Edging 101

What to Look For

The key to being happy with your equipment is finding the edger that fulfills your needs. If the majority of the jobs in your office are rimless, then an edger with a drill is definitely going to make sense, but if your office does mainly single vision jobs then you might want to keep that extra cash to invest in other parts of the business. With that small tidbit of information, let’s look at what the newest edgers on the market can do.

• Drill

• Groove

• Safety Bevel

• Custom Shapes

• Facet

• Additional Materials

Now a basic model edger compared to the model with all the bells and whistles can easily cost you a difference of $10,000 or better. Before you purchase the edger it’s a good idea to find out what your average jobs in a month consist of. With the list of features given above it would be a good idea to keep track of an average month’s jobs and find out what percentage fall into which categories.

• Drilled Rimless

• Grooved

• Metal

• Plastic

• Custom Work

• Glass or Trivex®

These categories provide a good idea of what you will need from your edger. If you only use the drill in it once per month and the drill breaks, it can cost you a significant amount of money to repair. The cost for one of these repairs may negate any savings that the drill may have afforded you. It would be more prudent to send these one or two drill jobs out to your lab to complete and save yourself both the cost and the hassle.

What Company to Buy From

With so many newer model edgers offering more and more features, there are many options available to adequately fulfill your needs. This is where you have an opportunity to really avoid making some costly mistakes. The following are three very basic areas that you will need to address before you jump in feet first.

Quality is important because you plan on keeping this equipment in the office for a long time. One great resource is www.optiboard.com where you can ask many ophthalmic professionals their opinions on the equipment. Another great resource is your local labs, who often make decisions on equipment that cover more points than you and I will ever be able to comprehend. Yet another resource is eBay, if you happen to see a number of newer model brand A edgers for sale, you may want to question why there are so many on the market.

Price is where many fall into the trap of purchasing the wrong edger. I have said it before and I will say it again, cheap does not equal value. If the lowest price model doesn’t perform the functions you need, you still paid too much. Get a written proposal for all the equipment you are looking at and take a few days to weigh the pros and cons. If price is a concern or you have a need for a top of the line model without a budget to match, you may want to consider a refurbished model. Often times you can pick these up for a fraction of the cost, and with warranties and service contracts you can enjoy the same peace of mind you would get with a new machine.

Service is where the manufacturers make most of their money, as there are only so many practices to sell machines to and each practice generally only needs one machine every 5 to 7 years. I recently had a power supply blow in our edger and it ended up costing our office $2,500 to repair and I did the work myself. That’s almost 10% of the cost of the machine not to mention the 5 days of downtime I would have had to wait if a repair tech came out to fix it and the cost for his time and travel. This is where references will come in handy; ask the equipment rep for references to accounts with their equipment in your area that have had problems and required repairs. For our office we would rather have a company that can service our edger in a timely fashion for a premium cost than cheap equipment that has poor service. Also make sure that the technicians are willing and able to talk your opticians through repairs, this could save you considerable amounts of time and money. The last thing I will say about service is that you should purchase a warranty or extended service contract whenever possible as one repair can often set you back a considerable amount of money without one.

Now What?

So your equipment has been purchased and set up in the office, now what? The company that sold you the equipment should be able to provide your staff with adequate training to make them feel confident. A good start would be to try and tackle single vision lenses in the beginning until the staff is confident in the operation of the equipment. Make sure to iron out a daily, weekly, monthly maintenance schedule for the edger. Calibrations done on a consistent basis will lead to fewer errors from the equipment and longevity in your investment. A good text for edging is Essentials for Ophthalmic Lens Finishing, Second Edition (Hardcover) by Clifford W. Brooks, ISBN: 0750672137, definitely worth keeping around the office for quick reference.

Where’s the Money?

It is very important to note that for you to save money on your lab bills you will conversely be taking money away from your lab. Often times this reduction in services from the lab is not beneficial to you; however in this case if you were to call them and ask for an Uncut price list you will see that the prices are significantly less. If not, shop around for a lab that does uncuts or offers better pricing. Also check for suppliers of finished stock lenses, you will often find the finished version of lenses you are used to ordering from your lab may end up costing you significantly less.

Keep in mind if your staff is new and inexperienced with the edging process, it may be prudent to have them send out the jobs that use those very expensive lenses, one mistake with these lenses can lead to a significant monetary loss. If the lab edges it you don’t have to worry about scratching the lens during edging or cutting too small. Make sure that the savings in cost of goods covers your equipments financing or it probably won’t be worth the investment or time to bring edging into your office.

Get the Word Out

Now that you have gone through the trouble of getting a technologically advanced piece of equipment in your office, there is no reason why you can’t flaunt it. Make sure that you use it to your advantage by offering patients quicker service, it makes for great advertising that glasses can be done expediently. Make sure you tell every patient that you are now able to make glasses in 1 to 2 days instead of 1 to 2 weeks.