what's the difference between computer glasses and reading glasses i actually
get this question quite a bit so i wanted to do a video explaining why someone might need
computer glasses or reading glasses the difference between the two
and how you can actually pick the best glasses depending on what you're doing so let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, and i'm on a mission to do videos
all about the eyes to help you with your eyes so consider hitting that subscribe button so you
don't miss my future videos but for today's video let's talk about computer glasses versus reading
glasses now make sure you stay towards the end of the video i'll give a little bit of tips of
how you can pick the best over-the-counter reading or computer glasses if that is what you choose to
do over getting prescription glasses now let's go over the possible reasons why somebody might need
computer or reading glasses on the top of the list would be refractive error for example if
you're far sided generally up close computer or reading might be a little bit blurry or
more straining to see and so computer glasses or reading glasses would be perfect for that another
big one is astigmatism astigmatism actually affects all distances but especially computer
and reading so glasses would definitely help with that make sure you check out my full video
about astigmatism i'll put it up there also in the description below another big one is age-related
presbyopia presbyopia is the term when your lens inside of your eye gets a little bit less flexible
and you're unable to focus up close with computer or reading that's generally when
people are starting to say hey my arms aren't long enough i can't see what's close i can't read my
phone anymore and they usually cross over into reading glasses or bifocals to kind of help that
focus close up another one is not necessarily age related some people will have accommodative
issues or focusing issues and this can go all the way down to young kids that can experience eye
fatigue or strain just from doing close-up work computer or doing a lot of homework and they would
actually benefit from close-up glasses so what is the actual difference between computer glasses and
reading glasses and really what it comes down to is the focal distance or the distance of
the demand away from your eyes generally speaking when people are working on the computer it sits
about arm's length away maybe 24 inches when you're actually reading something maybe a
book or looking at your phone it can be a little bit closer maybe 12 to 14 inches and so because
it has different demands different focal lengths generally speaking different types of glasses will
work better generally speaking when you're talking about close-up glasses people usually have a
maximum power that they could use and that maximum power is the most power that they'd need depending
on what they're looking at and that's generally 12 to 14 inches or that reading distance now
usually because the computer screen is a little bit further away 24 inches it's about 60 percent
of that maximum power that people need it's a little bit less of a prescription because that
focal point is a little bit further away a little bit less of a visual demand something a little bit
more specific to computer glasses because you're working on a digital screen sometimes that can
cause computer vision syndrome i actually did a full video on that as well make sure you check
that out also in the description below but because you're working on a computer screen it can cause
that eye strain and so there's a few things that you can get on the glasses that may help with that
one would be an ar coating or anti-reflective coating that will cut out reflections coming
from either the screen or the lights in your office and that can help with eye strain as well
also you can get blue blocking coatings on your lenses and that can help block the blue light
which may cause eye strain again i've done videos on that as well make sure you check that out
and in the description below now with reading glasses you can get A/R coating as well as blue
block coding especially if you're using digital readers up close or you're using your phone a lot
definitely can get that blue block coding on your reading glasses and A/R coating now a big question
that i get is can you just use over-the-counter reading glasses the ones that you can just get
at the store at the convenience store can i use those for the computer or reading a lot of people
can but just remember if you have astigmatism astigmatism will not be corrected in those glasses
also if you have a different prescription for each eye if one eye requires more power than the
other one the over-the-counter reading glasses won't customize that they'll be the same power
in both eyes also depending on how far your pupil is the pupillary distance that won't be customized
in those over-the-counter reading glasses as well again a lot of people can use those just fine and
be okay but prescription glasses can customize for astigmatism different powers your correct
pupillary distance measurements and also add-on anti-reflective coating and blue block coating
as well so definitely okay to do over-the-counter reading glasses but prescription glasses are
usually way better now speaking of prescription computer glasses or reading glasses i want to go
over a couple different options for you and what might work best for you depending on what your
work demand is if you tend to do a lot of visual transitioning meaning you look far away you're
looking at someone across the office and then you go to look at your computer and then you have
to read something that's close to your desk or maybe on your phone in the back of your computer
and then back at your phone and then someone far away you have to do a lot of transitioning
then the best option is usually a progressive lens a progressive lens has all of those possible
distances in the lens distance computer reading and everything in between you'll just have to
learn how to use that lens but it will cover all of the bases now you can also accomplish the
same thing with lined bifocals specifically line trifocals where it has a distance intermediate for
your computer and a reading power for close up the tricky part there is it doesn't have everything in
between if you ever have to look at something in between those distances it just has set powered
distances but a lot of people like that just being able to know exactly where to look so
aligned trifocal is also an option now a line bifocal is also an option if you have distance and
near tasks what you miss out of a lined bifocal is that intermediate ranges so sometimes the computer
can be a little bit trickier on just a typical bifocal so just remember that keep that in mind
might be a little trickier with just the typical line bifocal on the computer another popular
option is if you're just having to look at the computer and then down at your desk computer
desk computer desk you don't really have to look at something far away sometimes people will do
a progressive lens where the top majority portion of that lens is the computer distance and then the
bottom is reading so they kind of have the best of both worlds and a lot more viewing area you can
also do that with a line bifocal the top is the computer bottom is reading you just miss out on
that distance power but if you don't really need it that's a really good option so the big question
is how do you pick the best power how do you get the best prescription computer glasses or reading
glasses number one you probably expect me to say this and that's to have an eye exam
where you can actually get your eyes checked and get a correct prescription prescribed to
you so your doctor should be able to fine tune and customize your prescription exactly to your knees
so that is definitely by far the best way to get computer or reading glasses if you're in a pinch
and you have to use the over-the-counter reading glasses then here are a few ways that you can
kind of figure it out one way is to actually use your age there's kind of a general rule of thumb
that people can follow depending on how old they are of how much power they might need for their
over-the-counter reading glasses and for these ones i'll put a guide in the description below
so make sure you check that out so you can kind of follow that rule of thumb depending on how
old you are you can pick out the right reading glasses another one is actually the distance
of your visual demand the distance from your eyes to whatever you're looking at if it's the computer
some people will actually take a ruler and measure how far their eyes are from the computer screen
and they'll use that measurement to get an accurate prescription or an accurate power
needed again in the description below i'll put a calculation of how you can do that
convert to the the power of reading glasses that you can pick at the store just remember everybody
has different eyes different powers astigmatism different demands depending on what they're doing
different visual distances and so a lot of times these prescriptions are custom to that
very person and that's why i always recommend going in getting an eye exam and knowing exactly
what each eye individually needs at whatever distance you need to look at
out of curiosity what do you use do you use computer glasses reading glasses
do you have bifocals or progressive lenses leave it down in the comments i'm kind of curious to see
what most people use i hope that helped explain a little bit the difference between computer
glasses and reading glasses i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, focusing on you and your eyes make
sure you check out my other videos right there stay focused and i'll see you in the next video