Will Rimless Eyeglasses Work With My Prescription?

Rimless design eyeglasses are very popular because they are very stylish, trendy and have a certain elegance about them. With that said, not all eyeglass prescriptions can been filled into a rimless frame. Now, before we get into the bulk of this post, I want to clarify something about rimless frames.

Commonly, when people refer to rimless frames, they are actually semi-rimless frames. These are frames that have no rim on the bottom and sides but have a rim on the top. The bottom and sides of the lens are held securely in place with high gauge nylon string. This string is actually no different than common fishing line. In fact many optical shops use either 15 LBS to 20 LBS fishing line on most semi-rimless repair jobs.

A full rimless frame is commonly called a drill-mount pair of eyeglasses. A full rimless eyeglass frame has absolutely no frame. The lenses are secured to the temple and bridge with very small glass screws and hardware. Semi-rimless eyeglass frames are more common because they are a lot less in cost and most optical shops can fabricate the eyeglasses in their own lab. Most places have to outsource a full rimless (drill-mount) order.

Having that explained, lets talk about if you can fill your prescription into a semi-rimless or full rimless eyeglass frame. As a general rule of thumb, if you are far-sighted it is not a good idea to order a pair of semi-rimless or full rimless eyeglasses. If you are near-sighted, it is ok. The reason why is in the thickness of the lens. With lenses that correct for far-sightedness, the center of the lens is thick while the edges are thin.

In order to fill a far-sighted prescription into a semi-rimless or full rimless, the lab actually has to make the lenses thicker than normal so that the edge of the lens has a minimum edge thickness to accommodate the groove added into the lens that will be used to hold the lens in place with the nylon string. With lenses that correct for near-sightedness, the lenses are naturally thin in the center and thicker on the edges.