Stylized and Polarized

Goodbye four-eyes and hello stylized!  Making a fashion statement in prescription sunglasses no longer appears to be a challenge. Congratulations!  You’re rocking those designer duds harder than Kate Upton at a Lenny Kravitz concert, but are you really protecting your eyes?

While sunglasses may be the more fun side of eye health, it’s important to keep in mind that they perform a function more important than “looking cool.”  Lucky for you, you bought designer and your lenses already contain better protection against harmful ultra violet rays and blue light than their lower-cost competitors.  However, 100% UVA and UVB protection is not always enough to prevent your eyes from permanent sun damage.  In other words, you need to be stylized and polarized.

Polarized sunglasses are nothing new.  Fisherman and boaters have been champions of the shades for years.  The special polarized film placed on the front surface of polarized lenses reduces the glare created by sunlight refracting off water and sharpens the wearer’s vision.  The channeling of light conducted by the polarized lenses is responsible for the wearers improved comfort:  reducing squinting and eyestrain, improving depth perception, enhancing image contrasts and visual clarity, and increasing UV protection.  Responsible for blocking horizontally polarized light rays, this polarized film causes the sunglass wearer to suffer less fatigue and have fewer headaches when exposed to the sun.  Polarized lenses also improve driving safety and outdoor sports performances.

The best part about polarized lenses is that they are very thin and lightweight.  Your personal style will not have to suffer as the lenses are available in a variety of color options and most designer sunglasses are polarized compatible.  So no matter if you are a fisherman, boater, driver, jogger, mountain biker, or fashionista, Cohen’s Fashion Optical has the perfect polarized shade for you!

How Do I Choose the Right Eyeglasses for Me?

Those of us who wear eyeglasses know that choosing a new pair is a daunting, yet crucial, process.  Eyeglasses quickly become the most important accessory, often times being the first thing people notice when they see you.  So how do you make sure you’re picking the perfect pair?  Follow me through these easy steps to ensure you walk away from your next trip to buy eyeglasses stylish, comfortable, and more importantly, with 20/20 vision.

1.)     Get an Eye Exam:  When going through the process of buying new frames, take the opportunity to visit your optometrist for an eye exam.  The last thing you want to do is spend time shopping for the perfect pair of glasses, only to put old lenses in the frames. Having an up to date prescription is key to walking away happy.

2.)    Consider Function:  Will you be active while wearing your glasses?  Looking at a computer screen?  Speaking in a professional setting?  All of the questions posed above will be important factors in choosing the right pair of glasses.  For example, if you will be wearing your glasses in a professional setting put your quirkier fashion sense aside and opt for a more classic frame that can be worn across multiple functions.  If you will be looking at a computer for hours a day, you may need to consider lenses with an anti-reflective coating.

3.)    Shape, Size, and Color:  The retailer you choose for your purchase is of the utmost importance.  Choosing a retailer such as a Cohen’s Fashion Optical, will ensure that you have a wide variety of options available to you.  This is especially important as knowing what color, size, and frame type to choose can only really be decided after trying on multiple pairs.

4.)    Comfort is Key:  Once you’ve narrowed down your favorite pairs, spend some time in them.  The length of your eyelashes, the way the glasses feel on your nose and behind your ears will all affect your long term satisfaction with the pair you choose!

The number one thing to remember when shopping for glasses is having fun!  Buying new specs not only gives you an opportunity for better vision, but can also provide you with a whole new look!  How many accessories can say that??!!

Is it More Environmental to Wear Eyeglasses or Contact Lenses?

When people think about their environmental impact, the things they eat and the way they travel from place to place are two of the largest concerns. This makes sense because those lifestyle choices account for sizable portions of a consumer’s carbon footprint. However every purchase can be viewed through an eco-friendly lens (pun intended) and if you’re in the market for eyewear, you might wonder which is more environmentally friendly: eyeglasses or contact lenses.

A lot of factors need to be taken into account, including the energy cost of producing and shipping the designer frames or contacts, how often you get a new pair, and what supplemental supplies such as cleaning fluids are required for maintenance. Here are some the advantages of each of the two types of eyewear:

• Estimates by the environmental blog Tree Hugger place the average replacement rate for glasses at about three years. While some people might where there glasses for much longer this is a good baseline for comparing with contact lenses.
• Contact lenses can be replaced as frequently as once a day or on a monthly or even annual basis if you have hard, gas-permeable lenses. However, even with daily contact lenses only use a fraction of the plastic used to make a pair of eyeglasses.
• While contacts don’t require much material they do require plenty of lens solution, and that’s not even counting the packaging they come in, which tips the scales back in favor of prescription eyeglasses. If soy-based contact lenses come on the market in the near future it could improve the eco-friendliness of contacts.
• The Washington Post cited an estimate that making a pair of eyeglass lenses produces the equivalent of 10.5 pounds of CO2.
• One of the biggest environmental perks of eyeglasses is that, unlike contact lenses, they can be donated to the needy. Organizations like Lions Club International make sure that your glasses go to good use long after you’ve outgrown them

In conclusion there is not enough data publicly available for a thorough carbon footprint lifecycle analysis from the day a pair of glasses or contacts is made until it is thrown away. However, glasses seem to be the slightly greener choice. Now it’s back to worrying about the gas you pump and the grub you eat.

Should You Buy Glasses and Contact Lenses Online?

The benefits of buying eyeglasses and contact lenses online are obvious; why walk to the local optician when you can make your purchase from the comfort of your own home. However, there are some less obvious drawbacks to buying glasses or contacts online according to the Chicago Tribune. Here are some things you should consider:

1. People who buy glasses or contacts online are more likely to neglect their eye health and skip their eye exam.  The optometrist or ophthalmologist is out of sight and out of mind for those who prefer to shop for eyewear online. “Regardless of where you buy eyewear products, you should put your eye health first,” says Dr. S. Barry Eiden, immediate past chairman of the American Optometric Association.

2. Most people don’t know the distance between their pupils, or pupillary distance, off the top of their head. You will get that measurement most accurately if you’ve gone into an optometrist’s office for an eye exam and you can’t order and accurate pair of glasses without it.

3. Though some ecommerce websites allow you to try on frames virtually, most of those methods don’t give you the most accurate impression of how you will look once the frames arrive. The same applies for contact lenses, although in that case, it’s the feel of a pair of contacts that matters more than the appearance, unless they are fashion contact lenses. If you go to a physical optical store, they will often adjust your glasses for you for free, but it’s unfair to ask a store owner to do that if you purchased them online.

To make up for all these downsides, many online eyeglass and contact lenses vendors offer lower prices than their brick and mortar counterparts. But going to a physical store has the advantages of greater speed, reliability, and service. It all depends on what you value more.