Magnifying glasses: everything you need to know

You can read better when you have presbyopia without having to buy corrective lenses: that’s what a magnifying glass does. How do they work and above all, should you 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. Visual impairment, which prevents the lens from focusing properly, leading to blurred near vision and eye fatigue. Presbyopia generally begins between the ages of 40 and 60 and causes difficulty in reading correctly in the affected person at a distance generally of 30 cm. The magnifying glass was born to help these people read with confidence.

Magnifying glasses: how do they work?

The magnifying glass is based on a very simple principle: two magnifying glasses can magnify several diopters (from +0.50 to +4), so the characters to be read can be better distinguished. So these are basic fixes. Additionally, they are inexpensive and can be used without a prescription, which is one of the reasons they are so popular with people who don’t want to wait for an appointment with an eye doctor. However, they are not intended to correct vision disorders, such as hyperopia, myopia and astigmatism, which are usually already present when presbyopia appears.

Some brands, such as Lunetloop, have provided several models of magnifiers with a large number of different designs.

The advantages of magnifying glasses

Although magnifying glasses are not suitable for people with real underlying vision defects, they may be a good idea for those who never needed corrective lenses before the onset of presbyopia. These people are called face-up people and make up about a quarter of the population. At home, a magnifying glass is used as a troubleshooting method to correct vision when reading up close. They can also help reduce visual fatigue caused by difficulty adjusting presbyopia.

Thus, for optical manufacturers, the manufacture of magnifying glasses can not only attract new audiences, but also new points of sale: pharmacies, supermarkets, or websites that sell such frames.

Is it still necessary to invest?

However, these advantages must be qualified. There magnifying glasses is in fact a troubleshooting solution and is not suitable for people with a real visual impairment. They can never replace the consultation of an ophthalmologist. In addition, the quality of their lenses is lower than that of traditional corrective lenses, and in most cases there is no protective filter (such as anti-blue light) and surface treatment (such as anti-reflection). They also cannot correct optical aberrations, which can cause image distortion at the edges of the glass.

If you choose to invest in a magnifying glass, you need to alert your customers about all of these items so they can provide them to the right people!

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