Will using glasses or contact lenses weaken my eyesight?

Glasses have been around for centuries… Literally. The best guess for when glasses were first invented is the 13th century. They help us see far, help us see near, and sometimes both. Lenses have been used in everything from telescopes to microscopes. They are used in cameras, binoculars, projectors, lasers, and even virtual reality headsets. But are they hurting our eyes or our vision? 
 

The short answer is NO. But let’s make it a long answer to explain why.  
 

Glasses are used to bend the light onto the retina, specifically the fovea, to help us focus on certain objects when we have a refractive error (nearsighted or farsighted). We use minus powered lenses for nearsightedness and plus powered lenses for farsightedness. Minus powered lenses diverge the light entering our eye and plus powered lenses converge the light to focus on the fovea. This allows for clear and comfortable vision.  
 

So why do some people’s eyes continue to change over time even when they are wearing glasses or contacts? It could be for several reasons:  

• Genetics: Everyone in the family is nearsighted and needs glasses and unfortunately you are predisposed to having poor eyesight (If this is the case for your children please give us a call, we can help slow down the progression of nearsightedness in our kids and prevent them from having the same eyesight!) 

• Environment: If you are doing a lot of reading, computer, cell phone, or near work. Your eyes will continue to progressively get more nearsighted to keep up with the demand for up close vision. Your eyes will actually grow in length to ease the strain of focusing on near work by making itself nearsighted (Crazy, RIGHT!?) 

• Trauma and surgical repair: Sometimes if you suffer from a retinal detachment, the eye will need what’s called a “Scleral Buckle” to temporarily help reattach the retina to the periphery of the eye. This technique squeezes the eye creating a myopic shift and your eye becomes more nearsighted.  

• Aging: As we age the lens inside our eye slowly loses its flexibility and “accommodative ability” to focus our eyes and vision on near (and sometimes far) objects. This is called Presbyopia, and typically begins around age 40, give or take a few years. That same lens will eventually transition into a cataract as we get older. No matter what, the lens inside the eye loses the ability to flex and refocus our vision. Every few years it gets a little worse and you will need stronger and stronger reading power, and possibly even a distance prescription if you are farsighted.  

• Eating Vegetables: Just kidding! But could you imagine if that were true?  

So, when it comes to glasses, for the most part, they are optional. If you want to see better, wear glasses. If you don’t, then don’t. But sometimes people do NEED to wear glasses to help correct certain eye conditions, protect the eye, or to help prevent certain eye diseases from progressing. So don’t be afraid of your glasses or contact lenses hurting your vision or making your eyesight worse. They are there to help you see better and reduce eye strain.  
 

But if your glasses or contact lenses are bothering you, I would highly recommend seeing your optometrist at your earliest convenience. We want to help you see better, so you can live your life to the fullest. If you ever have any concerns regarding your eyes, give us a call, we’re always available to answer any questions you have or even debunk a few eye myths along the way.