Progressive lens


Progressive lenses, also called multifocal lenses, progressive addition lenses, varifocal lenses, progressive power lenses, graduated prescription lenses, or progressive spectacle lenses are corrective lenses used in eyeglasses to correct presbyopia and other disorders of accommodation. They are characterised by a gradient of increasing lens power, added to the wearer's correction for the other refractive errors. The gradient starts at the wearer's distance prescription at the top of the lens and reaches a maximum addition power, or the full reading addition, at the bottom of the lens. The length of the progressive power gradient on the lens surface depends on the design of the lens, with a final addition power between 0.75 and 3.50 dioptres. The addition value prescribed depends on the level of presbyopia of the patient. In general the older the patient, the higher the addition.

History

The first patent for a PAL was British Patent 15,735, granted to Owen Aves with a 1907 priority date. This patent included the manufacturing process and design which was however never commercialized. Unlike modern PALs, it consisted of a conical back surface and a cylindrical front with opposing axis in order to create a power progression.
While there were several intermediate steps, there is evidence to suggest that Duke Elder in 1922 developed the world's first commercially available PAL sold by "Gowlland of Montreal". This was based on an arrangement of aspherical surfaces.
The Carl Zeiss AG & Varilux lenses were the first PAL of modern design. Bernard Maitenaz, patented Varilux in 1953, and the product was introduced in 1959 by Société des Lunetiers. The first Varilux lenses' surface structure was however still close to a bifocal lens, with an upper, aberration-free half of the surface for far vision and a rather large "segment" for clear near vision. The breakthrough in user adaptation and comfort, as well as peripheral and dynamic vision however occurred in 1972 with the introduction of Varilux 2, for which Maitenaz created a totally aspheric design and manufacturing process. Carl Zeiss AG developed freeform technology in 1983 with its own patented progressive series Gradal HS
Early progressive lenses were relatively crude designs. Right and left were identical variable power lenses with distance and reading power centers in the upper and lower part of the lens, respectively. The glazing was made to accommodate eye position changes from distance viewing to reading. The point of reading is about 14 mm below and 2 mm to the nasal side in comparison to distance viewing. By tilting the reading power towards the nasal side in perfect symmetry, appropriate reading power was given to the wearer.
The symmetric design, however, was difficult to accept for patients, because the eyes in general work asymmetrically. When you look right, your right eye view distal and left nasal. Modern sophisticated progressive lenses are designed asymmetrically for greater patient acceptance and include special designs to cater to many separate types of wearer application: for example progressive addition lenses may be designed with distance to intermediate or intermediate to near prescriptions specifically for use as an occupational lens, or to offer enlarged near and intermediate view areas.
The typical progressive lens is produced from a so-called semi-finished lens. The semi-finished lens is molded with an asymmetrical power pattern on the front. On the back side a custom surfacing is made to adjust the power for each patient. This method is however problematic, especially for astigmatic prescriptions. The reason being that the semi-finished front pattern is designed for a spherical prescription. Freeform designs are tailored to each prescription and do not have this problem.
Since the 1980s, manufacturers have been able to minimize unwanted aberrations by:
Today the complex surfaces of a progressive lens can be cut and polished on computer-controlled machines, allowing 'freeform surfacing', as opposed to the earlier casting process, thus explaining the difference in price. In short, the price is based on the technology used and the year the lens came to market.

Advantages and use

Peripheral Distortion: Progressive lenses suffer regions of aberrations and geometric distortions in the periphery, leading to poor vision when turning the eyes down and to the sides. Different brands of progressive lenses have more or less of this distortion.
Fitting: Progressive lenses require careful placement relative to the wearer's pupil centre for a distance-viewing reference position. Incorrect specification of the fitting location can cause problems for the wearer including narrow fields of view, clear vision in one eye only, on-axis blur, and the need to alter the natural head position in order to see clearly.
Cost: Progressive lenses are more expensive than bifocal and single-vision lenses due to higher manufacturing and fitting costs. Some research has been conducted to reduce the fabrication cost by precision injection molding.
When recommending a progressive lens design, an eyecare practitioner will usually ask the customer some questions about their lifestyle, which coupled with prescription restrictions or recommendations and cost can establish the suitability of various models of progressive lens. Different lenses have different glazing restrictions, lens material availabilities, maximum and minimum fitting heights, prescription ranges and as such the variation in quality between higher and lower end varifocal lenses is considerable.

Miscellaneous