Prescription Sunglasses

What are Sunglasses?

Sunglasses are the type of glasses that protect your eyes from UV light. They are also known as sunnies or shades. Sunglasses are protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent sunlight's brightness, providing comfort to the eyes. Sunglasses sometimes may function as a visual aid and usually come as coloured or polarized.

Sunglasses were made in Europe around the early seventeenth century. Their primary purpose was to protect and conceal the eyes, but they were called "tinted spectacles" rather than sunglasses. Within the nineteenth century, the need to protect the eyes against the sunlight arose, when the adventurers and polar explorers experienced snow-blindness. Earlier sunglasses models were developed with side shields.

Sunglasses are the type of eyewear that are designed to help cover your eyes from uncontrolled sunlight. Our eyes are very responsive to light, and they can be easily damaged by excessive radiation in both visible and non-visible spectra. Bright sunlight may create a distraction, and it may also annoy, while excessive exposure may cause soreness, headaches, or even permanent damage to the retina, cornea, and lens. Short-term effects of excessive sunlight might include a temporary vision loss, or a vision reduction known as snow blindness or welders' flash. Long-term effects might consist of loss of night vision and cataracts. In both scenarios, this damage will be caused by the UV light that burns the cornea's surface.

The main objective of sunglasses is to protect the eyes from uncontrolled sunlight. Our eyes are extremely sensitive to light and can be easily damaged with overexposure to UV. The need for improved eye protection has provided an evolution of sunglasses. Technology has improved, giving us the materials to develop and improve sunglasses.

Overexposure to sunlight may cause temporary vision loss, cataracts and night vision loss.

Benefits of Sunglasses

In the past, darker lenses were considered to be more protective compared to lighter lenses as they reflect out more light. But the progress of technology has developed, and you now have a wide selection of sunglass options on the market. You may see variety of sunglasses in different models from expensive ones to cheaper ones with different colours and materials. Some of them have custom-made frames and different materials which makes them more expensive than the others. But one thing is certain that the price of the sunglasses doesn’t define their protectiveness from sunlight.

The most significant advantage of sunglasses is to protect your eyes from the UV lights or also known as ultraviolet light. Overexposure of UV light might affect your cornea, retina, eyelid and lens. It is very important to protect your eyes to maintain your eye health in a good condition. The thinnest skin in our body is the eyelid skin and it has a high risk when overexposed to sunlight.

The sunlight is spreading more rays, it is important to protect your eyes in every season. Snow may also reflect sunlight, in case you are into winter sports, professionals are now advising you to wear your sunglasses, not only to protect your eyes but also to protect your delicate skin from aging. To protect your eyes, it is better to wear sunglasses that block almost all of the UV rays (UV 400 protection) when you are outside. Even when the skies are cloudy, it is recommended to wear sunglasses as a precaution.

The tinting amount in your sunglasses helps to define the amount of light your eyes will see. As there are different light shades, all the colours of the rainbow, different shades of lenses will protect in their own ways. Grey tinted lenses and almost black tinted lenses will offer the greatest quantity of protection from intense lights while avoiding distortion of most colors that you see.

The amount of tint in your sunglasses helps to determine the amount of light that your eyes are exposed to. Different shades and of lenses protect your eyes from different types of light. Another benefit of sunglasses is to protect against glare. Shiny looking surfaces like water may produce glare. Glare may block out other objects and cause blurriness. Polarized sunglasses can help fully eliminate glare and provide better quality vision.

Polarization filters are built into sunglasses and are made from molecules that realign the light waves and eliminate the glare. Another note is that the sunglasses may eliminate specific and defined frequencies of light. Some light frequencies may cause blurriness whereas others enhance contrast within colours.

How to Pick the Best Sunglasses?

There isn’t a single answer for that question, however, here are a few points to keep in mind before buying sunglasses according to your needs.

1. When buying sunglasses, don’t forget to check if they have a tag or sticker that says they provide full UV light protection from all kinds of UV light. You may see that some of the manufacturer's labels note “UV absorption up to 400nm.” which is the same thing as full UV absorption.
2. When looking for sunglasses, don't think that the darker the lens is, the more protective they are from the UV light, as it isn't a true way of thinking. The only thing that you need to consider is to make sure that your sunglasses have 100% UV protection to provide the safety you need.
3. Polarized lenses provide a better visual experience in certain activities like driving. There are also polarized lenses made with a UV-blocking substance. Make sure to check the label of polarized sunglasses to see if they provide maximum UV protection.
4. Sunglasses should have the largest lenses possible to protect your eyes from sun damage. Consider buying oversized or wraparound-style sunglasses to limit UV rays from entering the sides of the glasses.
5. Sunglasses with coloured lenses don’t block out the sun anymore. However, a brown or rose-colored lens can provide more contrast and it indirectly helps block out the sun more.

At Dresden, we value your eye health, and we produce sunglasses with the best quality both prescription and non-prescription for all genders and all ages. You can select from a variety of colours and lenses to create your very own personalized sunglasses with a shape that fits all types of faces!

Difference Between Shades and Sunglasses

There are no real differences between sunglasses and shades. Some people call shades to define sunglasses as it is only an informal term to describe sunglasses. They both refer to eyewear that protects our eyes from different types of lights and exposure to harmful UV rays.