As the workforce has migrated to working from home and adapted to multi-screen computers, clear vision at arm’s length – but much wider – is needed, presenting an industry-wide opportunity.
Occupational lenses are experiencing a renaissance, as advances in technology have resulted in newer lens designs that provide advantages their predecessors did not.
And if practices are still recommending outdated occupational-style lenses – still popular with many practitioners as a security blanket – then patients, and practices, are losing out, dispensing expert Mr Steven Daras says.
Before discussing how the latest occupational lenses can generate capital growth for eyecare practices, Daras clarifies a common misunderstanding.
“’Occupational lenses’ is an umbrella term that covers all lenses specifically prescribed to allow someone to see clearly to do their ‘work’, be it occupation, vocation, or hobby,” Daras, a director of the Australian Dispensing Opticians Association (ADOA), explains.
“These can range from single vision lenses prescribed for a set working distance, to other lens types like occupational versions of bifocal and trifocal designs, starting with the first occupational multifocal designs being the executive bifocal and trifocal lenses, followed by flat-top (or D-seg) bifocal and trifocal lens designs.”
He continues: “These days a lot of people in our industry use the term occupational lenses to mean degressive lenses which are reading lenses that progressively weaken (or degress) by a certain power (or shift) as the wearer looks up the lens from the reading area. These give far more generous intermediate zones, being much wider and longer than progressive lenses.”
The correct terminology should be used to avoid any misunderstandings, Daras says, who has been in the optical industry since the 1970s and is currently course coordinator of Certificate IV in Optical Dispensing at TAFE NSW. He is the longest serving optical dispensing teacher in Australia, and second longest in the world, second only to Professor Mo Jalie.
He says early iterations of degressive lenses were known as enhanced readers or extended focus readers.
“We now have occupational degressive lenses that allow further vision than the original degressive shifts. Most major lens manufacturers have ‘families’ of occupational degressive lenses and continually spend on research and development to improve their product offerings in this competitive field,” Daras explains.
“For example, one lens manufacturer offers an online office lens range selector where practitioners can input data on the required visual range and prescription and get a tailored lens recommendation of that company’s office lenses for that person’s visual needs.”
In July, HOYA Vision Care launched a new range of occupational lenses, replacing its previous indoor designs, which help to improve the wearer’s vision comfort and ergonomic posture, allowing them to work or focus on near and intermediate vision areas in a more relaxed and comfortable way.
Designed to meet demand as people spend increasingly more time on digital devices both at home and work, each lens in the new range has its own unique attributes, allowing eyecare professionals to customise a solution that fits each wearer’s needs.
With increasing reliance on digital devices from smartphones to tablets, workstation PCs to widescreen flat TVs, Daras says people of all ages need clear vision at different distances.
“Younger people can usually accommodate from one distance to another, but older people aren’t so fortunate. Anyone suffering from presbyopia would benefit from at least an enhanced reader, even if they do have some accommodation left, as these are far better than single vision reading lenses,” Daras says.
“However, younger people still put a lot of stress on their accommodative processes looking from the TV to a smartphone. The closer the phone is held, the greater the demand on their accommodation. Anti-fatigue or Digital Assistance Lenses (DAL) are ideal for people under 40 in this case, and you could include viewing a gaming console here. DALs have a distance portion and very weak adds and not much progression, so they’re more like a bifocal than a progressive lens. However, they help younger people by taking the strain or stress away from their accommodation.”
For Daras, who ran an independent practice for 16 years, any eyecare professional who is looking after the wellbeing of their patients will advise them that their varied visual needs require specific help.
This means certain lenses for certain tasks. He uses a shoe analogy to demonstrate his point.
“When I ask my students how many shoes they have, the response is usually six pairs or more (male students) and 12 pairs or more (female students). They understand that one pair might be comfortable to wear at work but may not be suitable for playing hockey. You need to wear something more appropriate for that activity. The same applies with lenses; while progressive lenses are a great all-rounder, they are not specifically designed for computer and other digital device use,” Daras says.
“We need to educate the public in this as a high percentage of consumers do not know there are special lenses available for them. That’s an industry-wide opportunity for optical dispensers to create a dispensing plan.”
During COVID-19 lockdown, Daras points out, many people learnt to work from home and in doing so, many adapted to multi-screen PCs.
This means clear vision at arm’s length where greater width is needed, and Daras notes some lenses can offer this better than others. He says everyone who has progressive lenses should also have degressives to suit their visual needs. Good practitioners should also be asking these questions during the eye examination.
“This is an area where most practices can generate growth as very few people are offered different lenses for different tasks. Most get a pair of progressives and a pair of readers, when there are better alternatives,” he says.
Occupational degressive lenses (or families of degressive lenses) generally range from 40 to 70cm, suitable for working on a laptop, to 40 to 100cm, suitable for a typical workplace desktop PC workstation.
“Then there are the longer intra-room lenses that allow vision from near at 40cm up to four or five metres, depending on the prescription, that allow people to glance around their office. These do not provide full distance vision and should not be used as a distance correction. They give wide stable intermediate (computer use) and near, more so than progressive lenses,” Daras says.
“The moment we introduce the distance prescription into the lens, it drastically changes the front lens geometry, and intermediate and near areas are greatly reduced. Progressives are a great all-rounder, and you may wear them at the computer, but they won’t be good over a long period of time,” Daras says, just as shoes worn in the workplace won’t be comfortable on the hockey pitch.
ADOA has a short education module on occupational lenses, accessible to members only. For more information, visit www.adoa.com.au.
Breaking down the stigma
Ms Bonita (Bonnie) Eason is practice manager at Evolve Optometry’s Batemans Bay and Ulladulla practices, and an advisory board member of Optical Dispensers Australia. Eason completed a degree in fashion design before moving into the optical industry as a dispenser and progressing into the role of practice manager.
She says the occupational lens market has grown in response to changing work and study environments as a result of COVID-19, and as lens technology improves, occupational lenses are becoming a more popular type of vision correction.
In a 2020 study into remote work, McKinsey Global Institute analysed 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, across nine countries, and found the finance, management, professional services, and information sectors have the highest potential for remote work. Not surprisingly, activities with the highest potential for remote work included interacting with computers.
“Students, high school but more so university students, whose distance vision might be perfect, often need accommodation for reading. If they only opt for a straight pair of reading glasses, for example, they’re going to miss out on being able to look up and see a lecturer or whiteboard clearly, so an occupational lens is popular for this cohort,” Eason says.
“They’re also popular among 30- to 55-year-olds, people most commonly working in an office or home office environment, where they’re predominantly needing sharper vision in the intermediate zone. Several different occupational lens designs are becoming available, so we’re getting more interest from different segments in the community.”
Eason says the main benefit of occupational lenses is clearer vision in the intermediate zone, something lacking in single vision and progressive lenses, which pays dividends for screen-based activities.
“In general, if you’re wearing progressive lenses while working at a computer, you tend to find you have to put yourself in an uncomfortable position to see the screen clearly. Recent analysis has shown a lot of people are straining or suffering back problems because, with progressives, you tend to tilt your head back to try and focus your vision in the intermediate zone,” Eason says.
“Or, if you’re wearing single vision lenses or readers, you’re probably getting way too close to your computer screen. With the increase in working from home and online learning, a lot more people are wanting to be more comfortable and more productive, and therefore more willing to spend money to achieve that.”
Eason says patients wearing occupational lenses are reporting less eye fatigue, eye strain and headaches because they’re getting a much larger space in the intermediate zone that they’ve previously been missing out on.
But public awareness of the benefits of occupational lenses is still relatively low.
“I think a lot of patients coming into the practice automatically think that option isn’t there or are confused about what it is, exactly. Some of the language around lenses can be a little confusing, so you want to make it as simple as possible, in a way that they can understand without being too confused,” Eason says.
“It’s about breaking down the stigma that an occupational lens isn’t one or the other – single vision or progressive – it’s a third option. I like to explain to patients that when wearing this type of lens at their computer, they’re going to be able to look up from their screen and see, in focus, the lecturer, or they will be able to see in focus a few metres away without compromising their computer-distance vision. If they’re working at a desk and someone walks by, they’re going to be able to see them clearly – but they’re not going to be able to drive a car, because their distance vision will be blurry.”
Eason says Marchon, Shamir, Opticare, Zeiss, Hoya, Rodenstock and Essilor are just some of the lens manufacturers releasing new and improved occupational lenses, more customisable than previous generations.
“Previously, you might have had a couple of options where there were set shifts that you had to determine, whereas now we’re getting greater choice and can tweak the shift, whether it’s optimised for looking at a phone, at a screen, or looking a few metres away,” she says.
“If a patient is coming in and saying, ‘I’m straining to see the computer screen’, or ‘I’m having trouble seeing the TV and trying to read’ you can start a conversation about the benefits of occupational lenses. If an optometrist starts the conversation in a consultation, they’re more likely to get more of an insight into why that may be the case. Following the handover between optometrist and dispenser, a dispenser can really pinpoint what sort of distance clarity they need, whether it’s for up-close work, or looking at their computer screen, or if they want to look across the room. It is really important to ask those questions.”
Start with the end results
Ms Catherine Leetch is practice manager at Eyescan, an independently owned practice established in 2010 by ophthalmologist Dr Harry Unger, which provides ophthalmology and optometry services.
Leetch joined Eyescan, located in Melbourne’s Toorak Village, as an optical dispenser after moving from Sydney five months ago, and recently stepped into the practice manager role.
She agrees with Daras and Eason that occupational lenses have come to the fore as workplace and lifestyle circumstances have changed.
“As the retirement age is changing, generally people are working longer, and we’re seeing people opting for occupational lenses far more frequently now because they’re seeing the benefits that weren’t there in the past, and it wasn’t something big in the industry,” Leetch says.
“Historically, I think patients would opt for a full progressive lens, thinking it will provide clear vision evenly, but now, particularly with the rise of the work-from-home environment, and living in a digital age, people have realised there has to be something better out there,” she says.
“Now, patients are more open to being shown lenses that fulfil all their visual needs. It’s about finding out exactly what the patient wants the end result to be, and then demonstrating how an occupational lens in addition to a progressive lens can achieve that end result.”
Leetch says the optical profession can’t expect patients to know in detail how lenses work or the range of options available or subtle differences between lenses in the same range.
“It’s about educating them that the best solution might not be what they had assumed, and setting an expectation, so they’re clear on what product – or products – they’re going to receive,” she says.
“From a dispenser’s point of view, I think we have to know what a patient wants the end result to be, and then explain what lenses we can provide, and their limitations and benefits, such as eliminating tense shoulders or neck strain or eye strain a patient may be experiencing when they’re trying to find the sweet spot looking at their computer screen wearing a full progressive lens.”
Leetch says younger presbyopia patients, who may associate progressive lenses with ageing, are often more receptive to occupational lenses.
“You can explain that a progressive lens will be fine to wear on the weekend, to pop into the shops, to drive, to do a bit of everything. But when working, an occupational lens is going to provide the clearest vision. We know everyone – young, old, in between – if they have a higher reading add, they’re really going to struggle wearing a full progressive lens for computer use. They would benefit from purchasing both a progressive lens and an occupational lens,” she says.
“Start with what they want the end result to be, base your recommendations on their expectations, and explain fully the limitations they may experience if they only purchase one lens, such as a progressive.
“It’s not a hard sell, it’s a matter of explaining how an occupational lens is going to benefit them, in achieving their desired result. And that’s going to be something that helps maintain those patients because they feel like you listened.”
More reading
Hoya’s new range of occupational lenses meet growing demand
Updated occupational optometry guide to help curb eye injuries
