Are digital high definition lenses right for me?

[caption id="attachment_1294" align="alignleft" width="333" caption="Amazingly sharp images with HD lens technology"][/caption]Did you know that there are higher-order aberrations that can affect your vision, even if your prescription eyeglasses fully correct your special ophthalmic prescription needs? Well eye Drs have known for years that there are aberrations due to the optical characteristics of your eyes and often more from the optical limitations of conventional eyeglass lenses. The frustrating issue for an optometrist was that there was no ideal lens treatment or process that could either solve or reduce such aberrations. Drs knew many patients just did not see as well as they could but there was nothing Drs could due because of the limitations in eyeglass lens fabrication technology.

Times have changed now and recent advances in eyeglass lens manufacturing have made possible new high-definition digital eyeglass lenses that correct these aberrations, potentially giving a patient sharper vision than what was ever possible with conventional eyeglasses. These lenses are designed to provide sharper vision in all lighting conditions, provide wider progressive lens corridors, keep the prescription optically true over a much wider zone in the lens and reduce glare for nighttime driving and other night vision tasks.

Many brands of high-definition eyeglass lenses currently are available today, including high-definition versions of high-index lenses and progressive lenses.

Digital lens surfacing is six times more accurate than conventional lens processing because the new digital surfacing equipment uses less tooling and has direct contact with the lens enabling a high degree of accuracy. The analogy can be just like a digital camera. The higher pixal count yields a higher degree of resolution. When this happens as you have seen in your digital camera images, you get this amazing crisp image. So this is the same experience with the HD digital ophthalmic lenses today. The result is a very highly defined vision along with and unmatched depth and clarity never before possible. In the case of progressive addition lenses fabricated using the digital technology get ready for a refreshing change because of a 20% wider progressive field of view. From personal experience I know it makes for exceptional intermediate and near working ranges exceeding the conventional options. I am getting the benefit right now with my new digital lenses I am wearing. It really makes reading and computer use so much more comfortable and enjoyable; my eyes just get less tired with near visual tasks.

So wow! I can really appreciate the HD lenses wider, sharp and true optical zone and the crispness of detail is an awesome experience. You owe it to yourself to investigate this option the next time you fill your new eyeglass presciption.

Please ask your optometrist if these new lenses are right for your eyes.

To your eye health,

Dr Vincent Facchiano

What can a parent do to keep their child's eye safe??

Are you aware that annual statistics show that sports-related eye injuries account for 40,000 trips to the hospital? That's one injury every 13 minutes! Eye Care professionals report that most of the injuries would have been easily prevented by wearing protective eyewear. More often than not eye damaging accidents take place when playing recreational activities or doing work around the house. Kids are especially vulnerable to accidents involving eye damage, which often happen during active play.So the remedy is safety glasses and they don't have to be some dreaded ugly glasses that make your child look like they are from another planet. Safety glasses come in school colors, all clear, can also include fashion sun wear with the correct protective lens material and tint. Don't forget the age old accessory the sport band that keeps the glasses attached and in place in contact sports. A popular brand of sport elastic band is Croakies offering the original band to color cords and floating cord options. Every household should have plano safety goggles available if outdoor work is done to protect the eyes from projectiles that can result from activities that may seem benign such as simple grass clipping to the more dangerous weed whacking. This summer don't forget the swim goggles either and if you have a swimmer in the family swim goggles can be made in prescription too.

Being strong about ensuring your kids use protective glasses during contact sports will protect them from potential eye damage. A good idea is to lead by example by purchasing a pair of new wraparound safety glasses for yourself that you use when involved in contact sports or working with power tools. Insist your children follow your example. In addition, let your kids select safety glasses in the style they prefer. Safety also involves consideration of sun protection when outdoors to prevent not only damaging UV rays from harming the eyes and creating eye sun burns but also enhances performance by promoting a higher degrees of clarity and less hesitation that is produced with glare.

To ensure you choose a pair with the right fit and the proper amount of safety, ask an experienced eye care professional for recommendations. Our professionals can help you in purchasing the right pair of glasses for your child, based on your child's particular needs. If your child has glasses, safety glasses can be customized with prescription lenses from your eye care center. Trivex or polylcarbonate lenses are recommended for a child that plays contact sports such as football. They are not only more shatter-proof, they are also lighter than plastic lenses, offering greater comfort.

Don't skimp when purchasing safety eyewear. It's a simple step to guard your child's eyes!

The Brief History of Eye Glasses

I've realized that contact lenses have been getting a lot of blog love lately. To balance out the coverage, here is the (brief) history of eye glasses.

In the history of the world, glasses are relatively a new invention for something that feels so important now. About a 1,000 years ago, the first corrective vision tool called a "reading stone" was used by polishing glass that was in the shape of a sphere. Essentially, it was the first magnifying glass. The reason it took so long for a corrective vision aid of any sort to be created was simple due to the fact that not many people knew how to read. It wasn't until monks suffered from age related vision problems in the 1200's and wanted to read that a need for eye glasses was created.



Fast forward another 200 years, an Italian is credited for making the first pair of wearable eye glasses. They were made from all sorts of materials that sound ridiculous now considering optical lenses and plastic dominate most eye ware fashion. Quartz, leather, bone and metal were common materials used. It also wasn't until the 1700's did eye glasses have a standard method of attaching to people's faces with the ear pieces. Solutions involved looping string around the ears, it wasn't until about another 100 years until ear pieces were added.

Around the same time as ear pieces, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals. Reportedly, he hated switching between glasses for distance and up close vision. I'd imagine it was like how the Snuggie was invented, someone was tired of having to switch between being in a blanket and not. Franklin's invention of putting two lenses of two different powers on top of each other paved the way of other advances like correcting astigmatisms. One common thread throughout the history of eye is that people have been embarrassed or self conscious of wearing them since the beginning. The upper classes and royalty in Europe would only wear glasses in private.



I'll leave the history here. From the time Ben Franklin invented bifocals, the biggest innovation since then is the ear pieces that help balance glasses, the kind that is ubiquitous now. There are a few other things, and the advancements in the Optometry profession but the point was to explain the genesis of eye glasses.

Half of Eye Injuries Happen at Home

Injuries to the eye are no laughing matter, they can  be annoying at best and all the way to very painful. It's always good to protect the eyes with safety glasses or other approved safety device. Many people think that construction workers or other type of profession that works a lot with tools are primarily at risk for eye injury. Not the case. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT) over 1.5 million eye injuries happen every year in the home. That is half of all eye injuries.

Of the most dangerous places, the lawn and garden rank number one. The reason is from lawnmowers tossing debris into the air. Those rocks, clippings or twigs can lodge themselves in the eye and cause serious damage. Household products like cleaning supplies, makeup, dinner utensils, scissors and hair brushes are another big source of eye injury. Kids now are about 20 percent of the total eye injury total, so it is more important than ever to teach children about not running in the house with potentially dangerous objects and play away from someone mowing the lawn.

It's a common misconception that safety glasses have to be "nerdy" or "dorky." There are plenty of options available now that look fashionable and offer the same type of protection needed to keep eyes healthy. So those glasses you wore in 7th grade chemistry-



Can now look more like this-



A whopping 90 percent of the nearly 3 million yearly injuries could have been prevented. By being a little more careful and wearing the proper safety glasses, the statistics for eye injury will plummet. If you have any questions about safety glasses, get in touch with an eye care expert.

Learn more about eye safety at All About Vision.

People are Turned Off by 3D TV Glasses

The biggest push in home consumer electronics right now is 3D. We've all been to the movies where you purchase a ticket and also get a pair of special glasses that allow wearers to see images "pop" out of the screen. The technology is moving into living rooms and so are those glasses.

According to a Nielsen TV study, USA Today is reporting that people do not like wearing special glasses that are only used for the one task of seeing 3D images from their TVs, even if they are impressed with what gets displayed. A lot of times, people will have to put these glasses on over their corrective vision glasses. It seems as if people aren't too keen on wearing glasses if they don't have to for healthy vision.



Another source of contention is the fact that different TV makers use slightly different 3D technology so the brand of glasses have to match the brand of television. That would be like having to wear a different pair of Ford corrective vision glasses to drive a Ford car and a pair of Chevy glasses to drive a Chevy car.  There is work being done to eliminate the need for  the glasses, but that technology might be a little further away than some people hope it to be.

In future posts, we'll cover how the eye see 3D images but this is an interesting finding that people do not want to wear glasses if they don't have to.