Safety Glasses Without a Headache portal

From MKRD.info Wiki

The following is a long discovery process that I had to go thru with wearing safety glasses.


Symptoms: immediate eye strain, difficulty focusing when putting on safety glasses. Headache after prolonged (a day) wear of safety glasses.


Symptoms started when I was in high school. During the brief period that I had to put on my safety glasses for labs, I found out my eyes were giving me problems. It seemed at the time like my eyes were trying to focus on the glasses themselves (which are very close to the eyes of course) instead of focusing on objects.


Fast forward some years, and I had to wear safety glasses most of the time at work. Very big problems started appearing no matter what I have tried. My eyes would get eyestrain, I would have difficulty focusing my eyes while wearing safety glasses, and I would get a bad headache at the end of the day.


Even after the glasses were taken off, my eyes would straing themselves driving back home. At home, focusing at objects became a problem, with severe eye strain required to focus my eyes. Severe eyestrain was required to focus on the computer screen at home, while more distant objects were easier.


And all this time, everyone treated me like they did not know what I was describing. Needless to say, they had no idea what I was going thru.


What I have found:

1) Many more people that you, I, opticians, and businesses realize cannot wear safety glasses.

2) The problem IS NOT due to astigmatism. On the weekend (when my eyes rested a bit after being raped during workweek), computerized eye exam showed 20/20 vision, very tiny astigmatism (no need to even correct).

3) Everyone freely admits that polycarbonate safety glasses have severe distortion due to being made of plastic and injection molded.

4) The problem is not strictly due to material (more on this later).

5) From my market research I found that many people are familiar with the problem. A polycarbonate safety glasses maker/seller rep said nothing helps because noone caters to the market, and she said all goggles will have distortion. More than one person who had the same problem as I do were convinced it was because of astigmatism, while they did or did not wear glass prescription glasses without any problems due to astigmatism.


Things that I have tried:

1) All safety glasses designs that I could get my hands on. Some were a little better in that the eyestrain would come on later. But none were confortable after short-term wearing.

2) Safety glasses that were described to be "low-distortion". I have even tried safety glasses made from real glass and advertised to have zero distortion. The results - I could not even put them on. Example

3) Other designs such as safety goggles. And I was laughed at. People thought I was wearing the very ugly goggles because I had nothing better to do. As you can guess, I tried goggles because they have a relatively thin and flat sheet of plastic in front. Did not work.

4) Safety glasses described as "optically correct". I have found they are nothing to support the claim. Not any better. Example 1, Example 2

5) Glass safety glasses from an optician. That is, a frame and "zero prescription" lens bought separately. No luck.



What do I see?: I would be very surprised if I am the only one who sees these effects, but this is what happens with my eyes. If I hold up safety glasses at the distance of my hand, and look thru them, and move glasses around, I see visible distortion when looking thru the glasses. What I see is as if those safety glasses were prescription glasses, either magnifying or making objects smaller. Additionally, I can visibly see different areas on the glasses affection my field of vision differently, because those glasses are not at all uniform in thickness.

When I put them on, objects visibly and significantly enlarge or diminish, and seem to come closer to my eyes, again as if I put on prescription glasses. Objects start to pop out as if from a 3D effect, which tells me that my eyes are significantly straining to focus to a very close distance.


What do they say?:

They say that even though polycarbonate safety glasses introduce distortion, it will not affect your eyes. They also say that as long as your eyes are at the right distance from the safety glasses, the curvature of the lens will not affect your eyesight as it is supposedly equidistant from the center of your eye (for safety glasses that are very curved or that curve to your head).


What do I say?:

ANY GLASSES THAT ARE NOT GEOMETRICALLY AND PHYSICALLY AS FLAT AS A PANE OF WINDOW GLASS WILL ACT AS LENSES, AND DESTROY MY EYESIGHT BY CAUSING MY EYE MUSCLES TO IMPROPERLY ATTEMPTING TO FOCUS ON OBJECTS.

THE ONLY SAFE SAFETY GLASSES ARE A FLAT PIECE OF MATERIAL, PREFERABLY LOW DISTORTION MATERIAL LIKE GLASS OR TRIVEX.


ADDITIONALLY, I now believe the following: Everything else that will interfere with proper eye focusing is what is usually found with safety glasses, being:

  • My peripheral vision is very wide (I can easily notice and observe details at my sides without moving my head or eyes), which is good for my eyesight health, but may be a big factor with safety glasses. All glasses restrict peripheral vision, and in the opinion of many alternative doctors, will long term only make vision worse, requiring bigger and bigger prescription strengths.
  • Optical irregularities and distortions: safety glasses are made in a very different way to what a pane of glass is made, which is for all purposes flat. Safety glasses are molded (or computer-control machined).
  • Scratches and smudges cause my eye to focus on them.
  • All eyewear must not be made of the cheapest and worst material, polycarbonate, but must be trivex or glass



Warning: vision loss occurs if you ever feel your eye muscles contracting rapidly (twitching). This is when eyesight loss occurs. If you eye muscles are starting to twitch, remove you safety glasses if it is safe to do so, and allow your eyes to rest. Do not wear glasses that cause eye muscle twitching.


Findings from when I attempted to go thru a professional optician:

  • Opticians and optical shops operate on a limited mindset. Their only business model (forced by insurance companies to an equal degree) is to only be able to sell a limited selection of frames separately from lenses themselves. They do not carry "non-prescription" lenses as that is against their mode of operation. Trying to order no-prescription safety glasses from an optician is like going to a fancy restaurant to buy a glass of water.
  • There is a complex interplay between individual opticians, insurance plans, and labs that they utilize for making the lenses. I had to do a large amount of homework to call several tens of opticians only to find that they were one of the following: a) did not do safety glasses (or they did not have safety frames), b) were not covered by my insurance plan, c) only worked with polycarbonate
  • At one place, it cost me $200 for lenses, and $100 for frames, after insurance plan discounts. To basically get curved lenses that were the same as $30 "glass" safety glasses I once bought online.



q acrylic readers do they have distortion like polycarbonate?

  • non-acrylic non-prescription retail glasses

like other medical problems that are not immediately noticeable, problems with curved plastic glasses and safety glasses must be widespread, but people do not notice it immediately. Even larger term is vision loss due to prescription lenses.

  • try-out safety and prescription materials frames +lenses (won's problem, and probably many others')
  • regional courses on vision improvement from those bh / c2c / HRNN guys
  • no frameless bc no holes
  • my magnification test
  • tri not more scratch resistant
  • market research: 0.5% cannot handle poly at all, problems like me



factors:

  • distortion
  • spherical
  • scratches
  • fov
  • astigmatism





Pressed acrylics


no generic frame+lens lk readers



aspheric


my eyes are 66mm apart


doc to call for frames, verify coverage, verify trivex safety glasses


$300 frame +lens




doc safety glasses:


  • not alone
  • other types beyond polycarbonate are available – trivex, safety glass if thick enough
  • national locations
  • symptoms
  • scratches, smudges, peripheral
  • what to say to opticians to find out if they understand
  • exam not after workday
  • clean and no scratches
  • keywords
  • my story