If you’re one of the 166 million Americans who wear glasses, routine eye exams are crucial. Eyesight tends to worsen over time, so you may need to update your prescription. But how do you know when it’s time?
At Wide Eye Optometry in Encino, Santa Clarita, and Palmdale, California, Mary Demirjian, OD, and our team provide comprehensive eye exams and regularly updated glasses prescriptions. Here, we explore three signs that it’s time to update your prescription.
An eyeglass prescription is similar to a prescription for medication. More specifically, it’s a written instruction from your eye doctor that explains the type of lenses you need to see clearly. Eyeglass manufacturers use that information to create glasses with the proper magnification and refraction correction, reducing eye strain and blurry vision.
Knowing when your glasses prescription needs updating can help you maintain clear vision with minimal disruption. These signs indicate it’s time to schedule an eye exam:
After putting on your glasses, the world around you should look sharper and more vibrant. For example, you can see the outlines of leaves, read road signs clearly, and identify objects in the distance. If you notice that things look fuzzy or less crisp than usual, your prescription is likely outdated.
Vision changes occur slowly, so they don’t always present obvious symptoms. However, if your brain notices that your sight isn’t as crisp as it used to be, it makes your eye muscles work overtime to correct the problem. This causes fatigue and eye strain, which your brain interprets as a headache.
If you’re nearsighted, you may experience headaches at the front of your forehead, just above your eyebrows. If you’re farsighted, you might get headaches every time you read, work a puzzle, or look at things closely for extended periods.
When driving or working at a computer, do you have to squint to read signs in the distance or words on the screen? This is another sign it’s time for a new eyeglass prescription.
Squinting helps center light on the retina at the back of your eye, but if you have to do it frequently, it can lead to eye strain and headaches, so it’s important to identify the underlying cause.
If you have any of the above symptoms, don’t wait to check if your glasses prescription may be outdated. A quick eye exam can determine if you need a new one — and give you clear vision. Give us a call today to learn more, or click online to schedule a visit at your nearest Wide Eye Optometry office in Encino, Santa Clarita, or Palmdale, California, at your convenience.