What type of sunglasses are best for me?

What type of sunglasses should I buy? This is a common question I get when seeing patients, especially in the summer. There a many different types of sunglasses which are useful in different situations. What is the difference between polarized vs non-polarized and brown vs grey tint to name a few.

First off the best type of sunglasses are the ones that block the UV light from the sun, that is the initial purpose of the sunglasses from an eye care professional’s stand point. Most lenses depending on their materials have an inherent ability to block UV. Polycarbonate, high index and photochromic lenses block almost the entire UV spectrum while CR39 while need an extra coating to provide the optimal UV protection.

Polarized vs non-polarized sunglasses. If you want to know more about polarized light you can read a previous blog post “Polarized light”. Polarized sunglasses are great at cutting down glare off of surfaces. They are very useful while on water or in bright snow to give the best vision possible. Non-polarized sunglasses will still help with UV protection but will not help much with glare off of objects. Non-polarized glasses are recommended for golfers, trail runners, mountain bikers and pilots to name a few as they use glare to better judge the terrain. Pilots require non-polarized glasses due to their instruments having polarized filters in them, if the polarization does not match up the pilots will not be able to see their gauges, not a good recipe to fly a plane safely!

Brown vs grey tint. Both are great options and it can sometimes come down to how would a certain colored lens look in a particular sun glass frame. Grey reduces all colors equally. While brown tinted lenses make greens and blues pop. If you like to travel to tropical locations a brown lens will make the blue water and greenery pop!