Guide · new glasses
Why do my new glasses feel wrong?
The floor slopes, the edges swim, there’s a headache by lunchtime. Some of that settles in a week. Some of it never will, and shouldn’t be tolerated. Here’s how to tell.
The five causes, most likely first
- A bigger change than you’re used to. If the prescription moved a lot, or you’ve gone into varifocals for the first time, the brain needs a few days. Sloping floors and a slight swim that fades by day four is adaptation. Give it a week of wearing them all day — not on and off.
- The fitting. The lenses sit a few millimetres from where the measurements said. For a varifocal that puts the reading zone in the wrong place; for a strong prescription it adds a prism you weren’t prescribed. Doesn’t settle. Fixable — often by adjusting the frame, sometimes by remaking.
- The lens design. A basic varifocal in a strong or complex prescription gives narrow zones and swimming edges that never go away. A better design, or an occupational pair for the desk, fixes it.
- The frame. Too shallow for a varifocal; sliding down your nose so you look through the wrong part; pressing behind the ears so you get a headache that has nothing to do with the lenses.
- The prescription. Least likely, but it happens: a number transposed, an axis out. A second look takes five minutes.
What settles and what doesn’t
Mild swim, slight floor slope, a feeling of “too clear” — a week. Double vision, a headache every day, the reading zone you can’t find, one eye fighting the other — not a week, not ever. Come back.
Bring
The glasses and the prescription. We check the lenses against the prescription and the fitting against your face — free, ten minutes, whoever made them.
The short version
- A slight swim that fades by day four is adaptation
- Reading zone you can’t find, daily headaches, double vision: not adaptation
- Usually the fitting or the lens design; occasionally the prescription
- Bring them in — the check is free