Optometrist Question

[Catch'nRelease]

Originally Posted by Lund1993

My wife and i have both gone to Target optical and have had good experiences.

Same here with Costco. But no doubt it comes down to the ability/experience of the individual optometrist - no one store/outlet has a monopoly on all of the good ones. But if you can find someone that's qualified and one you can trust, there are certainly opportunities out there where you can save some money while getting excellent care.

[REW]

The last several pairs of glasses have all come from Wall mart for both my wire and myself.

My kids have purchased several pair of glasses from Costco - all with excellent results.

For myself, I generally buy 4 pair of glasses whenever I get a new prescription.

1- single vision Reading glasses for holding a book at convenient reading length.

1-single vision Computer glasses for the typical distance of the glasses when working on the computer - that tends to be at arms length.
Also, this pair of glass is wonderful when working in the garage or work shop because a large amount of work there is done at arms length.

I was always amazed at work when I would go into a persons office for a meeting who was a bifocal, variable lens, or a trifocals user and had their head tilted 1/2 way to the ceiling so that they could peek through the tiny part of their glasses that was in focus for use on the computer monitor. When I asked them if they had every considered the use of a single vision pair of computer glasses, they always replied that it was too much of a hassle. I never said anything back, but then also never said any thing to them when they complained constantly about head, neck and eye strain from hours in front of the computer with their head tilted back and with them peering out at the few lines of computer screen that were in focus at any one time.


1-singe vision T V glasses. These glasses are calibrated to give me perfect vision when sitting in my favorite chair and am watching the TV screen.

All of these are single vision glasses, so that I can get perfect vision for the task at hand, no matter where I look through the glasses, no matter the angle or tilt of my head and no matter if I am looking at the bottom line of a newspaper or the top line. All by just moving my eye ball to read and do work without every tilting my head.

Finally one pair of trifocals which include reading, computer and distance prescriptions for general day to day use.

But any time that I am going to be doing a specific task that is shorter than my distance vision, I will pick up the appropriate pair of glasses for less eye, neck and shoulder strain as I do the job at hand.

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By the way, for all of these single vision glasses which are for rather sheltered use, and are kept safely in a padded case when not being used, the price to me - for the complete pair of glasses in a nice spring loaded attractive frame was $28 per pair of glasses. i.e. $28 for the frames and two single vision plastic lens.

Certainly the trifocals with safety lens material that I need to have for the work that I do, cost more, but still a far cry from some of the $300-$700 per pair of glasses that I hear from friends who frequent the well known optical centers.

The general rule of thumb is that lens run about $5 per lens and frames run about $5 per frame. The rest of the cost to the customer is markup.

Ever wonder why there are so many optical places around. Lots and lots and lots of markup on frames and lens.

Good luck
REW

[Mpower]

I've been going to Target optical for the past ten years and have not had an issue or concern. I've always walked out being able to see better

[woods]

My mother went to an Opthamologist for her whole life (age 80), then I took her to an optometrist. The first thing he asked after his exam was "did you know your mother has advanced Glaucoma?" I said "no, never had a clue, except she seemed to have trouble seeing things sometime." So don't always think an MD is necessarily better.

[Fish For Fun]

Get your eye exam and script from your Optha or Opto and get the glasses from Zenni optical, same frames and quality lenses for cheap!!!!!

http://www.zennioptical.com/#/?gclid...FUMCQAodaywAfg

You can upload your own photo to see how the frames will look on your face!

Make sure you not only have your script but also your PD pupillary distance, this is also from your optha or opto to place the order.

[yarcraft91]

After my last eye exam by an ophthalmologist, I bought one pair of lenses (bifocal prescription sunglasses) through his practice and another complete eyeglasses through my former employer's company eyeglass store (industrial-grade safety glasses, bifocal, no tint).

The eye doctor's practice charged over $250 for the lenses installed in my old frames. The company store charged $96 with new frames (and these are very durable frames). Both were well-made products.

That company store is a great perk for retirees!

[SinOrSwim]

E

Can you read that? If so, you are fine.

[REW]

Yar Craft,
That reminds me of the time a few years ago, when I went over to pick up some company paid glasses at the local optical supply house.

As I was waiting, I happened to notice a receipt on the counter.

It was the receipt for my glasses. I don't know who was charging who with the particular receipt. i.e. I don't know if it was the bill to the optical house, or the bill to my work.

But at any rate, these were for high quality bifocal safety glasses in a nice looking spring loaded frame.

The bill read the following.
Frame - $4
Bifocal lens - $4
Bifocal lens -$4.

So, someone was paying someone else $12 for the nice glasses that I was just picking up.

Lots and lots of markup in glasses.

REW

[capnlee]

REW, you are correct, the markup is ridiculous. I have a friend that worked for an optometrist. He got glasses at cost. Frames and lenses cost him less than 30 bucks. Hmmmm.....I wonder if I'm too old to go to optometry school?

Originally Posted by SinOrSwim

E

Can you read that? If so, you are fine.

If I take my glasses off I cannot read that. Still see well enough up close to tie my lures on without glasses though.

Originally Posted by woods

My mother went to an Opthamologist for her whole life (age 80), then I took her to an optometrist. The first thing he asked after his exam was "did you know your mother has advanced Glaucoma?" I said "no, never had a clue, except she seemed to have trouble seeing things sometime." So don't always think an MD is necessarily better.

You had a VERY poor Optha. Miine told me about eye problems including birth defects on the first visit after I had seen optos for about 30 years. The optos were good at prescribing lenses but had no clue about my real eye problems. Optha also told my wife she had high cholesterol and to get medical exams. She did, he was right.