Aspheric lenses are slimmer, flatter optical lenses compared to traditional prescription lenses. These lenses are available in both glasses and contacts, making more stylish options available to prescription lens wearers than ever.
For more information, please visit our website.
If the word aspheric is new to you, we&#;ll break down everything you need to know about what aspheric lenses are, how they work, and the benefits and drawbacks of wearing them. By the end of this article, you&#;ll feel primed and ready to discuss aspheric lenses with your doctor if they are of interest to you.
The technology behind aspheric glasses and contact lenses is directly related to advances made in camera lens technology. Just like the human eye, some camera lenses are shaped in such a way that visual aberrations and distortion can occur in the images they capture. The shape of the eye can also contribute to distorted vision. That&#;s why lenses are specially designed to balance and correct for the unique shape of a person&#;s eye&#;and why the technology has had to come a rather long way.
While traditional lenses have gone far to help the millions of people who suffer from farsightedness or nearsightedness, they add a marked spherical, convex curvature to the shape of the lens. This can distort the appearance of the eyes and facial areas. Traditional convex lenses can create a magnifying, bug-eyed effect on farsighted prescriptions or a minimizing, beady-eyed effect on nearsighted prescriptions. This noticeable curvature of the lens distorts the appearance of the wearer and the glasses alike, detracting from overall perceived attractiveness while also dealing an unnecessary blow to self-confidence.
With the advancement of aspheric lens technology, we now have more glasses frame styles available to more people than ever, with significantly less bulging of the lens and a lightweight feel for comfortable wear. These advanced lenses are cut to a slimmer profile, with much flatter curves that are strategically shaped depending upon the wearer&#;s prescription. This slim profile means that the glasses frames can sit closer to the face for a much more natural, streamlined look. This is a big advancement for folks with especially high prescriptions. If you&#;re in the market for aspheric lenses, limited frame materials, shapes, and sizes are no longer an issue, either.
Not only are &#;coke bottle lenses&#; a thing of the past, but aspheric lenses also offer a better degree of vision correction. When wearing traditional lenses, you may notice some visual distortion when you look anywhere other than the direct center of the lens. Aspheric lenses, on the other hand, promote a wider field of vision with better peripheral vision and more consistent overall image magnification, allowing for clearer and more accurate vision. This is the same reason many photographers prefer aspheric camera lenses - a wider field of vision means more of the beautiful world is accurately captured in a single glance.
The major disadvantage of aspheric lenses is their price. These advanced vision correcting lenses cost more to manufacture than traditional lenses do, involving more steps, more precision, and more labor. If you have an extremely mild need for vision correction, then aspheric lenses may not be the most logical choice for you.
Another factor to consider is that, due to their flatter profile and closer proximity to the face, aspheric lenses may produce noticeable reflections for some wearers. Anti-reflective coating is recommended for all aspheric lens wearers to eliminate any potential for visual distraction that reflections can cause.
Finally, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, aspheric lenses are also an option for some contact lens wearers. However, the performance of aspheric contact lenses, when compared with that of aspheric glasses, may leave something to be desired. Many find that regular, spherical contact lenses work just as well, if not better than the newer aspherical contact lenses do. With two primary options of aspheric contact lens prescriptions being bifocal and multifocal, visual aberrations can be corrected in the wearer. However, visual contrast may reduce slightly, while glare caused by driving at night may increase - particularly for those who wear multifocal aspheric contacts. For these reasons, aspheric contact lenses may not be for everyone.
In general, many people with moderate to high need of vision correction for nearsightedness or farsightedness can benefit from the advances of aspheric lenses, particularly if worn in prescription glasses. Those with lower prescriptions will not see noticeable improvements to make the cost of aspheric lenses worthwhile. While some may want to try aspheric contact lenses, particularly those with bifocal rather than multifocal prescriptions, the benefits are mixed and should be discussed with your eye doctor. Those with astigmatism may not benefit as high as others and may be better off discussing toric lens options. Finally, aspheric lenses are a good option for many who use non-prescription reading glasses, too! If your readers are at a high reading power of +4.00 or higher, you may want to explore aspheric options.
As you can see, aspheric lenses offer many aesthetic and vision-correcting benefits for their wearers. But just like any prescription, these types of glasses or contact lenses should be thoroughly discussed with your eye doctor to make the best decision for you. Even if you&#;re considering non-prescription readers with aspheric lenses, it's worth it to mention the change to your doctor.
Your eye shape is unique to you and you alone; this means that your lenses, whether aspheric prescription or non-prescription, must be customized to your unique eye shape. An experienced optometrist can assess your vision needs and recommend the most appropriate and flattering lenses for you. Get in touch with our team today to discuss your interest in aspheric lenses!
With aspheric eyeglass lenses, thin is in.
Advanced optical design technology allows aspheric eyeglass lenses to be made with flatter curves than conventional lenses, giving them a slimmer, more attractive profile.
Conventional lenses have a front surface that is spherical, meaning it has the same curve across its entire surface, much like a baseball.
Aspheric lenses, on the other hand, have a more complex front surface that gradually changes in curvature from the center of the lens out to the edge.
Most aspheric lenses also are high-index lenses. The combination of an aspheric design with high-index lens materials creates a lens that is noticeably slimmer, thinner and lighter than conventional glass or plastic lenses.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website RuiQi.
Aspheric lenses have a slimmer profile for virtually all prescriptions, but the difference is especially dramatic in lenses that correct high amounts of farsightedness. Lenses that correct farsightedness (convex or "plus" lenses) are thicker in the center and thinner at their edge. The stronger the prescription, the more the center of the lens bulges forward from the frame.
Aspheric plus lenses can be made with much flatter curves, so there is less bulging of the lens from the frame. This gives the eyewear a slimmer, more flattering profile.
It also makes it possible for someone with a strong prescription to wear a larger selection of frames without worry of the lenses being too thick.
Eyeglass lenses that correct myopia (concave or "minus" lenses) have the opposite shape: they are thinnest at the center and thickest at the edge.
Though the slimming effect of an aspheric design is less dramatic in minus lenses, it still provides a noticeable reduction in edge thickness compared with conventional lenses for myopia correction.
With conventional lens designs, some distortion is created when you look away from the center of the lens &#; whether your gaze is directed to the left or right, above or below.
Aspheric lens designs, on the other hand, reduce or eliminate this distortion, creating a wider field of view and better peripheral vision. This wider zone of clear imaging is why expensive camera lenses have aspheric designs.
Because aspheric lenses have flatter curves than conventional lenses, they fit closer to your face. This is a major benefit for anyone wearing a strong correction.
Conventional spherical lenses with a strong prescription for farsightedness cause unwanted magnification. This makes objects appear larger and closer than they actually are. And because this magnifying effect goes both ways, conventional lenses for farsightedness also give the wearer's eyes an unnaturally magnified, "bug-eyed" look.
Conventional lenses for nearsightedness do just the opposite: They make things look smaller and give the wearer's eyes a small, "beady-eyed" appearance.
Aspheric lenses greatly reduce these undesired magnification and minification effects, so the world looks more natural to the wearer, and the wearer's eyes look more natural to everyone else.
Aspheric designs are available in single vision lenses for the correction of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, and in progressive lenses, bifocals and trifocals for presbyopia. Although most aspheric lenses are made from high-index materials, they are available in regular plastic, too.
Other enhancements &#; including photochromic lens technology &#; are available in aspheric lenses as well.
For several reasons, frame selection is important with aspheric lenses. In general, the best-looking eyewear results when the frame is not overly large and when the eyes are centered in the middle of the frame opening. Your eye doctor or optician will help you select the best type of frame to complement your new aspheric lenses.
Taking measurements for aspheric lenses requires greater care and skill on the part of the optician, but this requires only an extra minute or two.
Creating the complicated curves used in aspheric lenses makes these advanced lenses a bit more expensive than conventional lenses. But the outstanding cosmetic and visual benefits of these thinner, lighter lenses make them a good investment.
Since aspheric lenses are flatter and positioned slightly closer to the face than conventional lenses, some wearers may notice more reflections off the front and back surfaces of the lenses. For this reason, anti-reflective coating is highly recommended for all aspheric lenses.
Original version of this article was by Joseph L. Bruneni, FNA.
Want more information on Aspheric Cylindrical Lens solution? Feel free to contact us.