The frame material that’s best for you depends upon your personal needs. For skin allergies, plastic (zyl) or hypoallergenic metals, such as stainless steel or titanium, are excellent options. People with an active lifestyle will do well with metal alloys that are highly flexible and break-resistant. Spring hinges increase resilience and decrease the risk of breaks on the playground or sports field.
All about Lenses
Once you’ve picked your favorite frames, it’s time to consider the type of lenses that are most suited for your vision requirements. The technology of eyeglass lenses has advanced considerably in recent years, with many high quality options and benefits. It’s helpful to familiarize yourself with the available types of lenses:
- Ashperic lenses boast a slimmer, sleeker profile than other lenses. The bulbous “bug-eye” look of some prescriptions is eliminated.
- High index lenses are composed of materials that craft extremely thin and lightweight plastic lenses.
- Wavefront technology lenses grant extreme vision clarity. These lenses are custom-made by using precise measurements of the path that light travels through your eyes,.
- Polycarbonate or Trivex lenses are ideal for children’s eyeglasses and safety eyewear. They are super-thin, very light, and up to 10 times more impact resistant than standard plastic eyeglass lenses.
- Photochromic lenses respond to the sun’s UV rays and darken quickly in bright settings. When in ordinary indoor lighting, they return rapidly to a clear, non-tinted state. Photochromic lenses block 100% of UV rays. These are available in glass (Photogray) or plastic (Transitions) lenses.
- Polarized lenses reduce reflective glare from flat, shiny surfaces (such as water or snow). They also help to decrease eye fatigue.
- Anti-reflective lens treatments can drastically improve the appearance and comfort of your eyeglasses by limiting the quantity of light that bounces off of your lenses. This reduces glare and helps relieve eye fatigue.
- Lens coatings, such as ultraviolet treatment, scratch-resistant and mirror coatings, are some optional features that many people choose.
Eyeglasses for Presbyopia
After 40 years of age, a normal loss of your ability to focus on near object occurs. Called presbyopia, this makes reading and other close-up tasks more challenging. Your options include:
- Bifocals: These lenses have two powers, one for seeing close and one for seeing far, separated by a visible line.
- Trifocals: With three powers for viewing varying distances, (close, intermediate and far), two visible lines separate the respective parts of the lenses.
- Progressive lenses: These lenses enable vision at many different distances, not only two or three. With no dividing lines, progressive lenses create a smooth transition from viewing one distance to the next.
- Variable focus lenses: These are innovative mult-ifocal lenses that provide a wider field of view than conventional bifocals, progressives and trifocals. They can be adjusted to grant the power that you need for different tasks.
- Reading glasses: If you have no difficulty with far vision, then these reading glasses may be sufficient to help resolve any near problems due to presbyopia.
- Removing distance glasses, if you are nearsighted