Can pinhole glasses really improve the eyesight?

I first heard about pinhole glasses many years ago in Nexus Magazine, a publication that looks at conspiracy theories, the paranormal, suppressed science, mysteries and alternative health therapies. I have to admit that the adverts I saw made me think it was just another gimmick but I have changed my mind about that.

So what are pinhole glasses, you are by now asking? Well, they are also known as stenopeic glasses and they work not by having corrective lenses but by having very many pinholes through which you are forced to see. Whilst this may sound as if it would make vision a lot worse it has the opposite effect.

Pinhole glasses have opaque sheets of plastic cut to fill each lens space and perforated with many pinholes in each one. Otherwise the frames are like ordinary models and come in various sizes and styles.

The pinhole glasses work by making the eyes receive only the tiny beams of light that each perforation will allow to pass through. Surprisingly this gives a much clearer image and works in the same way as squinting produces an improvement in vision on a temporary basis.

In doing so, however, peripheral vision and the brightness of lighting and glare is considerably diminished. This means that these glasses should not be worn if operating machinery or driving where this could cause great danger.

Pinhole glasses can provide a much better depth of field of vision and work by correcting the refractive error in the eyes of many people with problems seeing properly.

Pinhole glasses have been known about for many years but have never been widely popularised because there has been insufficient scientific testing done to prove claims made about them.

Nevertheless, many people have found that pinhole glasses have made considerable improvements to their sight. There are many firms that make and market pinhole glasses and these firms claim that problems with short-sightedness, long-sightedness, astigmatism and even cataracts can all be improved or even cured. Under the terms of the Federal Trade Commission such claims are no longer allowed in advertising in America though.

It is recommended that for the first few days after you have bought a pair of pinhole glasses that you only wear them for about five minutes but build up as you get used to them to wearing them for 15-20 minutes or longer at a time.

I can testify that they work immediately with regard to improving focus because with my new pinhole glasses on I can read lettering on something a distance away from me that I could not read with my normal shortsighted vision. With pinhole glasses I can read text without a lens that normally I would require lenses to do so. The effect is quite remarkable and I intend persevering with using my glasses to see if I can improve my sight problems.

Pinhole glasses can be used as sunglasses and to other people looking at someone wearing them this is probably how it would appear. Modern designs are made to look even more like sunglasses than older traditional models.

The companies that make and sell pinhole glasses offer a range of styles with modern wrap-round eye-pieces and others with larger lens frames like old-fashioned spectacles. They have bright-coloured frames, basic black or tortoiseshell frames.

All pinhole glasses have the advantage over normal glasses that they cannot easily be damaged by scratches on the lens for example. Pinhole glasses are lightweight. durable and surprisingly cheap to buy.

Copyright © 2011 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.