relaxes
Precision filters reduce brain hyperactivity, allowing it to relax. In time, the brain learns to tolerate visual environmental triggers. The visual system becomes less stressed, requiring a change in your tint.
Your brain
develops
With growth and maturity come new visual pathways for processing visual information. The optimal colour two years ago may need to be adjusted for a more mature brain.
Your brain
is injured
A concussion, viral infection, stroke, or other injuries to the brain can change brain function. What worked before your injury may not work after, and a tint update will be required.
Your brain
chemistry changes
Hormones, medications, and other neurochemical changes can affect the optimal filter colour. Puberty, pregnancy, menopause, ADHD medications and anti-depressants, diet, and stress can all change brain chemistry. They change the way the brain reacts to stimuli, including visual stimuli.
For example, a colour that worked before the change will likely need to be updated afterwards.
Your brain
prescription changes
Prescription lenses change the way light enters the visual system. People with brain injuries are often very sensitive to even slight changes in prescription. For example, adding a prism can change the optimal filter colour enough to change the lens's effectiveness.
When your vision prescription changes, if you feel your lenses are not working as well as they did before, it's time for a tint update.
Over time, from exposure to UV light, or lens cleaning, the tint may fade. It is a natural process that occurs with lens tints but often goes unnoticed because the tint lightens as you become more tolerant of the visual triggers.
Your vision
environment changes
Testing is usually performed under fluorescent light to replicate the bright fluorescent environments that most people have difficulty tolerating. Precision-tinted lenses filter the whole visual environment, making it easier for people with Visual Stress to tolerate these spaces.
If you can modify lighting to work in lower or naturally lit environments, then the tint may not need to be as saturated.
Some clients wear a lighter saturated lens tint in these environments and wear a sunglass tint over their glasses when the environment is too bright.
Your vision
Recent study
A recent study of 88 patients in a Visual Stress Clinic found that when patients came in for a tint update, their filter colour (hue) remained virtually unchanged, with only a reduction in the saturation of the colour and the removal or reduction of the grey filter.
Tint updates
Over time, you may experience changes in the effectiveness of your precision-tinted lenses. Your first reaction may be to stop wearing them, but this is not the solution. Your visual system changes over time just like your eyes do. Most people need to update their vision prescription every few years. The same goes for your precision tint.
Whether you started wearing your tinted lenses to help reduce your post-trauma sensitivities, anxiety or headaches, or to help with learning-related reading and concentration issues, over time, several things may happen to your brain that will change the effectiveness of the tint.
