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I got a little pushback (not a lot) from my optometrist when I first requested an FD set at laptop distance. However it has made a huge quality of life differen

I got a little pushback (not a lot) from my optometrist when I first requested an FD set at laptop distance. However it has made a huge quality of life difference for me. I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. My current correction is insanely good for reading and for driving. In fact, my opto said it was quite a bit better than 20/20 with no eye strain. Well, there was some eye strain when I adapted to the new prescription. That lasted about a month. So I strongly recommend that you educate yourself (nerd out) about your choices before going to you optometrist or optician. They can’t educate you and they need to make a buck. At this point I just go in and say I want single vision Trivex on Marchon 623s. I'm up in the air on coatings, tints, polarized and photochromic. I don't need free form given how good my correction is but if you have a difficult prescription that might be a quality of life thing for you. You cannot depend on optometrists+opticians to make the right choice for you. You need to educate yourself on the available choices. BTW, I think the same can be said for contacts. Know your choices.

eej71 9y ago
What sources would you recommend reading through?
- walterbell 9y ago
  Professional opticians (watch out for jargon) are at Optiboard, e.g. here’s a good post on single vision lens manufscturing: http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/49935-Free-form-optimised-single-vision-lenses/page2 http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/49935-Free-fo...
  - CalChris 9y ago
    It's a good resource but professional grade. I first got into this when I was taking Physics 7C which has a chapter on lenses. There's an approximation they use and I thought couldn't they use ray tracing and do a better job? So I started reading and yeah, they could and they do. What I was wondering about is what free form lenses actually are. And with modern CNC capabilities, you can do a much better job.
- CalChris 9y ago
  First thing is that you need to know your prescription. Seiko Trivex has a range from Sphere Power: +1.00 to -4.00 Cylinder Power: +2.00 to -2.00 Extended Range Available If you're ADDing for a laptop distance that needs to be added in. Look at the online sites and look at the lens choices: http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=282 http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=282 So I really like Trivex over standard polycarbonate or plastic. http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision-Lenses-s/95.htm http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision-Lense... You can easily drill Trivex so you can have rimless if you want. Polycarbonate cracks more easily. So know your prescription and frame type. Learn about lens materials, lens types (single vision, progressives, free form, ...), tints, coatings, .... This seems like a lot to know but imagine your optometrist trying to figure out everything in 20 minutes. It's better if you do some homework. All that said, I went to Berkeley and I use their School of Optometry. They don't mind at all if I ask questions and if I'm pretty direct.
  - walterbell 9y ago
    Have you purchased from eyeglasslensdirect? Seems to be a one-person operation, which could be good or bad. They are the only online retailer of well known lens brands. On their single vision lens order page, there is no input field for fitting height. Do they calculate a fixed percentage of frame height, or can you email them with your fitting height?
    - CalChris 9y ago
      No, I haven't. I educate myself about lens materials and choices online but then I get my prescriptions and glasses at the Berkeley School of Optometry brick and mortar. You're asking about fitting and I think opticians are really good at that. Berkeley is. I'm talking about educating yourself on choices. This is another online site with a lot of information: http://www.visio-rx.com/vision-topics/lenses/polycarbonate-vs-trivex-vs-xirm http://www.visio-rx.com/vision-topics/lenses/polycarbonate-v...
  - flachsechs 9y ago
    > All that said, I went to Berkeley and I use their School of Optometry wait, can you expand on that? i went to ucsd, is there some uc program where alumni get some kind of benefits from the medical programs? or is it just cal?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jasode 9y ago
>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing the date & time, and to the top corner showing the [x] button to close windows. Single-vision lenses have edge-to-edge clarity. With progressives or high-index lenses, it requires rotating & tilting my head to put those corner locations directly in my central field of vision. Imagine a horse with blinkers[1]. The edges of those lenses are blurrier so you have to move your head to move the lens' center spot toward the item of interest for maximum sharpness. Maximum field-of-vision is the optimal ergonomics of looking at multiple windows of text on a 30" monitor. Yes, high-index lenses are thinner and more fashionable but I don't need that when concentrating on programming code and reading web pages. >You cannot depend on optometrists+opticians to make the right choice for you. You need to educate yourself on the available choices. That's why I bought my own set of trial lenses[2]. I can methodically optimize my computer distance vision without exhausting the patience of my optometrist repeatedly asking, "which is better? 1? or 2? (again) 1? or 2?". I then go to Zenni and order the exact diopters I need. (I'm not going to buy a glaucoma tester so I'll still go to the eye doctor for that.) I end up with 3 separate pairs of single-purpose glasses: 1 for reading books ~12 inches, 1 for computer distance ~36 inches, and 1 for driving 20+ feet. Swapping out glasses for each purpose is inconvenient but the larger field-of-vision makes it worth the hassle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkers_(horse_tack) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkers_(horse_tack) [2] http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=trial+lens+set http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=trial+lens+set
- CalChris 9y ago
  That's a really good description. My TL;DR would have been that everything was bad with progressive lenses. I can drive with my readers and if I slide them down my nose, I can read with my drivers. I'm lucky I guess. I'm myopic with an FD of about 12 inches. So it was really dumb to have progressives with the near FD set to 12 inches.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
boptom 9y ago
Single vision lenses are always going to be better at that one thing than anything else which tries to cater for all (or multiple) distances, at the expense of everything else. I also agree with educating yourself to protect yourself. However, there will be many holes in your research which a good optometrist should be able to fill in. Together you can make the best choice. One area I never see discussed, especially from the "I can find my own prescription" crowd, is binocular vision. How your eyes work together at certain distances and with certain tasks will determine not only which prescription you need but also how the spectacles are set. I'm not only talking about setting the PD and lens height (which may need to be different for your right lens compared to your left, at different at all distances). There are many more considerations such as vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt, frame choice, lens material, wrap angle etc. Sometimes the optical centration is intentionally different from the PD to induce prism to decrease eye strain. This is not uncommon with complex prescriptions and in the older population. And sometimes there are other solutions such as vision training. Not the woo woo Bates method, but real vision training used to fix real problems. Good optometrists provide a lot of value. There just way too much information and most patients will be happy to just let them do what is needed. And sometimes you just need to get off the PC for a bit.
- CalChris 9y ago
  Yes, I have a great optometrist who provides a ton of value but I only get a certain window with them which at Berkeley is about an hour which is a lot. And I got an awesome prescription from them. But optician (!= optometrist) generally want to talk to you about frames and not about lenses. This is understandable since they have to make a buck. So the gap filler here is educating myself. I still let them do what they are in fact very good at but I educate myself on the choices. This has worked out very well for me. My sister in law has terrible vision and I wonder whether my approach (self-education) would work for her. Maybe, maybe not. But I do think she should get personalized free-form lenses and her optician hasn't suggested that. Dunno why. I've talked to a ton of people about their phones and apps. I've never talked to someone about lenses. That's strange.
naner 9y ago
I think you may just need a new optometrist, they should be able to ask the right questions and provide options that make sense for you. I've also never met of an eye doctor that would push back when someone asked for computer glasses, that is extremely common...
loco5niner 9y ago
FD = Fixation disparity (whatever that is...)

eej71 9y ago

What sources would you recommend reading through?

walterbell 9y ago
Professional opticians (watch out for jargon) are at Optiboard, e.g. here’s a good post on single vision lens manufscturing: http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/49935-Free-form-optimised-single-vision-lenses/page2 http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/49935-Free-fo...
- CalChris 9y ago
  It's a good resource but professional grade. I first got into this when I was taking Physics 7C which has a chapter on lenses. There's an approximation they use and I thought couldn't they use ray tracing and do a better job? So I started reading and yeah, they could and they do. What I was wondering about is what free form lenses actually are. And with modern CNC capabilities, you can do a much better job.
CalChris 9y ago
First thing is that you need to know your prescription. Seiko Trivex has a range from Sphere Power: +1.00 to -4.00 Cylinder Power: +2.00 to -2.00 Extended Range Available If you're ADDing for a laptop distance that needs to be added in. Look at the online sites and look at the lens choices: http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=282 http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=282 So I really like Trivex over standard polycarbonate or plastic. http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision-Lenses-s/95.htm http://www.eyeglasslensdirect.com/Trivex-Single-Vision-Lense... You can easily drill Trivex so you can have rimless if you want. Polycarbonate cracks more easily. So know your prescription and frame type. Learn about lens materials, lens types (single vision, progressives, free form, ...), tints, coatings, .... This seems like a lot to know but imagine your optometrist trying to figure out everything in 20 minutes. It's better if you do some homework. All that said, I went to Berkeley and I use their School of Optometry. They don't mind at all if I ask questions and if I'm pretty direct.
- walterbell 9y ago
  Have you purchased from eyeglasslensdirect? Seems to be a one-person operation, which could be good or bad. They are the only online retailer of well known lens brands. On their single vision lens order page, there is no input field for fitting height. Do they calculate a fixed percentage of frame height, or can you email them with your fitting height?
  - CalChris 9y ago
    No, I haven't. I educate myself about lens materials and choices online but then I get my prescriptions and glasses at the Berkeley School of Optometry brick and mortar. You're asking about fitting and I think opticians are really good at that. Berkeley is. I'm talking about educating yourself on choices. This is another online site with a lot of information: http://www.visio-rx.com/vision-topics/lenses/polycarbonate-vs-trivex-vs-xirm http://www.visio-rx.com/vision-topics/lenses/polycarbonate-v...
- flachsechs 9y ago
  > All that said, I went to Berkeley and I use their School of Optometry wait, can you expand on that? i went to ucsd, is there some uc program where alumni get some kind of benefits from the medical programs? or is it just cal?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

jasode 9y ago

>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing the date & time, and to the top corner showing the [x] button to close windows. Single-vision lenses have edge-to-edge clarity. With progressives or high-index lenses, it requires rotating & tilting my head to put those corner locations directly in my central field of vision. Imagine a horse with blinkers[1]. The edges of those lenses are blurrier so you have to move your head to move the lens' center spot toward the item of interest for maximum sharpness. Maximum field-of-vision is the optimal ergonomics of looking at multiple windows of text on a 30" monitor. Yes, high-index lenses are thinner and more fashionable but I don't need that when concentrating on programming code and reading web pages. >You cannot depend on optometrists+opticians to make the right choice for you. You need to educate yourself on the available choices. That's why I bought my own set of trial lenses[2]. I can methodically optimize my computer distance vision without exhausting the patience of my optometrist repeatedly asking, "which is better? 1? or 2? (again) 1? or 2?". I then go to Zenni and order the exact diopters I need. (I'm not going to buy a glaucoma tester so I'll still go to the eye doctor for that.) I end up with 3 separate pairs of single-purpose glasses: 1 for reading books ~12 inches, 1 for computer distance ~36 inches, and 1 for driving 20+ feet. Swapping out glasses for each purpose is inconvenient but the larger field-of-vision makes it worth the hassle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkers_(horse_tack) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkers_(horse_tack) [2] http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=trial+lens+set http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=trial+lens+set

CalChris 9y ago
That's a really good description. My TL;DR would have been that everything was bad with progressive lenses. I can drive with my readers and if I slide them down my nose, I can read with my drivers. I'm lucky I guess. I'm myopic with an FD of about 12 inches. So it was really dumb to have progressives with the near FD set to 12 inches.
lucaspiller 9y ago

boptom 9y ago

Single vision lenses are always going to be better at that one thing than anything else which tries to cater for all (or multiple) distances, at the expense of everything else. I also agree with educating yourself to protect yourself. However, there will be many holes in your research which a good optometrist should be able to fill in. Together you can make the best choice. One area I never see discussed, especially from the "I can find my own prescription" crowd, is binocular vision. How your eyes work together at certain distances and with certain tasks will determine not only which prescription you need but also how the spectacles are set. I'm not only talking about setting the PD and lens height (which may need to be different for your right lens compared to your left, at different at all distances). There are many more considerations such as vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt, frame choice, lens material, wrap angle etc. Sometimes the optical centration is intentionally different from the PD to induce prism to decrease eye strain. This is not uncommon with complex prescriptions and in the older population. And sometimes there are other solutions such as vision training. Not the woo woo Bates method, but real vision training used to fix real problems. Good optometrists provide a lot of value. There just way too much information and most patients will be happy to just let them do what is needed. And sometimes you just need to get off the PC for a bit.

CalChris 9y ago
Yes, I have a great optometrist who provides a ton of value but I only get a certain window with them which at Berkeley is about an hour which is a lot. And I got an awesome prescription from them. But optician (!= optometrist) generally want to talk to you about frames and not about lenses. This is understandable since they have to make a buck. So the gap filler here is educating myself. I still let them do what they are in fact very good at but I educate myself on the choices. This has worked out very well for me. My sister in law has terrible vision and I wonder whether my approach (self-education) would work for her. Maybe, maybe not. But I do think she should get personalized free-form lenses and her optician hasn't suggested that. Dunno why. I've talked to a ton of people about their phones and apps. I've never talked to someone about lenses. That's strange.

naner 9y ago

I think you may just need a new optometrist, they should be able to ask the right questions and provide options that make sense for you. I've also never met of an eye doctor that would push back when someone asked for computer glasses, that is extremely common...

loco5niner 9y ago

FD = Fixation disparity (whatever that is...)