A new kind of clarity

Dr. Alan Goldstone figured he had seen it all in the eye care business before he tried on a pair of iZon Lenses for the first time.

The co-owner of Dr. Goldstone Optometry High-Definition Vision Center in Fountain Valley encountered the new technology, which individually creates glasses based on a digital scan of each eyeball, at a convention several years ago. After Goldstone received his own pair of iZon glasses, he vowed to implement the system in Fountain Valley.

"It reminded me of the time I saw my first high-definition television," he said. "It was almost too much to handle, the amount of clarity I was seeing."

Although the center that Goldstone runs with his father, Dr. Harvey Goldstone, has offered iZon for three years, the glasses were too expensive to lure the average customer. This year, though, Ophthonix, Inc., the San Diego-based company that created iZon, lowered the price to about that of regular glasses, and the Goldstones celebrated with a grand reopening of their business.

The center, changing its name from Dr. Goldstone Vision Centers, offered free digital scans from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday and invited the mayor and City Council for a ribbon-cutting. Staff also collected old glasses for the charity New Eyes for the Needy, which collects glasses for low-income children and adults.

"It was a no-brainer to me to fully brand my office," Alan Goldstone said. "When we can offer a better lens than everyone else, we can really change people's lives."

The center starts the process of creating iZon lenses by having patients look into a machine called the Z-View Aberrometer, which scans each eye for microscopic aberrations that regular eyeglasses can't correct. Staff then runs the digital scan through another computer and sends it to the Ophthonix lab in San Diego.

Among those who have embraced the new technology is Stu Cahn, a Long Beach resident who picked up a pair of iZon glasses last month. Sitting in the center's waiting area Wednesday morning, he said his new glasses gave him the clearest vision he had ever had.

"When you see something like the ivy over there, it's almost 3D," Cahn said, gesturing out the window. "It just jumps out at you. It's like telling someone how great Disneyland is. You don't really get it until you experience it."