Eyeglass Buying Guide and Reviews:

Growing up most of us take our vision for granite, but at some point in almost our lives we will need to wear a pair of eyeglasses to help us see or read. Some people choose to get corrective eye surgery called Lasik surgery, but it is still quite expensive at $1250/eye and there are risks associated with the procedure that many of us are wary of. Diagnosing vision problems at a young age or early on will save your eyes undue strain and hopefully give you a chance to have better vision in the long run. Some vision issues don't even require eyeglasses to fix, an eye doctor may prescribe eye exercises to help strengthen the muscles. Near sighted or far sighted vision problems are very common and easily dealt with through prescription lenses. If you suspect that you have vision problems or that your kids do, start by getting a thorough eye exam from an ophthalmologist or optometrist. Have the eye doctor measure you pupillary distance (PD). An eye exam should cost about $40 and only takes about 1/2 hour but if your eyes are dilated then it will take a few hours for your eyes to return to normal. Once you have a prescription from an eye doctor, you can then shop for eyeglasses lenses and eyeglass frames at any vision shop. Keep reading for information on glasses and lenses.

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If you have health insurance, often a vision plan is included, but it not, the cost of buying eyeglass frames can be expensive. If you need bifocal or trifocal lenses then the price will increase $70-$100. Many vision insurance plans have a simple co-payment or an allowance to spend on eyeglass frames and lenses. You can buy eyeglass frames and eyeglass lenses online with prescription and have them fitted at a later time if necessary. Adjusting your eyeglasses by yourself is not that hard to do. Making sure the position of the optical center of the lenses is directly in front of the center of the eyes is most important and that is why online eyeglass retailers will want the PD (pupillary distance) so they can position the lenses perfectly in your frames. Eyeglass frames come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. The 3 main types of frames are full, rimless, and half-rimless. Full eyeglass frames means the frame goes all the way around the lens. Half-rimless frames have no frame on the top or the bottom of the lens (most have the frame on the top of the lens). Reading eyeglasses, often referred to as half-eye frames, are half-rimless frames that are rimless on top. Rimless eyeglass frames have no frame around the lens and polycarbonate or Trivex lenses are used to keep the strength of the frame intack. Reading glasses are used for near sighted (near vision) people and the lense will magnify objects (letters/words) so they are easily to see and read. Magnification varies from person to person depending on how bad your vision is. Computer glasses are more common these days and they help all of us who sit in front of computer screens each day. They have an anti-reflective coating which reduces the glare. The 2 basic shapes to eyeglass frames are rectangular and oval (although there are 100's of variations amongst those). Some other common shapes to eyeglass frames are round eyeglasses, P3 eyeglasses, aviator eyeglasses, cat eye eyeglasses, and half eye eyeglasses. The color of your face and the shape will be the 2 biggest determinents when deciding on a frame that fits you. Eyeglass frames are made from Zyl, monel, titanium, stainless steel, nylon, nickel silver, aluminum, flexon, and hypo-allergenic materials. 90% of all eyeglasses are made in China and then "finished" in other countries so the label can read "made in Europe" so you think it's a quality frame. More eyeglasses are lost or misplaced by people than they are broken due to shoddy quality so don't dwell on craftsmanship. Think "best fit" and comfortable first.

Buy Eyeglasses:

There are plenty of eyeglasses stores like America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses located on the Internet at Twopairs.com. Many of these eyeglass shops will give you 2 pairs of eyeglasses and a free eye exam for about $70. Other name brand stores include LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and Sears Optical. All are great at what they do and customer feedback that we read was positive at every store. For online eyeglass stores, we found Eyeglasses.com to be very helpful when selecting the right frames and lenses. The one big drawback of course is not actually seeing the frames on your face in a mirror to see how they will look on you. With lenses pre-determined, the only thing I would want to make sure when buying a new pair of eyeglass frames is that I feel good in them and therefore I would always shop in a real store unless I knew exactly the type of frame I liked. Framesdirect.com is another great Internet site with plenty of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses to choose from. They even have a "live support" window that opens if you have questions. There top eyeglass styles are Calvin Klein, Coach, Eddie Bauer, Fendi, Gucci, Kate Spade, Nicole Miller, and Ralph Lauren (we will discuss designer eyeglasses in depth below). Check with your insurance before shopping for eyeglasses to see what kind of coverage you have and what the spending allowance is. Without insurance you are on your own and should still be able to find bargains either online or through the ads in your local paper.

Discount Eyeglasses:

Those of you without vision plans on your personal insurance will want to listen up. Eyeglass frames and lenses can be expensive if you are one of those people that has to wear them all the time. Finding discount eyeglasses or cheap eyeglasses used to be hard, but with the Internet dozens of online retailers have opened up shop and started selling eyeglass frames and lenses at discount prices. We recommend 39dollarglasses.com where you can save up to 70% on prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. With no overhead problems, they can give you a better deal than most stores and they still offer all the eyeglass types and styles you would find in other stores. They have recently started carrying designer frames like Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, Fendi, and Calvin Klein. If not for the sake of price comparison, at least check out this site when shopping online for eyeglasses or sunglasses.

Designer Eyeglasses - Chanel and Prada:

Designer eyeglass sales have skyrockets in recent years with a carryover effect from designer sunglasses. It seems that all you have to do is add a designer name to a regular pair of eyeglasses and you can charge twice as much. All kidding aside, sure some designer eyeglasses are made with superior materials or have designs that are unique, but the retail markup far outweighs the products you are getting versus a generic brand name. Nevertheless, designer eyeglasses have flourished as more of the younger generation has bought Chanel eyeglasses, Prada eyeglasses, Cartier eyeglasses, Dolce Gabbana eyeglasses, Gucci eyeglasses, Versace eyeglasses, Coach eyeglasses, DKNY eyeglasses, Vera Wang eyeglasses all because they want to be associated with that name brand. As we mentioned before, the vast majority of eyeglasses (90%) are made in China and then touched up in other countries so the manufacturer can claim they were produced in Italy, France, or Germany. A pair of Gucci eyeglass frames are about $150 and other designer eyeglasses are even more (just for the frames). As with sunglasses, many people are turning to replica or fake eyeglass frames that look like designer brands but save them a lot of money. Bestbuyeyeglasses.com or Framesdirect.com carry plenty of designer frames to choose from and we found that shipping is free on most sites. One last note, we have heard cases where young women and men are wearing designer eyeglasses as a fashion symbol but the glasses have ordinary lenses in them because the people wearing them have no vision problems. Go figure.

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