PRESCRIPTION EYEGLASSES

With new advances in medical technology designed to reduce your dependence on prescription eyeglasses, eyewear is a choice and not a burden. Wearing eyeglasses is fun and a great way to make a personal statement. We’ve included some helpful tips on selecting a pair of glasses that will look great, feel comfortable, and last you well into the future.
Selecting Your Frames
Eyeglasses, both wardrobe accessory and practical tool, come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes. As lens technology has advanced over the years, so too has frame fashion, both in style and functionality. Sports enthusiasts can purchase frames that are designed to stay put during a sprint or a swim. Business professionals can purchase frames in a range of sleek, sophisticated styles. For a less noticeable pair of prescription eyeglasses, you can choose rimless eyewear. Ladies who are fashion forward can treat themselves to an ever-widening array of fun eyewear shapes and sizes as well as a variety of eyeglass frame hues.
Here are some general tips to help you find the set of eyeglass frames that perfectly suits your look and lifestyle.
Shape of the Frames
The shape of the frame you select for your prescription eyeglasses should complement the shape of your face as well as your facial features. For the best visual effect, the shape of the frames should contrast with your face shape. The positive aspects of your face shape can be emphasized and the negative aspects can be de-emphasized by selecting the right set of eyeglass frames. An overly round face can appear thinner through the use of a frame with sharper angles, such as a square shape. Faces that are more triangular in shape can achieve a balanced look with the right set of frames. For a base-down triangle face, try color accents on the top half of the frames or a cat-eye shape. People with a base-up triangle face can try light colors and materials or rimless eyeglasses. Narrow frame styles can help soften a very wide and strong jaw line.
Regardless of your face shape, be sure to purchase prescription eyeglasses that are the proper scale in relation to your face. Eyeglasses that are overly large will overwhelm a more delicate bone structure, whereas eye glasses that are excessively dainty will make your eyes look a bit on the beady side. The sales representative at your local frames outlet can likely steer you in the right direction in this regard.
Color of the Frames
To further customize your prescription eyeglasses, the base color of your skin, hair, and eyes should match the base color of your frames. Cosmetologists cite two basic ways to classify a person’s hair and facial features: Everyone’s features conform to either a warm (yellow-based) or cool (blue-based) color palette, and most people’s features are fairly uniform in their classification in relation to each other. Matching the base color of your facial features to the base color of your frames simply means that if you have a warm face, your eyeglasses should be framed by a warm color; and if you have a cool face, your eyeglasses should be framed by a cool color.
Consulting the person behind the makeup counter at your local department store is an easy way to get advice on whether or not you have a warm or cool skin tone. Anyone with experience working with cosmetic facial products should be able to ascertain your classification with relative ease. Olive skin is the only tricky complexion. A mixture of blue and yellow, olive skin is usually considered a cool complexion color.
For hair color, strawberry blond, platinum, blue-black, white, salt-and-pepper, and “dishwater” brown are all cool colors. By contrast, golden blond, flat black, brown-gold, “carrot,” and “dirty” gray are all warm colors.
Eye color is the hardest to classify because it has the greatest range of hue of the three criteria. Whether your eye color is considered warm or cool depends not only on the particular color of your eyes, but also on how light or dark your eyes are and how uniformly the color is spread throughout your iris. An experienced cosmetologist would likely be able to tell you how your eyes classify, but unless the color is very intense (such as deep blue), this is probably the least important criterion for eye frame color selection.
Once you have determined whether you classify as mostly warm or mostly cool, you will have successfully narrowed your options, but there will still be quite a few colors to choose from.
Size of the Frames
Selecting the right size frames for your face isn’t just an issue of aesthetics. Prescription eyeglasses need to fit well in order to be comfortable and, particularly in the case of bifocals, function the way they are meant to.
Professional frame manufacturers refer to the arms on a pair of glasses (the parts that goes behind your ear) as the temples. In order to prevent the temples from digging uncomfortably into the sides of your head, you need to select a pair of frames that are sufficiently wide. The edge of the frames should protrude slightly beyond your head in order for the temples to extend back to your ears without touching your face too much. Otherwise, they might pinch slightly. The curve at the end of the temple should be able to pass over the ear without pressing down directly upon it. Be sure to try on different frames before purchasing a pair, paying special attention to the comfort of the temples in order to select the best length.
The glasses should also sit comfortably on your nose without pinching. This is especially important if the frames you are considering do not have an adjustable nose pad. Most nose pads are composed mainly of silicone; however, vinyl nose pads are available in various sizes for those with skin sensitive to silicone.
Be sure to bend over when you are trying on your new frames. This is the best test to determine if you have selected the proper size. A well-fitting pair of glasses will stay put without pressing too hard against your face.
Most people’s eyeglass frames last for a long time, particularly frames made out of a durable material such as titanium. Taking the time to choose a comfortable pair of frames that are the proper size and shape for your face can save you a lot of headaches later. Your eyeglasses may be with you for some time, so be sure to select them carefully.
Prescription Eyeglasses
If you have thought carefully about what lifestyle needs your glasses will have to accommodate and have purchased a durable set of frames, then you will probably only need to purchase a new set of eyeglasses when your prescription changes. Many people like to purchase a new set of glasses once or twice every 10 years or so simply to update their look. Scratch-resistant lens coating and shatter-resistant lenses are two product options that can easily extend the life of your glasses. Spring hinges are another good feature for improving the durability of your prescription eyeglasses.
If you don’t like the idea of regularly purchasing new eyeglass frames, avoid selecting very trendy eyewear. The hot fashion of today will become the fashion faux pas of tomorrow, and you may be stuck feeling behind the times while you wait for your look to come around again.
Another good way to avoid the trouble of having to buy eyeglasses later on is to buy two or more pairs now. When purchasing new eyewear, take advantage of the two-for-one specials that many frame dealers periodically offer. Your life, like that of most people, is multifaceted. A single pair of glasses may not be able to be both sporty and professional, but with two or more pairs of glasses to fulfill your optical needs, buying a new pair of glasses every couple of years won’t be necessary.
If you wear prescription eyeglasses, it is very important that you regularly schedule a complete eye examination. There are two main reasons for this. First, your prescription can change gradually overtime, decreasing your quality of vision almost imperceptibly. This means that having your eyes examined by an eye care specialist is the only way to ensure you are getting the maximum amount of vision correction out your glasses. Second, people with pre-existing eye conditions, even minor ones, often have a greater likelihood of developing more severe eye disorders. In their earliest stages, these eye diseases have few to no visible symptoms. Thus, if you wait until you think there may be something wrong, it may be too late to effectively treat the eye disease without losing some quality in your vision.
If your prescription has been stable for a number of years and you do not have a personal or family history of serious eye disorders, then you can probably get away with going to the eye doctor every other year. Children and seniors should get their eyes tested at least once a year because they are more vulnerable to eye problems than people in other age groups. Those who have been treated in the past for serious eye conditions such as glaucoma or cataracts need to be examined by a trained ophthalmologist at least once a year, and more frequently if a doctor recommends it. Persons with severe diabetes have a higher risk of developing diabetic retinopathy and other anterior eye problems. Diabetics should consult their primary physician about how often they should see an ophthalmologist.
Prescription Sunglasses
Anyone who has ever attempted to attach a pair of clip-on sunglasses to their prescription eye glass frames knows why there is an ever-growing market for prescription sunglasses. Clip-on sunglasses are not one size fits all, and they don’t always stay on. Particularly during adverse weather conditions such as heavy winds, prescription sunglasses are easier on the eyes than the combination of contact lenses and sunglasses. They also tend to provide better protection from the sun’s rays.
Obtaining a pair of prescription sunglasses is easy. You can often purchase a pair at the same place you bought your prescription eye glasses. Some eyewear dealers even offer prescription sunglasses at a discount when you buy them in addition to a pair of regular eyeglasses.
Almost all styles and sizes of sunglass frames are compatible with prescription lens technology. The only exception is certain wraparound style sunglasses where the severe curve can distort the vision correction capacity of the lenses. High-index and polycarbonate are the two most popular and durable materials used to produce prescription sunglass lenses. Many lenses now have built-in UV protection. For those who regularly participate in outdoor water sports, polarized sunglass lenses are specifically calibrated to reduce the appearance of glare on water and wet surfaces. If the local eyewear dealer where you usually purchase your eyewear doesn’t carry prescription sunglasses, consider consulting your local optometrist for recommendations on manufacturers and dealers he or she trusts.
For those who spend a lot time outdoors but do not wish to purchase a second pair of prescription glasses for sun exposure, photochromic lenses are a great option. These lenses are specially designed to change color when exposed to different light levels. The lens becomes darker in bright light and lightens in lower light situations, such as indoors or during the night.
Reduce Your Dependency on Glasses
Thanks to the latest advances in eye care technology, there are a variety of ways to reduce or even eliminate your dependency on glasses.
The most economical means of maintaining good vision without using prescription eyeglasses is to switch to contact lenses. Modern contact lens technology has been around since the seventies and eighties. Contact lenses are not one size fits all, and they need to be prescribed by a qualified optometrist or ophthalmologist. Contact lenses are an effective means of vision correction for almost every eye prescription.
LASIK eye surgery is becoming increasingly popular as a method for producing permanent improvement in the clarity of a person’s vision without the use of glasses. Although classic LASIK is the most popular form of corneal tissue correction, there are other varieties of refractive eye surgery, including LASEK, Epi-LASIK, custom LASIK, IntraLASIK, and PRK. LASIK and other refractive procedures are extremely detail-sensitive, technologically complex forms of surgery. If you choose laser eye surgery, your procedure should be performed only by a highly trained and experienced refractive eye surgeon whom you have pre-screened and selected using specific criteria.
Originally used only in cataract surgery, intraocular lenses (IOLs) are being increasingly recommended as a form of vision correction for patients who are not good candidates for refractive surgery. While refractive eye surgeries work to correct vision by manipulating the cornea, IOLs are implanted in place of the eye’s natural lens. The latest innovation in medical lens correction procedures is the implantable contact lens (ICL). This device is similar to an IOL except it does not require the removal of the eye’s natural lens.
For more information on the surgical options that can reduce your dependency on glasses, schedule a patient consultation with an experienced eye surgeon in your area. These comprehensive information sessions are usually provided free of charge and are crucial in determining whether you are a good candidate for a specific procedure.
Schedule an Eye Appointment with an Eye Care Specialist