The special glasses that can restore vision where normal ones fail, and why almost no one (including eye doctors) has heard of them

Bioptic telescopic glasses are like mini jewellers’ loupes attached to glasses, and can allow people with poor or blurry vision to see clearly again

They are non-invasive and effective, but almost no one has heard of them and few eye doctors refer patients for them, says optometrist Chris Palmer

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Bioptic telescopic glasses are restoring vision to people whose vision is too poor to be helped by regular glasses, but almost no one has heard of the devices. Since getting fitted with bioptic telescope glasses, Dick Bramer (left) can see the football score on TV, birds outside his window, and his wife Polly’s face. Photo: Dick Bramer

Published: 4:15am, 22 Feb 2024Updated: 5:15am, 22 Feb 2024

Dick Bramer likes to watch birds flock outside the window of his home in Scandia, in the US state of Minnesota. But for two years he couldn’t see them well enough to identify the various species.

“I’ve got bird feeders and stuff out there, so that’s kind of my thing,” says Bramer, 76. “There are all kinds of birds coming in.”

In July 2021, Bramer suffered what doctors diagnosed as an ocular stroke – they said a small particle of plaque must have blocked blood flow to the optic nerve – in one eye. He had already lost vision in his other eye decades earlier, due to what doctors said was a swollen optic nerve.

After the stroke, everything was blurry. When he watched an American football game, his wife, Polly, had to tell him the score and the time left, because he couldn’t see the words on the TV screen. He couldn’t safely do the woodworking projects he used to love. When they went to see their grandchildren play football, soccer or baseball, he couldn’t follow the games because he couldn’t see the ball.

Telescopic glasses can help people with poor vision where normal glasses fail. Photo: Low Vision Restoration

The Bramers looked everywhere for something that might help. They went to stores catering to low-vision customers, but found that most of the products were aids to help people function better without their vision, not improve its clarity. Because they spend winters in Florida, they figured some of the other retirees must have heard of a solution. Nope.