Pinhole Glasses: Your Worry-free Eyecare Alternative

By Author: Mike Lamb
Total Articles: 62
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Normally the light rays entering the eye of a person with healthy eyes, focus on the retina forming a clear image. If the person is suffering from refractive disorders, then the light rays focus either in front of or behind the retina. As a result at the retina there is a blur circle formed. In normal conventional glasses, a suitable lens is used to rectify this by reducing or increasing the focal length of the eye so as to form the focus on the retina. These glasses neither reduce the amount of light entering the eye nor do they cut out the glare.

The advent of pinhole glasses has given people with refractive disorders a cheap alternative to the prescription eyeglasses. Pinhole glasses do not have any lens. They are made of an opaque plastic sheet which has be perforated with numerous pinholes which are accurately formed by the use of laser technology. These plastic sheets are fitted on conventional frames and are worn in the same manner as prescription glasses.

The basic difference between prescription glasses and pinhole glasses is ...
... that instead of a lens, these have tiny pinholes which allow only direct and coherent rays of light to pass through and enter the eye. The other divergent rays are blocked by the plastic sheet. The multiple holes in the pinhole glasses permit multiple direct and coherent light rays to enter the eye, thus forming a clear image on the retina. Since there is no lens, it does not differentiate between near sightedness and farsightedness and works in the same manner in both cases. The resultant advantage is that one does not have to have separate glasses for reading and for seeing distant objects nor are bifocal or trifocal glasses required. The same glasses can be used for both tasks.

An inherent advantage of pinhole glasses is that since there is no glass lens, one does not have to change the glasses if the sight deteriorates or improves, thus cutting down of recurrent costs. In addition, you do not have to worry about scratches to the lens. Since there is no lens in the pinhole glasses, scratches on the plastic sheet will not make an difference in the vision whatsoever. Since the amount of light entering the eyes is much less that the conventional prescription glasses, the strain on the eye reduces.

pinhole glasses are suitable for watching TV, working on computers and reading. It takes a bit of time to get used to it, but once a person is used to it, it is quite comfortable.


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.