Many patients require glasses to see clearly and to improve their visual skills. For some patients, this vision is clear, but the eyes do not work together. Here is why: People who wear glasses know that the lenses change the size of the images by enlarging them (magnifying) or making them smaller (minifying). This is not much of a problem if images from both eyes are magnified or minified the same amount, but it is very difficult for the brain to process images if they are different sizes. This condition is called aniseikonia.
In example on the left, the right eye has no prescription, but the left eye is very farsighted. Glasses are prescribed and image the left eye sees is magnified. When a patient reads the nursey rhyme on the left, their brain has to work to put together these different-size images of the words. In dealing with the images that the glasses make, the brain may try to adapt by fighting to focus all the time or by ignoring (suppressing) the left eye.
When using both eye together, the brain may not adapt well and instead reacts with symptoms such as headaches, reduced depth perception, vision distortion or other problems. Often in this case, patients will refuse to wear glasses for any length of time. If the patient doesn’t wear eyeglasses, their brain will continue to ignore the blurrier eye and amblyopia persists.
Equal Image Size Answer = SHAW Lenses
The solution to this image size problem is using lenses that make each image the same size. This can be accomplished with either contact lenses or Iseikonic eyeglass lenses. Shaw Lens is an amazing technological breakthrough in the design of eyeglass lenses!
Designing lenses that coordinate how both eyes work together is not an easy task. In the past, complex calculations were required, and the process was somewhat trial and error. But now the Shaw Lens system takes the information from the eye exam, measurements from the patient’s eyes, and information about the eyeglass frame, and calculates the ideal shape and thickness of the lenses in order to equalize the image sizes between the eyes. The manufacturing laboratory digitally creates the lenses in high definition. The SHAW lens process uses a patent-pending method to accurately model eye movements to produce the clearest vision in all areas of the lenses.
