Progressive Lenses: Why do we Individual, not Average

By now, pretty much everyone over the age of 40 has heard of progressive lenses. After all, they have been around since the 1950s and have allowed people to wear glasses without the ageing line of a bifocal lens.

So in 2020 what improvements have been found with new technology? If you are a progressive lens wearer, you have possibly been treated to the marker pen and ruler - the fairly simplistic way your supplier measures you up for your new lenses. It isn’t too complicated a process as many lenses supplied are not complicated lenses. They measure up where your pupil is in relation to how the frames sit on your face. Simple really! and it works - after all, it has been done this way for about 65 years so why would it stop working.

Well, actually there are a few ways in which it could be done oh so much better! Traditional progressive lenses assume that everyone has similar facial characteristics, and that each frame style sits in an average position on the average face. It doesn’t take YOUR face and YOUR frame into consideration.

But we do! Using the very latest in Carl Zeiss technology (we are one of only 2 Optometry practices in

New Zealand with the latest Visufit 1000 technology), our fully trained team measure the exact details of how each frame sits - the wrap (curve) and the angle of the lenses, along with how far from your eyes it sits. More than this, the lenses are then individually customised to compensate for the frame - making it just about as personalised as possible. We don’t do Average. We do Individual - and the results show! The Zeiss success rate with customised progressive lenses sits at around 99.4% compared to an average across the industry of around 96%. Time to visit Blur Eyecare and see why with us, Individual is better.

Stuart Laing is the Author and Owner/optometrist @ Blur Eyecare