Yep. It’s that time of year again. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing and pink eye abounds. It’s that last one that strikes fear into every mother and school teacher. Why do cases of pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis, increase as the temperatures decrease? Many doctors suspect that it’s due to spending more time indoors where people are in closer contact with each other. Read on to find out how to protect yourself and your family.
If you talk to eye care experts, they will advise you to ideally get an eye exam every one to two years. Patients who have a higher risk of eye diseases should go in on a more frequent basis. These patients include adults over 55 years old, diabetics, those with previous eye surgeries or injuries, and those with poor vision. (more…)
Let’s be honest, we all spend way too much time staring at a screen. It’s not really our fault though. We’re surrounded by those glowy rectangles and our jobs require hours of screen time every day. How much time do you spend staring at a screen? Recent research shows that almost 70% of US adults spend seven hours looking at a screen. That’s how much time we spend sleeping!
Blue Light—Invisible But Dangerous (more…)
One of the foods most commonly associated with eye health is carrots. Known for its ability to protect your eyesight, carrots have a myriad of other health benefits as well. If you are looking for the best foods for eye health, carrots certainly aren’t your only option.
Vitamins C and E along with zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutrients all play a fundamental role in keeping your eyes healthy and your eyesight sharp even as you age. As you may imagine, there are plenty of different foods built around these vital nutrients. Here are just a few you may want to check out: (more…)
The eye is made to have a constant flow of tears that keeps it lubricated. This constant flow of moisture washes away infection-causing germs and actually preserves your sight. It’s not just about the way the eye feels, which can be pretty bad if you experience dry eye.
When there is an imbalance of moisture around the eyes, your eyes cannot necessarily get the special proteins they need. It is common for dry eye sufferers to experience: (more…)
“He’s a smart kid, but he’s just not doing well in school!”
I can hear the frustration in the parent’s voice. Often the child is doing their best, but they are waging an uphill battle. Your child may be fighting against undiscovered vision problems. Few children will complain because they have nothing to compare it to. They just know that no one understands how hard it is and that mom, dad, and their teacher are not happy.
A vision problem may be present if your child: (more…)
Source: Facebook / Tara Taylor
Facebook may have saved this little girl’s sight! This photo was posted to Facebook by her mother, Tara Taylor. It shows the smiling three-year-old, Rylee Taylor. Immediately, friends and family knew something wasn’t right. They suggested that she get the little girl into an eye doctor due to her white left pupil. An eye exam revealed that Rylee had a rare eye disease called Coat’s Disease, which can lead to blindness. The mother had no idea her little girl was going blind in that eye.
As eye doctors, we are very concerned with children’s vision for many reasons. Here are some of our concerns.
Figure 1
The first twenty in the term “20/20” is how many feet you are from the eye chart. In most eye doctor offices that eye chart is 20 feet away from you. The second twenty is the size of the lettering. So 20/20 means that the average (see, there’s that word again) person should be able to see a 20-size letter from 20 feet away. What if you have horrible vision – 20/200? That means that the letter your able to barely make out sitting in the exam chair has to be 10 times (200 is 10 times larger than the 20-size letter) larger for you to tell what letter it is (see figure 1). (more…)
Draper, Utah (PRWEB) October 08, 2013
Locally owned Visionology announced today the acquisition of pioneering technology that significantly improves human vision – the first of its kind along the Wasatch Front. Specifically, research shows it enhances color, night and low-light vision, compared to common eyeglasses.
“This exciting advancement addresses the number one complaint I hear from patients – poor night driving vision,” says Dr. Michael Peterson, owner and optometrist at Visionology. “Glare from headlights can be just as problematic as someone driving with poor eyesight and no glasses.” (more…)
I remember getting my first pair of glasses at 14 years old. When my optometrist recommended them, visions of being called “four-eyes” and random punchings by the many prominent bullies at my school filled my mind. To make things worse, just a few months after getting my glasses, my orthodontist recommended braces! A very traumatic childhood indeed.
Research to the rescue! Kids may have a few less social problems to worry about in light of a new study.1 42 girls and 38 boys were shown various pairs of pictures of children, which included one child with glasses and the other without. About two thirds said the children wearing the glasses looked smarter and 57 percent said they looked more honest.
In my personal and professional opinion, children are not very interested in looking smarter or more honest when I tell them they need glasses. Kids mostly just want to fit into social circles with their peers. This is where the study results get interesting. Despite a child’s social fears with glasses, the researchers did not find any significant preference in who they’d rather play with, who looked better at sports, who looked more shy, nor who was better looking. (more…)