Posts Tagged ‘spectacle lenses’

Raising the Standard

Friday, November 12th, 2010

As with any other area of our lives, optics and the products we supply have come a long way in recent years. Glasses have gone from a medical device that we all dreaded being prescribed, to a must have accessory that gives us a sliver of the designer lifestyle and enhances our looks. Spectacle lenses are now thinner, lighter, work better and look better thanks to coating technology. Contact lenses are easier to wear, more flexible – both in the lenses themselves and how we wear them! So are you taking advantage of all this innovation and new technology in your eyewear?

Spectacle frames now give you more choice, more comfort, and competitive prices. New materials make frames lighter weight and easier to wear, even in chunky bold fashion frames. Replacement parts are easy to obtain, making mouldy nose pads and broken frames a thing of the past. (RIP Jack Duckworth – we’ll miss you!) You can even choose skin friendly Titanium if you have an allergic reactions to frames, and sinus sufferers can escape the agony of heavy glasses on sensitive faces. If you have problems with your frames, e-mail us and we can offer some practical solutions, and all as cheap as chips nowadays!

Back in the day, high density thin lenses were an expensive luxury for those with sore noses thanks to high lens powers. Now however we recognise the superior strength and better optics of a thinner lens, and as the price has decreased everyone can afford it if they need it. For sports, safety, or just frivolous fashion, the thinner lens can make spec wear and therefore life in general much easier. They are a must for rimless specs, and ultra skinny metals. Hard coatings for scratch resistant are now standard nearly everywhere, and anti-reflection coatings make your lenses look good and work at their optimum.

Contact lenses, once the choice for only the very rich, hardy and desperate, are now a lifestyle choice that everybody can wear. They are high water content, barely there, and new materials are launched with exciting regularity. You can use them for a month, a week, even just a day, with simple cleaning regimes that make the chemistry- lab- bathroom- shelf a thing of the past! Just keep a few one-days for tennis at the weekends, a city break or that special night out.

Technology is all around us, and optics is no exception. Take advantage and make life easier, more comfortable, and certainly clearer!

Glasses Online

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Good Looking Glasses online

Friday, September 10th, 2010

If you need strong spectacle lenses to correct your sight, you probably know that you have to take a little more time before you make a decision on your glasses. A dispensing optician can guide you through the choices, but if you want to buy online the options can be daunting. Here are a few pointers to give you some ideas, and remember we’re always happy to help via e-mail or on the phone.

If you are short sighted, your lens power will have a minus sign in front of it. Your lenses will be thicker at the edges than in the middle, and may have unsightly white reflecting rings around them. From about power -4.00, a thinner lens material will help to reduce thickness and weight. Adding an anti-reflection layer will cut down those dreaded bottle-bottom reflections and improve appearance.

If you are long sighted, your lens power will have a plus sign. Your lenses are thicker in the centre, and thin at the edge. Your lenses will magnify your eyes, and from about +2.00 a flatter lens design will help to minimise thickness, weight, and the magnification of your eyes.  Again an anti-reflection layer will help to make the lenses appear thinner when people look at you.

Whatever your prescription, flatter lenses will help, so look for aspheric lenses, where we change the optics of the lenses to reduce the curve while still giving you the strength you need. Choosing a small frame will also help, reducing lens thickness and weight. For long sighted patients we can also make the lenses to fit the frame, rather than cutting them out of a large lens to start with. Making the lens with your frame in mind reduces the centre thickness and makes it flatter.

If you’re short sighted, a plastic frame will disguise edge thickness and look trendy! A rimless or thin metal will leave all your edge thickness on full display. If you’re long sighted, your lens edges will be thin, so you can choose a metal, but rimless or semi-rimless will make the edges of your lenses vulnerable to chipping or breaking. So think about the practicalities before you fall in love with a frame – you might not love it after the lenses are fitted if they look thick or are heavy.

So, a little time spent before you press that enter key and make your purchase will ensure that you love your new look. If you want our opinion on your choice, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re here to help you look good as well as see perfectly!

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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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On Your Marks!

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Obviously we are all familiar with hallmarks – those tiny symbols engraved on jewellery and items of precious metal that tell us the date, maker, location and purity of the material used. Did you ever notice that your spectacle lenses are hallmarked? Well if you’ve ever seen some strange little symbols etched on your lenses, then that’s what they are! Or on varifocal lenses there are markings which tell us what type of lens you have and where they are placed.

The engravings on lenses are so shallow and so tiny that the human eye cannot detect them when the specs are in place and you are looking through them. To people looking at you, the markings are rarely visible, unless the light happens to hit them in exactly the right place and the observer is looking straight at them. If you do want to take a look at your lenses and see if they have markings, then stand under bight over head light and breathe heavily onto the lens. As the mist appears you might see some minute little marks engraved. If it is a manufacturers hallmark then it will be in a random place on the lens, depending on the axis or angle of your prescription. This is applied in high quality lenses where you have paid for a branded lens.

If you have varifocals, then all lenses will have markings when you first get them. In time, and as you diligently polish your specs the marks will lessen, and even the most eagle eyed will no longer be able to see them! The varifocals will have the manufacturers mark, the power of the reading segment, and the lens type marked on them. Makes you wonder how on earth you could see through them! They also have tiny little circles or elliptical shapes etched at the temple and the nose edge which allows the optician to tell where your clear areas of vision are. If you specs get seriously bent out of shape and you then need to have them re-aligned, the optician will use the tiny engravings as a reference point, to ink a full varifocal template onto the lens. The specs can then be re-fitted and the ink removed. A vital tool in ensuring the continued success of your varifocal wear.

So in an idle moment you can take a look at your lenses and if your sight is sharp enough, you’ll see the reassuring sight of hallmarks and markings that tell us about your specs.

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For Good Measure!

Friday, August 28th, 2009

The art and science of making glasses is an interesting blend of expertise, experience and complex physics. With respect to making your spectacle lenses, we have to take your prescription and accurately make your lenses to the powers stated by your optician. The strength they give us corrects your sight for the required distance; – far, intermediate and near.

Besides the power, we need another piece of information – the measurements that put the lenses in the correct place to make your sight comfortable. For all glasses we would ideally like to know the distance between your pupils, the inter pupillary distance. For very high prescriptions – over plus or minus ten, this could cause problems with eye strain if it’s not right. For lower powers it’s not too much of an issue, although we always make it accurate for any strength.

You can ask your optician to give you your pupil distance after your eye test, or if you haven’t got it, take it yourself – see the IGC website for instructions – could make for a fun evening’s entertainment if you enlist the help of a friend!

If you can’t manage this then don’t despair, we can still make glasses for you. Thanks to our huge amounts of data regarding patient age and gender we can calculate a pupil distance. We also check all of our orders as they come in to make sure that distances our customers give look logical for the data we have. If the pupil distance is ever wrong – and we’re proud to say that we’ve never had any spectacles returned to us so far – you would not suffer any long term ill effect. At worst you’d get a bit of eye strain or a slight headache, which goes when you take the spectacles off. Of course if you do have any problems with your glasses we’ll just change them for you.

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Spectacle Lens Coatings

Friday, July 17th, 2009

When you visit an optician or online optician there are choices available to add coatings onto your spectacle lenses. The purpose of these coatings is to enhance the longevity of your lenses, and/or improve your vision while wearing your lenses. Here we take a close look at coatings, and explain the advantages to you.

Anti-Scratch Coatings

These are also called hard coatings. They are available on their own or as a part of multi-coatings. Nowadays the vast percentage of lenses sold are made of plastic, which are safe, light and comfortable, but scratch more easily than traditional glass lenses. A hard layer will protect the lenses, and increase their lifespan.

If your lenses are thin plastic – also called hi-index or high density lenses – they will be softer than standard plastic, so make sure you order a coating on the lenses. It will make them last longer and give you clearer vision.

The anti-scratch layer makes the lenses resistant to every day, surface wear and tear scratches. You should still make sure that you never put the lenses face down on a surface, and wash plenty of fluid across them before wiping them with a cloth.

Anti-Reflection Coatings

These coatings actually make your vision sharper and clearer by eliminating the glare and interference caused by reflections in the lens surface. While they improve vision for all spectacle wearers, they are particularly useful if you use a computer and for driving at night. They allow all light through to the eye, unlike an uncoated lens where some light is reflected back.

If you are myopic (short-sighted) and your lenses have thick edges, you will see white rings around the lens edge – hence the phrase bottle-bottom lenses – the coating will help to reduce this effect. Even for lower prescriptions the appearance of the lenses is still improved, allowing people to see your eyes, not their reflection in your lenses.

As with hard coated lenses above, thin material lenses will benefit from this coating too. The best quality thin lenses have a coating which is tailor made to match the lens material. To protect the coating an added hard coat will go on top of it, so it is unusual to find anti-reflection coated lenses without an added hard layer.

Although the coating is not a tint, it will cut glare and be more comfortable in bright light. You can identify a coated lens as it will have an oil-on-water type colour on the back surface of the lens.

Clean Coatings

Lenses are often offered with a 3 in 1 coating, incorporating hard, anti-reflection and clean coatings. The clean coat stops dirt from sticking to the lens. Again, this coating improves both your vision and the performance of the lenses. It does not add visible colour, but you can tell it’s there if you run water across the lens, as it will bead and bounce off as the lens repels it.

These three coatings when used together will make your spectacle lenses last longer, give you the best possible vision, and make you look your best in your glasses.

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Sight But Not As We’ve Known It!

Monday, May 11th, 2009

This summer we’re all going Star Trekking – glued to our seats thanks to Simon Pegg and Zachary Quinto in the newest take on an old favourite. So if we’re thinking futuristic and techno, what’s happening in the world of optics?

Spectacle lenses constantly evolve, because as technology moves on in leaps and bounds, so do the products. If you are very long or short sighted, you do not have to suffer the weight and bad cosmetics of thick, heavy lenses. High density, machine thinned lenses reduce the bulk of the lens, even if your prescription is high.

Glasses frames change every season, a fashion item that serves a purpose  – you can look good and see well! Space age materials such as titanium and stainless steel make for thin, light, strong frames. Plastics improve all the time too – the stuff used in the 1950s was flammable and went a funny yellow colour! Thankfully times have changed. Plastics come in all sorts of colours and finishes, from plain and simple to bejewelled and engraved.

If you’re still not convinced by glasses, you could opt for contact lenses – which can now be worn for a day, a week, or a month, with simple, cheap cleaning solutions. You can sleep in them, swim in them, and apparently chop onions without tears! Or if that’s still not techno enough for you, you can have your eyes lasered – suitable for a huge percentage of patients nowadays.

So, we may not be able to beam ourselves up yet, but times are changing and will continue to so. Check out opticians websites and keep up with the future of optics.

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How To Go Lady Ga Ga!!

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

If you’re loving the chunky fringe this season – a hot hairstyle seen on everyone from Lady Ga Ga to Beth Ditto – then you might want to know how to add the perfect eyewear to enhance your look.

You need a good relationship with your hairdresser, as this fringe needs a regular trim every couple of weeks to keep it off your specs. Even if you don’t wash your hair daily, you can just shampoo the fringe. It will smudge your spectacle lenses if greasy – not a good look! Keep the fringe length just over the brows, and choose a glasses frame that sits slightly below this level.

If you’re got the perfect hairdresser and therefore the perfect straight bangs, you’d look cool in a chunky plastic frame – geek or chic and sleek – with a straight top rim that follows the line of your fringe. The Rayban Clubmaster shape is good, it has a thick top plastic rim and a lower metal one. This type of frame is everywhere this Summer, for sunglasses or clear prescription eyewear.

If you take the fringe higher, then a fifties cats eye shape is fantastic, and gives you a really definitive look. Think Dita Von Teese rather than Sheila’s Wheels though! Whether brunette or blonde you can add drama with dark plastic frames, and tortoiseshell or a bright colour pop can be fantastic for summer. Thin metal or rimless frames will fade into insignificance with this style, so go onto the online optician and grab a couple of bolder pairs.

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Eye Health For Computer Users

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

In the years since we exchanged our slide rules for calculators, more and more of us use computers for longer periods each day. This raises questions about eye health and the VDU screen, so if you are worried about the hours you spend slaving over your keyboard, read on…..

Problems can arise because of the amount of time we spend in front of our computers. To counteract this you need to do a spot of eye exercise and remember to blink often, which moistens the surface of the eye, and try to get into the habit of looking away from the screen at regular intervals. This alters your focus and helps to prevent eye strain and fatigue.

You may need prescription glasses for the computer, and if so, an anti-reflection coating will help to reduce the effects of glare. You should also make sure that the glasses you are wearing are at the correct focal length. Tell your optician how far away the screen is when you work.

Have regular eye tests with a qualified optician and make sure your prescription glasses are up to date. If you spend most of your working day on a computer your employer will pay for the test, and the cost of the spectacle lenses. Buy glasses online and you can afford a few pairs, so you’re never straining to see the screen without them.

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