Does wearing glasses when not needed hurt your eyes

Testing apparatus has become better as has the awareness about eye care and health. With the number of people wearing glasses increasing today, there has been a lot of discussion on whether wearing glasses is helpful and whether it really benefits the wearer. There has been a consensus that glasses are beneficial. Very simply, they are an apparatus that aid your eyes in vision. In most cases where glasses are needed, the lens of the eye is not focusing the image correctly on the retina. It is either focusing the image behind the retina, or in front of the retina. In either case the image is not clear. What spectacles do is help focus this image onto the retina so that is clear and defined instead of a blur.
Thus most people who are prescribed glasses are done so depending on how much help their eye needs in focussing the image better. For some it is minimal help, while for others it is more. Sometimes one person may have different needs for both eyes - one maybe nearsighted and one maybe farsighted. Thus the prescription glasses for each person are individual and meant to be used by that person only. Of course there are some prescriptions that are common like +0.5 or +1.5 etc. and today these can be picked up even in supermarkets that are selling glasses in various designs and colours.
This gives rise to 2 scenarios - one, where people who do not need glasses wearing glasses because they are in fashion, and second those who do need glasses wearing them even when not needed.
So does wearing glasses when not needed hurt your eyes?
It has not been proven, but there is the possibility that wearing glasses when not needed might hurt your eyes. The explanation here is simple. If your eyes are functioning correctly and focusing images properly, wearing spectacles changes that. Now your eyes are seeing blurred images because the additional lens is changing the image formation on the retina. Thus your eyes are going to have to strain themselves to adjust to new ways of seeing. Over time it is possible that even though your eyes did not need glasses, because they get conditioned to it, a genuine need may arise.
The same can happen when you are nearsighted and continue wearing glasses for reading or seeing things that are close to you. In this condition also the eyes are strained because they have to adjust constantly even when they might not have needed to.
So does wearing glasses when not needed hurt your eyes? Yes. It strains your eyes and that is something very easily avoided. Wear glasses only when needed.
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