Q. Why can't I find a 1.56 lens anymore?

A. Essilor has discontinued the 1.56 lens material across their product line.  In its place we suggest using the 1.60 material.

Q. What lenses do you recommend for drilled rimless frames?

A. Trivex is the preferable choice.  If trivex is not available in your lens style, we suggest 1.67.  These two lenses provide the best protection against chipping and cracking, they can both be coated with an AR coat and/or a Super Hard Coat.  If you are not able to use either of these, polycarbonate is alright, but does suffer from vulnerability to chemical reactions.  CR39, polarized lens, and mid-index lenses are not advisable and will very often suffer from splitting, chipping, or cracking.

Q. Why don't they make a polar trivex or high-index lens?

A. Due to production costs, these lenses are not yet available. If the demand increases to a point where it becomes feasible to produce the lenses, the manufacturers will introduce them. The best thing you can do is contact your lens reps and express your interest.

Q. When is the lab open?

A. Standard hours are from 8:00am until 5:00pm est, but you are welcome to call us anytime.

Q. On REMO, what does "Error in the MODE field" mean?

A. It means you have entered as seg height of 10 or less, and the system wants to know where you measured the seg height from.  There is a drop-down box next to the seg height field. Chances are you measured the seg from the bottom of the frame, so click on the drop down box and select "Frame Lower Edge".  This should fix the Mode field issue.

Q. I've looked all over, but I can't find the Image progressive, or trivex or Drivewear materials. Where are they?

A. Image, for some unknown reason, is under the short corridor field.  The trivex material is located under mid-index as either P53 phoenix or as H53 trilogy. Drivewear is located under the photochromic materials with a TPR (transition polarized) designation.

Q. What's the difference between Lenses Only and Frame To Come?

A. For us, Frame To Come means you are sending us something to trace. It may not be a frame all the time; a trace card or a pattern is often sent in place of a frame.  The key point is that if you are sending us anything to trace, the job should be marked "Frame To Come".  If we are going to use our database to make lenses, we designate that as "Lenses Only".  Only if we use our database does it get that designation.  Also, it is highly suggested that if you choose to have us use our database that you provide us with a C-Size from your patient's frame so we can provide with the best fitting lens possible.

Q. What's the deal with UV coats on AR coated or Super Hard coated lenses?

A. UV dip coats are called "active coatings" as they continue to move on the lens after applying (on a molecular level anyway), which can over time cause an AR to craze.  Think of it like ice on a slow moving river.  Over time, the moving water will cause the ice to fracture.  The UV coat also reacts to the hard coating in the AR coats, as well as Super Hard coats, turning the lens yellow.  These things don't happen all the time, but they do happen enough that we suggest avoiding UV on lenses with AR or Super Hard coats.  The best thing you can do if you need UV protection on your lens is to use any material other than standard clear CR39.  Every other lens material (glass being an exception here) has UV built in, and does not need a separate UV coating, therefore rendering these issues null and void.  In may cases, there is little to no increase in cost, since there is no longer a charge for the additional UV coating.  For more information on this, please contact us.

Q. How do you measure for occupational lenses?

A. As a rule of thumb, you measure for occupational lenses much the same way you measure for standard progressives. In fact, we ask that you provide us with a standard progressive script and an occupational lens choice so that we can do the script conversion here.  The most important thing to remember when fitting for an occupational lens is that each style has specific frame height requirements, so make sure you adhere to them. This means that once they decide on an occupational lens, there frame choices must be limited to ones that fit the lens guidelines.  While it is important under normal circumstances to fit the frame to the lens (instead of picking a lens to fit a frame), it is of the utmost importance with occupational lenses. Otherwise, lens performace stands to be greatly compromised.