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I think they are totally lame. As someone once said to me while I was shopping for glasses (actually an employee at the store).
"I really don't like those. People get them because they think it looks more like they aren't wearing glasses. Newsflash: we all know you're wearing glasses! Get a good looking pair that looks good on you. Own it. Don't try to hide it...."
I've never had a problem with drill holes with my Silhouettes. At one point I had worn a pair so long that I thought they might just fall off my face, but I had no problem with drill holes.
I do think you make a very good point about being kind to your eyeglasses. I wash mine every day with hand soap and wipe with a soft cotton towel. I don't chew on the eye pieces or throw them around. But I've worn eyeglasses since I was quite young, and I like to get 2-3 years out of one pair.
I've never felt that my Silhouettes were fragile though. They seem pretty sturdy to me.
As to whether they are out of style, at my age, I like to think I have my own style, and it includes frame less glasses.
True. So many of my patients ask me for glasses that are indestructible. I tell them nicely that the major cause of destruction are the user, not the glasses Frame defects are quite uncommon. Be nice to your glasses and they will be nice to you. We carried the Silhouettes brand for a while but ended up having problems with our account, so now the only drill mount brand we carry is the Marchon Airlock brand. This woman's style has been very popular of late. I have sold many pairs. I like this chassis because the temples are stiff and strong. They don't flop about all over the place and give the frame structure.
I tried to get them, but they were never right, so I had to get more substantial frames. I have progressive lenses. The nose piece was very uncomfortable. I prefer some nice rigid plastic frames.
If your optometrist has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, you don't have anything to lose.
The one thing I like is that they cut the glare. I find as I get older the glare from oncoming headlights or streetlights bothers me more. Maybe it's my developing cataracts or maybe just age, but the Crizal does cut it down. Plus there is no glare from the glasses as well. So any pix anyone takes of me doesn't have glasses glare on them. This also eliminates any "flash" off the glass that I get coming back at me.
Second is that water beads up on them. Should you be caught in the rain, or even splash water up on you while washing dishes, etc. it doesn't just run down. It actually beads up so doesn't block too much view until you can get them wiped clean.
Their last claim is that you can't see fingerprints. I find that to not be totally true, but it does cut it down somewhat.
Couple other points..........I mentioned cost of mine but wanted to mention that I also get photograys, so that adds to the cost. I don't want to be bothered by having to change to prescription sunglasses. I also am very careful about cleaning mine (only use regular glasses cleaner and the special cleaning cloth) but you can't avoid all potential damage. I have worn glasses since I was 12 years old, actually had contacts for about 30 years in there as well (until I had to have bifocal and couldn't get used to the bifocal contacts), and my glasses usually last 4-5 years. I never had damage to any of them until I got the semi-rimless ones. The $800 pair was purchased at the opthamologist's office so I realize that adds to the cost. Plus at that time Crizal was new, so more expensive. This pair was purchased at an optician's store, so less expensive, but with the metal frames/Crizal lenses/photogray/progressive bifocals they were still about $425. I'm hoping that once I get the cataracts done I can do away with these and maybe only use readers.
NOTE: Despite what some opticians tell you, Crizal is not a lens in itself. It is a coating on the lens. Omega labs wanted us to sell Crizal as a lens, but that is misleading advertising and myself and my lab manager refused to do that. It is added in the final step of lens manufacturing. The lens you choose is based on the material, such as CR-39 plastic, polycarbonate, or Trivex, and the type of visual correction contained within the lens: single vision, lined bifocal, lined trifocal, or progressive.
Don't let the optician convince you Crizal is embedded into the lens, because it isn't. That doesn't mean the product isn't good; it certainly is and I recommend it to all of my patients who want a high quality anti-reflective coating. There are other brands of anti-reflective that are fine as well. One that we use often is Hoya Lab's EX3.
I'm an optician, and we sell these in our optical. This style of frame is known as a drill mount. Although they have the benefits of being lightweight and flexible, I don't recommend them to patients unless they are kind to their glasses. Patients who are rough on their glasses do better with a full frame that protect the lens around the entire perimeter. Drill mounts are prone to cracking at the drill holes, but they don't do that as much as they used to. In our optical, they sold like crazy a couple of years ago, but they have become less popular due to their fragility and high price compared to full frames.
If you like the drill mount style but dislike its fragile nature, you can split the difference and opt for a grooved rimless. A grooved rimless has a frame protecting half the lens (usually the top half) and a strong string lining a groove which holds the bottom half of the lens in the frame. I like the grooved rimless myself. I wear a progressive and having no frame at the bottom makes me feel like I have more reading correction. Both the grooved rimless and drill mounts require that you use polycarbonate, Trivex, or hi-index lenses. Plain plastic or glass material cannot be used with these lens styles.
Maybe you can answer my q? I have my first pair of progressive lenses. The reading portion isn't helpful and the 'intermediate' or 'computer distance' is impossible.
I think I know why: The reading portion is not my exact reading script. It takes the negative power of my up-top distance and multiplies it by 2.something. And then there is half that subtracted for the 'intermediate' part. Is this the normal way to do it?
Rimless on a mature woman's face usually makes the woman look older.when fitting glasses I had a devise where I could display 4 photos at a time. Inevitably the client could then see for themselves
How a more framed look "lifted" their features.i never understood why drilled rimless didn't have the same affect on a mature man's face.How unfair��.If it weren't for privacy laws I would prove this by posting pics of same person in 4 different frames.
Main thing when choosing a drilled mount frame is making sure you get a top quality frame if you take them on and off more than once a day.Otherwise you will be unhappy with the fit and longevity between fittings.
I am 44 and after my lenses were in (so I could see!) I no longer liked the ones I had chosen. IDK if it's because they are rimless on the bottom or the style of the frames but when I was looking at some other frames a customer told me 'I don't like them either - they make you look older'. My friends say that is BS but I think she is right!
The only issue I've had with frameless glasses is that after a while (at least a couple of years) the lenses seem to loosen slightly and the lense may pop out. The lenses seem to be held in with something equivalent to fishing line along a groove within the lenses. Once they loosen I don't know if they can be made tighter.
They are lighter but with the lighter polycarbonate lenses the framed glasses are light enough for me.
Your optician can simply restring your fishing line if they get loose.
I love my rimless! I prefer spring arm hinges, they seem to stand up better, are less likely to get bent out of shape. I buy from Zenni but I've found that the optician at my Optometrists office is quite happy to adjust them for me when needed.
Had two pair of Silhouettes that were expensive . They were progressive transitions and were expensive. However, I really liked them and enjoy them even more than some framed G. Armanis. They were very light, didn't slip down and did not cover up my face. Now, I had cataract surgery and don't need them all the time ( or to drive) and only use readers.
Maybe you can answer my q? I have my first pair of progressive lenses. The reading portion isn't helpful and the 'intermediate' or 'computer distance' is impossible.
I think I know why: The reading portion is not my exact reading script. It takes the negative power of my up-top distance and multiplies it by 2.something. And then there is half that subtracted for the 'intermediate' part. Is this the normal way to do it?
Some people just don't adapt well to progressive lenses. They require the user to look through them differently than if they are looking though a single vision lens or lined bifocal. This is because a progressive lens has a corridor of correction with a wide distance corrected area, a narrower reading correction, and a wider reading area, sort of a margarita glass shape. The edges of the lens are distorted.
You use your nose as a pointer to see through the lens clearly. Most of us do this naturally anyway. We don't move our eyes to the side without moving our head when looking to the periphery; we move our whole head to see what's to the side of us. With a progressive lens, clear vision depends on this movement.
As for your question about reading prescriptions, it's usually a matter of simple addition/subtraction. But it gets a little complicated because some people wear a plus power for distance and some people wear a minus power for distance. And when you throw in the whole astigmatism thing, it gets even more confusing. I'll break it down for you. Let's say the person is nearsighted (needs glasses to see far away) and presbyopic (needs reading glasses). This is his prescription.
-4.00 sphere +2.00 Add
The add power is the full reading strength. The person's distance prescription is a -4.00. You subtract 2.00 to get the reading power at the bottom. So the glasses would read -2.00 at the bottom. For the intermediate (computer) power, you split the reading in half. In this person's case, it would be +1.00. Subtract 1.00 from -4.00 and you get -3.00.
For plus powered patients, it's addition. Say Mrs. X is a:
+5.00 -1.25 x 090 Add 2.50
Mrs. X has astigmatism of -1.25 D. But it doesn't factor in our reading power math at all. For her reading strength, just add +2.50 to +5.00. The reading power at the bottom is +7.50 -1.25 x 090.
For her computer power, we split the reading power in 1/2, so her computer power would be +1.25, for a total of +6.50. The astigmatism correction would be the same once again.
Most commonly the reason patients don't adapt to progressives is their optician doesn't explain very well how they work. Progressives have a learning curve that other lenses don't have; a good optician is aware of this and acts accordingly. I spend a lot of time teaching my first time wearers how to use them and most of them are very satisfied with them afterwards. Progressives offer the convenience of an all-in-one distance, reading, and computer lens that eliminates the hassle of taking the glasses on and off all the time, and most patients and opticians find that very satisfying.
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Frame defects are quite uncommon. Be nice to your glasses and they will be nice to you. We carried the Silhouettes brand for a while but ended up having problems with our account, so now the only drill mount brand we carry is the Marchon Airlock brand. This woman's style has been very popular of late. I have sold many pairs. I like this chassis because the temples are stiff and strong. They don't flop about all over the place and give the frame structure. 
