AR/Progressives: I need a affordable alternatives

[optidiamond]

Hi there! This is my first post. I work at a brand new office (opened in April). The doctor here stresses the fact that she does not want to sell crap and we currently ONLY offer Crizal Alize and Crizal Avance (for $135/150). I want to try to talk her into offering an affordable alternative but what's good out there? We have tons (from our lab) to offer. So suggestions please??

Also we only offer Varilux lens for progressives, affordable alternative to that too? I suggestion Ovations or Natural?

Help an office out
Thanks in advance

[scriptfiller]

The Natural is a good alternative to Varilux branded PAL's.

My lab Optogenics offers a good hydrophobic A/R (A/R 24) that favours Alize'.

Check them out, optogenics.com

[Now I See]

I've used the AR/24 that scriptfiller mentioned, and I have to say it is a terrific coating...

another coating I've used is the Stainless from I-coat...very nice, cleans well and is durable...

Pentax makes a durable coating as well...it was very hard for me to edge though...super slick!

Don't be "afraid" to try the "house-brand" coatings, many of them are good quality and will do well for you...one thing I do here is order them for myself or a family member first and see how they do...if they can stand up to the criticism of family members or close friends (who don't care if they hurt your feelings or not ;))...then they will perform for your toughest patient as well.

PS...I'm not affiliated in any way by either company...just satisfied with the results from these coatings.

[jameselex]

Crizal EC!

[Jacqui]

I use Carat advantage from Laramy-K and Shamir Autograph progressives,

[nixg]

we can provide good quality of prog arc at $50/$70 ex work india
if you are intrested we can provide you Rx work

Hi there! This is my first post. I work at a brand new office (opened in April). The doctor here stresses the fact that she does not want to sell crap and we currently ONLY offer Crizal Alize and Crizal Avance (for $135/150). I want to try to talk her into offering an affordable alternative but what's good out there? We have tons (from our lab) to offer. So suggestions please??

Also we only offer Varilux lens for progressives, affordable alternative to that too? I suggestion Ovations or Natural?

Help an office out
Thanks in advance

[opticianbart]

Not really a cheaper alternative, but personally I prefer Zeiss progressives to Varilux. We actually deal with a couple Docs who always recommend because it's the only progressive they know the name of.

[MarcE]

Accolade on the lenses. It's so good, you can use it instead of the Varilux products. If it isn't as inexpensive as you had hoped, PM me and I could share some labs.

We offer Crizal Alize. We sell it at $80. I had no idea that anyone out there was offering it at $135.

[KStraker]

Hi there! This is my first post. I work at a brand new office (opened in April). The doctor here stresses the fact that she does not want to sell crap and we currently ONLY offer Crizal Alize and Crizal Avance (for $135/150). I want to try to talk her into offering an affordable alternative but what's good out there? We have tons (from our lab) to offer. So suggestions please??

Also we only offer Varilux lens for progressives, affordable alternative to that too? I suggestion Ovations or Natural?

Help an office out
Thanks in advance

Game, Set, and Match, to the marketing team at Essilor. There are many smaller companies that make a good quality pal. You could use a Younger Image with Teflon and still provide a quality product. You could also use a Concord with Brilliance Ultra from Galaxy. Remember that your patients do not have your level of knowledge of brand names. Set the expectation in the patient's mind that you are using a quality lens and they will accept it.(if it's not complete crap) The lenses I mentioned are not a direct replacement for a Physio, but a lower cost alternative with good performance. If you or your doctor have an rx, I can surface a pair of Concords and send them to you.

[chip anderson]

Affordable alternatives:
This is kind of like saying: I want or think I need a Ferri but I can't afford one would a miata be just as good.
High priced lenses and high priced coatings, high priced frames are ment to be upgrades. If you can't afford them that's why the origional, i.e. bifocals, uncoated, lower priced items are there.
If the patient wants to see but doesn't want to spend the money why give him a low priced inferior piece of junk when a high quality product without the features will do the job better?
No reason to use a poor quality progressive with lots of distortion, or a coating that will scratch or peal off in a short period of time just so the patient can look like he has something worth while.
Use the good stuff. If you can't afford a laser guided CNC router, use a hand model. If you'r carefull the product will do good work and last. You just won't be able to tell your friends about how you got a knock off that "looks" as good.

Chip

[optidiamond]

Thanks guys for all your input!
:cheers:
I actually just found out looking there's only 2 alternatives to Crizal offered through our lab.. (Sharpview & Zeiss)..
:drop: So... thats that.
But I really appreciate the help on the progressive alternatives. I will let her know and hopefully she listens. And yeah I agree 135 is outrageous for A/R but hey its her office, what can I say

[Happylady]

I put a Sharpview AR on my husband's new lenses because I wanted to see how it performed. I was looking for a less expensive AR to offer patients that didn't want to spend for Crizal Avance. He's had them about 3 or 4 months and they have a lot of scratches on them.

I admit he is hard on glasses but I am not impressed.

Zeiss Carat Advantage is pretty good but I haven't found anything yet as good as Crizal Avance.

[kelanor]

As several other posters have already stated, we primarily use the house brand a/r. We switched over about six months ago and so far I haven't had any problems.

[Johns]

Thanks guys for all your input!

Don't be a stranger!:cheers:

(btw: how was your "first time" posting experience?)