Eyeglasses Lens Guide

One of the essential parts when purchasing eyewear is choosing the right eyeglass lenses; your satisfaction depends upon several factors like the quality of lenses, their coatings, their attributes, and much more. Selecting the right pair of lenses is as challenging as choosing the right frame from tons of options, there is a huge variety of lenses available in the market with different finishes and attributes, and It could be challenging to keep track of things for an ordinary person; therefore, it is recommended to help an optician. We have listed some steps to help you choose the most suitable lens for you according to your needs.

Which Lens Is Best For You

As you know, there are two basic types of lenses: single vision and multifocal.

Suppose a person suffers from a single eye vision problem like nearsightedness or farsightedness. The recommended lens for them is a single vision lens; as the name suggested, it only corrects a single eye vision-related problem.

But if a person is suffering from two or more eye vision-related problems, he is prescribed to use multifocal lenses.

Your optician will do an in-depth analysis of your eyesight, then will recommend the most suitable lens for you; if your age is 40 or above, they will probably recommend progressive lenses, which are a kind of multifocal lenses, it prevents you from switching glasses when you move your sight from a short distance object to a long distance. Ideally, the long-range is omitted here, and they are usually designed to cover the short and intermediate-range of sight

Which refractive index fits my visual values?

The thickness of your lenses depends upon the dioptre number; the higher your dioptre number is, the thicker your lenses will be. It means that people having higher correction values have to wear heavy lenses, which could get quite uncomfortable in the long run. This is where the refractive index plays its role as it can considerably increase or decrease your lenses’ thickness.
The refractive index represents the strength of light refraction. A higher value of refractive index means that light is refracted more strongly through your lens, which is why the eyeglass lenses with higher refractive indexes can be manufactured in a thin shape.
The refractive index level also depends upon the material of glass used in your lenses. For plastic, the refractive index could be somewhere between 1.5 – 1.74, while for mineral glass, it can reach between 1.5 – 1.9

Refractive index 1.5

These spherical are used to correct minor values up to ±2 diopters. If the value is greater than 2, then they are not suitable.

Index of refraction 1.6

If the diopter values are between ±2 to ±4, lenses with a refractive index of 1.6 are used. They are much thinner and lighter as compared to the standard glasses.

Refractive index 1.67

If the diopter values are between ±4 to ±6, lenses with a refractive index of 1.67 are used. These lenses are around 60% lighter than standard lenses of 1.5 refractive index.

Refractive index 1.74

These are super thin lenses and are almost 60 times lighter than standard lenses. They are usually used if the dioptre value is six or above.

What Kind of Glass Finishing Do do You Require?

Glass finishing refers to a special coating on your lenses. You can help your optician choose the right finish for your glasses. A few finishes are quite popular these days, and they have pretty much become a standard. You can find these finishes in all our eyewear collections. A few of them are

Super anti-reflective coating.
Hard layer finishing
Dirt repellent layer
Anti-Glare
Blue filter technology
And much more.

Plastic glasses VS Mineral glasses

If you look at the present market, you will find that only 10% of lenses today are made from classic mineral glass, and the rest 90% is made from plastic (CR 39 and polycarbonate).

Benefits of Plastic Lenses

They are unbreakable, and they do not splinter.
They are much lighter as compared to mineral glass.
They are easy and comfortable to wear, even during sports and other recreational activities.
You can tint them in any color of your choice.

Benefits of Mineral Lenses

They are scratch-resistant and much thinner as compared to plastic.
They are much cheaper than plastic.
They are preferred for multifocal glasses.

The choice of lens material depends on your priorities; if you want something unbreakable, you should go for plastic lenses; if you want your lenses to be scratch-free and scratch-resistant, you should go for mineral glass lenses.