Posts Tagged ‘glasses’

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Spex Appeal

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

Over the years us poor speccy-four-eyes glasses wearers have come in for all sorts of teasing, micky-taking, and even bullying and abuse due to our defective eye sight. Who remembers the dread of facing the school eye exam and the threat of NHS plastic blue frames?! How gladly did we embrace designer frames, contact lenses and Laser surgery? But if none of the above solutions is the right one for you, how else do you reconcile yourself to the news that you need glasses?

A recent survey showed that wearing glasses can add up to three years of age to people’s perceptions of how old you are. If you wear an outdated style, bifocal lenses or thick lenses, then you can age yourself even before people are close enough to see your grey hairs or crow’s feet. The researchers took 10 pictures of people wearing specs, and then photographed the same group without glasses. When asked to guess the age of the models, the first group were estimated to be an average of 3.3 years older than the first. So how do we turn this worrying statistic around?

Firstly, you need to take a long hard look at your specs. How old is your frame? Is it damaged, held together with sticky tape, discoloured or bent? Then there are your lenses. Generally speaking, bifocals, tints, and chunky lenses can add years to you, so have a re-think on your optical needs. A funky pair of prescription sunnies is more glamorous and more comfortable on the eyes than a general purpose light tint. Varifocals are not as ageing as bifocals and are easier to wear for everyday use. A thinner lens looks better and is more comfortable than a heavy standard lens if you are quite short or long sighted.

Your frames are the really noticeable aspect of your specs. Have you changed your style within the last two, five, ten years? Are people reminded of Ronnie Barker or Deirdre Barlow when they see you?! If so, it might be time for a change! Check out the fashion pages and look at what younger people around you are wearing for inspiration. It’s not like choosing clothes – you don’t have to worry about being seen as mutton dressed as lamb with specs, anything goes for any age group. A new frame can change your face shape, your colouring and your whole image all in one go, so experiment with a new look and knock years off too!

Glasses Online

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Road Test – Plastic Frames

Monday, October 11th, 2010

I’ve worn glasses for about five years, and going into glasses as an adult I always felt very self-conscious in them. I’ve chosen rimless glasses in the past, but I’m always sitting on them or putting things down on them! So for my latest prescription I’ve chosen a much sturdier and bolder plastic frame.

When the specs arrived I put them on ready for work, and realised I’d need to re-think my look! I didn’t need to wear as much eye make up, as my eyes seemed very defined by the frame anyway. I did experiment with some lipstick to balance the solid colour of my new burgundy red glasses.

I thought the glasses would feel heavy but they absolutely didn’t, without the spindly nose pads from my rimless they fitted all around my nose and felt very ‘at home’ on my face to start with. I could see the rims when I looked at them, but when I got on with driving etc I didn’t think about them any more. Examining the frame, there are far fewer screws and bits and bobs, so they not only look sturdier, I know they’ll be hard wearing. My rimless were always dropping to bits, even when I was being really careful with them, but there doesn’t seem to be much to go wrong with the plastics!

After a couple of weeks wear I was still really pleased with the comfort and how quickly I’ve got used to them. There were odd reflections around the edges of the rimless specs, which did annoy me under bright lights and in the sun. That’s all gone, plus I’m pleased that my frame edge covers the lenses, so I won’t chip them like I did my old pair.

All around me absolutely everyone has commented on my new specs! I’m happy to report that all the remarks were favourable! The girls were jealous and wanted to know where‘d got them from, the boys all seemed to think they’re really sexy! One said it was that typical male fantasy of the sexy secretarial type – phew! I wish I’d chosen them years ago!

Prescription varifocal glasses online

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Tailor Made Prescription Sunglasses

Friday, October 8th, 2010

As prices have come down and the wonders of Internet shopping have made glasses more freely available, people are realising its feasible and economical to have prescription sunglasses. Rather than struggling on with a single pair of clear glasses, or dangerously driving in tints with no power, you can now have the best of both worlds and order a bespoke, one off pair of specs made just for you.

For you sunnies you can re-use an old frame, choose any ordinary prescription frame, or have your prescription glazed into a standard sunspec. So what should you choose and what are the pit-falls?

If you re-use an old frame, check with the optician that it will withstand re-glazing. It’s a false economy to end up with specs that won’t last long or that split while the lenses are being fitted. Other than that, choose a tint colour that suits your frame, and make sure it’s big enough to give good coverage of the eye, to keep the sun out.

Choosing a standard frame means that you know it is good quality and will do the job, and will be customised for your needs with your choice of lens colour. You may want to size up from non-prescription specs, so it looks more like a normal sunnie, and as we said above, to keep the sun out. This is your chance to go for a bolder, chunkier, brighter frame than you would have with clear lenses, it will be robust and look funky on the beach!

If you choose a sunspec and want lenses fitting into it, there are some points to be aware of. Not every frame can be re-used, so check when you buy it. You also need to make sure it’s not too curved – your prescription lenses have their own curve which is governed by power, so not every lens will fit into every frame. Shields, large wrap styles and rimless sunglass are rarely suitable for re-use.

Once you’ve taken these points on board, have a browse and think about your sunnie style – classic, sporty, chic or cool. Then get ordering and pray for the weather to actually try them out!

Prescription varifocal glasses online

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Road Test – Anti-Reflection Coating

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

I came to order my second ever pair of glasses last month, and after discussion of my symptoms with the optician he suggested that I try an anti-reflection layer on my lenses. This was all new to me as I’d had a very cheap and cheerful pair of glasses just for driving first time around. So here’s my summary of how I’ve got on with this exciting new product!

When I got my first glasses I thought I’d only want them now and again for in the car, as I’m only a bit short-sighted. Now it’s been two years and I find I need them for TV, driving all the time, and more importantly, shopping! I don’t like driving at night because I find that headlights dazzle me. The Optician said that the anti-reflection layer is the only thing that would help. The good news is that he said it would make my eyes more comfortable at the computer and under our office lights too.

When my glasses arrived I was curious as to what they would look like. They’re amazingly sparkly and clear, when you look at them they don’t appear to have any lenses in. My husband’s comment was that my eyes look really bright through them. When I examined the glasses I could see they have a weird green reflection on the back under bright light, but on my face they’re super invisible!

For driving they felt fantastic. With my new prescription and the coating everything was really sharp and clear, with no distracting shadows and reflections in the lens. At night they are wonderful, especially compared to my old glasses. I used to see really bright and dazzling reflections in the back of my glasses, even my eyelashes were visible on the back of the lens! That’s all gone now and my sight is brilliant.

At work I don’t seem to get as tired through the day, my screen seems much more comfortable to work at for long periods. I find I clean the specs more, because smudges show up more clearly. It’s a 100% improvement on my original specs and I’m pleased I went for it.

Prescription varifocal glassesonline

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Facing Your Fears

Monday, September 20th, 2010

As opticians we are comfortable and happy in our little world, dispensing glasses, advice and prescriptions with a cheery word and a smile. We are aware though that not all of you love us as much as we love you, due to worries and fears about all sorts of things. Can we help you to see us with enthusiasm and without fear?

Some people are worried that they will be told they need to wear glasses. We love specs of course, and find it hard to believe that you may not feel the same! Still, it’s not the end of the world, and frames and lenses today are marvels of technology and style. Specs are light, comfortable and effective, and thanks to the likes of the InternetGlassesCompany, you don’t have to pay the earth for them. If you fancy treating yourself and you do want to splash out, it may be comforting to know that a Gucci frame is an awful lot cheaper than a Gucci handbag, and you’ll get more wear out of it!

Patients also worry about the health of their eyes, and what we might find. Thankfully for the nerves of ourselves and our patients, it’s pretty rare to discover anything nasty, and at least if the worst comes to it we can refer you quickly for treatment. In twenty five years of practice, testing all day every day, we’ve only come across one brain tumour, so you’ll probably be ok! We do warn patients about early signs of high blood pressure and diabetes, but again, it’s rare and relatively unusual that the patient had no inkling of a problem. We might just give you the nudge you need to seek help before matters escalate.

Another fear is that you’ll give us the wrong answers to our tests, and be given glasses that you don’t need or are wrong. We do several tests to verify prescriptions, double and triple checking your responses. You won’t be given glasses you don’t need – you would know very quickly that you couldn’t see! You won’t offend us if you take your prescription and order glasses online – there’s room for everyone and even in our online role we adhere to our professional guidelines when checking prescriptions and making up glasses.

So even if you feel the fear, go for it anyway, come to see us and be as pleased as we are about it!

Prescription Glasses Online

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Did you Know?………Varifocals …

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

The spec wearing public are pretty well informed nowadays, about glasses, contact lenses, and eye problems. But a few little queries do crop up with surprising regularity, so here are our top eye queries that you should all know the truth about by now;-

1.       Varifocals have to go into deep frames – we still hear this all the time, but it’s not 1975 anymore! Varifocal designs have moved with the times and the fashions, so now they fit into all but the tiniest frames. Not even Deirdre Barlow wears Deirdre Barlow specs any more, and you don’t need to either!

2.       Children need to be able to read to have an eye exam – this is a dangerous myth that puts sight at risk. We can check eyes from few months of age, with or without the baby’s cooperation! We don’t have to use the letter charts we make you adults read. Some eye conditions can threaten sight if not detected, so book a test as soon as possible and don’t worry about teaching your six month their alphabet before they come!

3.       I can’t wear contact lenses – well what makes you so special?! People think this due to their astigmatism, their age, their need for reading glasses, the list goes on….in truth, thanks to new materials, lens designs and wear regimes, nearly all of us can wear contacts, even if only for specific circumstances or activities. So talk to your optician and let them allay your fears. You’ve got nothing to lose except your specs!

4.       Wearing glasses makes your eyes weaker – now if this were true, couldn’t we also do something to make them stronger? Nothing can alter your prescription permanently, except some highly specialised therapeutic contact lenses. Wearing your specs makes your vision clearer, and you get used to this, so when you take them off things can seem very fuzzy. Not wearing them will give you a headache, so put them on and get on with your life!

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Faking It- Genuine Designer Glasses

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

Over the last twenty years our desire for Designer goods has led to high quality, luxury products entering the market place in an industry that encompasses clothes, accessories, and of course glasses and sunspecs. We at the InternetGlassesCompany get the occasional enquiry as to the origins of our Designer ranges, with understandably anxious clients checking that our goods are authentic. The World Trade Organisation estimates that 8% of all goods sold worldwide are counterfeit, creating a negative effect for traders and the health of consumers.

With regards to our frames and sunglasses, we only stock products that are totally genuine, direct from the frame manufacturers in Italy. Like the manufacturers themselves we know that it’s in the interests of ourselves, the brand, the Optical industry and the vital clients to only use authentic product. Forgeries will be of inferior quality, using weak materials and possibly endangering the wearer. With specs this may mean skin allergies, lost lenses and uncomfortable frames.

In practice, we never accept frames which are not genuine. They are destroyed by manufacturers if they reach them to have new lenses or parts fitted, so be warned if you take a fake Oakley or RayBan to an Optician to have a screw or side arm replaced! They always spot them even if we don’t, and there are some very convincing reproductions out there. Always buy from a reputable stockist, check that the cases, cloths and logos are correct – a Ray ban spelled Ray Burn is a bit of a give away!  Note that if you wear dark sunglasses lenses which are not authentic, they’ll probably have no UV protection. The dark lens will allow light to flood into your unprotected eye and over time will cause damage to the retina and crystalline lens within the eye.

This year the Italian Association of Optical goods manufacturers are cracking down on counterfeits. They have strong interest in this problem as the vast proportion of Designer frames sold in Europe are from Italian design houses and factories. July 7th was the first national Anti-Counterfeiting day, and 5000 forged frames were crushed by a road roller as a symbol of their work. We welcome any move to stop the trade in counterfeit goods which will safeguard our business and the health of our patients.

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Weight Loss!

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Looking back through the archives of frames we have known and loved in the past, it’s interesting to observe the changes made to styling, materials, and construction over the years. We’ve seen specs go from tiny to huge and back again, glass lenses fall in and out of popularity, and lens and frame colours come and go.

One of the biggest changes that clients often comment on is how light frames are nowadays, often with a comment of ‘aren’t they flimsy?’ and you can see the dread in people’s eyes as they imagine the damage they can do to their precious new specs! The difference is often most apparent when you’re trying frames on, as they don’t have the weight of prescription lenses in them. So always remember when you’re browsing new glasses that they will be a little heavier with your lenses glazed into them. Thankfully not vastly heavier in most cases, but they do feel far more substantial with optical quality lenses in.

Despite the weight of lenses however, frames have become lighter over the years – if only the same could be said of us!! Materials are constantly evolving to make frames as slim as possible, while still retaining their strength. Manufacturers are now able to produce materials that are more flexible than of old, so they give and bounce back when you sit on them! Older materials needed bulk to make them tough, but this made them thicker and heavier, and more likely to snap. Metals such as stainless steel, Titanium and Monel are springy and super light, and can be pared down to minimal thickness. They feel as if they’re hardly on your face, reducing discomfort when you’re wearing them all day every day.

Fittings and fixings have become tougher yet lighter too, with joints and nose pads getting less bulky and obtrusive. But we still see less and less repairs every year so they must be tough enough to cope with the fast pace of our lives. So embrace this change for the better and trust in the technology of new materials and construction – lightweight is good we promise!

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Teenage Kicks

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Amid all the other teenage year traumas I suffered – spots, girls – too many of the former, not enough of the latter! Being told I needed glasses at age 16 was the final straw. I felt like hibernating until I was twenty and could squint and walk into buses if I wanted too! No such luck though, I needed them to see the board at school and was marched into a dusty old opticians to be fitted with a dreadful tobacco coloured frame that didn’t fit or suit me. In those dark days, the good old NHS supplied specs, which were pretty limited in choice. You could pay for frames but the mentality of parents was to be grateful for what you were given and frankly they were too expensive for growing teenagers who constantly headed footballs in them. (Sorry Mum!)

Fast forward a few years, and the old NHS frame is now rather trendy, thanks to David Tennant, and my teenage son almost looks impressed by the old photos of me in them. It wasn’t the end of the world when he was told he needed specs, as plenty of his friends wear them and actually like their glasses. He also gets far more choice, as thanks to internet providers and the wide range offered by opticians he can pick glasses which are trendy and actually cool!

He wears contact lenses everyday, as they are much more practical for all his sporting activities. I bought him a couple of really well priced specs off the internet as spares, useful to give him a break from his lenses and to wear during a nasty bout of conjunctivitis. His NHS voucher was used towards his lenses, so browsing web sites and getting him some specs cheaply helped soothe the household budget, suffering a battering from trainers and designer jeans!

Specs no longer suffer the stigma that they had in my youth, although the dread of picking a new pair never leaves me. My son seems very laid back about his short-sightedness, and I’m grateful that something as simple as a nice and economical trendy frame has spared him the trauma that I had. Now where did I hide my geeky NHS brown frames? Might just get my new varifocals put in them!!

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One for All!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

I didn’t need glasses until my early forties, when my previously perfect sight let me down and suddenly I couldn’t see to read. I could still manage if I squinted and held things at arm’s length, but obviously this became somewhat impractical as time went on and one day my poor tired arms simply became too short! The optician told me this happens to everyone but to be honest this was wasn’t much of a comfort! So I ended up gradually collecting glasses to help in different situations.

I had reading glasses, and after a nightmare meeting when I ended up with a raging headache and very tired arms when I forgot my specs, I started keeping one pair at work, one at home, and one in the car just in case! Then I started to need help for the computer, and couldn’t really see the dash board clearly either. This meant another pair of computer specs for work, one for home, and one for the car! This worked until I’d go home with the work pair in my bag etc and then end up with all of them in the wrong location! Then of course there were my sunglasses, which I wore for driving, but still couldn’t see the dashboard.

Exhausted by all of this, and fed up with my worn out glasses that got squashed in handbags and were constantly bent, I went back to talk to the optician again. I still didn’t need glasses for distance sight, but we decided that the time had come to go for varifocal specs. The advantage for me was huge – one pair of glasses that I could leave on all the time, so they wouldn’t get worn out or left anywhere. I could also have them going dark in the sunshine, so instead of seven pairs of specs scattered around my life, I had one pair that I could keep on for all situations!

This was life changing! My varifocals let me see to drive, at the computer, the dashboard, and all my close up vision. I don’t have to take them off and they’re always with me. The lens goes dark so I don’t need sunglasses, and they are clear when I’m indoors. The lenses looked expensive when I first got a quote, but of course they were less than my vast collection of specs and look an awful lot nicer!

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