Annual eye exams are an essential part of a person’s annual health plan. Along with our yearly physical and dental exam we should remember that our eyes provide a window to the health of our bodies and an annual, dilated eye exam is an essential component of preventative healthcare.
See our video below which was produced at our new Colleyville office on the importance of regular eye exams.
Categories: Eye Care · Vision · examinations
Tagged: Vision, eye exam, eyecare, optometrist, Eye Doctor
Seeing patients with complications related to dry eye syndrome are a very common occurrence at Total Eye Care. Last month we made this video about dry eye syndrome. The video discusses how silicone punctal plugs are used to treat dry eye syndrome. It ties in well with this post on the Eye Doc Blog a few months ago about what causes dry eye syndrome. Check it out and let us know what you think.
Categories: Cornea · Eye Care · Vision · contact lens · dry eye syndrome
Tagged: Colleyville, dry eye syndrome, Eye Doctor, keller, ophthalmologist, optometrist, pain, punctal plug, sjogren's syndrome, video
If you have ever played sports and worn glasses, you know the limitations in doing so. Glasses present obvious mobility and peripheral vision issues. In addition, glasses offer little protection and actually can contribute to damage to the eyes if glass lenses are shattered.
Contact lenses offer a safe, clear and comfortable alternative for the athlete on any field or court. Peripheral vision is not an issue with contact lenses. However, contact lenses don’t protect the eyes other than offer some protection for the cornea.
Winter and indoor sports like ice hockey, basketball, football, and gymnastics, along with water and pool activities, baseball, softball, racquet sports and golf contribute the greatest number of eye injuries. Read more here.
Categories: Cornea · Eye Care · Vision · children · emergency · eye · eyecare
Tagged: Eye Care, injuries, prevention, sports vision
Most of us learn visually. Children especially are visual learners. It is hypothesized that 80% of what a child learns is through their vision yet 86% of children have never had an eye exam. People often assume a school screening, given by the school nurse, is adequate. Pediatricians also offer visual screenings.
Vision screenings, while a helpful and necessary part of school back to school, allow many children that need help to fall through the cracks. A comprehensive eye exam is truly what is needed to preserve a child’s vision. An eye exam involves an assesment of a patient’s refractive condition (nearsighted, farsighted etc.), ocular health, binocular function (how the eyes work together) and a comprehensive medical and ocular and family history. Timely eye exams can also prevent amblyopia and lazy eyes in children. More information about vision and children is available on the Total Eye Care Website.
Categories: Eye Care · Vision · children · examinations
Tagged: back to school, children, eye exam
A: No, using computers or any kind of near work will not cause your eyes to go bad. What computer use will do, however, is make any uncorrected visual problems become more apparent. When we work at a computer we typically don’t change our point of gaze for possibly hours. Before computers were such an integral part of the office workplace we would experience intermittent visual breaks in our focus that gave our eyes a break by turning the page, going to the file cabinet or grabbing another document, etc. With computers everything we need is on the screen. When we finish one task the next is available on the computer. Our gaze rarely strays from the monitor. Even when we take a mental break, we still take that break looking at our monitor checking personal email, youtube etc.
How do we prevent visual strain at the computer? The first is to set up your workstation for enhanced visual ergonomics. Take occasional breaks from looking at the monitor, once an hour is recommended. If it has been over a year since your last eye exam often a change in glasses is all that is needed.
Categories: Eye Care · Refractive issues · Vision
Tagged: asthenopia, computer, eye strain
Each year over the holiday, Thousands of adults and children are seriously injured as a result of fireworks and pyrotechnic devices. Many burns and injuries affect eyesight, permanently damaging and in some cases blinding the victims. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 20-25% of all fireworks related injuries involve the eyes.
Believe it or not, sparklers are the highest cause of fireworks injuries for children under five requiring trips to the emergency room. Another surprising fact is that 1/2 of the fireworks related injuries are to the bystanders. Be safe and attend a professional fireworks display in your area. More information and a list of fireworks displays in the Northeast Tarrant County is available.
Categories: Eye Care · Vision
Tagged: announcement, fireworks, safety
Categories: Eye Care · Vision · contact lens
Tagged: Contact Lens Solution, Gas Permeable Contact Lens, Hard lens, Unique pH
It’s all over the radio these days a LASIK surgeon touts “some experts believe LASIK is safer than contact lenses”. In reality this is a difficult statement to backup properly, given that we are really comparing apples to oranges. Why is this comparison difficult? Comparing LASIK to another refractive surgery procedure, such as PRK, is rather straight forward because the complications are similar for both procedures and the opportunity for complications is essentially nil after the patient is stable, typically 6 months to a year after surgery. A contact lens wearer, on the other hand, has a lower complication rate. When compared to LASIK or PRK contact lens complications are less severe and less frequent, however, a contact lens wearer’s potential for complications will last as long as the patient is wearing their lenses, often for decades.
Both LASIK and contact lenses are safe and in our office we utilize both techniques, choosing which is best for the patient. It is our practice to discuss all of the refractive options with our patients. We weigh the risks and benefits of each option before proceeding.
As a practical matter the incidence of vision threatening problems in compliant contact lens wearers is very small. When a patient does have a problem, it typically manifests itself as a red eye usually resulting from poor care or not replacing their contacts as often as recommended. It is exceedingly rare for a contact lens related red eye to cause a patient to require surgery to resolve the problem.
This prompts me to ask “what does the research say”. In my mind that’s what matters. Let the studies show us which is safer. The most important contact lens and LASIK complications are those that have resulted in a loss of vision and therefore that is the best criteria to compare LASIK versus extended wear contact lenses. A 2005 study including almost 5,000 patients followed over a 1 year period showed that 30 day Ciba Night & Day contact lens wearers, experienced an overall rate of presumed infiltrative keratitis (a type of corneal ulcer) of 0.18%. Of those experiencing keratitis 0.036% resulted in a loss of vision and 0.144% experienced keratitis without vision loss.
Numerous studies published in 2005 and 2006 indicated a complication rate for LASIK, resulting in a loss of best corrected vision, ranging from 0.6% to 7.0%.
Given the facts outlined above, I feel it is doing patients a disservice to state or imply that refractive surgery is as safe or safer than silicone hydrogel contact lenses. Both LASIK/PRK and silicone hydrogel contact lenses have come a long way in reducing both the rate and severity of complications and in looking at the numbers both are safe.
I still believe LASIK and PRK are good options for patients. I, in fact, have had LASIK and at our office it is still one of the refractive options we present to our patients. However, the research does not support the statement that refractive surgery is as safe as contact lens wear nor should it be promoted as such.
Technorati Tags: Extended Wear, Laser Vision Correction, LASIK, Refractive Surgery, Contact Lenses, Safety
Categories: Cornea · Eye Care · FAQ · LASIK · Refractive issues · Vision · contact lens · examinations · eye
Tagged: comparison, contact lenses, extended wear contact, Laser Vision Correction, LASIK, PRK, refractive surgery, safety
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Your baby should have her eyes examined at any age if a
problem is suspected. Until recently eye exams were recommended for all children before they entered kindergarten. However, numerous national organizations such as the American Optometric Association, American Academy of Ophthalmology and Prevent Blindness America have begun to recommend that your child receive their first eye exam at 6 months of age and then again at 3 years of age. Many forms of blindness or amblyopia (a decrease in vision) that occur in children can be prevented if caught early. Before you take your child to your eye doctor ask them if they are set up to evaluate children that are your child’s age. Not all eye doctors see young children.
Categories: FAQ · Vision · children · examinations · eyecare · optometrist
Tagged: child, children, eye exam, eyecare, Vision
Almost all contact lens wearers feel like “I wear contacts because I don’t like glasses”. That begs the question why is it important for everyone to have backup glasses? The simple answer is that your eyes need a break. The incidence of eye infections in contact lens wearers is much lower for patients that have an adequate backup pair of glasses.
A contact lens wearer that lacks a pair of backup glasses will have to wear their contacts when their eyes are irritated. By continuing to wear the contacts the eyes never have a chance to recover. Most contact lens related eye irritations will resolve in less than a day if the contacts are not worn. If your eye is not back to 100% within one day you should be seen by our office.
So what criterion qualifies for making an adequate pair of backup glasses? Here is what I think is important.
At Total Eye Care we feel it is important to have a backup pair of glasses, therefore, when purchased at time of a contact lens evaluation, a complete pair of glasses starts at $99.
Technorati Tags: glasses, contact lenses, backup
Categories: Eye Care · Refractive issues · Vision · children
Tagged: backup, contact lenses, glasses, red eye
