Sponsored by eyeOs Optics
By Linda Conlin, ABOC, NCLEC
Digital eyestrain and discomfort are a product of the age in which we live. While some ECPs debate the benefits of blue filter lenses to reduce digital eyestrain, consumers don’t share their skepticism. Consumers are driving the demand for blue filter lenses and will turn first to their eyecare provider in search of relief from symptoms of digital eyestrain. But when their eyecare provider doesn’t offer blue filter lenses, this digital age consumer will search and buy them elsewhere.
Eyecare providers who understand the visual challenges from hours spent daily staring at blue-rich digital screens recommend blue filters to reduce exposure to the easily scattered and defocused short wavelength blue light that degrades vision. Managing blue light screen emissions are just one of several factors that contribute to digital eyestrain. ECPs help patients to manage digital eyestrain with lenses and other recommendations such as following the 20-20-20 rule to relieve accommodative stress (every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds).
The optical industry has witnessed the growth of prescription blue filter lenses. Coincidentally 90 percent of eyeOs Premium readers sold feature BlueBuster® lenses. eyeOs BlueBuster® lenses fillter the shortest, most easily scattered, defocused blue light (Fig. 1).
Our customers appreciate help when focusing on digital screens, whether it be for near or intermediate focus or the ability to see the range from their screen to across the room. Sam Kotob, founder and designer of eyeOs, shares insights from optical retailers on how they utilize BlueBuster® lenses in readers or in OfficePal® and PcPal® for multifocal support. Sam states, “The feedback that I get from ECPs is they are recommending BlueBuster® lenses for myopes to wear over contacts and for students, whether they wear glasses or not, to help relieve short wavelength blue light-linked digital eyestrain. BlueBuster® lenses with a half a diopter of magnification are being offered to myopes wearing bifocal contacts to provide intermediate focus. And since digital eyestrain is also linked to accommodative stress from long hours of focusing up close, they recommend a small amount of magnification paired with BlueBuster® lenses to help reduce accommodative stress and eyestrain, even for emmetropes.”
BlueBuster® lenses are an in-monomer dye technology, making them more effective and more durable blue filters than blue AR coatings. Furthermore, lenses are virtually clear, with no yellow/orange tint or blue reflections off the front. They’re available in plano or with magnification of +0.50 to +4.00 in 0.25 diopter increments and in prescription Aspheric 1.60 MR-8. eyeOs Premium readers with BlueBuster® lenses feature high-definition aspheric design with premium AR coating, scratch resistant and hydrophobic coating, and UV 400 protection. Combine PcPal®, OfficePal® and eyeOs readers with BlueBuster® lenses, and you have best-in-class premium readers.
Of course, premium lenses must be paired with high quality, stylish frames. eyeOs frames are made of Mazzucchelli zyl, handmade from cotton fiber and colored with vegetable extracts and minerals, making them hypoallergenic and eco-friendly. Built with an appreciation for traditional quality utilizing modern design and technology, eyeOs acetate features 5-barrel hinges. The new eyeOs PURE Titanium Collection features frames that are hypoallergenic, strong and light, weighing less than 12 grams. Pure Titanium is corrosion-resistant, and the elemental luster of titanium infuses a beautiful finish to the color and style. PURE Titanium is earth friendly and 100 percent recyclable, and it is a skin friendly biocompatible and hypoallergenic material. The frame fronts are milled of a single sheet of 1.8 mm Japanese titanium and feature a robust hinge with flexible temples. The titanium temples are treated with extreme heat changing the characteristics of the titanium on a molecular level for enhanced flexibility, increased durability and comfort. eyeOs PURE Titanium Pocket folding half-eye features temples and bridge that neatly fold for convenient compact storage in a purse or pocket (case included). Pocket is tough as steel but ultra-lightweight at little more than one quarter ounce and available in classic colors: Gold, Silver, Hematite and Matt Black Silver.
eyeOs sets an unprecedented standard in distinctive reading eyewear. eyeOs style and quality reflect the lifestyle of successful, confident people who seek out the better things in life. In the next eyeOs article in the May 20/20 issue, we will introduce you to the eyeOs prescription package to help the ECP meet their customers’ desire for quality and value for their second, third and fourth pair of glasses. View the collection at eyeosoptics.com.
