When you’ve visited your optometrist in Canberra for your routine eye examination, they’ve suggested an update to your glasses is required. You only had the frames for less than two years, and it seems a bit of a waste to throw away your current pair of glasses to get new prescription lenses. However, putting new optical prescription lenses into your frame would mean that we would need to send them away to our interstate lens laboratory (either Sydney or Melbourne). This means you’ll be without your glasses on average for two weeks. Why do we do this? Isn’t it an inconvenience to do so?
Understanding how your glasses are made
Making your optical prescription lenses is a very delicate process. It involves complex skills and machinery to precisely grind your unique optical prescription into your frame. These specialised equipments take up a lot of space similar to a factory. All our lenses coming from our partnered lens laboratory are made on order. This is to ensure the lenses you delivered are at their best optical quality, providing you with the clearest vision possible, given your optical prescription. The controlled environment of an optical lens laboratory ensures that the tinting or coating of your lenses is free from any imperfections.
If we were to make lenses ourselves, we would have to keep what we called “stock” lenses, which are essentially lenses with your prescription we held in stock. Using stock lenses could be problematic depending on your prescription. Since many optical prescription lenses are made from plastic, if the stock lens has been sitting on the shelf for a period of time, its optical quality could degrade.
On top of that, we would need equipment that is “compact” so we can do all the lens grinding in a small room. A “compact” version of any equipment often provides a less superior result. We would often have to grind the lenses several times, which all increases the production costs of your glasses.
Sending Your Frames Away
Frames at Capital Eye are durable and can be used and reused multiple times. Not only this reduces wastage, but it also reduces the overall costs of updating your prescription. Sometimes, the condition of your frames may not allow them to be reused again as the process of fitting new lenses can cause additional stress to the already fragile frame, risking breakage.
At Capital Eye, we send your frames away to our lens laboratory should you decide to put new lenses in your current pair of glasses. This allows our optical lens laboratory to trace the frame accurately and grind your new prescription lenses into your existing glasses. This is by far the most precise way of updating prescription lenses into your existing frames because the laboratory can make all the necessary minute adjustments to ensure your vision through your new prescription glasses is optimal.
Having an Additional Pair of Glasses
If you depend on your glasses every day, it makes sense to have a spare or a backup pair of glasses. If you have your glasses updated at a reputable optician, they will send the frames away each time for the reasons mentioned above. This means you will run into the dilemma of being away from your glasses for some time. Bringing in your spare pair of glasses whilst you send your current pair away would ensure you have something to use whilst we wait for your new glasses to arrive.
The Bottom Line
We can make your prescription lenses here in Barton and shorten your lead time by a couple of days, or we could send your frames away to one of the world’s leading lens laboratories to have your lenses precisely and accurately fitted. And frankly, the lead time is primarily due to postage services. Bringing in a spare pair of glasses whilst getting your new ones underway is a small little price to pay to ensure your new glasses are made accurately and precisely.
At Capital Eye, your optometrist in Canberra, we ensure you are getting the best possible care. Whether it is through our friendly qualified team here in Barton or to our external provider, we ensure that we all consistently achieve our results. We are all human, and we understand sometimes someone else can do a much better job. It may be a bit expensive doing it this way, but it is a surefire way of guaranteeing the quality of the products we deliver to you.