I have seriously thick glasses with prisms and bifocals which make my eyes look huge in them. I hate it. I have bad eyesight and my contacts do not correct my vision to perfect. I do not mind wearing glasses but I wish I could look normal in them. Is there anything I can do?

I don't wear glasses or contacts so I don't know if this would really work.. but what if you wore contacts to get your vision close... then wore glasses that are maybe a little more tame to correct your vision the rest of the way?

Here are some things you can do:

1) Use a high-index material. Unfortunately, this is usually more expensive, and some people are sensitive to chromatic abberration (color separation).

2) Choose a frame style with a smaller eye size. The bigger the lens, the thicker it must be due the curvature difference between the front and back sides of the lens.

3) Choose an aspheric lens design. More advanced lens designs use this to reduce thickness and distortion.

4) Use a thicker plastic frame. Because the frame is thicker, the less lens sticks out, and it looks thinner. Also, less light enters at the edge of the lens, and this reduces internal reflections that make the lens look stronger. Not polishing the edge also helps reduce the reflections.

5) Sometimes, the lens edge can be ground/beveled to reduce the apparent thickness.



Hope I helped

Jennie, was right on the dot. All of those things will work, except grinding the edges down. That would alter the prescription.

Great advice.

Oooh thanks chi, I didn't know that. My apologies. Thanks for letting us know before the OP tried that :P

Note to self, Don't GRIND GLASSES DOWN.

Haha. Yeah, all in all great advice though. As Vision Expert, I feel obligated to Greenie you.

Haha thanks just don't do it for real. It might give people the wrong impression. I'm definitely NOT a vision expert. I knew this because I asked my mom, who had to deal with this when I was a teenager and kept complaining about my lenses being too thick so we went to the eye place and they told us that.

No, I'm the vision expert. I was talking about me, duh! LOL. A tad full of myself sometimes.

OOOH I get it :P

A little self confidance is a good thing :D

LOL... yup.

Guess not wearing them and getting a guide dog and white cane is not a good option.

Often we have little choices in the end for the prescription, but you can work within your budget to find what will look best.

Wow I'm thankful for the advice... since there is a vision expert on here I might have a few other questions you could maybe answer for me. I'm only 19 and my vision is so bad. Its constantly something I fret about. I know your vision does not level off until 20 but will mine continue to get worse? I have both near and farsightedness and I would love to get laser eye surgery... if even possibly to just make my vision to where I only need glasses to read. I fear this is not an option with such terrible vision. I also have a slight lazy left eye. Its vision is a little worse. I'm not sure of my exact presrciption but my contacts which only help my distant vision are marked around one at +7.25 and one at +8.75. Would laser eye surgery benefit me at all??

Please have your eyes evaluated by a doctor who specialies in this. I will step out on a limb here, since your idea of a "lazy eye" is different maybe from mine, but that should not have any effect on your actual vision, it is more of a issue with the muscles of the eye lid.

I agree with fr_chuck. Most laser surgeons have free consultations for surgery. So this might be something to look into, go in there for the consultation and see what they can do for you. You sound like someone that could really benefit from laser correction. But as stated before, I'm an Optician not an Optometrist or Ophthalmologist. So, this is out of my realm.