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Medical Forum / General / Vision / January 2007Progressive Puzzler
After a couple of weeks of trying without success to wear my new progressives, yesterday I went back to my optician. I posted about these in another thread (Disappointing New Progressives) but to summarize, they are Nikon i lenses in a Face A Face semi-rimless frame. Problems were mostly very poor distance correction with significant blur just off-center. I felt like I had to work hard to see clearly when wearing them. Whenever I wore them all day they turned into real headache machines by early evening and I had to take them off. I'm not normally susceptible to headaches so I'm pretty sure it was the glasses causing it. I think my current Rx scrip is in my office as I cannot find it today at home, but it changed very little from the previous, which was: Sphere Cylnd. Axis R -1.25 -1.25 75 L -1.75 -0.75 105 Add R +1.50 Add L +1.50 The optician/owner was not in yesterday when I went back, but one of his assistants who I trust took significant time with me checking everything. He tried a couple of adjustments, marked up the lenses to re-check the fit, checked the Rx, and could find nothing. But I made an interesting discovery myself during the process. I was sitting opposite him at the fitting table. Against the opposite wall about 15-20 feet away and slightly above me to my left was a display unit with a mirror attached to it using small plastic holding clips. I would focus on these clips when checking my distance vision. At no point with the Nikons could I achieve sharp focus on the clips. Didn't matter what I tried -- whether turning my head to be straight on to them, slightly off to one side, looking through any portion of the lens, adjusting the tilt of the frames slightly, nothing let me focus clearly. I could put on my old glasses (with AO Easy lenses, which I understand are hardly best-in-class) and instantly get crisp focus even off-center at the top of the lens. This is bizarre. I have been researching the Nikon i and it seems to be a pretty good lens from what I can find. I have seen no reports of distance correction problems. Many opticians on Optiboard speak quite highly of it. Yet I cannot see with them using a set that is supposedly correct for me. I'm truly puzzled. I left the glasses there and will speak to the owner tomorrow or Tuesday about what we do next. It's probable that I will get a remake, though whether or not they will be Nikon I don't know, nor do I know if I want another set of them anyway. I'm baffled. There is nothing surprising here. All lenses have aberrations and all eyes have aberrations. Aberrations are additive. If your eyes have the same type of aberrations as the lens, then your vision will be worse. If the aberration in the lens is the opposite to your eye, then your vision will be better. In the absence of the script being wrong, I would suggest the design is not suited to you. This is not the opticians' fault, it is simply "what is". A different design would be indicated. If the AO Easy works, get them made up. Alternatively, get something like Physio 360. They come from the same lab and will be covered under warranty. Your problem is one I found commonly with Presio lenses, but not with the Physio 360. dr grant >After a couple of weeks of trying without success to wear my new >progressives, yesterday I went back to my optician. I posted about [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] >though whether or not they will be Nikon I don't know, nor do I know if >I want another set of them anyway. I'm baffled. Although it can be difficult to find waves or warps on PALs, I wouldn't make new lenses until I've ruled out errors in the Rx or lens grinding and position. Have the optician hold trial lenses over the glasses too see if the vision clears, alternatively they might have a trial frame and lenses to more or less confirm the Rx. A second opinion (from a different optical shop) might be a good idea also. Hope this helps, Robert Martellaro ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Optician/Owner Roberts Optical Wauwatosa Wi. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr what change in index (sometimes with semi rimless higher index lenses are used to avoid chipping) if any on the new lenses and what about base curve differences? > After a couple of weeks of trying without success to wear my new > progressives, yesterday I went back to my optician. I posted about [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > though whether or not they will be Nikon I don't know, nor do I know if > I want another set of them anyway. I'm baffled. > what change in index (sometimes with semi rimless higher index lenses > are used to avoid chipping) if any on the new lenses and what about > base curve differences? I don't think the index has changed much, if at all, though I dunno what index the plastic Nikons have. The lenses are very thin though, now that you mention it. I went back yesterday and spent some time with the owner and "master fitter" as I refer to him. He really is patient and very good at working through problems. He spotted something others had missed, related to the angle of frame and lenses as they sat on my face. By reducing the angle, he was able to improve the distance vision significantly, so they are as good or better in that respect as my older lenses. However, that revealed another problem, in that peripheral sharpness was reduced quite a bit. He noted that the Nikon lenses have a lot less curve to them than the Variluxes and suggested that perhaps the frame needed to be bent to give me less flatness and more wrap. However, that is an irreversible change in that the temples on the frames would need to be re-mitered. He suggested I wear the glasses this weekend and see if it went away. I am wearing them today and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be going away. Shaving this morning was really strange, in that the sides of my face that I was seeing in the mirror were blurry. Probably because of the angle change (bottom of the lens further away from my face) the intermediate area is now very narrow. Plus, I have seen another difficulty, in that there is significant peripheral distortion (astigmatism?) that I notice in vertical things, something I don't notice in my older glasses. I am doubtful that this is going to work out. Whether these frames would work with a different type of lens, I don't know, though I also don't know whether a frame swap is possible at this point. I really don't like the idea of having such a radical change made to an expensive set of frames in the hope that it might work. Stay tuned. > I am wearing them today and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be going > away. Shaving this morning was really strange, in that the sides of my [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > change made to an expensive set of frames in the hope that it might > work. Stay tuned. Just to close the loop on this, I tried the Nikons one more time and decided that I didn't want him to perform surgery on an expensive set of frames. So I went back and decided to accept his offer to have them remade in a set of AO Easy lenses, which worked well for me in my other glasses. I picked up the new set last week and after a couple of minor adjustments they were immediately better than the Nikons. I took them home and wore them on the weekend, with mixed results. While they were certainly wearable, vision was no more clear than with my older set, which was a disappointment given that my Rx changed slightly. There was also what I would describe as a certain level of visual discomfort that may be as much due to the design of the frames as anything else. The front surface of the frames is very flat and I think for my face they probably need additional wrap, which would mean either mitering or bending the temples. I am unsure whether I want to do this. A good lesson that the performance of progressives is due to a number of factors, and that certain frames, even those with adequate height, may be less suitable for them than others. |
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