The Scoop On Pinhole Eye Glasses

By Author: Mike Lamb
Total Articles: 62
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Thank goodness there are creative people whose life's work is to find alternatives to traditional medical solutions. Pinhole eye glasses, or Stenopeic glasses, is one such alternative, although there is some controversy regarding their value.

Stenopeic (from the Greek word for "small opening") glasses work on the same principles as the pinhole occluder used by ophthalmologists to diagnose refractive errors, and similar to a pinhole camera; in place of glass lenses, opaque sheets of plastic containing a series of tiny perforations (little holes) are inserted into the frames. These pinhole-sized perforations allow a narrow beam of light to enter the eye which, in eyes with refractive errors, often results in a clearer image.

Proponents of pinhole glasses suggest that the use of normal prescription lenses is counterproductive in that by wearing them, our eyes become lazy and weak because we stop utilizing the focusing-muscle (the ciliary muscle) to its full ...
... capacity. When this muscle weakens, the existing condition worsens, and the dependency on glasses not only increases but accelerates. Those same proponents also suggest that switching to pinhole glasses can reverse (or at the very least, improve) this process by strengthening the muscles.

Simply put, when wearing traditional corrective lenses, the light rays entering the eye are not all focused to the same point on the retina; some require more focusing by the lens to hit the same point, yet some rays are always in focus and form a clear image on the retina. This clear image is swamped by the blurred image formed by the remaining rays. By using pinhole lenses, many focused images form on the retina and a clear natural image is seen.

This is a major over-simplification, but it leads to the point that while traditional lenses can "correct" deficiencies due to refractive errors like myopia ("nearsightedness"), hyperopia ("farsightedness"), presbyopia (diminished focusing range due to aging) and astigmatism, they not only do not "fix" the problem, rather cause the eyes to weaken, while pinhole glasses are said to result in clearer vision in any/all of these conditions, and can actually help correct those anomalies.

And therein lies the problem. The FDA does not accept the claims made by manufacturers/marketers of pinhole glasses because their claims lack significant scientific agreement and are misleading. Because their claims "lead" consumers to purchase the product without doing any due diligence, the manufacturers are accused of being flagrantly irresponsible in their claims. People like seem to "accept" products that sound too good to be true, just because they want to believe in them. The FDA thinks this is a "bad thing."

Bottom line: Although the FDA has not approved pinhole glasses for the purposes advertised, they seem to improve vision without producing the long-term negative effects that traditional corrective lenses have been accused of triggering. And, significant testing will be required for the FDA to be happy!


Mike has been writing and publishing articles about health products. He recently came across a website on pinhole glasses which gave information about this old technique of using pinhole glasses for eyesight correction. Here's an article about pinhole glasses.