My son is long visioned and has a prescription for +5 DS lenses. How thick are these lenses likely to appear?

Question

I am curious if he's going to have these super chunky thick glasses. What is the scale for glasses anyway. I'm curious to know how strong my sons lenses are compared to other people. I know it graduates like +1, +2, etc... but how far up does it go?

Answer 1

Well, I'm not sure what long visioned or DS lenses are, but I thought that when the prescription has a + in front of it, it's not that bad. Mine are -12 or so and I'm nearsighted. The lenses are really thick, and even then they cut them down.

Answer 2

With kids your best bet is always to get polycarbonate lenses becuase of their impact resistancy but they are also 30% lighter and half the weight of a conventional lense.. With this RX  you would be best to get what is called an aspheric polycarbonate lense. This combines the thin light weight attributes and safety with a flatter lense surface. This way the lense will be at it's thinnest and not look so "bubbly" another things is that if you get large frames the lense can potentially be thicker as well. Ask your optician to make sure that there is zero decentration or as close to it as possible. What this means is that your son's eyes are smack dab ain the center of each lense as they sit in the frame. This means no big frames. The DS on the rx only means "Diopers, Sphere" this tells me that there is not mistake that there is not a cylinder correction for astigmatism in there. It is not uncommon for that to be written around the world. I live in SO CA and I understand it perfectly. So, there are too many variables to explain what they will look like, but your best bet for best optics and best looks for him would be a polycarbonate aspheric lense. Anti reflective coatings make them look better and let you see better as well. Gently put, the more you pay, the better you see and look. Unfortunatly this is the truth!

Answer 3

It depends what you call thick!

+5 shouldn't be too bad, i know someone with 5 shortsighted and they are about 2 - 3 mm thick. The frames cover the lense though

if you get thick rimmed glasses the lense will appear thin.

Rimless glasses need thick lenses so you could get those and they should be a simular thickness to anyones!!!

Tell him not to worry about it! Lenses can also be made thinner at a cost is it bothers him. Specsavers have a number of servises to make the lense thinner for abou £25 - £70 depending on how thick they are.

Go to the optitions and ask. But there are so many rims to choose from im sure he'll be happy with them.

When he is older he may be able to get contact lenses too! I have and they are fab!!! Ypu can have them by abou 15- 16 years of age!

Hope this helped good luck!

Answer 4

+ lenses are thick in the center and thin at the edges.  - lenses are thin in the center and thickest at the edge.

The actual thickness of the lens for a given power will depend on the lens material and overall diameter of the lens (determined by the size of the frame).  To minimize size you will want to go with a "high index" lens, which will allow the maximum power with the thinnest lens.  You must also keep safety in mind for any child's glasses, so a lens made of Trivex will probably be your best option to balance thickness and impact resistance.  The usual lens for children (at least in the US) is polycarbonate.  Legal issues may not be similar in NZ, so your doctor may be comfortable using true "high index" materials.

+ lenses go all the way up into the 20's (extremely rare).  +5 wouldn't be considered extremely high, but it's higher than most.