A Progressive Approach to Lenses with UNITY

~ Stephanie Kaufman received a complimentary pair of glasses fitted with UNITY PLxpression with Cascade Technology progressive lenses in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed here are her own. VSP is a client of Mom Central Consulting.

My father had bright blue eyes and – until he hit about 40 – perfect vision. Around that time, he came home one day and sheepishly reported to my Mom that one of his colleagues told him his “arms were too short,” as he stretched out a sheet of paper in front of him in an attempt to read it. After much consternation, he broke down and had his eyes examined. He got glasses shortly thereafter.

History repeated itself decades later when I, too, discovered my arms had reached their limit. Once in the grocery store, as I stretched a container of mozzarella cheese way out in front of me in order to read the expiration date, a woman walked over and offered me her reading glasses.

As I careened closer toward my forties, I struggled with my declining near vision. But unlike my father, I eagerly headed off to the eye doctor in search of help. But again and again, doctors told me my eyes were still in the normal range – apparently I’d grown up with better than 20/20 vision, so I felt a real difference now when doing close-up work, but my eyes hadn’t yet fallen into a category where they needed correction. But, one eye doctor warned, “It’s coming.”

The day finally arrived, and an optometrist fitted me for a pair of reading glasses. I was 41. I wore them just while using the computer, reading books at home, or for select work projects.

Initially they made a huge difference – I could see! But quickly I encountered the limitations of reading glasses – particularly at work. I needed them to review documents and take notes during a meeting, but if I looked up, I discovered my colleagues’ faces were blurry. So I took them off. And put them back on. And took them off. And put them back on.

Soon it became a problem at home. I never wore them around the house, but if my daughter handed me a permission slip at breakfast that had to be signed right then, I had to run in search of my glasses. Or if I needed to wear my glasses in order to read a cookbook, I found myself standing over the stove stirring blurry food. It got to the point that I asked my husband if he would mind if I wore my glasses around my neck on a cute chain. The look on his face encouraged me to find another option.

So I took my litany of issues to my appointment a year or so later and got a prescription for progressive lenses. Divided into three sections, these lenses offer wearers the ability to have near, intermediate, and distant vision in one clear lens – without the old bi-focal lens with the distinct line my Dad wore. In my first iteration with progressives, I had virtually nothing for distance, and a bit of correction for intermediate with a lot of near vision help included. They sounded perfect.

Then I put them on.

I had such a hard time adjusting between the three sections – I kept looking in the near section for intermediate distances and in the distance section for close up work – until everything was a blurry mess. One day I settled into my desk at work to read a stack of paperwork and realized the words appeared to be moving across the page in one blurry, nauseating ripple.

I headed back to the eye doctor to get some help, and while at home, did endless Internet research on the challenges of progressive lenses. Meanwhile, my daughter, who had gone with me for the re-check, kept shouting encouragement – “Remember, Mom, the lady at the store said you needed to ‘tip your chin.’”

For the next few years, I went back and forth between progressives and reading glasses. As a Mom, I needed the flexibility that progressives offer and finally settled in that direction – but did it need to be such a struggle?

So, when I started talking with VSP about progressive lenses – they felt my pain. And had a solution. UNITY PLxpression with Cascade Technology lenses offer the latest technology to ease the challenges wearers face with progressive lenses. These all-digital lenses are mapped using digital technology, so you end up with glasses that are precisely calibrated and customized to your specifications.

I headed out to Sudbury Eye Care, outside Boston, and saw Dr. Lorraine Labiento Smith, an optometrist who fitted me for my new lenses. She took careful measurements using a Pupillometer and explained that progressives need to fit precisely on the bridge of the nose in order for the lenses to function correctly. She made sure the frames didn’t wiggle or move when I looked down – a key factor when I lower my head to read.

I learned that these UNITY PLxpression lenses offer answers for so many progressive lens woes – including providing expanded vision areas within each section so you won’t be limited in where you can look through the lenses. They also provide easier transitions between each area.

When I tried on my new frames with the UNITY PLxpression lenses, I had an “a-ha” moment. Every section – near, intermediate, and distance – appeared so crisp and clear, and I had no adjustment period whatsoever. The transitions prove so seamless that typically I forget that I have three distinct vision areas.

With my last pair of progressives, I really struggled with the intermediate area – books on shelves of my daughter’s favorite bookstore appeared blurry and I attended a cocktail party this summer filled with guests with “hazy” faces. With my new lenses, while I naturally still need to look up a bit to access this area, my vision in this range seems much improved.

With progressives, it always takes a bit for your eyes to adjust when you move from one area to the next – for example, going from reading a file on your desk to greeting a colleague walking into your office – but I’ve found that it all just seems easier and more streamlined with the UNITY PLxpression lenses. It feels quicker and smoother and less jarring. And when I do zero in on something – ranging from computer type to traffic signs to expiration dates on grocery store items – everything just looks sharp and precise.

I love the flexibility and ease these UNITY PLxpression lenses provide. And, now as I continue careening toward my fifties, I feel totally in control of any vision-related issues.

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