If you were to cut lenses in your office, how would the lens come?

• A. A solid lens rounded shape
• B. A rough disk with no finished surface
• C. Chunk of plastic or glass blank finished on the front but raw on the back
• D. A complete finished lens with both sides polished

Answer: (C)

When cutting lenses in an office, you work with a semi-finished blank. The blank arrives with the front surface already ground and polished, giving you the correct base curvature and optical quality, while the back surface is still raw. This lets you cut the blank to the correct size and shape for the frame, and then finish the back surface later (typically in a lab) to meet the prescription. A completely finished lens or a blank with both surfaces finished wouldn’t be cut in the office, and a rough disk with no finished surface wouldn’t provide the needed front-surface quality.