IcareLabs Blog

I know that this is going to be a touchy subject for many of you. With the current economy, we are hearing a bunch of noise about consumers not being able to handle it anymore. They have reached their limits and don't have any money left to spend. You are hearing this and in many cases anticipating a substantial drop in exams and purchases. 

In today's modern lab with digital processing and the high percentage of jobs being processed with non-glare coating, cribbing has become the norm.  While many might be used to receiving cribbed lenses, I would figure that some do not understand why.

In September we covered the science of tinting lenses in part 1 of this series. This month we will finish up with some detailed steps for tinting and applying UV coating, then close with some troubleshooting tips. 

Chances are that if you have an in-house finishing lab then you tint your own lenses. In this 2 part series on tinting lenses, we are going to go over some of the basics of tinting while digging into the science behind achieving good results.

Over five years ago, we launched our Heritage line of digital progressives with three offerings. These three designs very quickly became some of our best-selling lenses. Today we are very excited to announce that we have launched six new Heritage freeform digital designs. Along with our proven Heritage, Heritage Plus, and Heritage Ultimate lenses, we have added an ultra-premium design with our Heritage Xtreme.

On top of these four everyday designs, we have also added the Heritage Single Vision, Heritage Office, Heritage Desk, Heritage Sport, and Heritage Driver lenses. These new options will better service SV patients, occupational lens wearers, and patients looking for lenses best suited for playing sports or driving.

Having been in the optical industry for most of my adult life has spoiled me. Like many of you, I have multiple pairs of glasses covering all my needs. For many of us, we probably have multiple pairs for a specific need. This is just what you do when you are in the industry; you try new products and add-ons and enjoy their benefits.

Essilor of America has announced the launch of the new Eyezen® Kids lens for April 12, 2022. This will be an add-on to the proven Eyezen family of lenses.

To better assist our customers and improve thickness and cut-out, we are expanding our database to begin storing frame information, including the shape and measurements of each frame. This is a brand new tool in our battle against thick lenses and cut-out issues.

Author and motivational speaker John Maxwell once said that “everything worthwhile is uphill." While this is a true and profound statement, I don't think that it is something that most of us do not know. So many great quotes speak to this same subject. For example, John Hawkins once said that "if success were easy, everyone would do it."

But why is it this way? Does success have to be hard? Why are the best things in life often difficult to obtain? We could get deep into the weeds with this subject and never find our way out. To avoid this, let’s narrow it down a little. Let’s simply look into being just a little bit more successful in your optical business.

While it has been many years since I have dispensed glasses, the memories of troubled patients are still fresh in my mind. I had the blessing of being trained under a master optician back in the days when this still meant something. I wish I could remember half of what he shared with me.

Through this training early in my career, along with hundreds if not thousands of calls working with dispensers over the last 18 years I've been with IcareLabs, I feel I have become pretty good at troubleshooting issues with a pair of glasses.

Much like a complex recipe, troubleshooting seems challenging from the outside. However, when broken down into individual steps it becomes effortless. In comparison with cooking, following each step in sequence makes even the most complex dishes seem easy.