Every two years, you schedule an eye exam and update your vision prescription. Then it’s time to pick out the perfect pair of eyeglasses.
Experts at the UPMC Vision Institute can help you find the right glasses for both your prescription and your personal style. Before you visit an optical shop, you can browse frames online. Using our interactive platform, you can “try on” glasses right from the comfort of your home.
Once you have an idea of what you like, our trained experts can help you find the right fit.
1. Make Sure Your Prescription Is Up to Date
It’s essential to have the most current prescription ready. Depending on your state, your prescription may expire one to two years after your last exam. If you don’t have a copy of your most recent prescription, contact your eye doctor.
Don’t have an up-to-date prescription? Schedule an eye exam right away.
2. Choose Your Style
Once you have a valid vision prescription in hand, it’s time to pick out your frames. One of the best things about shopping for frames online is the large variety of styles, sizes, shapes, and colors.
We know that sometimes choosing the right frame can be challenging. Here are a few tips to help you find a pair to match your personality.
Is the shape of your face more of a heart, oval, square, or round? Choose frames that complement the shape of your face. This knowledge will help you save time when browsing through our selection of frames.
Oval face
If you have an oval-shaped face, chances are your features are proportionally balanced. To create the appearance of symmetry, look for frames that are as wide at the broadest part of your face.
Heart-shaped face
With this shape the top part of your face is wider than the bottom part. The area between your forehead and ears may be wider than the bottom half of your face; or the area beginning with your cheeks down to your chin.
A good choice for heart-shaped faces are frames that are wider towards the bottom. This choice helps the top half of the face appear smaller and the bottom half a little wider. Thin, light-colored frames and even frames with a rimless bottom are also good choices.
Square face
Do you have a strong jawline and a broad forehead, with the rest of your face falling into equal proportions? Chances are you have what’s called a square face.
If you want to soften the sharp angles of a square face, try oval shaped frames, preferably darker upper or lighter lower colored rims.
Round face
If you have a round face, the length and width of your face are roughly the same. Select square or rectangular shaped frames to give your face a thinner look.
3. Take Your Pick
Our interactive platform lets you browse hundreds of stylish frames. Start by choosing a frame to try on by clicking the Virtual Frame Try-On tab.
Our Try-On box menu will pop up.
From here, you can either upload a picture of yourself or you can use one of the avatars provided. If you choose to upload a photo of yourself, be sure to have decent lighting and look directly into the camera lens.
Spend all the time you need picking out ideas for the perfect frames. If life interrupts your browsing, you can always pick up where you left off. And once you have a better idea of what you like, our experts can match your choices from a range of well-known brands in our shops.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on , and was last reviewed on .