One of the best investments a wearer of eyeglasses will ever make is the purchase of prescription sunglasses. These glasses can have your normal prescription and be tinted to protect your eyes from the sun.
Prescription sunglasses protect your eyes from harmful UV radiation. The same damaging rays from the sun that cause sunburn and skin cancer can affect you eyes, causing you to develop cataracts, which cloud the eyes. While cataracts can be removed by surgery, why take the chance of cloudy vision.
Persons that are near sighted or have astigmatism will want prescription sunglasses when they drive their car. If you only have reading glasses, you may be fine with normal sunglasses for driving. Either way, you will want some kind of sun glasses in order to keep the glare of the sun from blinding you as you drive.
Prescription sunglasses are made just like your regular glasses, but before the lenses are installed into the frames, they are dipped into a tinting solution. The length of time that the lenses are in the solution will determine how dark the lenses are tinted. If you are extremely light sensitive then you will want your lenses to be tinted a very dark color to block more glare and light.
If you have only worn over the counter sunglasses in the past, you will be shocked at the quality of the lenses in prescription sunglasses. These glasses have optical quality lenses. They do not distort like cheap sunglasses or clip on sunglasses. This means that you are actually seeing things as they are, not distorted like you have been seeing them through your cheap drugstore sunglasses.
Persons that normally wear bi-focal glasses sometimes only need single vision sunglasses. The choice will be with regard to your use of the glasses. If they are just for driving, then you do not need the readers added. However, if you are the type that likes to lounge in the sun while reading a book or magazine, you will find that you prefer the bi-focal sunglasses so that you can focus on the text in your book.
Some optical shops will offer discounts to persons ordering more than one pair of glasses. A second pair can be made into sunglasses through the tinting process. When cost is a concern, you may want to wait a few months in between ordering glasses and sunglasses. Most prescriptions are good for up to a year, allowing you to order at a later date and keep your expenses more evenly spaced.