Posts Tagged ‘lenses’

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Back to Basics

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Like all experts within an industry we go about our daily work and use jargon because we know what we’re muttering about. We do try very hard to banish technical terms from our website and in our e-mails, but even with all this effort we still presume that you know some very basic truths about spec wear and our products. A question came up last week – aren’t glasses still made of glass then? Which totally stopped us in our tracks! So we thought we’d better go back to basics and answer that question and a few others…..

So are glasses made of glass?!

While glass was the original material used for corrective spectacle lenses, nowadays it’s all about plastic, and we use this for 99.9% of our specs. Plastic is lighter weight, and safer in that it’s shatterproof. It does scratch more easily than glass, but we hard coat it to make it more scratch resistant.

Why are some lenses really thick?

The end result of the thickness of a lens depends on several factors. Your lens strength, your frame size, and the distance between your eyes all have an effect. If your prescription if strong, if you are petite and your eyes are close together, if your frame is big, your lenses will be thicker. Choose as small as frame as possible and order thinned lenses if you want to improve the appearance of your specs.

If you wear contact lenses do you need glasses too?

Now that specs and lenses are so cheap, it’s not such a big deal to make sure you always have up to date glasses too. You’ll need a spare in case you loose a contact lens or get an eye infection. Could you drive or work if you couldn’t see? Specs might be crucial for everyday life if you have a contact lens problem. And it’s nice to have a change and wear your glasses now and again!

How can you get my specs right when you haven’t even seen me?!

For some prescriptions and sight defects we cannot deal with the order online. We also don’t provide glasses for children and NHS-defined-complex lens wearers. For the vast majority of the population however, we can easily supply glasses. If there is a potential problem we won’t accept your order! Happily this is rare, and we make thousands of new glasses for our clients. And if they don’t work we’ll refund you, so there’s no risk to you anyway.

Varifocal Glasses

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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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The Perfect Fit

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

People are often confused when it comes to choosing spex, bewildered by the vast choice of frames, lenses, and coatings on offer. When we choose clothes or shoes we’ve often seen something we like in a magazine or an a friend, but with specs the subtleties of colour and design are often not that noticeable, until that is you come to choose yours, and such tiny details can make it hard for you to come to a decision. To help in your choice, let’s take a look at the most important factors in choosing a frame that will look perfect on you and do its job.

One of the biggest issues is in how the frame looks on your face, where it should sit and how the frame should fit you. There are three aspects to this question – the current trend for frame size, your proportions, and the lens power that you need. In the Seventies, all frames were huge, and it was very difficult to find anything that wasn’t big. Today the situation is less cut and dried, and there are frames in every size available.

For a frame to look in proportion to you, your eyes should sit in the centre of the lens. If the frame is too narrow your eyes will be at the outside edges of the lens, too wide and there’ll be lots of spare lens either side of your eyes! This adds thickness to your prescription lenses, increases edge distortion, and will make you look a bit shifty as your eyes will appear very close together! The frame should not sit on your cheeks, it will drive you mad as it moves up and down when you eat or laugh. The top edge should sit below your eye brows, and follow the shape of the brows – for example curved brows need a curved top frame.

If you are very short sighted it will benefit you to choose a small frame, as the lenses will then be thinner. So within the boundaries of fashion and looks, go as small as you can. Long sighted patients benefit from smaller frames too; we can have the lens manufactured from scratch to suit your frame, which again reduces thickness.

The frame sides must not dig into the side of your temples. This will give you a headache and strain the frame! There should be a gap between your head and the frame until the sides curve behind the ears, where they should sit closely to your head. The nose pads are only a resting area for the frame; don’t pinch them in until you can’t breathe!

Finding a frame that suits your face and your proportions will help you to feel happy wearing your glasses, as they become a part of you. Ask a friend, try before you buy – there’s a frame for every face, you just have to find your perfect fit!

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Emergency Measures

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Over our years in practice we’ve seen many ingenious ways that people have made temporary repairs to broken spex. In the process they’ve often caused more damage than the original disaster that has befallen their frame! So here’s what to do and what not do in an eyewear emergency!

Firstly, prevention is always better than cure, so make sure you have an up to date spare pair of specs. A four year old prescription pair will not be useful if you’re illegal to drive in them or can only read huge print, so get online and pick up a cheap duplicate pair. Always make sure you have spare spex with you for driving, being stranded miles from home with a vehicle you can’t drive is not much fun.

When screws have dropped out of hinges we’ve seen frames held together with bent paper clips, plasters (a la Jack Duckworth!) twisted fuse wire and actually sewing around the joints! We’ve had lenses stuck together with black electricians tape, kid’s stickers and cling film, wrapped ingeniously all over the lens! Then there are the impromptu replacements; – a chap borrowing a side from his wife’s Leopard print frame, a side arm made out of a drinking straw, and a big metal staple hammered through a plastic frame bridge. We never fail to be impressed by the genius involved in make do and mend!

So what’s the easy way to deal with all of this? Stay calm! If you have a breakage, and no spare, use a bit of sticky tape to hold things together. Use clear tape and get someone who can actually see what they are doing to put it in place. Don’t get anything sticky inside the joints on frames. Some serious words of warning – NEVER USE SUPER GLUE!! It makes the lenses mist over and will permanently gum up joints which we then can’t repair. It also damages the finish on the frames, and more importantly, it never works. It’s safer and more effective to just use good old sticky tape. We’ll never forget the case of one unfortunate gentleman who had to go to A&E to have his specs removed from his face when he put them on after gluing and got them stuck to his ear…

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You’ve Got the Power!

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

A great mystery which we often have to help you all unravel is the prescription that your optician gives you, the power or strength of your lenses. So let’s start at the beginning and give you some background information on what those scribbled numbers mean!

The lens power is written in a unit of measurement called a Dioptre, and it’s all about the focal length of your lenses. Your first task when sending it to us is to make sure your Optician has written it clearly! Bless them – they’re as bad as Doctors! So check with your Optician if you’re not sure.

The top line of the prescription box is the power of your lenses for distance. This covers TV, walking around, driving and general wear. Then you will have intermediate and reading strengths. Reading is for very close work and small detail, like threading a needle and reading. Intermediate is for large print at arm’s length, so computer screen and reading music.

Now for the science bit!

Sph is short for sphere power, which is your amount of short or long sightedness. The higher the number, the more correction you need. It has a plus sign if you’re long sighted, minus for short.

Cyl is short for cylinder, and this is the amount of astigmatism you have. It simply means that your eye is shaped more like a Rugby ball, so you need one power to correct the long part of the Rugby ball, and one for the short. Again, there will be a plus or minus sign.

Axis is the angle of your Rugby ball! As it’s an angle don’t bother looking for a plus or minus sign!

If you don’t have an astigmatism then both the cyl and axis boxes will be empty.

Add is the extra power you need for reading, and we add it on to your distance prescription. An add power is usually the same for both eyes.

Prism is relatively unusual, and this makes your two eyes work together.

So there you go, a little bit of extra knowledge, but all you have to worry about is copying it down for us, and we’ll do the rest!

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Scratching the Surface

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

We often get enquiries about damaged lenses, with clients telling us about specs they’ve had in the past, and asking how to avoid such problems again. We also get asked for a second opinion when client send specs to us from elsewhere which they feel are faulty. There’s nothing worse than constantly being bothered by a lens which isn’t clear, it can even be dangerous when driving at night. So here are a few things to remember.

The vast majority of spectacle lenses sold nowadays are plastic, usually coated with an anti-scratch layer. This can never make your lenses totally scratch proof, so you still have to careful! A big problem is laying the glasses face down. Lenses are curved, they will rock against the surface they lay on, and you’ll have a big graze in a stripe down the lens. So keep them in the case or lay them on their folded arms.

When you clean your specs, wash them under the tap first. A quick huff or wipe on your shirt will not dislodge gritty particles. If you then polish the lens you’ll grind circular scratches onto it. So immerse the glasses in warm soapy water, or hold them under running water. Dry with a soft, lint free cloth. If you’ve been on the beach, or around a very dusty atmosphere, take extra care.

Never keep anything in the case with your glasses! We’ve heard of keys, coins, and even an emery board cosily tucked up against specs! Great for business for us, not such good news for the spec owner! Once a lens is scratched, it cannot be polished out, so replacement is your only option

If you have an anti-reflection coat on your glasses, you could have a problem with the coating breaking down. What looks like scratches might be a fault with the coating, so if you have been ultra-careful with your lenses and they go misty, check with your optician to see if it is the coating. It’s fairly unusual nowadays but it can happen, there’s usually a guarantee period so talk to your optician straight away if you notice a problem.

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Life in the Lab

Monday, April 26th, 2010

When we leap upon our new delivery of glasses in the post, and admire ourselves in our new look, do we ever give a thought to the processes and work that goes into producing those boring bits of plastic that give us the miracle of sight? Step forward the unsung heroes of the Optical Lab….

The Lab or spectacle workshop is an interesting mix of science and industry. We use devices that look like microscopes to examine your lenses, and scary looking grinding and cutting apparatus to create your prescription and fit the lenses into your frames. We also have an array of screwdrivers, files and vices that hold your frames for repair and assembly. Plus row upon row of lenses, frames, and spare parts, all waiting for the day when they grace your face!

Each job we do is unique – with the huge variety of lens powers and frame options, every pair of glasses is different. It’s rare to even make the same power twice in one day! All of our client’s measurements, lens types and tints and coats are different too.

The first step is to put your prescription on your lenses, constantly checking that the powers and angles are correct, as well as making sure that the lenses are as thin as possible. The Lab is kept as dust free as possible, as our men in white coats try to prevent scratches and surface flaws from spoiling your lenses. When your lenses have been completed, which may mean many separate stages of adding power, applying tints or coatings, and verification, they are then cut into your frame.

Our equipment traces your frame, inputs your measurements, and then places the lenses at the correct orientation. It grinds away the excess plastic and the edges are polished. We check the lenses again before popping them into your frames, when they are examined for errors or defects. Everything has to be 100% perfect before it gets to you!

The frames are then tweaked to make sure they are not twisted or out of alignment, and this is our chance to admire our finished work! Life in the lab is never boring – it’s very satisfying to produce a bespoke job that not only looks good but will help someone in their daily lives.

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Love Those Lashes!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Eyelashes have become big business in the past few years, with lash extensions, false eyelashes, and a bewildering array of mascara innovations filling the beauty counters. Spectacle wearers often feel that their eyes can be hidden by specs, so make up is extra important in enhancing your eyes even behind your specs.

Firstly, always choose an anti-reflection coating for your glasses, this will allow people to see you, not their reflection in your lenses. Secondly, the latest bigger frame styles will frame your eyes, not chop across them. Thirdly, make sure your specs fit so that your lashes don’t brush on the lenses, at best this means mascara streaks across your vision, at worst painful ingrown lashes and infections.

When you have the specs sorted, think about your make-up. There are masses of new products to try, so don’t stick to the same old trusty mascara. There are lash thickening, lengthening formulas, wands that vibrate, double layer formulas, those that add texture and curl.

Then there are the products of science that allow us to grow our own, thicker longer more luscious lashes. Latisse is a prescription only product, originally developed for Glaucoma patients, with the added side effect of making lashed grow thicker and darker. It may be available in the UK from 2011, and has paved the way for more research and development. Lancome is the first manufacturer to launch a treatment mascara, Precious Cells, which will be available from May1st. Both Revlon and Clinique have products in the pipeline for later this year, so there’s hope for us all!

If you wear contact lenses, you may have to experiment with mascaras to find one that doesn’t irritate your eyes and can be worn with your lenses. Obviously always apply it after you’ve put your lenses in! Take the lenses out before removing eye make up, in case you get eye make up remover in the eye and it contaminates the lens.

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Super Size Me!

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Not only have It bags and shoulder pads got bigger over the past year, but sunglasses and specs have too. The minimalist, tiny frames of the past few years are fading into the background, as frames get bigger and bolder. We’ve had a few mails about this, so we thought we’d put some of those fears to rest…..

I had big frames a few years ago and they were really heavy! I love the new look but I don’t want dents on my nose again!

Frames back in the Seventies and Eighties were super huge, and the weight was often an issue. Thankfully, things have moved on in the past few years, and there are several improvements that will help you to stay in fashion and out of pain! Firstly, frame materials are now lighter and stronger, so you get durability without bulk. Nose pads made of silicone provide comfort and better support without gouging holes in your skin. Lenses also come in a greater range of high density materials, so you can save the weight with lighter lenses too.

I love big glasses but my face is really tiny. Can I stay trendy and pick something that suits me?

As with any aspect of fashion, it’s important to find the middle road of something that fits you and your lifestyle, while staying up to date. Fashion is presently more flexible than it was twenty years ago – there are large and small frames, so go for something a size up from your present specs, but not enormous. Frames that are too big will make your eyes look closer together – not a flattering look! With dark lenses in sunnies you can afford to go as big as you like, as your eyes won’t be visible through the lenses. This may be a good compromise to make you feel funky and comfortable too!

I’m quite short sighted, and my optician said I need to pick small frames, but I don’t want to look frumpy!

Your optician is quite right in that bigger frames mean thicker lenses. You can however make some wise choices that should help. Firstly, a plastic frame adds size, and the thicker rims camouflage thicker lenses. So choose something plastic, preferably with a chunky temple area. Secondly, a thinner material lens will cut down the lens thickness and the weight. Thirdly, find a frame with a fairly even shape, don’t pick and Aviator with an exaggerated drooped lens. A square or round frame will give you a more even lens edge.

I love rimless, but they don’t seem to be made very big. Can I still have them?

The problem with rimless is that the lack of rim means the lens edges are vulnerable, and the bigger the lenses the more weight you need to support. So if you have to go for rimless, always pick thinner lenses, and do listen to your optician’s advice – only go as big as they suggest. Any rimless can be scaled up to the size you require, you just need to be sensible!

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