No7 has come up with solutions to overcome the challenges faced by contact lens patients
No7 is a specialist contact lens manufacturer located in Hastings, Sussex on the south coast of England. Privately owned, the business started in the Harley Street area of London and moved to larger premises some 20 years ago.
A centre of excellence, the laboratory provides lenses for patients throughout the world and prides itself of taking on the most challenging prescriptions, with lenses crafted to provide the very best outcome for patients.
Hand-painted lenses for therapeutic use and TV work, mini-sclerals for irregular corneas and keratoconic patients, RGP lenses for Ortho-k overnight correction and myopia control, plus lenses for extreme power corrections are all part of a day’s work for the business.
Recently shortlisted for ‘Supplier of the Year’ in the OPTICIAN Journal’s Awards, No7 professional advisers are regular speakers at educational events for optometrists and contact lens fitters. Drawing on more than 500 years of collective contact lens manufacturing experience, the team has close collaborations with all of the UK’s leading hospital eye departments.
Optician partners of No7 enjoy an enviable reputation for providing solutions to the trickiest cases, and a business strategy un-challenged by internet sales.
Innovation
Through its 30 year history No7 has innovated many new developments in its product pipeline which will provide further means for optical business to differentiate themselves and to guard against internet sales.
A few examples include –
- Ortho-k – First with topographer based system
- SynergEyes – First to market with hybrid lens
- ICD – First to bring mini-scleras to a wider audience
- Comfort 15 – New mini-scleral, super easy to fit and affordable
- Printed therapeutic lens in development
No7’s hand-painted lens service is expanding its therapeutic and theatrical offering as demand increases throughout the world. Awareness of the options available is ensuring that patients in need of therapeutic corrections are now enjoying life-enhancing lenses.
At the same time, similar specialist production techniques are producing lenses for sci-fi special effects and realistic colour changes. It is a significant part of the business growth for No7, with the company’s lenses worn by X-Men, Jenna Coleman in Victoria, characters in the Penny Dreadful series and Tom Cruise’s character in Valkyrie, with others in the pipeline.
“Hand painted lenses are a growing sector – not just for TV and film work, but also for therapeutics as expectations for realistic lenses increase. This is part of our extended portfolio of products and, with a substantial investment, has contributed to the need for an expansion of our laboratory,” said No7 Sales and Marketing Manager, Danny Pepper.
Painstakingly hand-painted, many of the orders received from hospital eye departments and optical practices reveal tragic cases, as Lee Adams, specialist lens painter at No7, explained –
“Some of the patients have been in accidents, while others have congenital conditions, albinism, iris and corneal injuries and heterochromia. Sometimes our lenses are used to improve the appearance of strabismus or as a cosmetically acceptable occluder to eliminate double vision in patients with diplopia. We can paint the lenses to cover up damage and match them to the good eye, hiding any disfigurement. Working from photographs, we use a very fine brush on soft lenses – sometimes the work is so fine we are working with just a few hairs.”
Danny Pepper, the company’s Sales and Marketing Manager, agreed –
“Our range of Reflex colours and painted lenses offer a variety of options for patients with damaged or diseased eyes, from complex hand-painted designs which are designed to closely simulate the patterns and colours of the natural eye to printed lenses and tints which are highly reproducible and a lower cost alternative to hand paints.
“Our service works with great care to produce lenses which will replicate the patient’s other eye. This ensures a look which is as natural as is physically possible. By supplying these lenses optical practices are positioning themselves as a centre of excellence and one that will attract patients from far afield,” says No7’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Danny Pepper.
It is not just coloured lenses but also highly specialised lenses which are tailor-made to meet the needs of patients with irregular corneas and keratoconics. The No7 Comfort 15 lens for irregular corneas and a host of other options can be manufactured up to powers of -35.00 dioptres. In many cases these specialist lenses are able to delay, and in some cases prevent, the need for surgery.
Read here: http://www.no7contactenses.com
Credits: Janice English
