoDesuKa]

22. I See Better Without My Glasses

I take my glasses off when I read or work on the computer. I need them for everything else. I asked the eye doctor if this was an unusual combination, and he said it isn't.

[seemunkee]

23. I had to start wearing them for reading right after turning 50

I'm still not used to them

[mix]

24. I'd say n/t

[Lionel Mandrake]

25. Yes.

When you're young, the crystalline lens in each eye is flexible, and muscles pulling on it can change the focus from near to far. By age 50, the lens has lost its flexibility. This is called presbyopia.

Your eye still has a depth of field, like that of a point-and-shoot camera. The smaller your pupils are, the greater the depth of field.

[RagAss]

29. Thanks Lionel. Good info.

[Lionel Mandrake]

31. You're quite welcome. n/t

[applegrove]

26. My dad didn't need glasses till he was over 50. In our family my three siblings have

all had glasses since their early twenties. Me, nothing and I'm in my forties.

[UTUSN]

27. I don't know what to believe anymore

For most of my life I had heard that those magnifier things were bad. So I was having problems, got an eye check-up and this opthamologist told me NOT to get prescription glasses, that I *should* use those cheap-ass things over the counter, that my macular deterioration was "normal" and the magnifiers were JUST DANDY for reading!

[SoxFan]

28. I went all Mister Magoo in my teens, so I'm the wrong person to ask

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. I've been nearsighted all my life.

My mom wondered why I always read with the book up close to my face.
She finally took me to an eye doctor when I was six years old and in the second grade.
She found out -- I was really nearsighted.
She felt stupid.

Now I'm over 40 and in bifocals.

There are some vain people out there who freak out over having to wear reading glasses only, when they are over 40. I think they are nuts. And I think people who wear glasses are discriminated against, unfortunately.

I was in a community opera production and one of the other sopranos kept asking me how long I had worn glasses, etc. She acted like a nasty little child. I was shocked. I told her to bug off. She was pissed because I was the only person in the cast wearing glasses onstage. I talked to the director and told the director that I was outta there if I couldn't wear my glasses -- I could have fallen off the stage. I also told the director, "I've seen Samuel Ramey(the world's most famous operatic bass) singing in Mefistofeles at Houston Grand Opera and lots of people in the chorus were wearing glasses".

As a result, they never called me back for the next production.

I guess every local arts group can afford to alienate sopranos who love to sing in Italian and are good enough to audition for the local professional opera company (Houston Grand Opera). :wtf:


I'm just glad that I have normal color vision and normal stereo vision, and can be corrected so I am functional.

I saw my mother suffer from macular degeneration for years.

I have no sympathy for those who start whining when they have to wear reading glasses.

I am NOT saying that anyone in this thread is that way.