My glasses make shapes distorted

I haven't ever had glasses or contacts until a few weeks ago, but I
noticed I was having trouble reading things from far away so I went to
an eye doctor.

My prescption came out to be:

OD -0.75 -1.25 28
OS 0.00 -1.00 164

So I get some glasses and contacts and am reasonably happy except for
the fact that when I look at rectangular objects with the glasses on,
they were distorted. Sides look like / \ and top slants down about 5
degrees. As I work on a computer all day it is rather annoying.

So I went back and described my situation and he redid my eye test.
Adjusted things a bit and came out with this presciption:

OD -0.25 -1.25 28
OS 0.00 -1.25 166

Remade the glasses, and same thing. They tried adjusting the tilt of
the lenses for quite a while but nothing helped. Dr. finally
basically said it is just something I need to adjust to with my
astigmatism, but I don't really want to have to adjust to it and don't
know if I can since the glasses are backups. I wear the contacts much
more frequently and don't get the issue with them. Also other long
time glass wearers tried them and said they saw the same thing as me.

I returned the glasses back to Lens Crafters to try somewhere else and
different frame. Just got the latest pair in and the same thing is
happening. This time it is reduced in the left but is still stong in
the right. Things now look like this | \ and slant down on the top at
the same 5 degrees.

So two questions I was hoping to get help with.
1) Could it be the lab making the lenses? The second place I went was
Luxotica owned as well (Target Optical) but I didn't know it until
later.

2) Could it be the lens material? All three tries were polycarbonate
with AR coatings. I have researched a bit on the web and see that
some people claim poly can cause these kinds of distortions while
other say that is a myth.

Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dear Nc,

Sometimes "Astigmatism" is over-done.

Just for a test, you might request a "spherical equivalent" lens, and
accept that you will pass the 20/25 line.

Ask them to provide this lens to you -- and then check the shape to
see if you still get the "cyl" distortion you report.

 

Don't put lenses in front of your eyes. They will distort your vision.
Actually, even if you don't put lenses in front of your eyes, your
vision will still be distorted. Find a train track. Stand in the
middle of the tracks and look down a straight section. The tracks will
converge. Above you stated "look like / \". If you walk down the
tracks, measuring the distance between the tracks, it won't change
(unless you have really funny trains). That's just how vision works.
After a week or so, your brain will probably adjust to the glasses, just
like you have learned to adjust to the train tracks without glasses.
Contacts don't add much distortion, so that is easier for the brain to
adjust to.

I somehow suspect that the glasses aren't the problem.

 

It is possibly the polycarbonate and/or using an aspheric lens design. You
do not need polycarb in an Rx that weak. Have them remake in a CR-39 and
make sure it is a non-aspheric lens design.

 

After a week or so, your brain will probably adjust to the glasses, just

Well, that is the thing. I doubt I will wear them enough for my brain
to adjust to. If I wear my contacts 90% of the time, I don't want the
10% of the time I do wear the glasses to keep seeing parellograms.

It just seems weird that if it isn't the glasses and it is a common
thing for new wearers, that more people wouldn't have something to say
about it. The Dr. and lab techs all said that they had heard of it,
but never had one of their patients complain about it.

 

I wish I could say something more helpful, but everybody is different.
Nobody really knows how long it will take, but the standard advice is
"two weeks", as I remember. I had a much more severe problem with
glasses. My doctor said that many people would never adjust to this
problem. It took about three years. Of course, I had a choice. Just
don't wear them. I made the conscious decision that putting up with
double vision was better than the alternative. I wore contacts 7 days a
week, 14 hours a day, back before they had overnight wear contacts.

I'm not a professional, but my understanding is that you will get used
to it, unless you just wear them for a few seconds a week. Mike is a
professional. He's seen this.

Every single eye doctor, on giving out new glasses, whether for the
first time, or for a major change, tells the patients that "they will
have to get used to them". I'm not an eye doctor, but that's been my
experience.

 

I am having the same problem. I don't know what to do. I have been to 2 places and no change.

 

Axis causes the distortion

I just got a new pair of glasses and experienced exactly the same as you. I wanted to vomit. Sides of square things were angled in exactly as you describe. Weird thing was though that if I only looked through one eye (either one) everything was perfectly clear. Both eyes together and things went crazy.

The last number in your prescription (28 or 164) is the axis of the astigmatism. I had them change mine back to the incorrect version of my previous lenses and presto – the distortion effect disappeared. However my one eye is slightly blurred as it is not correct.

As a test I took the leses and rotated them on one eye back to the angle of the original prescription. Indeed the clarity on my right eye got better but at the same time the distortion set in.

I guess my brain is used to dealing with the astigmatism and can’t handle the correction – even though technically it is correct. I also could not give myself a week to try get used to it as I was ready to puke my brains out after 3 minutes !! (This distortion was significant.)

Hope this helps