Dr. Nicole Lee, OD

• Is wearing contacts worse for your eyes' health than wearing glasses?

  It can be true in some way.Wearing contacts can get infected more easily than glasses if you don't pay enough care to them as they are worn directly on your eyes.Glasses don't need special care and it is more convenient to wear.

• What to change if I want reading glasses?

  If your prescription is within the expiration time, you can use your old prescription, but make sure ADD number is on your prescription which is specially needed for reading glasses.If not, you should go and to have your eyes examined again to get a new prescription and tell your doctor this pair is for reading glasses.

• Contacts can see better than glasses that are the same prescription?

  Yes,it is normal.Because the strength you need is usually weaker than the glasses.If they are the same prescription,contacts give you higher prescription to see.So you can see better.

• How to remove scratches from rx eyeglasses?

  Scratches on the plastic eyeglasses are easily removed than other material. You can use Pledge furniture polish cleaner or DVD/CD cleaner and spray the solution in the scratches caused by wear and tear and clean it with a soft cloth.

• Can eye doctor convert eyeglasses RX into Contacts RX?

  The power of contacts can be calculated from that of glasses.Here is a formula :Fo=Fs/(1-dFs).The Fo means your power of your contacts and Fs means the power of glasses.dFs means the distance between rear vertex of glasses and your cornea.Usually the dFs should be measured by meter and it is 0.012m for easterners.For example,the RX of glasses is -4.00,the dFs is 0.012m,we can know that your RX for contacts should be -3.82,but this result is not a regular RX,so we choose the proximal and a lower number , it should be -3.75 . Hope these can help. But even if you can make out the RX,you still need an eye exam for contacts.

• Is there any optical conversion chart to convert contact RX to eyeglasses RX?

  The power of contacts can be calculated from that of glasses.Here is a formula :Fo=Fs/(1-dFs).The Fo means your power of your contacts and Fs means the power of glasses.dFs means the distance between rear vertex of glasses and your cornea.Usually the dFs should be measured by meter it is 0.012m for easterners.For example,the RX of glasses is -4.00,the dFs is 0.012m,we can know that your RX for contacts should be -3.82,but this result is not a regular RX,so we choose the proximal and a lower number , it should be -3.75 .

• Will wearing eyeglasses all day long increase your RX over the years?

  Generally speaking, long-term wearing glasses will not increase your prescription. If your power is below +/-2.00, it is not necessary to wear eyeglasses for long hours, but if your power is beyond that, you are suggested to wear it always. If you protect your eyes carefully and pay much attention to eye health, take your glasses off to have rest after several hours weaing and massage the eye strain places, blink you eyes frequently..., The RX power should be kept to a balanced value.

• What's the highest RX for nearsighted people?

  This varies from different places. The highest rx I've seen was about -15, but I'm sure there are higher numbers out there.You can go to your eye doctor to have your exact prescription and ask them if they offer glasses special for your prescription.

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