Ordinary sunglasses reduce the amount of visible light entering your eyes. Your eyes already have that ability by controlling the size of your pupils. Our pupils get bigger in dim light to let more light into the eye and get smaller in bright light to limit the amount of light into the eye. By limiting the kind of light that enters your eyes, polarization provides a level of light management that ordinary sunglasses do not have.
Polarizing a lens is the process of laminating on, or casting in (causing less distortion), a polarizing film to a lens. A polarized film consists of special molecules running in horizontal parallel chains. This film acts as a filter, blocking out light that bounces off reflective surfaces such as water, road surfaces, or water vapor in the air around you. This reflected light is 7 to 10 times brighter than normal daylight and is commonly referred to as glare.
Polarization can be ordered in both non-prescription and prescription lenses. Polarized prescription lenses are available in nearly all lens materials and are made in non-prescription, single vision, bifocal, trifocal and progressive lenses. We can even put polarized lenses in your favorite non-prescription sunglasses! Typically only two colors are available - brown and gray, but many specialty colors are available for certain types of lenses. Polarization cannot be added to existing lenses - it must be requested at the time of order.
Reflective glare is a problem. While not as intense as a camera flash, glare has a cumulative effect that, over the course of a few hours in the sun, will produce the same effect as a flash bulb. Many vision problems associated with night driving stem not only in the human eye's need for light, but the lingering effects of exposure to glare during daylight hours. Removing unnecessary glare during the day can help reduce the eye fatigue that contributes to nighttime vision problems.
You need to protect your eyes from harmful ultraviolet sunrays by wearing sunglasses. How much glare you block is up to you - standard lenses help, but a high-quality polarizing lens can make a world of difference in how fatigued you are at the end of a long drive, a day at the beach or even an afternoon in the back yard. Polarized lenses can give you better ability to see detail than just standard sunglasses and they allow you to see bolder color. In summary, polarized lenses help you relax and see the world in a whole new way.
Anti-reflection coating or AR coat enables better vision by decreasing reflections off of your lenses. This coating also helps your lenses "disappear" since people looking at you will also not see reflections on your lenses, just your eyes behind them.
Use of an anti-reflective coating on your glasses helps to reduce the amount of glare produced as light passes through your lenses from outside sources, including computer monitors. An anti-reflection coating allows more light to pass through your lenses and is one of the few lens options that will provide a direct improvement of your vision. If you also use your glasses for driving, the anti-reflective coating will make a night commute home much more pleasant by reducing the glare produced by oncoming traffic and street lamps.
