Medical Korea: Prescription Glasses and Contacts

#medical korea #Korea glasses

Perhaps you've seen the viral videos with easy and cheap prescription glasses services in South Korea. Is it really so great? Let's take a look.

Getting prescription glasses and contacts in Seoul is indeed easy and fast. However, most outlets are akin to shopping at LensCrafters in the US, by which I mean there are limited styles. If you find something that suits you, by all means go for it. And if you need contacts, you can get them at a very reasonable price, even in colored contacts.

We found two locations for bespoke frames--and made some purchases! _____ is located at the top of Insadong shopping street. They make their frames by hand out of wood and acetate. We bought two pair (pictured below): one with 2 colors of wood and the second in black acetate with mother of pearl and watch parts embedded.

The owner/craftsman is very good at fitting glasses to your face. Ask him for advice! He took our current glasses to get the prescription, measured our eyes so everything would be centered, and the glasses were ready in 3 days. (2 days for regular prescriptions, 3 days for progressive lenses) Of course, I (with the mother-of-pearl) ended up with the most expensive frames in the shop. My prescription, with progressive lenses, is also the most expensive. In the end, I paid a little under $1,000 USD, which is less than what I am usually charged in the US. It can be cheaper in Korea and in the US if choosing other materials.

Alo Several locations, but we were in their Myeondong store (3 Jahamun-ro 7-gil, Jongno District,), near the palace. It's a cute, tourist-focused shopping area with a plethora of perfume stores. The photo on the left has their bespoke frames. There were about a dozen more upstairs, and otherwise a wide selection of more ordinary frames. The bespoke frames are not on their website.