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Work It!

You can achieve visionary success with workstation eyewear, helping your patients see well, attain visual comfort, and maintain workplace productivity

By: KARLEN MCLEAN
Eyecare Business September 1, 2006

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Work It!
You can achieve visionary success with workstation eyewear, helping your patients see well, attain visual comfort, and maintain workplace productivity
By Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC

Do the math: There are 140 million-plus computer users in the U.S. workforce today. They spend two or more hours at the computer, working in meeting rooms, offices, and cubicles, viewing everything from computer screens and presentations to the fine print throughout the workday.

While ECPs can't change their patient's workstation environment, they can make suggestions about how to best use it and they can change how patients see by prescribing workstation eyewear.

In addition to increasing practice revenue, promoting an expertise in the workstation category can increase patient retention and recommendations, and enhance short and long-term growth. The best way to do this is by building expertise with Near Variable Focus (NVF) lenses.

NEAR VARIABLE FOCUS LENSES

Lenses specifically designed for computer and office use, known as near variable focus (NVF), occupational, office, computer, or workstation lenses, are valuable for solving visual challenges in an office setting.

ECPs are accustomed to thinking in terms of distance, intermediate, and near powers when it comes to multifocal lenses. But with NVF lenses, ECPs must be bknowledgeable and comfortable with a computer add power and the difference between an add power and a focus shift.

Your goal is to provide NVF lenses so patients see well in three areas:

1. Past the computer screen to around the room—top of the lens.

2. The computer screen—center of the lens.

3. Printed materials on a desk or viewing a keyboard—lens bottom.

FITTING TIPS

To fit NVF lenses properly requires thinking and acting outside the standard PAL, bifocal, or trifocal box. Tips honed for NVF lenses are:

Dot the lens. To take advantage of NVF lenses' longer, wider corridor and ensure the best visual results for patients, place the fitting cross at the center pupil by dotting lenses at the pupil's center.

B aware. NVF lenses require a specific B measurement in order to take full advantage of the lens design. Generally,
B measurements should be at least 30mm.

Hip to height. Typical minimum recommended fitting heights in NVF lenses are around 15mm.

PD gets around. Some NFV lenses require the near pupillary distance, while others require the distance PD. The prescription should include both. Take monocular PDs with a pupilometer, not a PD ruler.

You Have the Power

Manufacturers specify NVF lens power change as power shift, dynamic power, or degression rather than using the word "add." These terms describe the decrease in power from the total near power (TNP) in the reading area up to the top of the lens. For example, if the TNP is +2.00D, and the power shift is +1.25D, the top portion of the lens is +0.75D.

Some lens designs have one power shift, while others have two, three, or four. Check with manufacturers for complete details. NVF lenses need to be verified for the TNP or the amount of power present in the reading area of the lens. Verifying NVF anywhere but in the near power is inaccurate due to full aspheric design. The first priority in a NVF lens is to provide the widest clear intermediate area, then reading area, and finally distance vision.

Fitting room. Pre-fit frames prior to taking lens measurements. Place pantoscopic angle at 7 to 12 degrees, vertex distance
at 10mm to 12mm, and ensure comfortable face form (curvature).

Talk power. Schedule regular touch-base conversations or meetings with your NFV lens provider of choice and your laboratory for updates. Get literature and tools, and look into specific NVF lens education programs to stay fresh.

OTHER OPTIONS

Remember that a workstation may be outside a typical office setting, like an airplane parts assembly line, a trailer on a construction job site, or a landscaper's greenhouse.

Recommend high-impact safety lenses and frames for patients who'll be wearing their workstation eyewear in heavy-duty work situations.

Other Options
A few patients may not be candidates for NVF lenses due to personal preference, visual conditions, or adaptation factors. Here are some alternative workstation solutions:

n Single-vision lenses that are measured, prescribed, and fit for a specific distance.

n D-35 bifocals prescribed for intermediate vision in the top and near vision in the segment, with the near vision seg measured slightly lower for intermediate length viewing.

n 7x35 or 8x35 trifocals offer wide intermediate and near vision segments and can be custom measured with the segs higher for primary intermediate and near viewing, with a smaller area for distance viewing.

n Trifocals in 8x34, 10x35, or 12x35 offer 60 to 70 percent usage in the intermediate viewing area.

n Progressive addition lenses (PALs) with a wider intermediate corridor and some designed for smaller frames may be good everyday choices, but may not offer comfortable long-term daily workstation use. Detail every patient's exact work style needs before automatically prescribing and fitting a standard PAL.

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