The creation, and initial onset of eyeglasses had a fairly slow start. The design and evolution of the lenses took several centuries to really take off, and assist the average person. Furthermore, the original structure of eyeglasses was not the most comfortable object, as heavy material laid upon the wearers faces, and arched necks forced them even further discomfort. The glasses frames of today came after several hundreds of years, but once the modern prototype was developed, very little has actually changed for eyeglasses. However, this is not the same for overall knowledge of eye health and specifically the vision correction industry. Truthfully, there is no real need to change the development of actual frames when creations such as contact lenses, and of course laser surgeries are being developed to better people’s vision. As these alternatives become more readily available to the average man, you can’t help but ask yourself what will the future mean for eyeglasses as we know them?
Believe it or not, while the last hundred years hasn’t brought much change to the prescription eyeglasses industry, recently something new was invented that might be a real game-changer; these new glasses are called Superfocus. Besides the development of alternative measures, like contact lenses and surgeries, Superfocus frames are actual prescription eyeglasses frames, and stay true to the design as such. This recent invention simulates the natural zooming process of our eyes, and it is directed specifically for aging eyes. Aging can significantly affect our near vision needs, and we may start to require reading glasses in order to see better up close. However, if one was already wearing distance glasses, the switch to bifocals or progressive lenses may be a big adjustment. Therefore, Superfocus frames take the same procedure that our eyes would naturally do when adjusting, and allows the user to manually adjust the frames to see better at every distance needed. While these have been out for a few years, they are still a bit slow to pick up. The extremely high prices don’t help with this slow matriculation either.
As laser eye surgeries and contacts become more common, there are still the naysayers out there that would rather wait until decades of research have been conducted, before committing to such a drastic change. Of course this specifically directed toward the more permanent solutions like surgeries; however, many avid glasses wearers insist on keeping their frames over contacts any day. Furthermore, as our trends come and go, fashion also plays a large part in what’s socially accepted. For instance, with the geek chic style of recycled looks from the mid twentieth century, prescription glasses are currently very in! It is more than likely that eyeglasses frames, as we currently know them, will remain to stick around for at least another hundred years.
Elea Kalin is a fashion stylist – turned optical specialist. Her focus is on accessories and statement pieces – like prescription eyeglasses. She is currently working for eyeglassespro.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping all over the US, with the code FreeShip10.