fix and fit

What Makes a Good Frame?

by Alex Yoho, ABOM

The increase in purchasing some less expensive frames is understandable since we assume that there is more profit to be made.

It's important, however, to distinguish between lower price, which can work well, and lower quality. To help, here we provide a guide to spotting good quality. And bad.

Some frames are not necessarily inexpensive, but cheaply made. These frames probably come from the same factories that produce the $2.95 readers that your patients try to sneak by you for lens-only jobs.

Even frames with branded names that evoke quality and durability can occasionally be made of the worst materials and with the craftsmanship that would make a Yugo look good.

While innovation in materials and design is great, some folks making these frames have probably never mounted an ophthalmic quality lens. If they had, they'd do things differently.

FRAME SPOTTING

So what makes a good frame?

First it has to be versatile. Why would you display a frame that only accommodates 10 percent of the population's prescriptions?

A good number of frames today actually specify a usable power range and they are quite limited. You know if you put it on the board, some of the folks who want it will exceed the power range by three or four diopters. It makes us look bad when we won't let them have it, and worse, when we try and fail.

The frame buyers in the office must not be swayed by the emotional appeal of a frame alone, but by its practical use, as well.

The poorly made frames are generally easy to spot. Look at the groove of the eyewire.

A quality frame will have a nice, crisp-looking groove that is deep enough to hold the lenses securely.

If the groove is rounded and shallow, or square instead of V-shaped, it will not retain lenses well. We are sometimes fooled when the sample lenses stay in well, but they are thin and have square edges that grab well, which typically cannot be done with ophthalmic lenses. Super deep grooves can be problematic as well.

Aside from a quality eyewire groove, look at the finish of the frame. The inside eyewire area is ignored on lower-quality frames so it's easy to see mold lines or thin, sharp groove edges that may collapse when the new lenses are mounted.

The finish may be very shiny, but these frames will scream "cheap" upon closer examination. Uniformity is simply lacking.

MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Especially for inexpensive metal frames, aside from avoiding square-shaped or shallow eyewire grooves, examine the welded points very closely.

If you can see small spaces around the edges where parts are welded, it's likely that solder was skimped on and the frame is very apt to fail at these points.

On a good quality frame the solder will seal the pieces together with no gaps, but not so much that the solder is visible beyond the edges where the parts meet together.

Before adding a frame to your repertoire, it's actually a good idea to mount a pair of real lenses in it, even if they are old scrap lenses, just to get a feel for what the frame will do.

Ask the lab to notice if there are any problems that they can see as they process it. If you do your own edging, it's even better since you'll be able to see first hand how a normal lens will fit and mount.

When mounting a plastic frame, pay particular attention as you heat it. A poor quality frame will often soften more in one area than the rest of the frame, and do so quickly. A good quality frame will soften uniformly and will stretch evenly to accept the lenses, and then shrink for a good tight fit as it cools.

The poorer quality frame will stretch at the softest point and just stay there or tend to roll off of the lens. If a lens is cut a little large, a good quality eyewire might roll a bit, but it can easily be rolled back. Trying to unroll a poor quality frame will result in a lumpy mess since it doesn't soften evenly.

DEALING WITH IT

If you encounter one of these undesirables, your best bet when mounting these frames, is to cut just a hair small and cold mount them. You will have to accept the fact that the lenses will more than likely pop a bit at the top of the frame as the temples stretch over the head.

Avoiding these frames will improve our industry more than perhaps anything else you can do. Some of us will continue to use them but then, as the old adage goes: you get what you pay for. EB