This is serious.

[Craig]

So, what faith then do you have in the actual prescription?

If an OD did it it has a 90% success rate and if it came from an MD office we have a 35% chance it will not work at all!

We love an RX from Walmart, Costco over any fancy clinic; even the best in the world. They are here in Florida and we can't fill the RX without a trial frame unless you want to do after they pick up.

[smallworld]

This thread makes me sad. Just last week I had an 85 year old patient post cat surgery I was trying to fit with her DMERC glasses. I looked at her last pair, from a retail chain, they were progressives mounted in the wrong eye. When I informed the patient, she said, no wonder I couldn't see anything for two years! Her daughter said she had been back to said retail chain complaining of poor vision. Only two days later, one of my patients received her safety glasses ( safety glasses intended to protect a human from severe eye injury, loss of vision, or loss of life)from a retail chain, and even though she couldn't see, they told her the SAFETY GLASSES were correct. Too bad they had switched her progressives were in the wrong eyes. It was crazy seeing the safety markings in the nasal area. I also had a 7 year old -4.50 who's glasses were mounted wrong eyes somewhere else, giving her a PD of 65. Another patient brought in his online purchase glasses he couldn't see out of- they were made minus cyl instead of the prescribed plus cyl. I guess it won't matter in the future what rx or pd a patient has if there is no one available to figure out right from left. Good luck DIY!

[smallworld]

I don't know if anyone has looked at the FTC public comments in regards to the origin of this thread. Besides Barry's, most of them seem robot generated. Same exact comments over and over.

[Uncle Fester]

I see 302 comments and agree they're form letters. I did not see Barry's comment. Did I miss it or has it disappeared?

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-co...initiative-624

[Barry Santini]

I see 302 comments and agree they're form letters. I did not see Barry's comment. Did I miss it or has it disappeared?

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-co...initiative-624

Currently listed as #295.

B

[smallworld]

He was in the mid 300's I believe when I looked today. So near the end. I didn't recognize any other names, but the comments were obviously not original.

[smallworld]

Currently listed as #295.

B

I was starting to believe the comments were robot generated. I'm fairly sure Barry is not a robot.

[Barry Santini]

I was starting to believe the comments were robot generated. I'm fairly sure Barry is not a robot.

Some may disagree.

B

[Tallboy]

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-co.../comment-00311

Lol this guy forgot to take off the part of the copy pasta comment you were suppose to remove before posting it:

I've worn glasses for X years and my prescription has only changed a few times...I'd say about every X years? It doesn't make sense to have my prescription re-evaluated annually when it usually ends up being the exact same. I'm confident that I can self-determine when I should go get my eyes checked, just like I do for every other aspect of my health. Feel free to personalize your comments as you see fit. You can check out some that have already been posted here. If you'd be willing to comment, please let me know! We're trying to get a few hundred comments to the FTC so they understand the frustrations consumers are experiencing. Without creating some buzz, The Eyeglass Rule could stay the same (and may go another 10+ years without update).

[smallworld]

I tried to find original site that's creating these "original" comments. We need robots commenting from our POV. Or even a real person.

[Uncle Fester]

Found this on the site. You can post a comment until Oct. 26 but note the format which explains the start of most of the comments.


http://www.noticeandcomment.com/Opht...fn-296987.aspx

[Chris Ryser]

In addition to general questions about whether the Eyeglass Rule should continue and if it should be modified, other more specific issues related to the Eyeglass Rule for which the FTC is requesting comment are: What modifications, if any, should be made to the rule to account for changes in relevant technology or economic conditions? Should the definition of “prescription” be modified to include pupillary distance? Should the rule be extended to require that prescribers provide a duplicate copy of a prescription to a patient who does not currently have access to the original? And should the rule be extended to require that a prescriber provide a copy to or verify a prescription with third parties authorized by the patient?

These rule changes all over the Continent come in at a faster pace, the 3rd or 4th this year, from all sides.

The Giants of the online business at work.

[CCGREEN]

Giving out a binocular PD on the current Rx fulfills the spirit/intent of the spectacle release rule.

That's why. The rest is reserved for the party doing all the figuring out.

B

"Giving out a binocular PD on the current Rx fulfills the spirit/ intent"..............hell why don't we just go ahead and ask for pupil size color of the iris and size of that for contact lens's while we are at it.
Ya I know I am being a smart a$$ here but good grief, when does it end? When the PD is included on the Rx it TAKES AWAY and degrades OUR ability and OUR profession to do what we have the ability to do and have done for years.
When a pt comes in and spends hundreds of dollars on a pair of glasses who takes the heat if they are not happy with them. Opticians do. Now if a tech provides a bum PD on a rx and I have to fill it "according to the rx" I will be pretty disturbed about taking the heat for them.

[optical24/7]

I seriously doubt that the eyeglass police will come arrest you for not using the Rx's recommended PD. They haven't arrested me (yet) for not filling the Rx with Varilux lenses when indicated on their Rx's check box. (And if there really are "eyeglass police"...I wanna be one. Especially if I get to write up tickets for changing lanes without a signal! )

[CCGREEN]

This thread makes me sad. Just last week I had an 85 year old patient post cat surgery I was trying to fit with her DMERC glasses. I looked at her last pair, from a retail chain, they were progressives mounted in the wrong eye. When I informed the patient, she said, no wonder I couldn't see anything for two years! Her daughter said she had been back to said retail chain complaining of poor vision. Only two days later, one of my patients received her safety glasses ( safety glasses intended to protect a human from severe eye injury, loss of vision, or loss of life)from a retail chain, and even though she couldn't see, they told her the SAFETY GLASSES were correct. Too bad they had switched her progressives were in the wrong eyes. It was crazy seeing the safety markings in the nasal area. I also had a 7 year old -4.50 who's glasses were mounted wrong eyes somewhere else, giving her a PD of 65. Another patient brought in his online purchase glasses he couldn't see out of- they were made minus cyl instead of the prescribed plus cyl. I guess it won't matter in the future what rx or pd a patient has if there is no one available to figure out right from left. Good luck DIY!

Please explain to me how "made minus cyl instead of the prescribed plus cyl" makes a difference? As long as it is transposed properly it should be irrelevant.

[CCGREEN]

I seriously doubt that the eyeglass police will come arrest you for not using the Rx's recommended PD. They haven't arrested me (yet) for not filling the Rx with Varilux lenses when indicated on their Rx's check box. (And if there really are "eyeglass police"...I wanna be one. Especially if I get to write up tickets for changing lanes without a signal! )

Hey if it secures me a government job count me in also. Always wanted to try one of those positions.

[Dr. Bill Stacy]

All objective PD measuring methodologies have a user/subject/basic assumption problem: it is thought that the corneal reflex represents the visual axis intersection with the corneal plane.

There are studies that have shown a portion of the population appreciably departs from this assumption.

Therefore, when true precision is necessary - and I am not saying it is - only a subjective measurement will do.

This is why surgical telescopes use empirically-derived pupillary/visual axis measurements.

PD matters. But what's interesting is that it matters both less than most think and more than most think.

B

I've checked pupillometer measurements with my mm rule measurements hundreds, maybe thousands of times and they almost always agree within 1 mm of each other, and when I see large differences in the R and L measurements I always look closely at the face and verify that there is a very visible offset of the nose position. I'm very comfortable with pupillometer measurements and really it would have to be a keratoconic cornea with displaced apex to result in the light reflexes being far off from the visual axis. Obviously pateint ability to fixate the light source is paramount and some skill is needed to do the measurement. Those times when the ruler measurement is significantly different from the pupillometer is always traceable to poor fixation of one eye, usually a strabismic deviation or supression of one eye during the measurement. Of course the pupillometer is required for a valid p.d. on a monocular person or a person with one blind eye. Rulers don't work for those cases where only the seeing eye's monocular p.d. is needed.

I'm amazed at how off some p.d.s are that come in on outside Rxs. Would never use/trust an outside Rx p.d.

[AngeHamm]

I'm amazed at how off some p.d.s are that come in on outside Rxs. Would never use/trust an outside Rx p.d.

+1. Never never ​never.

[smallworld]

Please explain to me how "made minus cyl instead of the prescribed plus cyl" makes a difference? As long as it is transposed properly it should be irrelevant.

Notice I didn't say transposed RX to minus cyl :)

[MikeAurelius]

Notice I didn't say transposed RX to minus cyl :)

Wellll...A neighbor of ours near the factory (long since dead) wore plus cyl ultex lenses for all his life, he was at least 80+. About every six months or so he'd stop by to complain about his latest pair. We never made lenses for them, at the time, I think it was probably Benson Optical out of Minneapolis who got the joy. We'd dutifully double check them and write down the exact Rx we read, then he'd got back to the optician for another pair LOL. He could never adjust to minus cylinder lenses (yes, transposed correctly). He also played the organ at church (and was the most gawd-awful player I've ever heard, everyone knew when he had his Rx changed). As I recall, he wore about a -2 with a +3.50 (or thereabouts) cylinder. Absolutely hideous in ultex plus cylinders.

[smallworld]

Or Soderbergs, Minneaoplis. My dad worked for them long ago.

[Dr. Bill Stacy]

Wellll...A neighbor of ours near the factory (long since dead) wore plus cyl ultex lenses for all his life, he was at least 80+. About every six months or so he'd stop by to complain about his latest pair. We never made lenses for them, at the time, I think it was probably Benson Optical out of Minneapolis who got the joy. We'd dutifully double check them and write down the exact Rx we read, then he'd got back to the optician for another pair LOL. He could never adjust to minus cylinder lenses (yes, transposed correctly). He also played the organ at church (and was the most gawd-awful player I've ever heard, everyone knew when he had his Rx changed). As I recall, he wore about a -2 with a +3.50 (or thereabouts) cylinder. Absolutely hideous in ultex plus cylinders.

I had an old lady patient for years who absolutely could not wear anything but an Ultex bifocal, and believe me, I tried more than once. At 85 years old, she would roll into our lot in her classic '75 Buick convertible which she would drive 50 miles on the freeway at 75 mph at least to come see me. I'm not sure if it was the front surface cyl that she was so attached to or the huge jump those things had at the curved seg, but she never did give them up.

[Tigerclaw]

How spiteful must some of you be? You want us to provide PD's, why? So patients can go online? The word "stupid" gets tossed around so often that it loses its meaning. Thanks to some of you sour grapes sadists for reminding me of the true meaning of stupid. How does having the PD serve you, other than watching the OD's suffer? Wanna send your business online so you can point and laugh at us from your chair in the unemployment office?

I DON'T measure PD, I WILL NOT measure PD, I WILL NOT provide PD if "required". I may provide "a" PD but you can bet it will be off by a few millimeters. In the alternative, I will charge for it, even if it just means a price increase. I am NOT working harder to allow morons to go online to meet their vision needs based on some idiotic idea that online is safe, better, or even as good.

[Chris Ryser]

I DON'T measure PD, I WILL NOT measure PD, I WILL NOT provide PD if "required". I may provide "a" PD but you can bet it will be off by a few millimeters. I am NOT working harder to allow morons to go online to meet their vision needs based on some idiotic idea that online is safe, better, or even as good.

This soon ending year will most probably have up to around 27 Million pairs of glasses sold online this year in North America

The on-line optical industry whose most successful and largest on-line retail businesses are now operated and run by the 2 worlds largest optical manufacturers Essilor and Luxottica. These companies have not become the largest ones world wide because they are idiotic. They are most probably the smartest of all of us, or they would not be where they are now.

OptiBoard records are most probably the only existing ones of historic value in this matter world wide, as members and onlookers have been warned of the upcoming competition by on-line opticals for many years. Most of these repeated predictions in this field years ago, have been laughed away as a crazy idea, but have become a fact by now.

On-line opticals are flourishing also in Europe, some of the strongest newly developing countries and most populated ones as India, where one of the 2 known manufacturers has purchased the largest chain of optical labs over the last 10 years and has started a successful on-line optical 3-4 years ago, and as well is training unemployed young people to refract in outlaying provinces.

There is no more stopping the wave of the new type of optical retail businesses. There is only one way of continuing to successfully live with them, not by fighting them, but by adapting to a new situation.

When the consumer purchases eyeglasses which are sold by online opticals, they are not a finished product, they are a semi-finished product consisting of a non adjusted frame including a pair of stock, surfaced and cut lenses that have not been double checked, fitted and adjusted to the consumers face and head.

Thes glasses do need the hands on of a trained optical technician as an Optician or Optometrist to double check and properly adjust. This is a service operation that opticians forever included into their selling price.

Conventional optical retailers will have to change their pricing system of selling glasses and sell them at cost + service + service + service + service, to properly and understandably compete with the online opticals that are here to stay.

[Craig]

How spiteful must some of you be? You want us to provide PD's, why? So patients can go online? The word "stupid" gets tossed around so often that it loses its meaning. Thanks to some of you sour grapes sadists for reminding me of the true meaning of stupid. How does having the PD serve you, other than watching the OD's suffer? Wanna send your business online so you can point and laugh at us from your chair in the unemployment office?

I DON'T measure PD, I WILL NOT measure PD, I WILL NOT provide PD if "required". I may provide "a" PD but you can bet it will be off by a few millimeters. In the alternative, I will charge for it, even if it just means a price increase. I am NOT working harder to allow morons to go online to meet their vision needs based on some idiotic idea that online is safe, better, or even as good.

If your patients are happy with what you are offering they will not go to my store or on-line for glasses; what are you so cranked up about? It is only a stinking PD. It is the least important item of any RX and unless the power is overplus or minus 2 it makes almost no difference optically.

Time to figure out why online opticals get you so fired up; Are you losing business to them?