Such as, is there a range/choice/options of brands and make of lenses for your prescription (script)?
- Particularly with high scripts, is more than one type of lens suitable, to thin/grind down thicker lenses. Nikon, Hoya, etc.
Also with frames, how good quality the materials they are made of are,
- How long will, or should the frames last for, are the frames strong, sturdy, etc.
Are certain materials such as titanium better for lighter weight, or strength as well?
Are stock lenses as good as grind lenses, and what differences are there?
Are you getting value for money/what you’re quoted, or paying for?
Is it true most or all optometrist businesses, have preferred manufacturers for lenses (for glasses and contact lenses)?
- And that often, they will only stock or order in lens made by their preferred manufacturer/supplier?
Wow. Quite a list. Here are some answers:
To start out, there are many choices out there and many that people just don’t know about. That is why it is best, I believe, to go to a private optometrist office that sells glasses. These offices have a fantastic range of lenses they can provide because they order their lenses from these Huge wholesale labs that have far more choices than "chain" optical shops. Chain optical shops are limited by what their corporate bosses say they want to sell, private optometrists can cross many boundaries and get many more makes and brands of lenses to fit individual patient’s needs.
On things like high scripts, people usually look at how thin a lens can be but they aren’t aware that the material the lens is made of will affect their visual acuity through that material and they aren’t aware of new processes (such as Free Form processing) that will actually improve visual acuity through the lens and greatly decrease the amount of blurriness that they see towards the periphery of the lens by 3 dimensionally fusing the patient’s prescription on the back side of the lens instead of putting it on the front of the lens. Many places do not even know about this process. Most chain retail outlets cannot even do this.
So many times I have talked to patients about this process and they have decided to follow my advice and when they put on their new glasses, I get the WOW effect because the change from their previous lenses to the newer, more technologically advanced lenses, really made them see much better even if their Rx’s hadn’t changed much or even at all.
- Frames. Cheap frames are made from cheap materials. That’s why they can be sold for less money. I can actually get frames that some of these stores sell with a $99 frame and lens package and the frames would cost me $4.95 wholesale. Most of these frames are made with an abundance of white metal that does not have properties that will stand up to much wear. A good, moderately priced frame, not part of a "package", should last years IF IT IS TAKEN CARE OF. If the frame is abused, treated roughly, thrown around, even the best frames will break or come so much out of alignment that it is nearly impossible to put them into alignment again. Titanium frames are excellent frames, lightweight, will not corrode (turn green) and should give years of useful wear, again, IF they are taken care of.
Only in private, on premises, labs that have finishing (cut down) machines in their lab will you see "stock lenses" used. Any Full Service lab (where they can "grind" lenses) will do that instead of using stock lenses because its much cheaper for them to grind lenses themselves than to use stock lenses from the factory. As far as the difference goes, there may have been a difference in the past but in today’s modern full service lab, almost every part of the process of grinding (we call it "surfacing") a lens and cutting it down to fit into a frame is computer controlled. We can now make free form lenses that are within 1/100 of a diopter of the doctor’s requested prescription (that’s really, really, good).
In my shop, I have preferred manufacturers for different jobs based on my interview with the patients, their wants, needs and expectations. Their lifestyle and how they use their glasses also comes into play. We use the largest, privately owned wholesale lab in the United States, so I can choose from many manufacturers like Zeiss, Seiko, Sola, Hoya, Essilor (Varilux), Shamir and so on to specifically fit the needs of the patient into the lens that I choose to use. This is something that the retail chains, And Online outlets cannot do.
I hope I’ve answered your questions without getting too technical (which I sometimes do).