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Magnifying glasses: good or bad idea?

Reading time : 3 minutes

Better reading when you suffer from presbyopia, without investing in corrective lenses: this is what magnifying glasses allow. How do they work and above all, do you have to invest to enrich your catalog? We will explain everything to you.

With the aging of the population, more and more people are affected by presbyopia . A visual disturbance , which prevents the lens of the eye from focusing properly, resulting in blurred vision and eye strain . Presbyopia is usually between 40 and 60 years of age and causes people to have difficulty reading correctly at the usual distance of 30 cm. It is to help these people to read with serenity, that were born the glasses loupes .

Magnifying glasses: how does it work?

Magnifying glasses are based on a very simple principle: two magnifying glasses, which magnify according to several diopters (from +0.50 to +4) and which allow to better discern the characters to read. It is therefore basic corrections. In addition, they are cheap and available without a prescription, one of the reasons for their success with people who do not want to wait to make an appointment with their ophthalmologist . On the other hand, they are not intended to correct visual disturbances , such as farsightedness, myopia, astigmatism, which are often already present at the moment when presbyopia appears.

Some brands, like Sunkids or K-Eyes already offer several models of magnifying glasses, with a very large number of different designs. As for the prices, they are very low: from 5 to 15 € according to the pairs.

magnifying glasses

The benefits of magnifying glasses

If the magnifying glasses are not suitable for people with real underlying vision defects, they may be a good idea for those who have never needed to wear corrective lenses before the onset of presbyopia . This is called emmetropic people, who make up about a quarter of the population. At home, magnifying glasses are used as a troubleshooting solution and can correctly correct the view during close reading. They can also help reduce visual fatigue , caused by the accommodation difficulties of presbyopia .

magnifying glasses

For optical manufacturers, making magnifying glasses may be advisable to attract a new audience, but also new outlets: pharmacies, supermarkets or websites, which market this type of frames.

Should we invest?

However, these benefits need to be qualified. The magnifying glasses are indeed a solution for troubleshooting and are not intended for people suffering from a real defect of vision. They can not in any case replace a visit to an ophthalmologist . In addition, their lenses are of lower quality than conventional corrective lenses and are, for the most part, devoid of protective filters (eg blue light ) and surface treatments such as antireflection . Nor do they correct optical aberrations, which can cause distortions of the image around the glass.

If you make the choice to invest in magnifying glasses, you will have to inform your customers of all these elements, so that they can propose them to the right people!