Why do high prescription lens for eyeglasses take such a long time to make?!

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It just depends on the individual lab they use and how good a service they offer.

If it's a very busy lab but they are under staffed , your glasses could be sitting there in a tray for 3 or 4 days before they are even started.

If your lenses fall within the " stock lenses " range, that most single vision lenses do , it only takes a half hour to make them...but, you may be waiting in line for 5 days at some labs.

Optician

Shops usually send them out to an outside company. Most online stores send them out to India or China and they take forever to get back.

You should definitely buy online though; they are always super marked-up in the shops.

There's a company www.replacementlensexpress.com that specializes in prescription eyeglass lenses. They don't show their full line of frames, but I know that if you find a frame you like in the shop or online, you can give them the make and model number and they will give you a really good quote (usually at wholesale) for the frames too. The optician's e-mail is info@replacementlensexpress.com and he is very friendly.

Best part? They ship in 3 days! They have their own lab based in Connecticut and the lab is fully staffed and really large so there's usually no turn-around time issues.

www.replacementlensexpress.com

The eyeglass places probably don't stock the really strong lenses as they aren't needed so often, so they need to send away for them.

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