OK, let's address your questions. We'll start with the "plastic is better" comment.
For high minus prescriptions, no matter WHAT index your lenses are, the edges are going to be thick. Sorry, you're going to have coke bottles. BUT, you can mask the visible edges by choosing a thicker frame, or even one that is more concealing with a wider temple. The idea is not to get rid of the edges of your lenses, but to make them less noticeable. Here's an example of an extreme prescription in a wire rimmed eyeglass frame: http://www.optical4less.com/pic/Specialmaking/thickerb.jpg See how noticeable? Wire rimmed glasses put a definite and constant thickness frame around the edge...and a very thin one, which makes the lenses look thicker. If you're trying to hide that edge, you need to HIDE it...cover it up, or in another way draw attention away from it. Plastic frames have a MUCH thicker edge, and so hide more of the edge than a wire rimmed pair. Also, their designs tend to be more dramatic, and have wider temple arms, so they camouflage the thickness a little bit better. The other option would be to embrace your thickness, and just minimize its appearance with a polished edge on a rimless pair. With antireflection coating and a relatively small lens, it might visually "disappear" into the lines in your face. Small oval glasses tend to do just that, and blend into the shadows in my eye socket. Now...thickness. There are online thickness calculators which do a good job at estimating thickness. As thick as your lenses are going to be, regardless of index, nothing is going to make them look thin. Now...round lenses. Round lenses have nothing to do with the "magnify or shrink" look as you see through them. That's the lens...not the lens's shape. The fact that you have wide frames that "stick out" far enough to see at that angle makes it appear more noticeable. The round, being significantly smaller in width, will minimize that appearance. Also, the extra height will likely serve you well. Additionally, round lenses are the supposed ideal for hiding the thickness of a lens, since it minimizes the amount of "spreading out" it has to do to reach the other end of the frame. The further a minus prescription gets from the center, the thicker it gets. According to that, you should be choosing rounder lenses, and the smaller the better! Of course, practicality must play a part too, as you discovered. Let's see...the rest of your questions dealt with whether you should pay for the high index lenses. Only you can answer that question. Bottom line, feed the values into a lens thickness calculator and see if you can live with the results. http://www.opticampus.com/tools/thickness.php According to this estimate your stronger lens, in a 1.56, should be about 8.1mm thick. That's assuming a lens size of 45mm, bridge of 20mm and PD of 62...my PD. The high index, at 1.67, should result in a thickness around 6.9mm. Both are really thick, but not as bad as I expected. Fill in your own information and it'll give you an even more accurate estimate... Hope this helps you out! -- Chuck Knight On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:54 PM, David Hunter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > First, thanks Ira for this blog--it's been an eye-opener. > > Now on to the good stuff. Okay, I've got a fairly high prescription; > -11.75 in one eye and -9.75 in the other. I've primarily worn contacts > and had an out-of-prescription pair of glasses for probably four years > at least now. Getting glasses for this type of prescription is > difficult online; I only found 39dollar and Zenni had prescriptions > that would go that high. > > I got all the measurements and prescriptions I needed, including my > PD, from Wal-Mart. For those interested, they didn't give me any > trouble. They even have some glasses with comparable prices (well, > comparable to $40, not $10), but they're low on the fashion. > > Anyway, I ordered a pair from Zenni, and they came relatively quickly, > no fuss. The problem is that I didn't pay enough attention to the > height of the glasses. I have a big head, and while I shopped for > temple length, I thought 26mm height would be fine. Turns out, not so > much. Also, the bridge wasn't long enough, either. > > So now I'm stuck with these eyeglasses, and I might try to get a > refund but I'll only get half back even if they approve it. I might > keep them for a fashion pair. They were $70 after the added cost of a > high prescription ($9) plus getting the thinnest lenses possible > ($40). > > Anyway though so now I'm looking for another pair, and I think I've > found them, but they're round glasses--think John Lennon. I have some > questions: does the thinnest lense--1.67 versus the standard 1.57 > lense, make that much difference at my prescription? I have the thin > 1.67 lenses with the pair I bought from Zenni and they still do that > thing with my eyes and face where they shrink my head and eyes pretty > bad when you're looking into the lenses. The middle of the lenses > isn't terrible but they bow and the edges are sorta coke-bottle. But > then again, they're short in height and that means that edges have to > bow closer to my eyes than if I had bigger lenses. Right? > > I'm not sure what effect round lenses have on that aspect--how they > shrink the eyes and where they shrink them. If they shrink them all > around then maybe I still want the thinnest lenses, but if, because of > my prescription, it doesn't make much difference (and it didn't > between my previous lenses, which were boxy like my current ones but > taller in height and yet only 1.61 thin), then I can save like $40 by > just getting the regular thickness. > > Of course, my prescription is higher from my last set, significantly, > so maybe they weren't that different because I was looking at thinner > lenses but with a higher prescription. > > I'm just wary of spending another $70 on another pair only to be > disappointed again--or obviously more weary of adding $40 for thin > lenses when it won't matter anyway. My eyes are a very attractive > feature on me but contacts are starting to get more uncomfortable and > my eyes are more easily irritated by them than they used to be, so I'd > like to wear these to work every day. > > I'm sorry, I gave a lot of details there and if I confused anyone I > can clarify. I'm just feeling a bit stupid because I bought a lemon > pair (I was getting a bit of a headache because every time I looked > down I was looking through my natural eyes and not my lenses and the > switching was bothering me), and anyway it was my fault for not > considering the height of the lenses. Still, though, even if I buy a > new pair for $70 I'll be right around what I'd spend in the store, and > much less $$ for a fashionable pair of glasses. > > Thanks, > > David > > PS--In addition, I was told by a clerk in the Wal-Mart Vision Center > that if I wanted to lessen that bowing effect for lenses, I can't get > rimless or half-rim because they bow more, and even that plastic > frames are better than metal frames. Of course I wonder how much > better, if it's even true. I really don't want plastic frames but the > round glasses I'm considering do have pretty thin metal rings to hold > the lenses. Here's a link to what I'm considering: > > http://zennioptical.com/cart/product.php?productid=764&cat=22&page=2 > > and here's a link to what I bought from Zenni: > > http://zennioptical.com/cart/product.php?productid=1078&cat=22&page=2 > > and I like these below but the half-rim worries me and the bridge is > kind of small--although does anyone know if it matters whether the > bridge is just a plastic rim around the nose of the glasses or if > they're those attached pieces of plastic for the nose that most > glasses have? > > http://zennioptical.com/cart/product.php?productid=832&cat=21&page=2 > > Sorry again for appearing so demanding in my questions; feel free to > tell me to mess off in the face of asking so much advice for free. :) > If it helps, I've taken a pay cut in life to work for a nonprofit the > benefits the mentally and physically handicapped. So helping me helps > them. :) Okay, not really. Thank again for the blog! > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Check us out at the oft-updated http://www.glassyeyes.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
