Lens Crafters vs Local Optometry Store

10 year old. we go to a private place. the lenses are made out of the area, but it's the people of the shop that i like.
depends on your comfortability levels.

When I am pressed for time, I go to Lens Crafters with my doctor's prescription and get the glasses made in an hour. If I'm not pressed for time, and have the week to two week wait time, I wait. It is totally a matter of preference. Just be certain your child can actually see out of the glasses when they are done but that would apply to the doctor's office too.

A.,

$$$ is the difference. you are paying for overhead and while there may be quality issues in your area (for whatever reason), that is the main difference. Unless you have $ to burn from flex (and I would get into a catalog for health supplies if you can) and nowhere else to go, stick to traditional and wait it out. I can think of a lot better places to spend my time waiting for glasses than the Mall. Ick.

Good luck,
M.

Hey Ms. D i would suggest going to a optician your child will be wearing glasses for a long time and you want to go to someone reputable and someone who can tell you what is best for your child in terms of which eye is weaker than the other and the type of glasses she should be wearing. My daughter too starting wearing glasses at 4 and going to take her every year for her check up has been really beneficial. Good Luck.

We have always gone to Lenscrafters and they are great. I went back since I was having trouble adjusting to my new lenses and they made new lenses for no charge. When I was traveling I broke my glasses and I was able to have them replaced and enjoy my vacation.

I always went to a very reputable optometry store. My son
was two when he started wearing glasses. He only has one
set of eyes and they really need to be taken care of. When
he is older you could go with Lenscrafters. He will then
be aware of what his world should look like with the
correct lenses. Hope this helps.

The quality of the glasses is not really the issue... at this age you will want to invest in two pairs. What you want to consider is the fact that you will have an on-going relationship with whoever makes your child's glasses! My husband and I STILL go to the eye doctor/ eyeglass shop that he has gone to since he was 8. They know us, turn around our glasses as quickly as possible and often give us a little break financially when they can. You won't get that at a chain like Empire or Walmart. I will candidly say, however, that the chains are cheaper, so maybe invest in one "good pair" from the local shop and one "spare" from Lens Crafters.

Lenscrafters is where I get myself and my daughters glasses...but we donot see the DR there. Just get the script from your Dr and take it they will fill it.

I thought LensCrafters made their lens in-house too. My husband has always gotten his glasses from there and never had a problem.

the first time my daughter needed glasses.. we bought them in the dr. office and it really cost.. the next year we went to BJ's. the price was great.. $99 and it included a warranty.. well she broke those.. and BJ's replaced them free of charge.. and quick too. I like them better than lens crafters.. they fit her well.. and the price was the best.

As long as the prescription is pretty basic and they measure correctly a Lenscrafter type of place should be fine. Sine your guy is 6 he should be able to express if they look right and feel good. You could always bring them to the Dr. to check the script and fit. I agree that a spare pair or 2 is needed!

The thing you want is someone who knows how to "measure" so the correction falls in the right spot on his eye. I have had much better luck with a local optometrist instead of Empire Vision (where my insurance is valid). I tried Empire, but they would take 3 weeks to get new frames when my son (at the time, 12 months old) would break them. My local optometrist managed to a) fix my son's frames so he had SOMETHING to wear and b) order new frames (the SAME frames, btw) within three days. Because he has strabismus (lazy eye) in addition to needing correction, getting the glasses within a week (or less) is (to me) more important that where my insurance will cover us. (And now our insurance WILL cover out of network, probably because enough of us complained about the service at Empire...).

L.

Hi A.,
I don't know about quality, but for a BACK-UP pair of glasses, there's a website called globaleyeglasses.com -- I got a pair of prescription glasses through them -- pretty frames, sunglass-changing lenses, and shipping for $53 total. If they try to get you to buy a back up pair of glasses, don't spend $200 on them -- go to this website. They can help you through measuring his face and you just fill in the info from the prescription. Good luck with getting that first pair of glasses!

I have had glasses for about 20 years, and my 2 oldest daughters have had glasses on and off about 10 years. It really doesnt matter where we got our glasses. I think it may take a little longer, by a couple days, to get them done from a local store, but not by much.
We've been to Walmart (about 9 days to get glasses), private eye doctors (the one we stuck with gets our glasses in about 3 days), and the most expensive in our area -paid over $100 for my daughters glasses, to have another dr (6 months later) say that she didn't need them.
I've been to a Lens Crafters- I had to take them back- the script wasnt right. I went to Sears- I didn't take them back because they wanted to charge me for changing the lenses- everything was blurry.

My son has been wearing glasses sonce he was 1 yr old. I have only taken mine to a optician that is specialized in children. To me, why not give them the best if you can when it comes to medical issues! BEst of luck!