adjusting frames Flashcards
“My frame tilts to one side.”
.
“My frame tilts to one side.”
Person with frames tilted to one side
The first thing you’ll do if your client has a problem like this is to place the frame right-side-up, with the temples open, on a flat surface facing toward you. This might help you see which temple is too high or too low.
Next, you’ll heat the temple (if it’s a zyl or plastic frame) and bend it. Typically, you’ll start at the hinge. If you’re working with a metal frame, you probably won’t need to heat the temple; instead, you can just start bending the temple at the hinge. You can use a pair of hinge pliers to make this job easier.
To adjust the temples, you’ll follow the same checklist you saw in the previous lesson for aligning frames. But if you’re like most beginning opticians, you might find this checklist a little confusing when you’re faced with a real, live person. So let’s rephrase the rules in a slightly different way.
David McCleary offers this simple formula for remembering how to bend a temple:
The Opticianry Training Manual, David McCleary offers this simple formula for remembering how to bend a temple: Up-Up, Down-Down. In other words, if the right side of the frame sits too high on the person’s face, bend the right temple up (or the opposite temple down). If the left side of the frame is too high, bend the left temple up (or the opposite temple down).
Does that seem counterintuitive to you? If so, get your hands on an old pair of metal frames you can play with. This rule makes much more sense when you test it yourself. But for now, simply remember:
for now, simply remember:
Up-Up
Down-Down
One side of my glasses is closer to my face than the other side.”
Now, what if the glasses are askew in a different way? Let’s say one lens sits closer to the person’s eye than the other lens. This makes the glasses look odd, and worse yet, the client won’t be able to see well because the effective power of the lenses is altered. The results: eyestrain and an unhappy patient or customer.
In this case, you’ll need to adjust one temple inward or outward. And again, the rule is easy, even though it seems counterintuitive. If the right lens is closer to the eye, you’ll bend the right temple inward (or the opposite temple out). If the right lens is farther away from the face, you’ll bend the right temple farther away from the head (or bend the opposite temple closer). In other words:
In-In
Out-Out
Now, if the vertex is too short or too long for both lenses
Now, if the vertex is too short or too long for both lenses—that is, if the entire frame front is the wrong distance from the face—you can simply shorten or lengthen the bend in the temple earpieces. Your tex tbook shows how to do this. If the frame has nosepads, you may also be able to very slightly shorten or lengthen the bend of the pad arms to change the vertex distance.
Another adjustment you can make by bending the temples of a frame at the hinge end is to correct the what?
the pantoscopic tilt.
how To change an incorrect pantoscopic tilt,
To change an incorrect pantoscopic tilt, you’ll bend both temples slightly at the hinge until they sit correctly on your client’s face. As you learned in the last lesson, bending them down will increase the pantoscopic tilt, while bending them up will reduce this tilt.
My glasses keep slipping down my nose.”
Sometimes, you can fix a client’s sliding glasses by adjusting the nosepads (which we’ll talk about later). But often, your solution lies farther back—at the ears, to be exact.
If your client complains about slipping glasses, take a look at how the temples curve around the ears. If the temple bends don’t land precisely at the curve of the ears, heat the temple bends, and rebend them so they’re a little closer to the frame front.
Also, as you learned from your reading, a problem with slipping glasses can stem from temples that aren’t spread out enough—or from temples that are spread too far. In either case, you can bend the temples so they’re a correct distance from the head. If the temples are spread too far or they are too narrow, you should also consider narrowing or opening the frame by heating and adjusting the bridge curvature.
Ouch! The earpieces hurt my ears.”
Ouch! The earpieces hurt my ears.”
Take a minute to run a finger along the back of your ear where it meets your head, noticing how your ear curves. Now, feel just behind your ear. That bony bump you’ll notice is the mastoid process (see below). This is where part of your skull bulges out a little.
When eyeglass temples hurt a person’s ears, it’s typically because they’re bent too sharply and they’re hitting the mastoid bone or the back of the ear. Instead, the temples should follow the natural curve of the ear.
Glasses can also hurt if they slip down the nose, placing too much pressure on the backs of the ears. In this case, adjusting the temples (or the nosepads, which we’ll talk about in Chapter 3) can fix the problem.
you can bend nosepads in several different directions:
Remember that you can bend nosepads in several different directions:
You can bend them outward or inward.
You can tilt them up or down
You can angle them flatter or straighter.
Try to angle the nosepads to align with the tilt of the what?
Try to angle the nosepads to align with the tilt of the nose. To turn the nosepads at an angle, you’ll need to twist the pliers by twisting your wrist. This is a good skill to practice with some old frames.
how to turn the nosepads at an angle,
Try to angle the nosepads to align with the tilt of the nose. To turn the nosepads at an angle, you’ll need to twist the pliers by twisting your wrist. This is a good skill to practice with some old frames.
Angle adjustments are especially important when?
Angle adjustments are especially important when your client has a very flat nose bridge. This is the hardest type of nose to fit, because there’s little support for the frame.
For very wide bridges, the nosepads need to be what?
For very wide bridges, the nosepads need to be wider apart.
For narrow nose bridges the nosepads need to be what?
For narrow nose bridges—you guessed it—they need to be closer together.
