Are Pinhole Glasses Better Than Conventional Eyeglasses?

By Author: Mike Lamb
Total Articles: 62
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Pinhole glasses are not made of glass at all but of an opaque substance such as metal or plastic. Users look through the small holes made in the material. These holes have the effect of reducing width of the bundle of diverging rays coming from each point of viewed object, which normally requires full opening of the pupils to admit the light. It is the improper bending of the outermost rays in that pencil of light which cause refractive errors such as myopia, hyperopia, or presbyopia. Pinhole eyeglasses may bring about clear vision in all these conditions.

While pinhole glasses are not cheap as off-the-rack reading glasses, for a person who is little nearsighted, but only needs clear distant vision for occasional tv viewing, would find pinhole eyeglasses a more affordable solution than prescription glasses.

Off-the-rack reading glasses have the same lens power in each lens. Some people find these cheap glasses unsuitable because the refraction of each eye are not same. Pinholes are ideal for such people because these glasses do not require ...
... similar refractive errors for both eyes.

Parents will not allow their children to use bifocal lenses to reduce the stress of close work because such glasses are for "old people"; pinholes are an easier thing to accept because they are the same for all ages.

Children with special needs often use only their peripheral vision, and pinhole glasses help them concentrate on details better. It has been found that pinhole glasses help improve acuity and central macular vision. One nationwide organization that deals with child development uses pinhole glasses on regular basis for this purpose.

Aniridia is the complete or partial absence of iris; polycoria is having more than one pupil in a single iris; and albinism is the lack of normal pigmentation. All of these abnormalities may be aided with pinhole glasses.

Using pinholes as a solution to vision problems: Who could imagine that pinhole glasses could be better than conventional sunglasses?


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.