When we fit conventional ophthalmic lenses in
accordance with proper, corrective curve guide-
lines, they will deliver the excellent optical per-
formance their designers intended.
We’ve all learned this proper way, either in school
or on the job. But how many of us practice proper
measuring and fitting of single vision lenses in
our offices, every day, with each and every client?
If you’re like me, probably not much. Most ECPs
have, in the absence of client complaints, become
complacent about the need to practice and fit corrective curve lenses properly. The result is a diminishment of a lens’ true performance potential.
This “twilight zone” of reduced lens performance is
essentially an amalgam of many intended and unin-
tended departures from strict compliance with good,
corrected curve measuring and fitting techniques.
The bad news resulting from these departures is that
we ECPs, over the last 25-plus years, have routinely
delivered less than optimal single vision lens performance. The good news is that although we may have
been unintentionally negligent, we set the stage for premium, free-form single vision lenses to deliver the biggest perceived improvement in ophthalmic lens performance in almost 100 years.
THE BIG “WOW” OF PREMIUM, FREE-FORM SINGLE VISION LENSES
Over the past year or so, doctors and dispensers have increasingly been hearing about patients’ positive reactions to their first pair of premium, free-form single vision (FF SV) lenses. The comments typically range from a simple, “wow” to “unbelievably clear” to “I haven’t seen this well in years!”
Why do these premium lenses inspire such positive comments? There are several reasons:
• The extreme high precision of freeform surfacing, which can produce lens surfaces over 100 times more accurate than traditionally generated lenses.
• Sophisticated lens design software that allows correction levels beyond those of even optimally fitted,
corrective curve lenses.
• For the first time, it now becomes possible to optimize sphero-cylindrical prescriptions in their peripheral regions. Remember, corrective curve theory never provided for simultaneous correction of two powermeridians, as found with sphero-cylindrical corrections.
• Lens material choices can be freely chosen, i.e., lens index, photochromic, polarized, etc., almost without traditional availability considerations.
• Fitting values that differ or depart from default or assumed values in pantoscopic tilt and vertex distance
are possible to compensate for in the lens design software.
• Lens design performance can be further optimized or enhanced using personal factors such as frame size, shape, frame curve, horizontal PD and monocular pupil heights.
• With some designs, base curves can be individu-
ally specified. This mean that a particular frame’s face
form curve can be best maintained through use of a
base curve that may depart from traditional corrective
curve guidelines. Premium, free-form SV lens design
software can compensate for this in the lens’s design
calculations.
The real “wow” clients are exclaiming about with premium, free-form single vision lenses is actually the sum of the following three factors:
1) How in the past, we lost our way with respect for the proper fitting of corrective curve lenses.
2) How ECPs detoured into the “twilight zone” of reduced lens performance by fudging lens curves, materials and designs, in order to deal with the whims of eyewear fashion, and by so doing, facilitated our patients getting “used to” substandard optics.
3) How the precision, sophistication and personalization possibilities of new, digitally surfaced, free-form optimized single vision lenses can surpass the benchmarked lens performance standards of lens designs now nearing almost 100 years old
POSITIONING PREMIUM FF SINGLE VISION LENSES TO PATIENTS
ECPs should ask themselves when was the last time
they were excited to suggest anything beyond AR
that would significantly improve the clarity of a single
vision lens? Considering that premium, FF SV lenses
are only modestly more expensive than quality finished lenses similarly optioned, the price difference
they will request for these truly revolutionary lenses should encounter any resistance. If one is lucky
enough to be dispensing a client’s first pair while
also presenting the same to another, the “wow” reaction heard will no doubt “seal the deal” right away.
The additional time required when determining cus-
tom measurements for these premium lenses is sure
to be greeted with such patient comments as, “I don’t
remember you taking these measurement before.”
Take the opportunity to answer with an explanation
of how these advanced lenses are different from the
older designs they’ve been fitted with before. These
additional measurement opportunities, referred to
as “patient contact points” (thank you to Anthony
Fulco of 21st Century Optics for this terrific term),
are essential in enhancing the atmosphere of professionalism and trust needed to differentiate a practice
within today’s competitive eyewear market.
ULTIMATE SEEING
The broad arrival of premium, free-form single vision
lenses, has, in my opinion, come to our market a little
late. For those ECPs who’ve tried and questioned the
value of premium, free-form progressives, I ask you
to give these premium SV lenses an earnest try. For
your most value conscious or skeptical progressive
wearers, try packaging a pair of premium FF SV lens-
es with their next progressive purchase and position
them as the ultimate TV eyewear. What progressive
wearer doesn’t slide their eyewear down their nose
to view their new, high-definition TV better? And for
any prescription containing more than 0.50D of cylinder power, presenting this class of premium SV lens
is an absolute no brainer. Everyone I’ve fitted in these
ways has requested that I be sure to recommend this
technology for all their future eyewear purchases.
The next time a client says they don’t “need” new
glasses because their prescription hasn’t changed,
talk to them about enjoying the new, premium
free-form single vision lenses that deliver the sharpest vision ever. The culmination of over 200 years of
ophthalmic lens design, they are truly the ultimate in
sight.
Source 20/20 Magazine
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