The science and fashion behind National Sunglasses Day

June 27 is National Sunglasses Day, and it’s a great opportunity to remind patients how  important it is to protect your eyes as vigilantly as you protect your skin. And with the variety of ZEISS lenses that offer UV protection, you can really express your personal style.

Eyewear stylist and influencer Alana Whitaker, known as @californiaglassesgirl on Instagram, recently put ZEISS mirror lenses in two of her WOOW frames, and we think they look great.

But there’s more to sunglasses than how great they look. What’s the science behind UV protection? And how can you be sure that your sunglasses are protecting you? Here’s an overview.

UV rays from the sun can cause short-term and long-term damage to both the eye and its surrounding tissue (known to doctors as the external ocular adnexa). Short-term damage comes from UV-B rays primarily, and includes corneal burns (photokeratitis), conjunctivitis, and sunburned eyelids. UV-A rays (320-400 nanometers) can be attributed to long-term problems such as cataracts, photoaging, and even skin cancer. These rays penetrate the deepest into the skin and eyes. To protect your eyes as well as you can, it is important to select eyewear with UV protection which covers the entire UV spectrum up to 400 nm.

Fortunately, ZEISS has the broadest offering of UV400 protection for the eyes on the market. For patients who want full UV protection and reduced glare, ZEISS has a wide range of prescription sunglass tints, gradients, polarized lenses, and mirror options. There is even a quick quiz to help guide your patients into the best outdoor lens option to suit their lifestyle, the Sunlens Type Test.

ZEISS also has a wide range of self-tinting lenses for patients who want the convenience of having one pair of glasses which have clear lenses indoors and a sunglass tint outdoors. ZEISS PhotoFusion lenses adapt very quickly to changing light conditions, come in 5 color options, and offer full UV protection up to 400nm.

But that’s not all. Since April 2018, ZEISS has had the most astounding offer yet for patients wanting full UV protection.  All ZEISS clear lenses now come with sunglass level UV protection in all materials. That means full UV protection is now available to all eyeglass wearers – as long as their lenses are from ZEISS.

ZEISS truly has you covered – and protected from UV.

Find out more:

Keep It Sunny: Raising UV Awareness with a Chatbot

2018 has been the breakout year for chatbots. Just two short years ago, most of the world hadn’t heard of them. Now there are well over 100,000 just on Facebook Messenger alone. They’re catching on quick, and already more than 20% of consumers prefer chatbots as the easiest way to contact a business, beating phone calls, emails, and websites.

“By 2020, 80% of business will have some sort of chatbot automation in place.”—Business Insider, 2016

That’s less than two years away!

Creating a unique, user-driven, interactive customer service experience is something most companies strive for, right? Well, that’s really difficult to do 24/7, unless you employ chatbots. And ZEISS is known for being a trend-setting technology and precision company, so it was time to place our trust in technology yet again and give chatbots a try.

Sunny the UV Chatbot avatar

Sunny the UV Chatbot was launched within Facebook Messenger in April 2018 to support the launch of the popular ZEISS UVProtect lens technology, and bring awareness of the need to protect eyes from harmful ultraviolet (UV) light. Sunny is the first chatbot to be released in the eyeglass lens market. Its purpose is to provide information about UVProtect lenses while educating consumers about UV and its potential to harm our eyes. People can chat with Sunny the UV Chatbot anytime of the day, whenever it’s convenient for them.

It was important to make sure Sunny met the needs of our customers, so it was designed to be both informative and funny with a witty personality. The first question Sunny will ask you is if you’d like your UV Index for the day. Reminding people to consider their daily UV environment and how to best protect themselves is an essential first step to increasing awareness.

Sunny also offers a UV risk assessment so that people understand their risk, not just to their skin, but to their eyes as well.

Think you already know a lot about UV? Well, take Sunny’s fun quiz and find out if you’re right!

Sold on the need for ZEISS UVProtect lenses? Just ask Sunny to find a ZEISS eye care practice near you and you’ll be on your way to having the best protection around.

Want to see for yourself? Open Facebook Messenger and search for Sunny the UV Chatbot by name, or click this link: bit.ly/SunnyUV.

Engaging consumers where they prefer to be served is a crucial step in reaching the ZEISS goal of building awareness about the risk of UV damage to our eyes. Sunny the UV Chatbot is a step in the right direction in effectively engaging with our customers and their patients.