Barts and The London Eye Service

• About us
• Our performance
• Our services
  • > Cataract service
  • > Glaucoma service
  • > Adnexal service
  • > Ocular immunology service
  • > Ocular oncology (eye cancer) service
  • > Medical retina service
  • > Low vision clinic
  • > Visual field assessment
  • > Laser treatment
  • > Optical dispensing
  • > Fluorescein angiography
  • > Contact lens clinic
  • > Children’s Eye Service
  • > Neuro-ophthalmology and adult strabismus clinic
  • > Refraction
  • > Retinoblastoma
  • > Photography of the eye
  • > Multi-disciplinary ophthalmology/ENT clinic
  • > Multi-disciplinary facial trauma clinic
• Our support services
• For patients
• Meet the team
• Patient stories
• For clinicians
• Further information

Optical dispensing

The optical dispensing service is based in the outpatient department of the eye service at The Royal London Hospital.

The dispensing optician will look at your glasses prescription and consider any medical factors before helping you choose the right type of lenses and glasses frames to suit your occupational and recreational needs.

Lenses

• There are three main types of lenses available - single vision, bifocal and trifocal lenses. Trifocal lenses can be made without a dividing line. These are referred to as multifocal lenses.
• The optical dispensary also offers several types of tinted lenses - these can be non-changeable and changeable in the sunlight (which are also called photo-chromatic lenses.) Tinted lenses are mainly used as sunglasses, but occasionally they may be prescribed by your doctor or optician for clinical reasons.
• At Barts and The London Eye Service we prefer to use plastic lenses. For safety reasons we only prescribe plastic lenses for children. Adult patients can ask for glass lenses, but plastic lenses are popular because of the reduced weight.
• At Barts and The London Eye Service it is standard practice to thin down lenses to reduce the weight and improve the appearance of the lenses. Unlike some high street opticians we do not charge for thinning down lenses.
• If patients require high-powered lenses, we can dispense hi-index thin lenses and high index lenses. Unfortunately these lenses are not available under the NHS scheme, but if a patient wants them they can pay the difference of the voucher value and the actual cost of lenses.

Frames

At Barts and the London Eye Service we stock a wide range of frames suitable for adults and children. These include metal and plastic varieties and designer frames.

The optical dispensing service is specialised for dispensing glasses to children of all ages and can fit glasses for any child four months or older. Most children’s glasses can be dispensed free of charge under the NHS voucher scheme.

Specialist fittings

Our dispensing optician is able to provide specialist glasses fittings for patients with facial prosthesis and other medical conditions, where wearing traditional glasses is either uncomfortable or impractical.