Taking Care of your new Glasses
Taking Care of Your New Glasses
First of all, thank you for choosing 4 SIGHT opticians for your new glasses. We’ve included a helpful guide below on how you can take care of the frames and lenses to ensure you get longer, more comfortable use out of them.
Physical and Visual Comfort
– If you experience discomfort due to the frame being too tight or loose on your head, you are welcome to visit any of our branches. We will be more than happy to adjust them free of charge for you!
– Sometimes the screws that hold the arms onto your frame can work loose and need tightening again. The same rule applies as above; we will be happy to tighten these free of charge for you.
– When wearing glasses that are a new prescription for the first time, you may initially experience some visual distortion and have difficulty judging distances (especially with varifocal lenses). We recommend that you give yourself two weeks to adapt to new lenses and please ensure you have fully adapted in a familiar environment before driving or operating machinery.
– Reading glasses are only for near vision. Please don’t use them for walking, driving or climbing stairs as your vision will be blurred and your sense of distance altered.
– With multifocal lenses, there may be a strong difference between the distance and the reading parts of the lens. With bifocals in particular, this means that when objects cross the border between distance and reading, they may appear to jump. With both bifocals and varifocals, when you look down at your feet through the near vision area of the lens the image might be blurred, so please take extra care on steps.
UV Lenses
– UV protective coatings are only to be used for ordinary use and is not effective as a specialised UV ray protective for industrial use. Please ask in-store for our range of industrial-use eyewear as they are more suitable for potentially hazardous situations.
– Even with tinted lenses, looking directly into the sun is harmful to your eyes.
Sports Safety
– We would recommend not playing any sports whilst wearing your glasses unless they are specifically designed for such a purpose (i.e. they are prescription sports glasses) as normal glasses can be broken or shattered by balls, racquets or sticks.
General Care of Your Glasses
– Your lenses may become stained if rain, sweat, oil or chemicals are allowed to dry on them. They should be rinsed off without delay before wiping with a microfibre lens cloth.
– Condensation may also cause blurring on the surface due to sudden temperature changes. You can wipe out the blur using a microfibre lens cloth.
– Do not place your glasses face-down on the lenses or use paper towels to clean them as this will cause scratching. If your lenses are dusty, rinse them before wiping with a microfibre lens cloth.
– If the lenses receive a strong shock/impact, even if they don’t break, their durability tends to weaken. Please consider changing your lenses if they are scratched, chipped or distorted in any way.
– Do not leave your glasses in places where there are high temperatures (i.e. in a car under the blazing sun, a sauna or near a stove) as excessive heat can cause the lenses to crack, force them out of the frame due to deformation or even change the lens power!
– Try not to ‘peel’ your glasses off with one hand as this can distort the frame joints and result in poor fit.
– Occasional washing with a mild detergent and warm water will help to keep your frames sparkling and help to remove grease from nose pads. Rinse with lukewarm water and then dry with a soft cloth. Try not to wash them too often though as detergents can damage lens coatings with overuse.
– We do not recommend disposable lens cleaning wipes as they often cause damage to the lenses and coatings. Instead, use lens cleaning spray and a microfibre cloth specifically for glasses. Microfibre cloths can be washed as normal with your laundry when dirty!
Driving Safety
– Certain tinted lenses are not suitable for low light or night driving, and all tinted lenses are graded according to the density of the tint. Below you can find a table that explains which tint grades you can and can’t wear while driving in certain conditions:
|
Tint (Light Transmission) |
Category |
Tint Grade |
Use |
Limitations |
|
Clear (80-100%) |
Class 0 |
e.g. A or 1 |
Indoors/overcast |
None |
|
Light Tint (43-80%) |
Class 1 |
e.g. B or 2 |
Low sunlight |
Not for night driving |
|
Medium Tint (18-43%) |
Class 2 |
e.g. C or 3 |
Medium sunlight |
Not for night driving |
|
Dark Tint (8-18%) |
Class 3 |
e.g. D or 4 |
Bright sunlight |
Not for night driving |
|
Very Dark Tint (3-8%) |
Class 4 |
Not available |
Exceptionally bright sunlight |
Not for day or night driving |
– Class 0 lenses may be used for day or night time driving*
– Class 1, 2 and 3 lenses are unsuitable for night time driving, but may be okay for daytime driving
– Class 4 lenses are not suitable for any driving and are legally labelled “not suitable for driving and road use”
*Even though lightly tinted lenses may be legal for night driving, the best option for maximum light capture will always be a clear lens with a good Multi Anti Reflection coating.
Remember, the onus is on you to have good vision – failing to have your vision corrected and protected from the sun could invalidate your insurance if you are involved in an accident!
– When wearing Light Reactive lenses (Photochromic), please be careful when driving into tunnels as the sudden decrease in available light will temporarily affect visibility and could potentially be dangerous.
– Light Reactive (Photochromic) lenses will not darken fully when in shade or behind glass, which means they don’t work at their best when used inside a car, even if it is sunny outside.