What to Expect During Contact Lens Fittings
Your optician near Greenville offers contact lens fittings to ensure the proper fit and size.
A standard eye exam is routine for all patients to determine if they require corrective lenses or not. Additionally, a patient may also receive an eye health evaluation, which is more extensive for some patients based on their desires and current eye health problems and medical history. However, the second portion of your eye exam consists of our team sizing you for contact lenses.
Importance of the Sizing Process
The sizing portion is vital for matching you with the correct contact lens prescription. A poorly fit contact lens may not stay in your eye properly. Additionally, it could feel uncomfortable. Plus, the contact must stay in the proper position to optimize your vision.
This is especially the case if you have astigmatism. A contact lens for astigmatism has different focusing powers in different portions of the contact. If it doesn't stay in place, you may experience blurry vision or just not receive the optimal vision correction from the corrective lenses.
If you choose Ortho-K, a special fitting for gas-permeable lenses that you sleep in, they require a specialized fitting process to ensure they reshape your eyes in a manner that corrects your vision.
Contact Lens Fitting Process with 20/20 Vision Center
During a contact lens fitting, you look into a machine that gathers information about the dimensions of your eyes. The process is painless and takes only a few moments to complete. The machine, known as an auto-refractor, takes measurements of your eyes. It does so by shining light into your eyes and evaluating how the light reflects at different angles.
It's possible you'll need to have another test as well to fit you for contact lenses, which uses a keratometer. A keratometer is a machine that assesses the shape of your cornea. It's an evaluation used particularly for people with astigmatism or corneal problems. It determines if your cornea is more round or flat.
Understanding Your Prescription
Not every prescription looks the same for contact lenses. For instance, those who have astigmatism and wear toric lenses, or ones specifically for astigmatism, will notice more values than a standard prescription.
If you don't have astigmatism, you'll notice your prescription has three numbers: base curve, diameter, and power/sphere. The base curve is a number written in millimeters that determines the curvature of your eye. The diameter is the width that is best for your eyes. The power/sphere is the strength of the contacts you require to optimize your vision.
If you have astigmatism, you'll have two additional numbers: the axis and cylinder. The cylinder is similar to the power/sphere because it's related to the severity of your astigmatism and the additional vision correction you require. The axis, on the other hand, is another number related to the curvature of your eye. It determines the angle of correction you need in order to see clearly with your contacts.
Those with presbyopia will have two additional values on their prescription besides the ones mentioned above. The ADD value describes your near vision while the other part of your prescription lets you know which contact is for your dominant and non-dominant eyes.
The contact lenses fitting process is relatively simple for patients. In just a few extra minutes after your visual acuity test, an optometrist can match you with the correct sized lenses for you. This is imperative for both the comfort and power the contacts have to correct your vision.
What to Expect During Eyeglass Fittings
Your optician near Greenville offers eyeglass fittings to ensure the proper fit for your needs.
Are you looking for the perfect pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses? Here at 20/20 Vision Center, we dispense custom prescription lenses and can help you find the perfect frames to fit your face and your lifestyle.
Eyeglasses and Prescription Sunglasses
At 20/20 Vision Center, we can help you find the right sunglasses and eyeglasses for your face so that you can see clearly and keep harmful UV rays away from your eyes. Once you’ve chosen the perfect frames, our team will make sure your lenses have the correct coatings, like anti-glare or anti-reflective coatings, scratch resistance, anti-fog, and UV blocking coatings, so that you can see clearly and avoid incidental lens damage from accidentally dropping your glasses or from frequent cleaning of the lenses.
Getting the Perfect Glasses Fit
20/20 Vision Center can help you find the right style of frames for your face shape, best color for your skin tone and the best frame width so that your glasses or sunglasses are comfortable. It all starts with finding the right size glasses for your face in millimeters.
The fit width includes the width of the left and right lenses along with the bridge. A narrow fit number is 117mm or less. A medium width number typically ranges from 118 to 124mm, and a wide width is anything over 124mm.
If you aren’t sure what width you need, our team can measure across your eyes in order to help determine the correct frame width.
Choosing the Correct Frame Shape
The next step to getting the best eyeglass frames for your needs involves looking at the shape of your face. This is because certain styles of frames will look better on certain facial shapes.
For example, if you have a square shape, our team recommends choosing frames with oval, round or wayfarer shaped lenses. If you have a heart-shaped face, we recommend cat-eye, rectangle or wayfarer shaped lenses.
Choosing the Right Frame Color
Lastly, it’s time to choose the best frame color for your skin tone. Of course, you can always choose a color or a print pattern that best matches your unique style, but certain frame colors look better on certain skin tones than others.
For example, if you have a darker skin tone, we typically recommend light-colored frames, like white, silver and gold. If you are pale or have a very light skin tone, we typically recommend neutral or warm colors, including brown, tan or black.
Getting New Prescription Eyeglasses and Sunglasses
Once you have the perfect frames for your lifestyle and facial shape, our team will create your prescription glasses and sunglasses lenses out of your preferred material. Most individuals choose polycarbonate lenses or high-index lenses to go with their frames. This is because they are lighter and offer better longevity than plastic or glass lenses.
Of course, we often recommend anti-reflective coatings for polycarbonate and high-index lenses because they tend to reflect more light than glass or plastic. If you’d prefer glass or plastic lenses, we recommend scratch-resistant coatings.
Once you’ve chosen the details of your lenses, our optician will create your lenses with your prescription and fit them into your new frames. Then, we will test the fit of your glasses and make any necessary adjustments to ensure they are completely comfortable and do not slide or move while you are wearing them.