Lens Menu

Our office is pleased to present you with a lens menu to aid in making your selection of eyewear. Please feel free to use this information to select the options you would like to discuss with your optician when you come to our office. This menu includes most options, but not all -- our opticians will have more information for you.

Types of lenses

Single Vision

This lens is used for distance or near correction only.

Multifocal

A multifocal lens is used when a person needs correction for distance AND near, or even in between (intermediate). This is generally due to the onset of presbyopia. Accurate measurement of multifocals and subsequent adjustment of your frame is crucial to obtaining your most comfortable vision.

Depending on your daily activities, a multifocal is a good compromise of most of your visual needs in one lens. However, many people who do a particular task for long periods of time, such as reading, or computer work, or playing musical instruments, or even sports, will have a special set of glasses for that task. There are several types of multifocals:

• Bifocal: provides distance and near vision, but not intermediate. There is a noticeable line in the lower portion of the lens, which establishes your reading segment. There is no intermediate segment, so you may notice that viewing your computer, wristwatch, and car dashboard is not sharp. Some people compensate for it by getting closer or farther from the intermediate object and accordingly using the distance or near segment to view it. There are several variations of lined bifocals, mostly in regard to size and shape of the reading segment.

• Progressive: provides distance, near, and intermediate range – without a line. It looks like a single vision lens. Instead of the ‘image jump’ you have with a lined bifocal when looking from distance to near range, this lens will provide a smooth transition. The viewing area is a little different from a lined bifocal, and your optician can discuss the difference with you.

• Trifocal: provides distance, near, and intermediate range in one lens – with lines.

Computer

Some people find their most comfortable vision on a computer with the aid of computer glasses. These glasses are a multifocal specially designed with your near and intermediate prescription, so that you can read your papers and look at your computer. These glasses can be lined or no-line, but provide more visual area than a regular multifocal.

Lens Material

Plastic

Available with many lens treatments.

Glass

Heavier than plastic, and can break or chip easily, yet is more resistant to scratches than plastic. Can be a safety concern, because it is glass in front of your eye.

High-index

A lighter, thinner, more scratch-resistant, and ultraviolet protected type of plastic lens. Highly recommended for anyone, and especially for patients with higher prescriptions. High-index material is available in several degrees of thinness, utilizing aspheric designs. High-index lenses refract the light entering the eye a little faster than a regular plastic lens, thus providing slightly sharper vision.

Polycarbonate

A form of high-index: see all the above information. This particular high-index lens is also impact resistant, making it the lens of choice for children, active adults, and athletes.

Lens Treatments

Anti-reflective

Anti-reflection (AR) technology decreases the reflections you get from computer and TV screens, overhead fluorescent lighting, and headlights and taillights at night. It also enhances the appearance of your glasses, making your lenses look clear to others. It reduces reflections, allowing more light to enter through the lens, and ensuring clearer vision for you. We recommend this option for almost everybody, and especially for people who work on a computer, want to reduce their nighttime glare, or want to present a polished image to others. There are different types of anti-glare technology; and some provide unbeatable scratch resistance.

Cosmetic tint

Tints available for everything! From fashion, to beauty, to clarity, to functionality: we can recommend a tint for you. These tints are not sunglass tints, and can be shaded in many densities, and gradients.

Scratch-resistance

If you have chosen a lens without inherent scratch resistance, we can add it. A layered coating is applied to your plastic lens to harden the surface, causing it to be less prone to daily wear-and-tear scratches. No lens is scratch proof, however. You will still need to make sure that the lenses are wet before wiping with a soft cloth, so as not to scratch them with repeated dry wiping.

Ultraviolet

If you have chosen a lens without inherent UV protection, we can add it. Ultraviolet protection is a colorless coating, and will need to be added to tinted sunglass lenses. All high index, photochromatic, and polarized lenses are manufactured with UV protection in the lens.

Polish

This is a special lens edge treatment, most often used for patients with a high myopic (lenses are thicker on the edge) prescription. By polishing and shining the lens edge that is not covered by the frame wire, it makes the lens edge look clearer and thinner. People prefer varying degrees of polish: ask your optician which one they advise for you.

Sunglasses

Photochromatic

These lenses, available in most lens materials, change from clear to dark when activated by UV light. They are available in different degrees of photochromatic properties, and available in several tints. Your optician can explain all the benefits and considerations of this lens.

Tinted lenses

Tinted lenses do not change color. The tint can be a solid color on your lens, or gradient to a lighter shade near the bottom of the lens. Tinting a lens can make it darker than what a photochromatic lens is capable of. Different shades of tint are good for different activities. For example, a gray tint is a neutral color in front of your eyes, and brown tints enhance red tones such as stop signs and red lights. Gray, brown, and gray-green are most common sunglass tints, but really can be done in any color.

Polarized

These lenses are the first choice for eliminating glare. Any surface can cause glare in the sunlight --- water, sand, snow, windows, and vehicles. Polarized lenses are available in many lens types, colors, and density. Ask our opticians to demonstrate the glare-cutting properties of a polarized lens!

* Sun lenses should always have ultraviolet (UV) protection.