There are so many options in eyewear these days that the average consumer can feel lost. This page is to help straighten out some of the confusion.

When your eye doctor tells you that you require corrective lenses, that could be for several different reasons. Some of the most common reasons are:

Myopia (nearsightedness) - You can see to read just fine, but as objects get farther away, they become fuzzier. You see the world much as an impressionist painting. Myopia is corrected by using a 'minus' lens (concave lens) of the correct power.

Hyperopia (farsightedness) - You can see fine at distances (perhaps), but things in close are difficult to focus on. This is corrected by using a 'plus' lens of the correct power.

Presbyopia (you're getting older) - your arms are 'getting too short' to allow you to read comfortably, so you need a corrective lens that allows you to focus on near objects. This is corrected by adding a reading segment to your regular corrective lenses (or, if you don't require a distance correction, by prescribing lenses just for close-up work). Most people past the age of forty require this type of correction.

You may also have astigmatism (with or without any of the above conditions), which causes you to see items somewhat out of focus at any distance. This condition is corrected by adding a 'cylinder', at a particular direction of orientation, to your regular (spherical) corrective lens.

Now your ophthalmologist or optometrist has tested your eyes, given you a prescription, and you have come to the optician for his expertise in filling that prescription. There are still some choices to be made:

Spectacles or contact lenses? Increasingly, consumers are choosing contact lenses for use, at least part of the time, in correcting their eyesight. Since not everyone is a good candidate for contact lens wear, however, this is a matter you will wish to discuss, first with your eye doctor (for medical clearance to wear contacts), and then with your optician, who will be able to advise you as to whether or not contact lenses would fit in well with your lifestyle. Not all opticians in New Brunswick are certified to dispense contact lenses, so if this is your choice, ensure that you speak to an optician who is a certified contact lens fitter.

If you choose contact lenses, you still may wind up with either a hard (rigid) or a soft contact lens, depending on your correction, your lifestyle, and the choices you make on the advice of your eye doctor and optician. There is a wide variety of available styles of lenses these days, including a wide selection of tinted lenses and lenses that can be worn for varying lengths of time before removal. If you're a first-time contact lens wearer, your optician will take the time to teach you proper techniques for the insertion and removal of your lenses, and in proper care of the lenses.

If you choose spectacles instead of - or in addition to - contact lenses, there is a huge range of choices of materials, both for lenses and frames, and a number of options (tints and coatings) that you may purchase to make your eyewear more comfortable, more attractive, or more suited to your individual lifestyle.

Frames come in plastic or metal (or a combination of both) and a wide variety of prices and styles. If your choice of frame is restricted by the type of lens you require, your optician will show you the range of frames that would be suitable, so that you may make an informed selection.

Lenses are made of either glass or plastic, with a variety of types of both. Your optician will advise you on the best choice for your spectacle lenses, and will base his/her advice on the material which will be safest and provide the thinnest, best looking lenses possible with your prescription.COATINGS:

A variety of lens coatings are available to consumers.
The most common of these are:

Scratch resistant coating - a clear coating applied to both sides of a plastic lens which helps resist scratching.

Ultraviolet coating (UV) - a coating which helps the lens to absorb more UV radiation, thus protecting the eye from damage by the sun. Anti-reflective coating (AR) - a multi-layer coating on both sides of the lens which reduces the surface and internal reflections. This results in your eyes being more easily seen by other people, and in your seeing less distracting reflections and glare.

TINTS:

All colours of the rainbow are available in tints for plastic lenses, and the tint can be either solid or graduated (ie. near clear at the bottom of the lenses, shading to quite a deep tint near the top).

Plastic lenses are also available that deepen their tint automatically in response to increased light, then lighten again when the wearer goes inside or into shadow.

Glass lenses can be made in clear, grey or brown (solid colours only), and are also available in photochromic (darkens in response to light, lightens again when indoors).

Either glass or plastic may have a polarized filter in brown or grey, which reduces reflected glare.