| Thanks to technological advances and a growing | | | | reflections and helping to conquer glare from wet |
| demand for premium-quality products (from opticians | | | | roads or sun-baked sand, either of which can cause |
| and patients alike), spectacles and contact lenses are | | | | eyestrain or blind spots. Advanced coatings can even |
| now more sophisticated than ever before. Lens | | | | repel water and dirt - with obvious benefits to anyone |
| production has become a fine art, with global | | | | who regularly works outdoors. |
| companies competing to introduce the latest | | | | In a similar vein, scratch resistant coatings offer |
| technologies and improve the appearance and | | | | considerable advantages for people whose jobs or |
| durability of their products. | | | | hobbies involve dusty environments or regular lens |
| One key advance in recent times has been the ability | | | | abrasions, for example photography where |
| to considerably slim down lenses. The industry has | | | | viewfinders can be constantly scraping over the |
| progressed a long way from the "milk-bottle bottoms" | | | | spectacles. Allied to modern materials like |
| of the postwar era, and today it's possible to obtain | | | | polycarbonate plastics (which are ten times stronger |
| lenses made from a variety of materials which | | | | than standard plastic), spectacles are now more |
| minimize thickness and maximize style. | | | | durable than ever before, and consequently glass |
| It's worth bearing in mind that some lenses will still work | | | | lenses have become increasingly rare. |
| better with different types of frames, and stronger | | | | Tough, shatter-resistant lenses can be invaluable for |
| prescription strengths may make certain combinations | | | | sportsmen and women, as well as children, whose |
| inadvisable, such as thick lenses in rimless frames. If | | | | spectacles often lead a harder life than their adult |
| one eye is much weaker than the other, thicker | | | | counterparts. |
| frames will help to obscure any difference in the | | | | Patients requiring multifocal correction have seen some |
| thickness of each lens, and the current fashion for bold | | | | of the biggest improvements in the quality of |
| spectacle design offers plenty of scope for doing | | | | spectacles available to them, with seamless bifocal |
| precisely this. | | | | lenses eliminating dividing lines. Each lens can now be |
| Another relatively modern phenomenon in spectacle | | | | designed for a unique individual prescription. |
| production is the ability to apply coatings to each lens, | | | | Like single vision patients, people with multifocal lenses |
| such as anti-reflective materials that reduce | | | | can also enjoy sharper eyesight than in the past, |
| eye-obscuring reflections or headlamp dazzle during | | | | thanks to ever-more precise manufacturing processes |
| night-time driving. | | | | which have reduced lens distortion to hitherto |
| Polarizing lenses perform a similar job, reducing | | | | unachievable levels. |