ROCKLAND — Lobstermen and offshore fishermen go see him when they need a new pair of prescription, or even nonprescription, sunglasses. So do mountain climbers, skiers, middle-age bus drivers, elderly ladies, artists, young students, even toddlers. If there is an optician in the region who knows the business, and moreover the craft, of making eyeglasses for each individual client, it is Kris Kangas.

It’s not simply about the lens and adjusting for near-sightedness or far-sightedness, or getting into the complicated balancing of bifocals and progressives. Kangas and his associate, Tracey Sylvester, are watching out for the health of the eye, and for protecting the retina and exposure to UV light, from which prolonged exposure can cause macular degeneration and cataracts.

“There are many types of vision problems that people can have,” said Kangas, on weekday afternoon in his shop, Mid-Coast Optical. “Probably the worst that we work with is macular degeneration.  That is a condition where central vision becomes limited but side vision remains clear.  We work with the prescription provided by the ophthalmologist or optometrist and provide any tints or filters deemed necessary to aid in vision.”

Ask Kangas about blueberries (he commercially cultivates and harvests blueberries in Rockport, on land he purchased from a 90-year-old blueberry grower) or local politics, and he’ll crack a joke; but when you talk with him about vision and glasses, he is a serious tome of knowledge. 

He has earned that through experience, business and decades researching the latest developments in technology and medicine. 

Kangas learned the craft by apprenticing first with his father, Dr. Onni Kangas, who was a Midcoast ophthalmologist. Kris later himself became board certified by the Opticians Association of America. 

He now shares building space on Maverick Street in Rockland with the eye doctors Lyndon W. Morgan and Serena Morrison, of Midcoast Vision Care.

It’s a location dedicated to eye health, which most of the population takes for granted. But according to a 2018 assessment of the World Health Organization, approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment.

Of them,188.5 million have mild vision impairment, 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment, and 36 million people are blind.

“We see all age ranges, from one to 101,” said Kangas. “Each age group has its own special set of needs and we work to provide the best solutions for each.”

His shop is peppered with advice for the public about protecting eyes: “The most detrimental thing about UV is the cumulative damage it can do over a lifetime of exposure. Do you know the difference between harmful blue-violet and UV light, and beneficial blue-turquoise light? Remember to start the protection early!”

Sylvester, likewise, is dedicated to the craftsmanship of eyeglasses.

“I got into the business kind of by chance,” she said. “Kris was advertising for an optician. I didn't have any experience, but I have worn glasses most of my life so I thought I'd give it a try. I had always wanted to do something that helps people and this seemed like a great opportunity.”

Wearing Glasses

Sylvester’s nod to her lifetime need for glasses speaks to many. Those old enough remember the evolution of frames, from metal and wire to heavy plastic, and now the plethora of frame styles, weights and composites of different materials.

The same holds for lens: there is glass, still, for the purists (heavy, yet clear); to the polycarbonate (strong and scratch-resistant), plus six or seven other materials. Kangas explains the attributes of all of them as he bends over equipment in his finishing lab.

“CR 39 is best in clarity,” he mentions. “Poly is a good standard in the industry.”

He understands the allegiance to plain old glass, but shakes his head, “technology has not kept up on glass as it has on polycarbonate and other materials.”

Chances are that by now, few even question what their eyeglass lens consist of, as their design and precision of vision has developed.

The storefront of Mid-Coast Optical is filled with frames — Ray Ban, Costa, Oakley, Silhouette, Ralph Lauren, Maui Jim, Persol, all the fashionista brands (albeit many of them owned by the same Italian company), while next to them, other stalwart brands from around the world. The Italians, whom history attributes with making the first eyeglasses at the end of the 1200s, have been known to craft the finest frames, but other countries have edged in — Denmark, Austria, England, and a small contingent in the U.S.

Which makes for a long browse when choosing new eyeglass frames.

Some Kangas customers choose several different frames with different lens: dark glasses, reading glasses, distance glasses, the glasses that go from clear to dark, depending on indoor to outdoor lighting. Others go in, prescription in hand, and pick the same frame they have more or less worn since grade four.

But not before Sylvester methodically measures and records the distance of the pupil from the new lens, the way the eye moves from side to side, the horizontal placement of the glasses as they rest on the nose, and the distance between the eyes.

Kangas used to measure these elements with a pupilometer, “a metal stick,” he said. But not any more.

Kangas employs a computer that digitally measures the facial form and the minute adjustment of the eyes. It takes a measuring clip and standing very still to get these measurements, but he likes the accuracy.

He talks about corridors of vision, and how that applies the crafting of lens, especially for those who wear progressive lens, the latter consisting of three separate lens melded together into one to accommodate for short, medium and long distance vision. (Reading, computer work and seeing far into the distance.)

The precision with which the lens are built for each eye is vital, as is determining which eye is dominant, and the vertex, the distance from the eye to the back of the lens.

Come to find out, the companion eye to the dominant eye not always follows the same corridor, which brings in even more adjustments made to the lens — “to ensure that everything comes together in the same moment,” said Kangas. “You don’t have to move your head as much. The lens are designed, with patents, to give you wider mid- and near-vision. The advantages give still best clarity for vision and is working for the dominate eye. The companion eye is not far behind.”

Then there is the cape, how the eye rotates and “making sure the lens are in the same flow as your center eye rotation,” said Kangas.

“Once we get everything fitted right, it gives you better usage of your entire lens,” said Kangas, before describing the lens itself, which, he said, provides greater adaptation to movement.

Not too many years ago, wearing progressive glasses introduced a feeling of seasickness.

“The older designs had the swim effect,” said Kangas. “It was one design, and lens had severe distortion.”

The finishing lab

Once Mid Coast Optical takes all the measurements, Sylvester then sends them off to one trusted Essilor lab in Dallas, or to St. Cloud Minnesota. Either are, Kangas said, the best optical lens labs in the country.

Within a week, the lens return to Rockland. He uses Varilux lens, “because they do the most research and development in the industry,” said Kangas.

They are uncut, and Kangas pulls them from the box, etches them out, entering the client’s horizontal and vertical measurements, marks the center the lens, transfers them to the edger, and determines where the bevel of the lens should be placed.

Over the course of a decade, he has minimized three machines to one machine, making the process, “so much more accurate, within a tenth of a millimeter,” he said.

“We comply with American National Standards Institute and International Organization for Standardization, so everything is within tight tolerance for accuracy,” said Sylvester.

It’s a craft, and a business, and when Kangas is sure all has been adjusted, he or Sylvester makes the call that all glasses wearers love: “Just wanted to let you know that your glasses are in,” they say. Because there are few happier delights than putting on a new pair of glasses that clear the vision and fit just right.

That’s why Kangas and Sylvester frown on the recent of ordering prescription eyeglasses online.

No matter how straightforward and simple the prescription may be, adds risk, Sylvester said.

“You know don’t know what you are getting for materials,” she said. “And what’s your recourse. If something doesn’t work, whom do you take them to when the glasses doesn’t work. Who adjusts them?”

Not to mention the eye care itself.

“You compromise and wonder why you have a headache at the end of the day,” said Kangas.

Jody Day, who works next door at Mid Coast Vision Care as an ophthalmic technician, respects the care and craftsmanship that Kangas employs.

“Kris is very professional and competent, and that impresses me,” he said. “I’ve worked with opticians for 38 years, and he’s able to provide a lot of services that are being lost.. Big-box stores don’t have licensed opticians on site. And Kris understands optics. He is able to beyond the fitting, and has the skills that are elsewhere being lost.”

For Kangas and Sylvester, they like working with clients they have known for years.

“The best part of being in the business is probably the gratification of knowing that we are providing a service to the community,” said Kangas. “Knowing that we are helping people see better is very rewarding. Everyone should be given the best.”

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657