Digital Eye Strain is a modern problem that has emerged as we have changed how society works. We are glued to our computer screens and digital devices at home and work. Our eyes weren’t made for such extended periods of focusing and refocusing at near vision, and the result is eye strain.
Digital Eye Strain (DES) specifically impacts your entire customer base, at all ages, whether they are in school, work, or retired. Digital Eye Strain is already top of mind for many opticians when it comes to single vision lenses, but your presbyopic customers need support too.
In this blog, we’ll examine Digital Eye Strain and how you can help alleviate symptoms for your progressive lens wearing customers.
Digital Eye Strain and Progressive Lenses
There are two main categories for the causes of eye strain, internal and external. Digital device use falls solidly in the external cause category as a physical discomfort felt by many individuals after two or more hours in front of a screen. Unfortunately, you can’t go around telling customers just to stop using computers or their phones.
Not only are all of your customers facing Digital Eye Strain, but many don’t realize it. Recent data from The Vision Council found that 49 percent of American adults didn’t know what Digital Eye Strain is. It’s your job to educate your customers about not only the symptoms but the solutions.
Presbyopes have already lost their natural accommodation support and come to you looking for a solution, often in the form of progressive lenses. These customers are looking to get their entire field of vision back, especially at near and intermediate distances.
Progressive lenses offer a significant opportunity for you to educate your customers about Digital Eye Strain and possible solutions within your lens options. You are already talking about correcting near vision. Make sure you are teaching all progressive wearers about how you can help them with Digital Eye Strain symptoms.
Personalizing Progressives for DES
Progressive lenses can and should be a solution for your presbyopic customers facing Digital Eye Strain, but it all comes down to correctly customizing their lenses. Our lifestyle as a society has changed dramatically in the last decade. The usage of digital devices has created new visual demands and postural behaviors you need to take into account.
Comfortable, relaxed vision is crucial for everyone, but especially for presbyopes. Your focus needs to be on individualized progressive lenses that can meet presbyopic and Digital Eye Strain needs.
There are two elements to personalizing progressive lenses for your customers, design and the corridor. The first element is choosing the right lens design. Certain designs offer different levels of customization of the progressive corridor with different features.
As an example, our Lifestyle 3 line of progressive lenses offers three different versions: Urban, Outdoor, and Indoor. Each design features a different corridor depending on what their lifestyle is, with Urban providing balanced support and Indoor providing larger near and intermediate portions. Lifestyle 3 serves as an example of designs customized to an average need.
Our new Hoyalux ID Myself lenses focus instead on personalization of the corridor for the individual. You can work with your customers to find out what their lifestyle is and customize to fit their exact vision needs. Because of the customization options, you can adjust and modify the design and corridor to provide additional accommodative support to help relieve eye strain.
These serve as just two options. There are various other progressive lenses with differing levels of personalization available. To be able to see a whole desktop, or use multiple digital devices, presbyopes need good vision and especially a wide field of view. You can achieve this by taking into account a customer’s wearing and lifestyle parameters which are fundamental to lens efficiency and effectiveness.
The right progressive lens with the right prescription compensates for the loss of accommodation, and reduces strain on eye muscles and provides the ability to focus and clearly see near objects.
Coatings
Choosing the right treatment or tint will help reduce Digital Eye Strain symptoms for your customers. Blue light filters exist to help blog digital high-energy visible light (HEV light) from reaching the eye, while AR treatments help reduce glare.
Make sure you recommend coatings for the best Digital Eye Strain solution.
Binocular Harmonization Technology
Progressive lenses come with a natural risk of causing eye strain for your customers with different prescriptions in each eye, or anisometropia. This happens because each eye sees a different image when not using the ocular center of the lens.
Our new Binocular Harmonization Technology helps alleviate this problem.
AdaptEase Technology and 3D Vision, next to BHT take care of problems caused by anisometropia in all gaze directions of the eyes.
Make Progressives Personal
Digital Eye Strain isn’t tied to one age group and is a societal change. This new hurdle for eye care professionals is here to stay, and while the solutions may get better each generation, the symptoms aren’t going anywhere.
When working with presbyopic customers to relieve their DES symptoms focus on their lifestyle and personalizing their lenses to fit their exact needs. When you are ready, let us know if you’d like to learn more about our most customizable progressive lenses, Hoyalux Myself.