The number one reason to get glasses from a trained professional is that they will select the right lenses for your needs, take your measurements accurately and fit your glasses properly. That means better vision and fewer headaches. But another good reason to visit an eyecare professional is that they'll often be the only place to get the best new lenses.

In recent years, the optical industry has seen huge technological advances. New digital or free-form manufacturing uses computers to plot how light refracts through thousands of points across a lens. The result is fewer aberrations and clearer vision.

The new technology was first applied to progressive lenses and today more than half the progressive lenses sold in Canada make use of it. At Plastic Plus, the Toronto laboratory that processes Seiko lenses, more than 90 percent of the progressive lenses being shipped make use of the technology, and even the lens giant Essilor has a figure north of 60 percent despite serving a broader market. Why are these lenses so popular, despite a higher price tag? Because, as one manufacturer remarked, "the worst digital progressive lens is still better than the best conventional lens."

This year, lens makers will come out with more new lenses. Here's a heads-up on what the lens makers are most excited about in 2011.

Eyecode

At Essilor, the world's largest manufacturer of spectacle lenses, the hot new lens product isn't a lens at all. Eyecode is a new measurement made on the company's Visioffice equipment. An optician using the machine will be able to make three-dimensional measurements of an eye's rotation centre. By using an accurate measurement instead of a number for a typical eye, the company will be able to further customize lenses for each wearer.

Seiko Super MV

Seiko is a niche player in the Canadian market, but one that's growing since Plastic Plus opened a shiny, new, automated digital production laboratory in Toronto. The lab just introduced two new lenses: the Super MV free-form single-vision and the Surmount free-form progressive.

The Super MV is part of a new generation of single-vision lenses that use the same digital production technology that was introduced for progressive lens wearers a couple years back. This one has an aspheric front design and a free-form processed surface on the back. Using a high-index 1.67 material, the result is a thin, light lens with high optical performance.

Zeiss MyoVision

Probably of greatest interest to optometrists is the new Zeiss MyoVision. It's a lens specifically designed to control childhood myopia. The lens was designed to slow myopic progression in 6- to 12-year-old children of East Asian and Southeast Asian heritage, and may slow it by 30 percent. It has not been tested for children of Caucasian, Hispanic, South Asian or African-American descent.

Since merging with AO/Sola, Carl Zeiss Vision is now one of the world's biggest spectacle lens manufacturers. In Canada, their lenses are distributed by Centennial Optical.

Hoya Super Hi Vision EX3

Just before the holidays, Hoya Vision Care Canada announced its new anti-reflective coating, called Super Hi Vision EX3, would be available in high-index materials. High-index materials allow for thinner lenses. EX3 had been available on 1.50 and 1.53 Phoenix materials, and now will extend to 1.60, 1.67 and 1.70, depending on the lens design.

The people at Hoya are very enthusiastic about EX3, which has nearly twice the scratch resistance of the company's previous market-leading coating, Super Hi Vision. The scratch resistance, together with superior anti-reflective and hydrophobic properties, mean clearer vision.

Kodak Unique MonitorView

Signet Armorlite, which makes Kodak eyeglass lenses (and which was recently acquired by Essilor), just revealed its new lenses for computer users and hobbyists. The Kodak Unique MonitorView uses the same digital production technology as the company's progressive lenses, but has an emphasis on the nearer vision fields people use more when writing, sewing or doing fine woodworking. It has a digitally generated back side for smooth transition and for fitting, assumes a monitor-viewing distance of 24 inches.