How To Talk To Patients About Camber Steady Plus Progressive Lenses

By: Laurie Pierce

Understanding today’s complex lens design methodologies can be hard. Explaining these innovations to our patients in a user-friendly way can be even harder! Unless the patient before us is an engineer, they want us to explain lens design innovations in a simple way. (KISS: Keep It Simple Sweetheart!)

If we talk too much tech to them, they will not understand and may even feel uncomfortable. It is human nature to avoid that which we don’t understand, and the common quick response will be ‘No Thank You’.

Here are some tips for translating advanced scientific technologies to patients in a way that makes it easy for them to understand:

Camber front side technology:

As we know, this unique design ensures that the front surface will have the perfect base curve for the prescription, gaining in plus power from the top to the bottom of the lens. This reduces troublesome oblique aberrations.

What to say:

‘Mrs. Jones, I am excited to share with you the latest and greatest of lens innovations available to you. I am recommending the Camber Steady Plus Progressive lens to you, as it incorporates a unique design on the front and the back surface of the lens. On the front surface of the lens, the curvatures are controlled to match the exact needs of your prescriptions. This allows for extra technologies to be added to the back surface. What you will notice, is that your vision will be clear when you look in the distance, in the middle, and at the bottom for near vision.

Also, the back surface design incorporates Steady Plus Methodology to significantly reduce the ‘swim effect’ which is a common complaint of progressive lens wearers. This technology mirrors the ‘Steadicam’, a special camera used in fast-paced sports. When the camera person is shooting a game like hockey or basketball, the Steadicam captures the action in a smooth way, without the picture ‘jumping around’.

Have you ever noticed that when you look through the outside edges of your lenses the things you are looking at seem to be wavy? We call this swim effect. It happens because the vision is not as good when we move our eyes outward away from the center. To correct this, special attention needs to be applied to the design to balance it out. The result is a wider, smoother area, even at the edges of the lenses.

Even though lens designs are quite complicated, it all boils down to three things:

1. The curvature of the lens

2. The material of the lens

3. The thickness of the lens

While simple lenses have 3-4 curves (like a single vision lens for distance or for near), these Camber Steady Plus Progressive lenses have over 3,000 curves! Lens engineers have made this possible by inventing special software, which is applied to each lens differently depending on the prescription. They are truly personalized for you.

Finally, unlike before, we can send the lab additional measurements which personalize the design even more. When you put them on, they will feel like a simple single vision lens, except you will be able to see in all distances!

This lens is available for you in all types of materials and treatments like antiglare, tints, even polarized sunglasses.

I highly recommend this to you, and think you will love it!

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About the Author: Laurie L. Pierce, LDO, ABOM, NCLC

Ms. Pierce is an Associate Professor in the Opticianry program at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. Laurie is a graduate of Newbury College’s opticianary program in Boston and managed Lugene Opticians, an upscale optical boutique in Boston’s Copley Place. Ms. Pierce lectures extensively on optical theory and management topics at local, regional, and national optical conferences. Ms. Pierce is certified as an ABO Master Optician and is certified by the National Contact Lens Examiners. She has received the National Federation of Opticianry Schools Educator of the Year award and was named by Vision Monday one of America’s Most Influential Women in Optics.