Lenses

Lenses for your glasses are chosen on your needs, requirements and your lifestyle. Your optician will always guide you in regards to what you need and present different options to you. Here’s a handy guide to help you;

Lenses can be made thinner, flatter and less weighty when they are high index. So if you have a high prescription and want your lenses to look more cosmetically appealing you can have them high index (thinner & flatter) and also made to your individual measurements (bespoke). Here is some further information in regards to this.

Glass lenses are now used much less than plastic lenses, unless someone has a particularly high prescription. The reasons for the majority of people choosing plastic is that they are less heavy, they do not shatter if you drop them and you have more visual options in plastic lenses.

Tailor made bespoke lenses. These are lenses made to your visual specifications only. Most lenses available are already part made and just require your prescription to be adapted in. With bespoke lenses, the lenses are only made once your personalised measurements are taken. The measurements included, your visual behaviour when looking around to reading, your dominant eye, your head and eye movements, how the frames site on your face, your mono PD measurements, your heights, where the frame sits in relation to your eyes, the wrap angle of the frame, the pantoscopic angle (tilt) of the frame when you wear it and more.

Personalised measurements are non-invasive and very quick to do; with personalised lenses you will have better clarity, improved contrast, a wider clearer view and more dynamic vision for everyday tasks. Personalised lenses can be made for all types of lenses; single vision, bifocals, varifocals and even sunglasses. Most people will have multiple pairs of glasses. It’s important to remember that no one pair of glasses can cover all your visual needs. Like your shoes, you have different footwear for different activities.

Good quality lenses usually come with a multiple of lens treatments as standard. For example they will have UV protection, blue light protection, anti glare, hard coat, dust repellent, Smudge resistant and water repellent. With a good quality lens as mentioned above they can be in single vision, bifocals or varifocals. They can be also made into transition, polarised, driving glasses, bespoke etc. The options are endless.

Anti Glare/Reflection Free; stops unwanted white reflections on your lenses from interfering with your vision. This lens treatment or coating helps you see clearer at night and also under artificial lighting.

Water Repellent; when it’s raining, the water will fall away from the lenses quickly, so your lenses will not be covered with water droplets.

Smudge Resistance; with any lens that has reflection free, it is so clear that any dirt or smudges can be seen. This coating helps reduce the amount smudge or dirt build up but also allows them to be cleaned off quickly meaning they stay cleaner for longer

Dust Repellent; this treatment stops your lenses being peppered with dust.

Hard coat; to reduce the amount of scratches you get with general wear and tear.

UV Block (clear); this treatment filters out all 100% of UV rays from the front and back of your lenses. UV light is dangerous to our eyes as well as your skin, being exposed to UV light causes accelerated development of cataracts and macular degeneration. The UV block on these lenses is E-SPF 25 ‘Protection Sun Factor of 25’ which means your eyes are 25 times more protected.

Sun UV; is a UV protection coating that is applied to your sunglasses lenses. They not only protect you from UV light but they also have an anti reflection coating to protect you from reflected white glare. The Sun UV coating is applied to the back and front surface of lenses giving you optimal protection. High street sunglasses usually do not have Sun UV protection coatings.

A blue light protection coating can help protect your eyes from bad blue light being emitted from artificial lights sources, screens, smart phones, laptops, tablets and from being outdoors. There is a raging debate over whether blue light affects the retinal cells, general eye health, affects your sleep cycle and causes tiredness to eyes. A blue light coating can help protect your eyes but they do not eliminate all bad blue light. Blue light protection coating on lenses come with a UV block, smudge resistance, hard coat, anti reflection, dust repellent and water repellent.

Driving Optimised Lenses are available in single vision (distance) and part progressive Varifocal (distance and intermediate). They are lenses that have a specific lens treatment to reduce up to 90% of reflections from on-coming light and other light sources when driving. The lenses have a full UV block and help protect against blue light. These are fantastic as an additional pair of glasses if you struggle with any type of glare whilst driving, i.e. headlights. They give optimum vision whilst driving in all conditions.

Transition Lenses, react to UV light and are very quick to adapt. Indoors transition lenses will remain clear but outdoors whether a sunny or cloudy day; your transition lenses will start to darken in a matter of seconds because they are reacting to the UV light found outdoors. Transition lenses are darkest in the brightest sun and are always changing to the changing light conditions outside so you will have the exact shade when needed. Transitions lenses can be applied to almost any type of lenses available and all have 100% UV protection. Transitions come in a variety colours such as grey, brown, green grey, emerald green, sapphire blue, amber and amethyst violet. Transitions extra not only work on UV light but visible light too. They darken more effectively when you are in the car and are available in grey, brown or grey green. Transitions can come with just a hard coat or with all coatings such as UV block, anti reflection, hard coat, smudge resistance, dust repellent and water repellent.

Polarised Sunglasses lenses, contain a special filter that blocks out intense reflected light, reducing the overall glare to a minimum. Polarised lenses are much more high-tech than normal sunglasses because they selectively block out glare, rather than just making the whole field of vision dimmer like an ordinary tinted sunglasses. When wearing conventional sunglasses, glare can become dangerous because you can’t see what is behind the reflection. And this is particularly dangerous when you’re driving. In very basic terms, normal tinted lenses allow light to bounce into the eye in all directions, which gives you glare, reduced colour intensity & contrast. Polaroid lenses have a ‘Protection Sun Factor of 50’ which means your eyes are 50 times more protected than wearing no lenses.

Polaroid lenses or sunglasses only allow one plane of light to enter the eye, which eliminates the glare, makes colours ‘pop’ and gives you clearer vision! Polarised lenses are one of best sunglasses lenses; they give you full UV protection, reduce glare to minimum and are available in a variety of colours. The most beneficial times to use polarised sunglasses are in situations where you need to be able to see clearly. Polaroid lenses or sunglasses offer the most sun protection. Good polarised sunglasses lenses come with a anti reflective coating on the front and back surface helping to reduce further reflective glare.