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Thread: Reading glasses without Rx

  1. #1
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter ak47's Avatar
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    Reading glasses without Rx

    Lets say someone walks into your shop and picks out a frame and then says, "I wan't you to make these into +3.00 readers." Can this be done without a written Rx?

  2. #2
    Master OptiBoarder
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    That is probably a state by state issue.

  3. #3
    Master OptiBoarder optical24/7's Avatar
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    If your state allows "lens Duplication" you theoretically could. Have them bring a +3.00 reader in (or sell them one) then duplicate it. ( I personally wouldn't and would refer them to an OD or OMD. Exams are cheap, with health or eye ins, compared to a nice pair of glasses.)

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    Bad address email on file Lawman Nick's Avatar
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    In my state, the only lens you can make for somebody without a prescription is a demo lens.

  5. #5
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter ak47's Avatar
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    Let me play devil's advocate. Anyone can walk in anywhere in the country and buy +3.00 readers without an Rx, and certainly most stores that sell them have no optician or eye doctor on staff. Who says the readers can't be custom made as long as they are same plus power OU ?

  6. #6
    Master OptiBoarder
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    Like the others have said it will be up to the state laws.

  7. #7
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    It's called "double standards". You may be held to a higher standard than a drug store.

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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post
    It's called "double standards". You may be held to a higher standard than a drug store.
    Where does it say that you cannot become a manufacturer of optical goods; chains, cases and/or magnifiers and readers? So become a manufacturer, sell the readers to yourself, and sell them to the public. It seems to be true that the difference between a plano sunglass that is a "prescription" item, and one that isn't, is whether sales tax was paid by me to the manufacturer or to me by the customer.
    Why wouldn't that logic apply to commonly produced reading glasses?

  9. #9
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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  10. #10
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter Barry Santini's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post
    It's called "double standards". You may be held to a higher standard than a drug store.
    indeed. Now the question is just what does the higher standard protect the public from?

  11. #11
    Master OptiBoarder CCGREEN's Avatar
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    Anyone ever have someone come in with two different pair of dime store readers, for example, +1.50 and a +2.00 and ask you to duplicate the right lens of one and the left of the other and make them a pair of readers?
    The full moon can bring out some strange ones and we all know it.

  12. #12
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    just what does the higher standard protect the public from?
    Hey, anyone come in with a pair of drug store readers and ask you to duplicate it in a kid's frame for lil' Susie?

    Hey, any man come in with a ladies' pair of glasses, and ask you to duplicate it into a big, fat, double-bar so <ahem> his wife could wear it?

    Point is, people, that a prescription should be needed in order to make glasses.

    You want to make them non-prescription devices? Then be consistent and say so.

    Duplicating is non-prescription eye wear.

  13. #13
    Master OptiBoarder CCGREEN's Avatar
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    Negative DRK, negative.

    "Duplicating is non-prescription eye wear."

    John Q Consumer walk's into my office with his mangled "prescription" eye wear that he got from his Dr's office 6 months ago and ask me to duplicate the lenses, aka PRESCRIPTION that is in the glasses, I am going to do so. Thus I am duplicating PRESCRIPTION eye wear.

  14. #14
    Rising Star
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    Consult state laws. Here's a starting point: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/p...16-update2.pdf

    Most states allow you to duplicate eyeglasses without prescriptions. This means that if the person already has a +3 reader, say from CVS, Costco, Zenni or AliExpress, you can simply duplicate them.
    Vitor Pamplona
    CEO, EyeNetra Inc

    Come check our autorefractor, lensometer and phoropter.

  15. #15
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Negative, CCG, negative.

    There's no more a "prescription" in a batch of resin than there is printed on a box of Acuvue 2.

    A prescription is on a piece of paper, with a signature, from a doctor, sent to you, so you can fill it properly.

    If you duplicate a glob of resin, you are merely cloning a pair of glasses. They're not prescription.

    Oh, they have lens power, and you duplicated that, but you did it without a prescription.

  16. #16
    Compulsive Truthteller OptiBoard Gold Supporter Uncle Fester's Avatar
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    Call me Dr. Fester...

    I want to see the lawyer who thinks he's getting anywhere, in any court, with whatever hypothetical you can come up with that this is a problem. They'd be laughed out of the courtroom.

    Funnier still would be my Board of Dispensing Opticians with a straight face tell me I cannot.

    fwiw in 40+ years I've never had this happen.

    Have you?

  17. #17
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Well, look what all this loose talk has dredged up.

    Our buddy at EyeNetra enjoys your sloppiness!

    Some opticians don't seem to get it.

  18. #18
    Rising Star
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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post
    Our buddy at EyeNetra enjoys your sloppiness!
    ????
    Vitor Pamplona
    CEO, EyeNetra Inc

    Come check our autorefractor, lensometer and phoropter.

  19. #19
    Compulsive Truthteller OptiBoard Gold Supporter Uncle Fester's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post
    Well, look what all this loose talk has dredged up.

    Our buddy at EyeNetra enjoys your sloppiness!

    Some opticians don't seem to get it.
    I get it drk but the horse is long gone from the corral for the original post.

    Stopping Auto or self refracting devices requires money that we will never pony up to convince McConnell and Schumer to regulate imo.

  20. #20
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Bottom line:

    In this age of:
    1. DIY
    2. cheap applications on our ever-present computer/phone/cameras
    3. foriegn trade
    4. heck, telemedicine

    regulation of health care is on the precipice.

    "Oh, noes, drk, glasses aren't health care!"
    Glasses are vision care.
    Vision care is eye care.
    Eye care is health care.

    "Oh, noes, drk, eye care isn't, like, real health care."


    Ok, then. We'll reserve regulations for drug companies and pharmacies and surgeons, because I'M SURE that drug companies wouldn't EVER want their products to be unregulated by the FDA. I'm sure that medical device makers wouldn't EVER want their zappers and cutters and scopers to fly through without FDA.

    "Leave that regulation/safety stuff for the real doctors and real health care field. Leave us alone. Hey, I just ground a pair of neat-o poly polar lenses into a frame I found at an antique store for my next-door neighbor! He built me a nice bird feeder in return."

    We are health care, dammit.

    All I'm asking:
    1. Who is the patient? Get a prescription with their name on it.
    2. Who is the prescriber? Get a prescription with their name on it.
    3. What is the intention of the prescription? Take a look at it (on paper) and interpret it correctly.
    If you don't have it, CALL FOR IT.

    All I'm asking:
    1. Don't feed the mentality that glasses are DIY or some optician can string together a pair of glasses without a prescription.
    2. Understand what the meaning of the word "prescription" is. Hint: it is NOT "hey, these lenses have 'prescription' in them." (No, they do not. The have dioptric power.)
    3. Act like professionals! Do what's right for the patient! Do what's right for the health care system!
    4. Never, never, never give in.

    Last edited by drk; 02-14-2020 at 09:57 AM.

  21. #21
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    For me personally it's a matter of principle, state law or not. I do not duplicate prescriptions from old eye glasses. I want people to see to the best of their ability and to do that requires a written prescription from a qualified doctor, nine times out of ten the +1.50 or +3.00 is not going to be the best vision for the customer that brought those readers in to be duplicated. I also do not know how old the pair of glasses someone brings in from another prescription, they can say it's six months old when it could have been years since their last eye exam.

  22. #22
    Master OptiBoarder CCGREEN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post
    Negative, CCG, negative.

    There's no more a "prescription" in a batch of resin than there is printed on a box of Acuvue 2.

    A prescription is on a piece of paper, with a signature, from a doctor, sent to you, so you can fill it properly.

    If you duplicate a glob of resin, you are merely cloning a pair of glasses. They're not prescription.

    Oh, they have lens power, and you duplicated that, but you did it without a prescription.

    It's obvious that DRK and I will agree to continue to disagree on this subject. Maybe I am just showing the difference between a licensed Optician vs a unlicensed. I see and understand DRK's point. he calls the shape of the lens power and I call the shape of the lens prescription. We both still end up at the same place.

  23. #23
    Rising Star
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    51.2 million pairs of OTC readers WITHOUT prescriptions are sold EVERY year in the US alone and we don't see any public health problem rising.

    I think consumers got this, drk. Relax.
    Vitor Pamplona
    CEO, EyeNetra Inc

    Come check our autorefractor, lensometer and phoropter.

  24. #24
    Compulsive Truthteller OptiBoard Gold Supporter Uncle Fester's Avatar
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    [Ok, then. We'll reserve regulations for drug companies and pharmacies and surgeons, because I'M SURE that drug companies wouldn't EVER want their products to be unregulated by the FDA. I'm sure that medical device makers wouldn't EVER want their zappers and cutters and scopers to fly through without FDA.]


    Big Pharma spent $900 million last year lobbying congress to rule in their favor and using that influence to appoint their people to regulate their industry as well.

  25. #25
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Realize that we have a hybrid health care system.

    Pretty much, what has made the U.S. health care system what it is, is private entrepreneurial enterprise. That's good.

    But, as you can all attest, private entrepreneurial enterprise is only concerned with the bottom line for them and their investors.

    It's mandatory that we have regulation of free enterprise, when it comes to health care.

    Think about it for a minute. What would we have if we had no health care regulation?

    Lower prices? Oh, heck yea.
    Greater access? Yes.
    More innovation? Yes.

    But...
    Ineffective cures? Yep.
    Harm? Sure.
    Confusion? Absolutely.
    Science? Maybe post-hoc.

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