What are pinhole glasses and why are they used? Do pinhole glasses improve eyesight? There is a lot more you wanted to know about the glasses, that look way different from the regular clear glasses.
Here let’s delve deeper into the topic and understand the magic of these dark dotted glasses and how they help in vision improvement.
What exactly are pinhole glasses?
Pinhole glasses also known as “Stenopeic glasses” are essentially made of plastic with a grid of tiny holes in the place of lenses. With the primary purpose of removing the indirect rays of light distorting your vision. Pinhole eyeglasses help in many refractive errors and focus clearly.
How do pinhole glasses work?
Before understanding the working of pinhole glasses to help your vision, let’s talk about how glasses or contact lenses work. Prescription glasses refract the light passing through them to converge on the retina, enabling us to see clearly.
Instead, Pinhole glasses work differently limiting the light incident on them. They cut down unfocused rays causing blur circles and allowing only focused rays to form sharp images on the retina.
So, pinhole glasses work the same as the effect created while you squint to adjust the light reaching the eye.
Who might benefit from pinhole glasses?
Pinhole glasses have several uses. Some people with a refractive error often use these glasses to treat nearsightedness or astigmatism. They are popularly used by eye doctors, optometrists, or ophthalmologists to better determine any vision impairment.
Doctors use them as a diagnostic tool for checking the prescription of one eye while covering the other eye completely with an occluder.
Here the pinhole eyeglasses help you improve your visual acuity when reduced vision is due to some refractive error. But, if the pinhole doesn’t help, it might be an indication of another eye problem.
Moreover, they are also used to effectively determine if a person is suffering from corneal distortion or cataracts.
This involves focusing light on the retina to check if the vision capability of cataract-affected eyes is worth undergoing surgery or not.
Let’s help you make sense of the prescription abbreviation !!! Click for the guide to read your eyeglasses prescription
Do pinhole glasses work to improve vision?
In general, pinhole glasses are only used as a diagnostic tool by doctors to determine eye alignment. Meanwhile, they are not an ideal choice for everyday use. However, some people claim using this glasses to treat myopia, hyperopia, and glasses for astigmatism, with no conclusive evidence or a trial to prove their effectiveness.
Pinhole Glasses for Myopia:
For a person suffering from myopic or nearsightedness, pinhole eyeglasses may help you see clearly.
They are effective in making an object look clearer while blocking light rays out from the focus. However, this may affect image quality and form a dimmer image instead of usual.
The pinhole glasses allow optimally direct light to pass through while blocking the part of non-optimal direct and peripheral vision. Thus, again making them aren’t functional for everyday use and activities like driving or operating machinery.
Must Read: Nearsightedness Vs Farsightedness: Understanding the Differences?
Pinhole glasses for astigmatism:
The same is the case with people with astigmatism. Pinhole glasses simply block the light rays that aren’t aimed to converge on the right spot of the retina and only allow focused light to pass.
Admittedly, they don’t treat your eye alignment permanently and you will get back to your usual vision as soon as you take them off.
Pinhole together with eye exercise:
Some people also support pinhole eyeglasses suggesting using them together with eye exercise can improve your vision permanently. Though it may seem true for one or two fortunate cases when people saw a vision improvement through eye exercise, there is no evidence to support the concept that pinhole cure or permanently address refractive error.
Wearing a pinhole gives you extra clarity but it is only for a period you wear them.
Don’t reduce eye strain:
Another myth that surrounds pinholes is that they help reduce eye strain caused by pseudomyopia, a spasm in the focusing muscle. But it is not true, pinhole doesn’t address the cause of digital eye strain. Moreover, wearing them while bling watching or for screen usage, can only make the symptoms worse with headache and tired eyes.
Your best bet here is to use blue light glasses to eliminate glare from digital devices hitting your eye and wear contact or prescription glasses for vision improvement.
How to make pinhole glasses at home:
Looking to make pinhole eyeglasses for yourself to understand what wearing them looks like? Here are the simple steps you can try at home to make one.
- Take an old pair of glass frames you no longer use.
- Next, wrap a piece of aluminium foil over it.
- Take a sewing needle or a pin.
- Poke holes in the aluminium foil with the needle.
With the pair in hand, you are good to enjoy clearer vision with a pinhole glass pair made by you.
Wrapping up:
Today many companies, including those advertising on the internet, are also claiming pinhole glasses as a treatment of myopia, reducing myopia and digital eye strain, improvement in vision, or other exaggerated benefits.
Hopefully, the article helps you understand the truth behind all those claims. Now instead of falling for the temptation of the magic with pinhole glasses, invest in a high-quality pair of contact lenses or eyeglasses.
