Polycarbonate conflicting with prescription?

[Nick747]

Hi there,

I've been having a hard time lately trying to get new corrective lenses fitted - 3 sets with no joy.  I'm far-sighted with high astigmatism, and had extremely sucessful squint surgeries when I was 4yrs - so much so Optometrists have always been surprised when I tell them.

The problem I have been having is that once my glasses arrived, constructed out of polycarb, I get a strange distortion.  If my head is perfectly straight, things are slightly blurred, as if my astigmatism was not corrected properly, but tilting my head to the side sharpens everything up.  I have had three pairs of lenses, each with very minor changes in prescription - 1degree angle shift etc, but nothing has helped.  I have not had this problem when I have the testing frames on, with glass lenses inserted during the eye exam, and think polycarb may be responsible.  

Years ago, when polycarb first became popular, the optometrist tried me in polycarb, but I had a blur right in the centre of each lens - the lens was made correctly,and this didn't happen with glass so a remake in was done plastic, and I had great vision.  A few years later the same tech at the glasses centre thought they would try polycarb again for some prescription sunglasses - and there was no problem.  Three sets of prescriptions in polycarb since have been fine, until now.

Any suggestions? Are these kinds of problems known to occur with polycarb?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Ask for your money back and go to a different ophthalmologist and a different optician. use a frame similiar to your "old" glasses and keep the same base curve on the lens blank. If you old glasses that feel good are polycarb then the problem isn't polycarb.

JCH III MD

[Chuckles960]

Polycarb has high chromatic aberration (low Abbe number). This means that, especially with higher-power glasses, you will sometimes see a rainbow effect. Since that's not your problem, poly is probably not the problem.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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[Nick747]

Just thought I'd post an update.  I went to an independant Optometrist and explained the situation.  He found the axis was off my 10 degrees in each eye, and they even got the power wrong by 1 diopter in one lens!!  I got my money back, and have gone elsewhere to a competent optometrist. As I was able to see each time my eyes were tested, it seems likely that an error transcribing the prescription down onto my file, or off to be made into lenses was made - all feverishly denied of course, with no explanation of how such obvious mistakes could be made three times, by two optometrists.  Lesson: don't go to large-chain optometrists, invest in a quality optometrist who will maintain continuity of care and see you right.

Thanks to all who posted.

[mamaquinn]

I also am farsighted and just recently had to update my Rx.  I had a pair of frames that were like new, so I had the new scrip put in them.  The previous pair had polycarb lenses, so I asked them to replicate.  Long story short--the reason these frames were in such good shape is they were the 2nd pair of a BOGO, and I never could get used to them.It was the polycarb.  When I got the new pair, I could not get rid of a blurring and went back 3 times until the mgr. came over and said "you're

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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[Nick747]

I think the last part of your message was cut off, would love to hear the rest of your experience.

Nick

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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