Taking the Plunge With Digital Lenses
06-2009
No other segment of the eyecare industry is experiencing the type
of breath-taking change that is now winding through the lens and
surfacing laboratory business. The broad arrival of free-form, digital
surfacing equipment has, seemingly overnight, resulted in some labs
beginning to completely abandon the conventional fabrication tools,
spindles, laps and calculations that have been employed essentially
unchanged for more than 100 years.
Why is this class of lens so quickly invading the turf occupied by traditional lenses?
The numbers reveal all:
1. Surface precision improves a factor of six times, from 0.06D to 0.01D.
2. Fabrication times are cut by 50 percent.
3. Lens size and cut-out issues are almost
non-existent since any design can be “de-centered” into the
Single-vision lens blank of your choosing.
4. There are almost no refractive index or
substrate restrictions. You can make the lens design of your choice on
the material of your choice. For instance: No more searching for what
lenses are available in Trivex Transitions. Inventory requirements are
slashed. Processing free-form/digital progressive lenses requires that
you only carry single-vision, semi-finished lens blanks. No more
various progressive lens designs times base curves times near adds. And
in the most sophisticated designs, corridor length and inset can be
specified by the dispenser.
5. Increased variety and ever more sophisticated
lens designs are and will be available as quickly and easily as the
specific design algorithm can be downloaded to the lab’s computer.
With the latest and most sophisticated lens designs available for
either single-vision, progressive or wrap (or combined), coupled with a
“dealer’s choice” from the cornucopia of material index, curve and
photochromic options, what could stop ECPs from immediately embracing
this new technology?
Let’s take a look:
1. Increased cost—In the beginning, every new
technology has an increased cost as compared to the traditional
technology of the day. In the not-too-distant past, the start-up
laboratory costs for free-form equipment had been very high. And the
prices for free-form lenses also seemed expensive. But as production,
acceptance and market penetration of free-form lenses has grown, we’re
seeing the prices of these lenses decreasing to the level where many
good free-form designs are priced in line with traditional lenses. And
further reductions are sure to follow.
2. My current/main lab doesn’t offer these new
lenses—If they don’t now, they soon will. But why wait? Why not try one
of the newer, all-digital labs that specialize in only free-form,
digital lenses. As mentioned above, these lens costs can be comparable
to your favorite, traditional premium lenses.
3. The unknown frontier—For many ECPs,
digital/free-form technology is just all too new, unfamiliar and risky.
With an established tradition of questioning the benefits and increased
cost of any new lens, frame and other related ophthalmic technology,
who can blame an ECP for asking “What I’m using now isn’t broke. Why
should I experiment and take the risk changing from what I work with
now?” By being among the first to introduce new products to their
clients, ECPs can continue to effectively compete with the lure of
Internet eyewear.
Risks and Rewards
With progressive lenses, ECPs generally accept the traditional
wisdom of not changing the brand of progressive that a client is
wearing, particularly if they seem “satisfied.” We’ve all taken risks
here and sometimes found failure. And when we’ve experienced failure,
we often immediately run back to the lens we already know. But looked
at realistically, we all realize that there is no single progressive
that is good for everyone that walks into your office. Yet, the
prospect of experiencing dissatisfaction should not be a sufficient
enough reason to avoid taking the risk of introducing a new lens
design.
It is said that we learn more from our mistakes than from our
successes. But even the normal updating or changing of a patient’s Rx
comes with risks. We need to understand the questions that help define
the risks we face every day in dispensing eyewear:
1. Will they see well?
2. Will they experience an unwanted or altered perspective?
3. Will they feel their eyewear will let them accomplish their daily tasks?
4. Will they like the way they look?
5. Will others (family and friends) approve of the appearance of the new eyewear?
6. Will the eyewear fit comfortably?
7. Will it hold its adjustment in a satisfactory manner?
8. Will the eyewear purchase be perceived as a good value?
9. Will the eyewear prove to be inconvenient?
10. Will the total eyewear experience ensure your client will be a repeat customer?
It’s no wonder, considering how complexly these risks are juggled
when dispensing eyewear that ECPs are innately and often subconsciously
concerned with managing and reducing the prospect of creating an
unhappy customer.
How Well Do ECPs Manage Risks
When faced with recommending new eyewear, most dispensers tend to
be a little chicken. This is a direct outgrowth of using a need-based
approach to new eyewear. How many of the following, need –based,
risk-reducing phrases do you or your staff use in an average work week?
1. “There’s so little change in your Rx, you don’t really need to get new glasses.”
2. “Don’t bother purchasing [expensive] prescription glasses, when over-the-counter readers will work out just as well.”
3. “This frame style will go with everything you wear, so you’ll need only one pair.”
4. “Progressive lenses will let you see all ranges. There’s no need for separate pairs of glasses for work, hobbies or play.”
5. “Congratulations! Your eyes are perfectly healthy and you do not need to get (or change your) prescription glasses.”
6. “You only need to wear glasses to drive.”
7. “Choosing photochromic lenses means you won’t have to deal with the inconvenience and expense of separate sunglasses.”
If you don’t think these phrases connote reduced risk, then imagine
communicating just the opposite thought for any one of them.
Immediately you’ll discover the risks you’re avoiding by not suggesting
your clients actually spend more money (and in some people’s opinion,
more than they have to) for new, different or supplemental eyewear
technology and/or fashion.
It’s important for ECPs to realize that our habitual approach to
reducing risk has been rationalized and codified into being afraid to
“guinea-pig” the latest products on our clients. Continuing to follow
this modality would be a major mistake.
Instead, try taking a more proactive approach with recommending
new technology. But always keep a back-up plan defining how you will
handle the recommendations that don’t deliver on the promised benefit.
Recommending New Technology
There really are almost no risks to recommending this latest lens
technology. Why? Because almost any type of quality free-form lens has
a promise of better vision. And this benefit is consistent with every
eyecare practitioner’s job to deliver the best vision possible. Using
these better products, combined with a new, preventative approach to
maintaining eye health is a win-win situation for patient and
practitioner.
But, always lurking behind every recommendation is the doubt that
either the client won’t find the new product superior to their
previous, lower-cost eyewear or suffers an experience that is actually
inferior to what they had before. Every ECP wants to avoid situations
like these because they set precedents in the patient’s mind that some
future product recommendations, especially those requiring paying more,
may be met with increased doubt or skepticism. We’ve all heard clients
say, “We’ve tried that (more-expensive) product before and it didn’t
make any difference.”
Let’s look at an example that, in the recent past, truly didn’t
work out as hoped. Every ECP will agree that earlier anti-reflective
coatings for plastic lenses, from about 1998 to about 2002, could fall
into this category. The approach I use to respond to client’s
dissatisfaction with older AR (cleaning and/or adhesion failure that
often appeared to clients as a propensity to scratch more easily) is
simply honesty is the best policy. “Yes, these older AR coatings were
substantially inferior in their cleaning and ability to stay adhered to
your lenses. But today’s, premium AR finishes are in fact I believe,
much better than they would have been if this crisis never occurred.”
In keeping with the old saying, you learn more from your mistakes.
Taking Baby Steps in Free-form
Even with all the cheerleading for ECPs to try out these newer,
free-form progressive lenses, some will simply not want to take a
chance with either the increased cost or the prospect of problems that
moving tried-and-true lenses can bring.
One of the best ways to begin experiencing the benefits of
free-form technology is with single-vision. Especially if the Rx you’re
dealing with has more than a 0.50D of cylinder power, consider
suggesting one of the current free-form, single-vision designs, such as
Essilor 360 SV or Shamir Autograph II SV. When packaged with a quality
anti-reflective coating, these lenses will produce “wows” at your
dispensing desk. In my store I heard the following exclamations when
delivering free-form, single-visions lenses to mild to moderate
astigmats:
1. “This is unbelievably clear!”
2. “It’s almost like HD vision!”
3. “Wow! This lens is like freaky clear!”
4. “It’s like a picture window made with my prescription.”
And single-vision, free-form costs only pennies more than some
similar quality, stock finished lenses. The cost to the client and
practitioner is not at all intimidating, while the accompanying optical
compromises in progressive lenses are removed from the equation all
together.
Free-form lenses represent the pinnacle of optical technology. Lens
manufacturers and labs are continually improving the way they are
designed and manufactured. If you’re not yet dispensing free-form
lenses, or have had concerns about them, now is the time to fully
embrace them. Your clients deserve nothing less than the best vision
products you can deliver.
Article reprinted from 2020 Magazine, with the permission of Jobson Publishing.
0 comments - Posted by Mark Agnew at 6:26 AM - Categories: Lenses
For
someone who seems to have both the design and marketing sides of his
company worked out so thoroughly, it may come as a surprise that Kramer
didn’t have any experience in the optical industry until just a few
years ago. It was a combined interest in fashion and fascination for
the technical aspects of construction that drew him to eyewear design.
“I’ve always loved taking the ordinary and turning into something
else,” he says. “I enjoy fashion along with the hands-on aspects, like
finding out exactly how the screws are made and learning about grooves.
I love the manufacturing part of the trade, and you’ll see a lot of
that in the Teka metal and plastic frames—I’ll take a functional
element like a hinge and turn it into an architectural piece.”
DALLAS—Essilor of America and Transitions Optical have launched
Definity Fairway Transitions SOLFX, a new progressive sunwear product
designed to meet the visual demands of golfers needing multifocal
prescriptions. The new product combines the patented Dual Add 2.0
technology and Ground View Advantage of Definity lenses with the
photochromic technology of Transitions SOLFX sunlenses to provide
golfers with the right color and darkness for optimal performance in
varying light conditions, according to the two manufacturers.
