Comfort, function and fashion are the basis for today's glasses. Today's glasses are no hassle glasses. "Heavy" glasses are no longer necessary even with a strong prescription. Flexible, lightweight frames and lenses are now available in single vision, bifocals, trifocals or lineless progressive adds (for intermediate and near all in one lenses). Anti-glare and scratch-resistant coatings are available as well. Many progressive lens options are now available but proper fit and alinements are critical for best function.

Sunglasses are critical to protect your vision and the vision of those you love. Look for total UV block, consider polarization and wrap designs.

What should I look for when purchasing sunglasses?

Quality and good protection do not necessarily correlate with cost. More specifically, general purpose sunglasses should:

• Block 99 - 100 percent of UVA, UVB and 75 - 90 percent of visible light.
  
• Be of good optical quality. In other words, the lens should be distortion free. A good way to check is to look at an object with lines such as lined notebook paper. If the lines remain straight when you move your eyes slightly side to side and up and down, the lens is relatively distortion free.
  
• Be impact resistant. Stats for this are set by the FDA. They will have an ANSI certification

Don't be fooled by faulty UV claims, buy where equipment is available to check the UV protection status. The color of darkness of the lens is independent of UV blocking ability' it is no gauge of UV protection. In general, sunglasses should not be so dark that they diminish vision or so light that you can see your eyes through them when looking in a mirror (unless they are photochromatic). Color choice is individual preference although gray affords the best color recognition. Grey with a slight brown or green tint is also popular, because it offers minimal color distortion and filters out most blue light. 

Other options are polarized lens which combat reflected glare. They are like "mini" venetian blinds allowing only light from a certain angle to enter the eye. They are great for driving, boating and snow sports. Mirror or flash coating reduces the amount of light entering the eye but does not fully protect against UV. An example is flash coating often worn by state troopers. Color of the flash coat is purely cosmetic; it has nothing to do with the lens color and will not affect your color perception. All lenses, but especially mirror/flash coated, should have scratch resistant coating. Scratches can scatter incoming UV and visible light leading to glare. 

Last, but not least, wraparounds are an important consideration because they protect from light coming in the sides.