Adjustable Glasses

With traditional prescription lenses such as progressives, bifocals and multifocals, different areas in the lenses offer correction for different types of vision: distance, mid-range and near. You look through different parts of the lens to see at different distances.

With adjustable glasses, however, you have one lens that varies depending on where you are looking, and how you adjust it. These glasses are known as adjustable eyeglasses due to the adjustment dials that help you vary the viewing distance for far- and nearsighted correction in a single pair of glasses.

How Do Adjustable Eyeglasses Work?

The central mechanism that helps adjustable glasses work is the fluid-filled lens technology that allows a person to adjust the power of the lens based on the type of vision they need. The wearer will twist the dial until they see as clearly as possible.

Each lens has a sort of membrane that can be adjusted outward or inward by adding or removing fluid from within it. The liquid is contained in a small syringe that is attached to each arm of the glasses. Moving the dial will either pump fluid in or remove fluid from the lens. Fluid entering the lens will increase the lens's power, correcting for farsightedness. Pumping the fluid out corrects nearsightedness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Adjustable Glasses

Though the affordability of adjustable glasses can be quite attractive, as can the fact that they require no prescription or eye exam, there are a number of drawbacks that may offset these advantages.

Because of the way the frames are constructed, frame selection is low, and they're usually not as attractive as traditional glasses offered by a local optometrist. On top of this, it can be quite difficult to adjust the lenses to exactly meet your visual needs at any given time.

Overall, the affordability and ease of access make adjustable glasses a fine option as a back-up, but they certainly shouldn't be considered your primary form of vision correction day-to-day.

Visit our local eye care clinic at Grove City Vision Center in Grove City for all your vision needs today.