Questions about Glare Reduction.

[yeffree]

So I've got this patient who has told me every time she is here that her night time driving is atrocious due to glare. Last year we tried Zeiss' DriveSafe lens. She is still having issues with glare, and is considering doing a yellow tinted lens. These are my questions:

• Are there better AR coatings that will reduce glare more/better?
• If the patient doesn't want the lenses to be yellow all the time, and did a yellow clip or chemistrie clip, could/would that cause more glare since there would then essentially be two lenses per eye?
• She was in Poly. Does material have any bearing on glare reduction?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[optical24/7]

Reducing the light going through a lens (with any tint) may be more hazardous, you may not see as well in low light. Usually the glare at night isn’t from reflections on the AR lens surface, but coming from elsewhere. #1 issue most the time is dirty inside windshield. Have them clean it. Ask them to try looking through the windshield with glasses off ( not driving, of course.) Then try looking at a the same glare outside the car, ( glasses on, then off).

Could be produced by the patients bare eyes ( start of cataracts can cause this too.)

Good luck!

[lensmanmd]

Reducing the light going through a lens (with any tint) may be more hazardous, you may not see as well in low light. Usually the glare at night isn’t from reflections on the AR lens surface, but coming from elsewhere. #1 issue most the time is dirty inside windshield. Have them clean it. Ask them to try looking through the windshield with glasses off ( not driving, of course.) Then try looking at a the same glare outside the car, ( glasses on, then off).

Could be produced by the patients bare eyes ( start of cataracts can cause this too.)

Good luck!

Agreed. Most likely causes are dirty windshields, dirty lenses, cataracts.

Under low light conditions, ABBE values have little effect. Adding additional tint for mesopic vision is never recommended.

DriveSafe, or other "low light" specific FF designs/coatings are the better option, but nothing will solve these issues if the windshield has a hazy film on it, or if your patient has cataracts.

Another thing to consider. Those that have had any form of eye surgery have the same complaints. Unfortunately, nothing can be done, other than giving them the cold, hard truth.

[AngeHamm]

I find that Crizal Sapphire has the best glare reduction, but it's honestly only marginally better than other coatings. I have a few associates who swear by Crizal Prevencia as a night driving coating. Both of these products, however, are almost certainly only a slight improvement over a run-of-the-mill AR, and I'm suspicious of the added color of Prevencia; I suspect it's helping (a tiny bit) specifically with halogen headlights, but is probably a bit less helpful for all other aspects.

Any time I have a patient who is having persistent problems with night glare, I tell them, "Your AR coating doesn't jump off your lens and clean your windshield."

Yellow tint is for reducing night glare in the 1970s. It has no application in a post-AR optical world.

[yeffree]

I didn't even think about windshields causing glare, but I know I've seen that in my own car so it makes sense. Thanks y'all.