The Advantages of Multiple Pairs of Eyewear

Most people pick either one pair of glasses or one set of contacts, but often find situations where they wish they had an alternative option to their main eyewear. After all, why dress your face in the same outfit every day? Just like having a few pairs of shoes for different uses, or a special purse for evenings out, having multiple pairs of eyewear can be very fun and superbly functional.

There are many reasons why owning multiple pairs of eyeglasses is beneficial. Clumsy or not, you never know what could happen that would cause you to break or lose a pair. Unlike ripping a pair of pants or losing a shoelace, not being unable to see is quite a problem! Although some eye care providers may be able to create glasses in a very short amount of time, you don’t want to be stuck either unable to see, or in an old prescription that will hurt your eyes while you wait for your new eyewear to be created.

Maybe you know in advance that you’ll need a different type of eyewear for a specific activity and want to get fit for your specialty eyewear. Eyeglass wearers need at least one pair of regular glasses, but many also have a backup pair of glasses and may opt for a pair of sunglasses, too. Contacts tend to be the go-to for sporting enthusiasts who need varied functionality for their sport, but there are also prescription options for eyewear used in watersports, winter sports, driving, outdoors, and other activities.

Other specialty types of glasses that you may need are computer glasses or specialty eyewear for work or hobbies.  Those that work long hours on a computer could benefit from investing in a pair of computer glasses. These glasses aid in preventing eyestrain, as they are designed specifically for the distance at which you view a computer monitor. They can cut down on glare and blue light, too. There are many options available for safety prescription glasses for work, and your employer may cover them if you need them for your job.

Occupational lenses can be helpful for those who wear bifocals because holding your reading material out far away from your face is not exactly practical nor comfortable. For those whose hobbies include close up work, reading glasses may be helpful for magnification.

Of course, the fashion-forward will also enjoy having multiple pairs of glasses to go with different looks. It is tempting to pick up a very colorful pair of funky frames to give yourself a signature look, but you may wonder if the bold look would feel awkward in other settings, like a serious family function or job interview. If you get more than one pair, you can be more creative with one of the frames and a little more conservative with the second pair. Unless you have a certain kind of prescription, the option of contacts is also great. They’re very practical and versatile. Some contact lenses even offer color-changing ability to give your eyes a totally new look.  

Just like the way different accessories make you feel fancy, professional, or casual, glasses and contacts can do the same. Check your vision benefits to see what coverage is offered for additional eyewear, or ask your eye care professional about price breaks on ordering multiple glasses and contact lenses.

What is a Black Eye?

A black eye forms when blood and fluids collect in the space around the eye causing swelling and discoloration. Typically, a black eye is considered a minor injury.

What causes black eyes?

A black eye is caused by bruising surrounding the eye, not inside the eye. This bruising is caused by broken blood vessels under the skin. A blow to the eye, nose, or head is the most common cause for a black eye, but surgical procedures near the eye or nose could also cause a black eye.

Symptoms:

  • Pain
  • Swelling
  • Discoloration
  • Headaches
  • Temporary blurry vision

How do I prevent black eyes?

You cannot always foresee an eye injury, but one way to prevent black eyes is to wear protective eyewear. If the activities you participate in require or recommend eyewear, such as safety glasses, face shields, or goggles, abiding by these recommendations and wearing eye protection will significantly decrease the risk of a face or eye injury and can keep you in the field or in the game.

How do I get rid of a black eye?

Typically, most black eyes heal on their own within one to two weeks. While healing, the black eye will change color varying in shades of purple, blue, green, or yellow. There are, however, a few steps you can take to help the healing process and relieve pain.

  • Apply a cold compress. A cold washcloth, bag of peas, or chilled spoon can help to alleviate pain and bring down swelling within the first 24 hours.
  • Taking pain medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help to relieve pain.
  • Apply a warm compress. After applying cold packs for the first day or two, apply a warm compress to the eye to increase blood flow in the area.
  • Lightly massage the area surrounding the bruise a few days after injury.
  • Snack on pineapple. Pineapples have enzymes to help reduce inflammation.

If your black eye does not subside, vision changes, bleeding occurs within the eye, or you notice other signs of infection, schedule an appointment or give our office a call. This could be a more serious issue that should be examined by an eye doctor.

Tips for Choosing Your Perfect Eyewear

Have you ever gone to pick out new eyeglasses, but been overwhelmed by all your options? Do you ever struggle to know what eyewear shape looks best on you? We’ve compiled our best tips for picking the perfect pair of eyewear to help make your decisions easier.

  1. Contrast your face shape

    • There are seven basic face shapes to review including oval, base-up or base-down triangle, oblong, square, diamond, and round. Eyewear should contrast your face shape but be in scale with your face size. Find your face shape below and try out our recommended shape frames

      1. Oval: wide or walnut-shaped frames
      2. Base-up triangle: frames with a wider bottom, light color or lightweight
      3. Oblong: frames with more depth than width
      4. Square: narrow frames and with more width than depth
      5. Diamond: cat-eye shaped frames or other detailing on the brow line
      6. Round: narrow frames which are wider and have a clear bridge
      7. Base-down triangle: frames with color or detailing on the top half
  2. Highlight your features

    • Pick your best or favorite feature and pick a frame to highlight it.
    • Some features to consider highlighting would be your eyes, hair, skin color, and face shape. For example, if you have blue eyes, try a blue frame to match and highlight your eye color.
  3. Match or complement colors

    • Your skin, eyes, and hair work together to create your overall coloring. Everyone has either a cool (blue or pink undertones) or a warm (yellow or orange undertones) overall color. Try a frame from our color list below to complement your coloring.
    • Warm coloring: camel, khaki, gold, copper, peach, orange, coral, red, or warm blue
    • Cool coloring: black, silver, rose-brown, blue-gray, plum, magenta, pink, blue, or tortoise
  4. Find the perfect size

    • Try on multiple pairs to see what size fits your face shape best.
    • If the frames are too small your peripheral vision will be limited and could potentially feel tight on the head. The frames should not pinch your nose, leave red marks, slide down your nose, or easily slip off your head. The tightness around your ears can be adjusted to get the perfect fit.  
  5. Match your frames to your lifestyle

    • Make sure your frames will work for every part of your life and will be a representation of you and your personality.
    • Pick frames to match your unique lifestyle and hobbies. Consider your common activities when choosing frames. For example, if you are more active you may want a pair of sports eyewear or a wraparound band. If you spend a lot of time on the computer, you may want eyeglasses with a tinted lens.
  6. Anti-reflective coating

    • An anti-reflective coating helps eliminate reflections on both sides of your lenses to cut down annoying glare and improve night vision.
    • Anti-reflective coatings allow for sharper, clearer vision with less glare. The lenses appear to be nearly invisible, giving the eyeglasses a more attractive appearance and allowing for better eye contact.
  7. Are weight and material important to you?

    • Frames are most commonly made of plastic, metal, or a combination of materials. This combination determines the longevity, weight, and average cost of a frame.
    • Key Features:
          • Stainless steel and titanium are long lasting
          • Metal frames often have adjustable nose pads
          • Metal frames can come in hypoallergenic materials
          • Plastic frames tend to be less expensive
          • Plastic frames are lighter
          • Plastic frames typically need less maintenance than metal frames
          • Flexible hinges allow the “arms” to bend more than regular hinges

Health Insurance vs. Vision Insurance

Insurance benefits and healthcare coverage can be very confusing. The language isn’t always clear, and sometimes you need to speak with a benefits specialist or human resources representative through your employer just to navigate what is covered and what isn’t. In general, there are a few things you should know about vision benefits vs. health insurance and how they may help cover your eye care needs.

There are many options for vision insurance providers including EyeMed, Humana, VSP and more. Of course, they all have their own specific coverage benefits and amounts, but in general they cover routine care like getting an annual exam and getting glasses or contact lenses. They will pay all or part of the cost of your exam and eyewear and give you a timeline of how often you are allowed to get a covered exam or eyewear allowance. You are certainly allowed to order additional contact lenses or glasses, or to get exams more frequently, but the insurance provider will only cover a predetermined amount based on their annual or bi-annual timeline. Usually covered individuals pay a co-pay or a percentage of the cost of an exam and any associated eyewear.

The difference between this and health insurance is that health insurance generally covers only eye care in relation to a medical condition. For instance, if you need an eye exam because of cataracts, dry eyes, complications from diabetes, or in relation to diagnosed high blood pressure, then your health insurance will usually cover the eye care. You don’t need vision insurance for this coverage, but you may be able to use your health insurance to cover your medical eye condition or eye care needs and then use your vision insurance to cover your glasses or contact lenses.

In addition to covering eye care for medical conditions, health insurance will typically cover care if you experience an eye injury or develop an eye disease.

The benefits of having optional vision insurance are that you can save a lot on eye care, and the plans are usually pretty inexpensive—typically just $12–$30 per month. Even if your employer doesn’t help cover part of your premium, many people like to buy the coverage to use for annual exams and new eyewear at a greatly reduced cost. Also, if you find that you’re not visiting your eye doctor regularly, paying for coverage is a nice way to make yourself accountable and schedule your visit to use your vision benefits.

Talk to your employer if you have questions about any employer-provided health care coverage or vision benefits. See an eye care professional to find out if your vision benefits are accepted, and how you can use benefits to save on your next eye exam or eyewear purchase.

Health Insurance vs. Vision Insurance

Insurance benefits and healthcare coverage can be very confusing. The language isn’t always clear, and sometimes you need to speak with a benefits specialist or human resources representative through your employer just to navigate what is covered and what isn’t. In general, there are a few things you should know about vision benefits vs. health insurance and how they may help cover your eye care needs.

There are many options for vision insurance providers including EyeMed, Humana, VSP and more. Of course, they all have their own specific coverage benefits and amounts, but in general they cover routine care like getting an annual exam and getting glasses or contact lenses. They will pay all or part of the cost of your exam and eyewear and give you a timeline of how often you are allowed to get a covered exam or eyewear allowance. You are certainly allowed to order additional contact lenses or glasses, or to get exams more frequently, but the insurance provider will only cover a predetermined amount based on their annual or bi-annual timeline. Usually covered individuals pay a co-pay or a percentage of the cost of an exam and any associated eyewear.

The difference between this and health insurance is that health insurance generally covers only eye care in relation to a medical condition. For instance, if you need an eye exam because of cataracts, dry eyes, complications from diabetes, or in relation to diagnosed high blood pressure, then your health insurance will usually cover the eye care. You don’t need vision insurance for this coverage, but you may be able to use your health insurance to cover your medical eye condition or eye care needs and then use your vision insurance to cover your glasses or contact lenses.

In addition to covering eye care for medical conditions, health insurance will typically cover care if you experience an eye injury or develop an eye disease.

The benefits of having optional vision insurance are that you can save a lot on eye care, and the plans are usually pretty inexpensive—typically just $12–$30 per month. Even if your employer doesn’t help cover part of your premium, many people like to buy the coverage to use for annual exams and new eyewear at a greatly reduced cost. Also, if you find that you’re not visiting your eye doctor regularly, paying for coverage is a nice way to make yourself accountable and schedule your visit to use your vision benefits.

Talk to your employer if you have questions about any employer-provided health care coverage or vision benefits. See an eye care professional to find out if your vision benefits are accepted, and how you can use benefits to save on your next eye exam or eyewear purchase.

What’s in a Prescription?

It seems like contact lenses and glasses would use the same prescription. After all, the idea is that your eyes don’t see quite right, so you use a lens to change the view, and then you see clearly, right? Well, the two prescriptions are quite different. Few patients check the numbers or notice any change during the exam process, but the prescriptions are not the same because of where the lens sits in relation to your eye.

The lens of your glasses rests about twelve millimeters from your eye. Contact lenses, on the other hand, are placed directly on the surface of your eye. Why would this make your prescription different? Well, think about holding a magnifying glass out in your hand. When you hold it far away and look through, the view you see is much different than if you try to hold the magnifying lens up close to your eye. The same principle is in play when you consider glasses in contrast to contact lenses.

If you’re still imagining the magnifying glass held out in your hand, think about how grass would look if you’re sitting on the ground and have the magnifying glass down near the grass. You’d be able to see the blades clearly, right? If you held the magnifying glass up close to your eye, the refraction would be so strong that you wouldn’t be able to see anything other than a blur. The power of the glass would need to be reduced for you to see clearly. This is the reason why your contact lens prescription is weaker than your glasses, but you get the same crisp, clear vision with each. Neat, right?

Not all contact lens prescription powers are drastically less than the glasses prescription for the same person, but usually the power used for contact lenses is reduced. In addition to the powers being different, your eye care professional will need some additional measurements to fit you for contact lenses because there are specifications needed to fit contact lenses appropriately that aren’t needed for glasses.

Some things that need to be measured to receive an accurate contact lens prescription are the size of the cornea, the curve and overall size of the lens, and the suggested brand of lenses that will work best for you. Eye care professionals usually have an idea of which contact lenses work best with different eye conditions, so they will suggest a particular toric lens for your astigmatism, or a type of disposal lens based on your needs, for example.

Some aspects of the lens prescriptions are included for both kinds of eyewear. The lens power is included in both prescriptions. Lens power is the measurement used to correct your “refractive error,” or the nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism that you have. It wouldn’t be identical because of the magnifying glass analogy, but it is included in both prescriptions. They’re also laid out per eye—right vs. left—because very few people have the same prescription in both eyes, so they are measured individually regardless of what type of eyewear you’re getting. More technical aspects of your prescription (the power and axis determined to correct astigmatism, for instance) may also be included in both the contact lens and glasses versions of your prescription.

Hopefully that makes the difference between your contact lens and glasses prescriptions clearer. Talk to your eye care professional if you have any questions about your prescription or are curious about getting contact lenses or glasses.