The most essential part of purchasing eyewear is choosing the right lenses. Primarily, glasses are used to correct any visual defects in order for us to have clarity in what we see around us and to enhance our reality.
When choosing the right lenses, consideration to their purpose and their coatings together make up the perfect pair of glasses. As there are so many options available on the market today, it can be difficult to determine which attributes are best for you and your lifestyle.
There are various options for choosing the right lenses available on the market today –
Single Vision Distance Lenses
This option is for people who have difficulty with seeing long distances clearly. They are useful for driving when seeing long distance is imperative. This type of lens is usually concave or curve inwards.
Singe Vision Reading Lenses
This type of lens is useful for people who need a magnifying lens to enhance their reading pleasure. This type of lens is convex or curve outwards.
Progressive Lenses
These lenses are designed to correct distance, middle and near sightedness simultaneously. They’re highly personalised. They are similar to bi-focals but they don’t have the obvious visible line through the lens itself, as the lens itself is seamless.
Bi-focal Lenses
These are the most common of multifocal lenses. They correct both near and long-distance sight by combining both prescriptions into a single lens. The top part of the lens aims to correct distance deficits, while the lower portion is a near-distance lens to up-close vision.
The benefit of these lenses is that they correct both deficiencies in one, without the need to carry two pairs of glasses and changing them intermittently.
There are even more choices available with regard to the coatings of your lenses. Why use coatings? Well, there’s a myriad of coatings on the market, specifically available to enhance the wearer’s experience. Many coatings make the lens of the glasses behave differently, depending on the environment they’re in.
Anti-scratch coating
This type of coating will protect the lenses from scratching or abrasions that may occur during the normal wear and tear of your glasses.
Anti-reflective coating
This coating will help reduce the irritating glare, reflection or halos that you may experience in certain environments.
Light adjusting coating
This will adjust the tint of the lens depending on how much light there is. This type of coating is particularly useful for people that move from outside to inside on a regular basis.
Colour tinted coating
There are many different colour tints on the market. Yellow tints may help you see better, and rose tinted coatings make a fashion statement!
Gradient tint coating
This type of coating is particularly useful for sun worshippers! They are predominantly dark at the top and lighter at the bottom which gives a good amount of sun protection and a good alternative to totally dark lenses.
Polarized coating
Polarized coatings will help reduce reflections created by water, particularly useful when driving, when water on the roads produce dangerous reflections sometimes.
Mirrored coating
This type of coating is really a fashion statement. They provide a little bit of mystique and reflect back the image to the person who’s looking at them, not wearing them!
Water repellent coating
This will help to repel water droplets from falling rain, and can dispel smudges and dirt from sticking to the lens.
UV Protective coating
UV protective coatings can help with age related eye problems, such as cataracts, as they provide some protective from the harmful UV rays of the sun.
Blue Light Blocking coating
The biggest eye health risk when using computer screens is the blue light that they emit. Blue light blocking coatings do exactly what their name implies. It’s a really good choice for people who use computer screens on a regular and systematic basis.
Conclusion
Eyewear is unique to all of us, and it’s essential that they correct any visual defect as well as look good and are functional.
We are The Eye Site – expert eye care focused on you and help you when choosing the right lenses. We are local, independent eye care specialists in the Gloucester area. Take a look at our website for more information or give us a call on 01452 410 494 – we’d be happy to help!