My New Progressive lenses is not comfortable

“My new progressive lenses is not comfortable.”

“I prefer to wear my old progressive lenses for certain tasks.”

“I feel a little dizzy with my new progressive lenses.”

The above are some comments or complains which we often get about their progressive lenses bought elsewhere. Although progressive lenses are not very difficult to fit and can be done by any optician, it is important to find out what our customers really need and the problems that they are facing so that we can give them clear and comfortable vision.

At Evershine Optical, asking questions about our customer’s lifestyle is a very important process when it comes to fitting progressive lenses, other than doing the eye testing. Without knowing how our customer use their eyes on a daily basis, we will not be able to prescribe a progressive lenses that meet their needs. In order for us to recommend the best progressive lens for you, you will need to go through a consultation. Sorry, we do not do phone consultation. So please don’t call us and ask us to recommend a progressive lens for you without going through a proper consultation.

One of our customer who did her progressive lenses more than 5 years ago came in wanting get a new pair as the one she bought 5 years ago has some scratches on the lenses.  She revealed that she made another pair a year ago somewhere else but it’s not as comfortable as the one she bought from us 5 years ago. Some reasons that we can think of is either the prescription is not accurate, lens design problem or inaccurate fitting.

With our state of the art progressive lens mapper, we will be able to see what is wrong.

Zeiss Superb Asiana_CT

The above picture shows the map of a pair of Zeiss Superb asiana progressive.

Hoya FD_CT

The above is the contour map of Hoya FD progressive which she bought 5 years ago. At that time, we noticed that Hoya FD perform quite well for near and intermediate and so was our recommended lens for computer or office users.

From the contour maps, it can be clearly seen why the customer prefers the Hoya FD compared to the Zeiss Superb. The intermediate and reading zone of the FD has much lesser distortion compared to the Zeiss Superb.

Although the Zeiss Superb has a higher reading Add (+2.25), the FD has a higher prescription in the distance zone, which is more beneficial for the customer who does alot of computer and desk work. This also explains why she said her old Hoya FD progressive is more comfortable.

Computer or office users often prefer to have a little bit more “plus” in the distance part of their progressive to help them see the computers comfortably. And this is why the Zeiss officelens works so well for people who have a desk bound job. Can we add more “plus” to the distance zone of her Zeiss Superb progressive lenses ? Technically we can do that but as the Zeiss Officelens and the Zeiss Superb progressive lenses are designed differently, the Zeiss Officelens will still perform better for near and intermediate tasks.

For the above customer, we have fitted a pair of Zeiss officelens Superb (room) for her, since she wears her glasses mainly when working and takes them off when she’s off work. Her updated prescription is very close to the Hoya FD that she is wearing currently and based on our evaluation, we just increase her reading power 1 step up, ie +1.75.  We usually try not to prescribe higher Add power if not required as this will cause the intermediate and reading zone to be smaller. We will get her feedback when she comes to pick up her Zeiss officelens.

In our next article, we will touch on how inaccurate prescription can cause adaptation problems when wearing progressive lenses.