Essilor Announces Specialty Lenses and a New Specialty Lens Lab In the US

DALLAS – August 29, 2018 – Eyecare professionals with patients who have complex prescriptions that cannot be corrected with ordinary lenses have a new solution available. Essilor’s Specialty Lens (SL) Lab offers custom-made designs that are designed to meet the needs of patients with low vision or high prescriptions. Specialty Lenses are suitable for patients with complex refractive errors including high sphere power, high cylinder power, special parameters, extreme powers and extreme prisms, and strong ametropia. They also help address vision challenges for people with medical issues such as lazy eye, cataracts, and other rare eye conditions.

“It’s our commitment to ensure everyone who needs better vision has access to it through Essilor of America” said Rick Gadd, incoming President of Essilor of America. “Our Lab Network can now, for the first time ever, help people who need power ranges -100.00 D to +90.00 D see the world around them. It’s just one more way our Lab Network delivers on our mission of improving lives by improving sight”.

The expanded range of Essilor Specialty Lenses are available now, through Custom Eyes Lab of Sauk Rapids, Minn., and the entire ordering process is completely customized to the eyecare professional and his or her patient. ECPs can simply call their Essilor lab to place their specialty lens order, and a lab customer service representative can determine if the customized lens requires additional measurements. Specialty Lenses are available in a variety of materials and power ranges from -40.00 D to +50.00 D depending on the material, and SL Lab can accommodate from -100.00 D to +90.00 D working through its sister lab in France.

The Specialty Lens Lab recently provided a -30.00 D cylinder lens for Ed Matthews, who suffers from severe pellucid marginal degeneration. This condition “warps” his cornea, causing him to have a high degree of cornea distortion and astigmatism. SL Lab surfaced the lenses and Custom Eyes edged them to fit into the frame. “SL Lab made the lens by gluing two lenses together in order to achieve such a high cylinder as they were not able to grind a 30.00 D cylinder lens. For our part, we had never attempted 30D either, but that is what we strive to do -- the most challenging work,” says Regional Operations Director Henryk Dymus. The lenses were right the first time, allowing SL Lab and Custom Eyes to truly make a difference for the patient. “It is hard to imagine the impact this would have on Mr. Matthews’ life,” adds Jay Brinkman, Operations Manager at Custom Eyes. “It is gratifying to know that Essilor is able to help those patients with the most extreme vision correction needs.”

Alexandra Leonardi, SL Business Unit Manager, wants eyecare professionals to know that Essilor’s SL Lab offers solutions for even the most complex prescriptions. “ECPs should not hesitate to prescribe or request what seem to be difficult solutions because they think it’s impossible. Essilor Specialty Lenses exemplify our continuous efforts to push the boundaries of what a pair of glasses can achieve.”

Eyecare professionals can contact their lab sales consultant for more information.

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Essilor, the leading manufacturer of optical lenses in the United States, is driven by the company's mission of improving lives by improving sight. A pioneer in the development and production of ophthalmic lenses, Essilor employs more than 10,000 people throughout North America. Essilor manufactures optical lenses under the VARILUX®, CRIZAL®, TRANSITIONS®, XPERIO UV™, EYEZEN™ and other Essilor brand names. Essilor Laboratories of America, Inc. is the largest and most trusted optical lab network in the U.S. and offers a wide choice of products and services to eyecare professionals across the nation. Essilor of America, Inc. (Essilor) is a subsidiary of Paris-based Essilor International, a publicly held company traded on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (Reuters: ESSI.PA).