Buying Glasses On the Internet? How is it Possible?

By  //  May 15, 2022

For some years now, websites have been successfully selling eyeglasses and sunglasses. Judging by the number of hits, the internet is a very popular sales channel for customers. Surely this is due to the convenience and low price levels. The trend is constantly increasing and customers are willing to buy glasses online.

Should you consider buying glasses on the internet?

From a realistic health perspective, is buying glasses online a wise idea? Judging by the comments of professional opticians on the related forums there are two prevailing feelings about it:

– There is a feeling that customers can only be adequately assisted by a personally qualified optician.

– There are also tremendous doubts about the quality of eyewear that can be purchased on the internet.

How valid are these considerations?

For most people with an up-to-date prescription, purchasing glasses is quite simple. As complicated as an optician may make it look, it is not for 90% of eyeglass wearers. For the 10% of customers who have constant problems with lenses, frames or who have particularly complicated prescriptions, it is preferable to buy glasses directly from their trusted optician. These customers know they need ongoing support, and this cannot be offered by any website.

How to ensure correct positioning of the lenses

Another important element for having glasses that fit well is the correct positioning of the lenses inside the frame. Two dimensions are particularly important:

– Pupillary Distance (PD): The distance between your pupils.

– Height of the pupil center.

Both measures are critically important to ensure that the optical center of the lenses is positioned exactly in front of your pupils. How, then, are these measurements obtained when you’re going to buy hipster glasses for example?

PD is measured by the doctor or the shop optician. It is a one-minute job that requires the use of a small and inexpensive box called the pupillometer. Unfortunately, due to competition from websites, opticians have become reluctant to provide this measurement to the customer. They measure it, but then keep the result on their cards.

Height of the pupil center

Measuring the height of the pupil center is simple

The height of the pupil center is more complicated, opticians have a plus here.

What is the height of the pupil center? What is the height of the pupil center? If in the past you have purchased a pair of eyeglasses from a good optician, you will have been asked to wear the frame while the optician made a small mark with a marker on the trial lenses present. The sign indicates the position of the pupils with respect to the chosen frame. With trial lenses, the optician can easily measure the height of the pupil center (distance between the lower edge of the lens and the location of your pupil) and provide this measurement to the laboratory that will mount the lenses in your frame. It is obvious that this measurement is simple to take firsthand.

How do websites get such a critical measure?

Unfortunately this measure is not mentioned on most optician websites. They shove the dust under the carpet, hoping the customer won’t notice it. These sites generally are based on the average pupillary height. This is fine if your pupil in that frame is at the same height as the average. But how can you know? And what happens if this doesn’t match? In that case, you are not very lucky.

Given the flexibility of the eye, it will be able to accommodate an incorrect position of the lenses, but you can have headaches, muscle pains or worse in the long run, and all this without realizing that it is due to badly positioned lenses. This is a lack of various websites that can cause a bad reputation for this distribution channel.