Do Glasses Ruin Your Vision?

If you are purchasing glasses for the first time, you may have several pressing questions that you would like answered. One of those questions may focus on whether wearing glasses will ruin your vision in the long run.

Because this is quite a common question, we wanted to take the time to further explore this question.

Do Glasses Ruin Your Vision? Wearing glasses will not ruin your vision. While you may experience some annoying symptoms, you can rest assured that your eyes are not experiencing any further damage when you are relying on glasses to see.

Why Wearing Glasses Will Not Ruin Your Vision

To better understand why wearing glasses will not ruin your vision, it is important to explain how glasses help you see more clearly in the first place.

Our eyes contain many different parts that, working in concert, help us see the world around us. But in this article, we are going to focus on several key parts. One of the most important parts of our eyes is the retina. When light enters our eyes, the lens and cornea in each eye focus the light onto our retina. From there, the retina reacts to this light and transports all of that information to the brain, which then generates the image that we see.

Therefore, the crux of sight is the refraction (also known as bending) of light through the eye. The key assumption of clear sight is that this refraction process results in the light being focused precisely on the retina. If this doesn’t happen, however, you will start to experience problems with your vision. If you are nearsighted, for instance, the light that is entering your eyes is being focused too far in. And if you are farsighted? The light entering your eyes is focused too far back.

This is where glasses come in. Quite clearly, they are designed to correct your vision. But how they do so is less understood. Ultimately, since they were first introduced centuries ago, glasses improve your vision by changing where the light is focused when it enters your eyes. So if you are nearsighted or farsighted, your glasses will refract the light so that it is properly focused on your retina. With the light properly focused, your brain puts the pieces together and leads you to have clear sight.

With this description in mind, you can see why wearing glasses will not ruin your vision. Glasses are not physically affecting anything in your eyes. They are essentially external aids that only change the light rays that our eyes receive. Essentially, they ensure that entering light is being properly focused on the retina, from where our brains take over to create clear sight.

The fact that glasses do not damage our underlying vision should provide some much-needed peace of mind. This is especially true if you accidentally obtain the wrong prescription for your new pair of glasses. For example, if you wear glasses that are too strong, you may be worried that continuing to wear this pair of glasses—no matter how blurry your sight maybe—will cause short or long-term damage to your vision.

You will not suffer any damage. Yes, you may feel some symptoms from wearing a pair of glasses that are too strong. Some of those symptoms may include temporary headaches or blurry vision. But having said this, these symptoms will go away after some time and will not result in any eye damage.

Along with the above, wearing eyeglasses will not weaken the eyes. If you wear glasses for years (or even decades), your glasses will not weaken your eyes any more than they will permanently solve any vision issues. Once again, this is because glasses are not changing or otherwise altering anything in your eyes themselves. They are only affecting the refraction of incoming light.

See More Clearly Today

Glasses are some of the most powerful and effective tools in human history. They provide clear sight to those who are struggling to see the world around them. Ultimately, if you need glasses to see more clearly, yet are worried about the long-term effects of wearing glasses, we hope to have cleared the air. Instead of worrying about whether you are suffering any long-term damage, you can enjoy the more important things that are happening in your day.