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Re: Eye Drops Prior to an Eye Exam
Bill wrote:
I just had a eye exam done. First they put the eye drops in. I was in the waiting room reading a magazine. After about 20 minutes, I could not read up close because my vision was getting blurry. It was somewhat blurry looking far away also. Shortly after, they started the eye exam. They did not find anything wrong inside my eyes. When they were checking for my prescription, I told her that my vision was still blurry from the eye drops. She said it does not matter for the eye test. She wrote my perscription. I got my new glasses a week later. One eye is blurred, the other is sharp. My old glasses were better than the new ones. My question is: Do I wear my new glasses to adapt to the new prescription? Or should I get a second opinion on the prescription? I really believe the eye drops they used influenced and caused an invalid prescription. I believe the prescription should be checked first, then they should have put in the eye drop.
Do you agree with this?
Dr Carol Doman's response:
Bill,
It is common practice to instil eye drops and check for the glasses prescription shortly after. Generally the eye drops will not affect the prescription. Depending on your age and the type of drops used this can be done very successfully. Under age 40 certain drops can affect the prescription somewhat, but usually this would not be a significant difference. With any new prescription it will take time to adapt. This can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks. The first step in solving your problem would be to return to where you purchased your glasses to make sure everything is in order with the glasses (they were made to the proper specifications) and to see if adjusting how the frame is fitting on your face will make a difference. In many cases this will solve the problem. If after having this done and wearing them for a significant amount of time to adapt to the new prescription you are still having a problem, I would suggest returning to the original Optometrist to have your prescription rechecked. When we determine a prescription for glasses it is not an exact science and we can find slightly different answers from day to day. Having your prescription rechecked and finding the numbers to be slightly different, doesn’t necessarily mean that the first numbers weren’t correct. That being said sometimes the numbers do need to be tweaked. I hope by the time you read this that you have already adapted to your new glasses!
Dr. Doman
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