[Reagan is King]

That's pretty much what I tell my patients that ask several times a week. The only thing I can add is in regards to this sentence:

But glasses have no lasting effect on eyesight.

That's true for adults, but children NEED to wear their glasses if the power is significant, and especially if one eye is worse than the other. The nerve network of the retina needs stimulus during the important years for the eye (up to about age 10) or it will not develop the intricate nerve network necessary for sharp vision. I see a lot of teenagers and adults with one permanently weak eye (anisometropic amblyopia or refractive amblyopia) because they weren't corrected at an early enough age. Be sure and get your children checked by at least by age 5 or 6 to make sure they are using both eyes equally. If you notice an eye turning in or out have them checked even earlier.

[neverdem]

Thanks for your comments. The reason I posted this was for the take home point. Glasses don't make your eyes worse.

[supercat]

That's true for adults, but children NEED to wear their glasses if the power is significant, and especially if one eye is worse than the other. The nerve network of the retina needs stimulus during the important years for the eye (up to about age 10) or it will not develop the intricate nerve network necessary for sharp vision. I see a lot of teenagers and adults with one permanently weak eye (anisometropic amblyopia or refractive amblyopia) because they weren't corrected at an early enough age. Be sure and get your children checked by at least by age 5 or 6 to make sure they are using both eyes equally. If you notice an eye turning in or out have them checked even earlier.

Is it possible for eye muscles to adjust the shape of the eye (or, more notably, the lens-retina distance) in any significant or useful fashion? If so, I could see potential usefulness for that.

[cherry]

here's a question for you....sure, glasses for poor vision are necessary, but what about poor vision as you age....where you need reading glasses...

it seems for me that the more I use my reading glasses, the more I NEED to use them, even for things such as cutting up veggies...its just easier with the readers.....

also, I have a theory that perhaps our eyes lose their "accomodation" ability the more our society wears sunglasses year round....seems that we might be weakening our ability of our eyes to adjust to differant light settings.......can that be possible?