EP #24: Embracing Progressive Lenses: A Visionary Shift for Seamless Sight

Struggling to find the perfect visual aid as your eyes demand more from you in a world brimming with screens and fine print? Say goodbye to those bygone days of visual jumps with bifocals and embrace the seamless transition of progressive lenses. Join me, Jeremy Wolfe, alongside the brilliant Dr. Laura Falco, as we unpack the intricacies of this spectacular eyewear innovation on the latest Jazzy Eyes podcast episode. Dr. Falco artfully demystifies the progressive lenses concept, likening it to a visual journey akin to a sand timer – wide at the top and bottom, with a gentle narrowing in the middle.

Tune in for our enlightening conversation that will change the way you view your visual needs. Whether you're navigating the complex technological dashboards of modern vehicles or intricately chopping veggies for dinner, progressive lenses cater to every glance and gaze. Dr. Falco reassures those hesitant about making the switch, explaining how today's digital customization ensures a smooth adaptation period, leaving discomfort and dizziness in the dust. Discover the tailored solution to your life's motion and gain clarity for every focal point with us on Jazzy Eyes.

For more information visit: JazzyEyes.com

or contact: (954) 473-0100

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the Jazzy Eyes podcast. Taking care of your vision with expert precision. Here's your host, dr Laura Falco.

Jeremy: 0:16

Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to the Jazzy Eyes podcast. I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolfe, and joined by your host, dr Laura Falco. Dr Falco, nice to see you again.

Laura Falco: 0:27

Nice to see you as well.

Jeremy: 0:29

Yeah, yeah, so excited to get into this topic because I saw you recently. I got to say we may need to revisit the discussion we had because I've noticed lately that my vision, very close, is getting blurrier and blurrier and I might just need reading glasses. So today you're going to talk a little bit about various types of lenses in glasses.

Laura Falco: 0:52

Yes. So today I wanted to touch on progressive lenses and explain what they are and when it's time to consider a type of lens called a progressive. So a progressive lens has multiple focal points. So when you put a progressive lens on, it progresses at the top of the glasses from your distance vision to your reading prescription at the bottom. Some people think they have three different levels. They actually have many more than three different levels. It's literally a progression, a stepwise progression from your distance prescription at the top of your glasses when you're looking straight ahead, and intermediate zones and then at the bottom, your reading zone.

Jeremy: 1:38

Now I kind of I'm sorry, is that a bifocal?

Laura Falco: 1:41

No, so a bifocal only has two focal points. Bifocal. A trifocal has only three focal points. So when someone has a bifocal they typically have a line and they have what we call like a visual jump, because sometimes they have two markedly different prescriptions. So the difference between the distance. And then you look in the bottom under the line, at the near it's almost like the whole world jumps at you because the magnification just comes like all at once, whereas a progressive at the top you have your distance, there's no line.

Laura Falco: 2:16

I make an analogy to a sand timer. You think about a sand timer. So you have kind of a wide swath at the very top of your glasses for the distance and then it gets a little bit more narrow for the intermediate and then it comes out again and flays out at the bottom for the reader. So that middle area progresses you from your distance in a step change way, like multiple different focal points to your reading prescription and it gives you a lot more than a bifocal. For example, the people used to think, oh, I just need my glasses for driving, I just need distance. Driving isn't really a distance only task anymore with the cars that are being made today. Pretty much all these cars have feels like an iPad or like the dash, is so interactive. Apple CarPlay, you know you have all your whole like cockpit with all of the things that's going on with the car and the video and the backup camera. That particular distance, if you think about it, isn't distance. It's not. Distance is defined as 20 feet and greater. It's not your reading prescription, where you will hold a book or your phone to see. It's called an intermediate distance. So whereas a bifocal you don't get that zone in focus because that's not reading, nor is a distance, a progressive hits the intermediate. So a lot of patients I say you know, you don't think about it anymore, but you really do need that intermediate zone for things like the dash or preparing food. And so what a progressive lens does is it gives you distance and everything in between, up to the reader.

Laura Falco: 4:03

Now, people had this fear of I'm going to be nauseous, I'm not going to be able to adapt, and perhaps 25 years ago that was more true when they were kind of in their infancy. But at this point, the way that they make progressive lenses and the way we can measure exactly where to put what part of the lens if you want more distance, less near we can really customize your progressive lens. And All lenses are really not created equal. The newest, latest, greatest with the digital technologies and the way they surface the lenses now makes a tremendous difference in your ability to adapt to the progressive. So when you look and you see some places where it seems like the deal's too good to be true for the progressive lenses, oftentimes you're getting technology that is quite old and that sometimes turns my patients off to the idea and I have to kind of handhold them a little bit through. No, we're gonna bring you up to date with today's technology because it really really makes a huge difference.

Laura Falco: 5:16

So to double back your problem of not seeing the teeny, tiny print up close. Eventually you might have days where, if you get a good night's sleep and your eyes aren't dry, you see. And then days where you're like wait, I can't see my phone break today, but I did yesterday. Like what's going on? Because as we age we lose our ability to focus. But it's not quite linear, it's not exactly a little bit every couple months it goes in a general downward slope, but with peaks and valleys, so it's like-.

Jeremy: 5:46

So fluctuates right. I thought that once it goes, it's gone. It's just gonna get worse. I can actually work from one day to the next.

Laura Falco: 5:54

It's up and down, but it's on a general downward trend and really I see the most profound vision change between 50 and 60 years old, where your reserve tank of focus really does go from, say, a quarter tank to zero and then you really are dependent on the glasses to see and people always feel like their prescription has changed and it really hasn't, but your ability to compensate without your prescription really has. So when somebody is just needing a quick little reader to see things once in a while, or very small print or medicine bottle, that's fine. I call it, I've termed it the glasses circus. And what I mean by the glasses circus is when you are constantly like on and off and I make like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and it's everywhere you go. You're in public, what I'll, am I in? You put the glasses down to see far, or you have to see how many carbs, how much sugar, and when you're just so sick of taking the glasses on and off, and on and off, and on and off and putting them on your head and putting them on your shirt and then you bend over and then they fall over and then they're scratched.

Laura Falco: 6:56

And where are my glasses when you've reached maximum capacity of aggravation fest from the glasses circus, you're ready for a progressive, because you just put a pair of glasses on and you see everything at the same time.

Laura Falco: 7:09

It doesn't mean you have to wear them all the time, but it does mean when you do put them on you don't have to look over them, pull them down to walk around. You don't have to put them on your head If you're looking at your, your phone, for where's the next turn on my ways. But you also want to see far away, or who just texted me? You can see everything simultaneously and that is the beauty of a progressive. So I've hope I've kind of cleared the air a little bit about why somebody would do a single vision, why somebody recommends a progressive versus a bifocal, versus a trifocal. But yeah, as we mature we lose our ability to focus up close and so, yeah, at some point you want to put a pair of glasses on and just see everything you want to see, without you know going on and off with a million different pairs of glasses.

Jeremy: 7:58

So I always wondered about that, because I've never put on bifocals or progressive lenses. Is that something that I'd imagine. It takes some time to for the eye to train to look where it needs to. I mean, what do you see when you first put it on? And you see this degree of vision.

Laura Falco: 8:15

Yeah, so when it's measured properly and you're sitting with your optician and you're, you can't. You don't want to get this in the mail. You can't just get this all of a sudden because two millimeters off and you're looking through the wrong part of your lens and you have a bad feeling about it. You want to sit with your optician, you want to be measured properly, and when you put them on the new lenses, I'll be so honest. If you start early with the progressive and the new technology, it's barely any adaption. But you think of it as you point your nose at what you want to look at and you really intuitively, within days, have no problem putting the glasses on and see.

Jeremy: 8:59

So the eye kind of just finds its way very quickly based upon how you structure the lens for the specific patient.

Laura Falco: 9:06

Yeah, and it all depends you know, it starts off with having the absolute right prescription.

Laura Falco: 9:10

Sure, and then it comes off.

Laura Falco: 9:12

Then, just as important as having the most accurate prescription is working really really closely with your optician and discussing brand matters, what lens matters, where you place the reader segment, so that all the rows of progression depending upon the patients needs, is huge. So you really have to have an open communication and a back and forth with your optician because you have to know what brand, what lens, how wide to make the middle of that sand timer because you can alter it, and where to place your reading segment because, again, these are modifiable. It's not a generic formula, one size fits all. So it's super important to talk with your doctor about what your visual needs with these glasses are going to be, and then the doctor communicates that to the optician so that you can really hone in together and pick the best lens. So the patients really set up for success and if they love that first pair of progressives, you're done. I mean, they're patients going to love it because then all of a sudden they have simultaneous vision and all distances and it's effortless if it's done properly.

Jeremy: 10:23

Sounds good. Definitely good to know. Hopefully I won't need to get them anytime soon. I'm not quite knocking on 50 yet. I'm close. I'm close, but definitely, definitely keeping an eye pun intended on my near sighted vision, because I don't want to keep you straight.

Speaker 1: 10:39

Sounds good.

Jeremy: 10:40

All right. All right, dr Falco, always a pleasure. You have a wonderful day and thanks to our listeners for tuning in and we'll catch everyone next time. Take care, thanks.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Thank you for listening to the Jazzy Eyes podcast. For more information, visit jazzyeyescom or contact 954-473-0100.