Have you ever wondered what happens to the visual system as we age? What does the term "second sight" mean? What is presbyopia?  What can be done to prevent aging factors of the eye? 

What happens in Presbyopia?

A common aspect of the aging process is losing the reading vision you had all your life. This is called Presbyopia. Presbyopia is a Latin term which means "old eyes."

Before our mid-forties, the natural lens of the eye is very pliable and can easily focus on items up close. But in our mid-forties, the lens tends to lose its elasticity. When experiencing presbyopia, people generally hold reading material farther away to see it more clearly. Presbyopia can be managed through bifocal or multifocal glasses or contact lenses, and some surgeries.

What is "second sight"?

There is a phenomenon that often occurs during the 6th to 7th decade of life called "second sight."   Close to 50% of the population over 60 years old has cataracts. Cataracts are a clouding of the natural lens of the […]

Red, itchy, swollen eyelids are often due to a condition called blepharitis. Blepharitis tends to be a chronic condition, and presents with thick eyelid mucous gland production that sticks to the bases of the eyelashes. This adherent mucous can allow bacteria to overgrow and also attract and retain allergens. The standard treatment for blepharitis is doing warm compresses and cleaning off the eyelids with a mild baby shampoo and water solution.This treatment works for some people but there are many more sufferers who have chronic irritation and relapses despite this treatment. If the warm compresses and eyelid scrubs are not quite keeping the condition under control, there are several other additional treatments that can be used to control the symptoms.One such treatment that your doctor may decide upon is to use an antibiotic/steroid combination drop or ointment. We usually use these for short periods of time to try to bring the condition under control. They are not good to use chronically because it can build resistant bacteria and the steroid component can cause other eye […]

Dry eye is a very common problem that affects women more than men and becomes more prevalent as people get older.

Signs and symptoms can range from mild to severe.  It can present in many ways, with symptoms that can include a foreign body sensation, burning, stinging, redness, blurred vision, and dryness. Tearing is another symptom and occurs because the eye initially becomes irritated from the lack of moisture and then there is a sudden flood of tears in response to the irritation.  Unfortunately, this flood of tears can wash out other important components of the tear film that are necessary for proper eye lubrication.

There are medications that have the potential to worsen the symptoms of dry eye. Here are some of the broad categories and specific medications that have been known to potentially worsen the symptoms:

• Blood Pressure Medications – Beta blockers such as Atenolol (Tenormin), and diuretics such as Hydrochlorothiazide.
• GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disorder) Medications – There have been reports of an increase in dry eye symptoms by patients on these medications, which include Cimetidine (Tagamet), […]
  

Most people have probably never heard of punctal plugs, a sometimes-needed part of treating Dry Eye Syndrome.

This syndrome is a multifactorial problem that comes from a generalized decrease in the amount and quality of the tears you make.  There is often both a lack of tear volume and  of inflammation in the tear glands, which interferes with tear production and also causes the quality of the tears to decline.

We make tears through two different mechanisms.  One is called a basal secretion of tears, meaning a constant low flow or production of tears to keep the eye moist and comfortable.  There is a second mechanism called reflexive tear production, which is a sudden flood of tears caused by the excitation of nerves on the eye surface when they detect inflammatory conditions or foreign body sensations. It is a useful reflexive nerve loop that helps wash out any foreign body or toxic substance you might get in the eye by flooding the eye with tears.  Consider what happens when you get suntan lotion in your eye.  The nerves […]

If you do a Google news search for sports-related eye injuries today, chances are you'll find many stories about some pretty scary eye injuries.  Whether they are professionals, high school or college athletes, or kids in community sports programs, no one is immune to the increased danger sports brings to the eyes.

Here are some facts about sports-related eye injuries:

1. Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States and most injuries occurring in school-aged children are sports-related.
2. One-third of the victims of sports-related eye injuries are children.
3. Every 13 minutes, an emergency room in the United States treats a sports-related eye injury.
4. These injuries account for an estimated 100,000 physician visits per year at a cost of more than $175 million.
5. Ninety percent of sports-related eye injuries could be avoided with the use of protective eyewear.

Protective eyewear includes safety glasses and goggles, safety shields, and eye guards designed for individual sports.

Protective eyewear lenses are made of polycarbonate or Trivex.

Ordinary prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses do not protect against […]

Oftentimes, contact lens wearers will skimp on their lens care because some of the solutions are pricey and it seems like a good way to save money. 

But this is not a good idea.

Cutting corners can result in infections or irritations, and after one or two co-pays to your eye doctor's office you probably will have spent more than what you saved in a year of cutting corners–plus you have to deal with your discomfort and inability to wear your contact lenses while you are being treated.

The reasons you clean your contacts is to give increased lens comfort, prolong lens oxygen permeability, and to protect your eyes from infection. The reason you have to disinfect your contact lenses is – as nasty as it may sound – that your eyeball and eyelids are covered in essential bacteria that are kept in check by your body’s immune system. When you remove your contact lens at night it is covered in these essential bacteria. If you don't kill them overnight, the bacteria […]

When soft contact lenses first came on the scene, the ocular community went wild.

People no longer had to put up with the initial discomfort of hard lenses, and a more frequent replacement schedule surely meant better overall health for the eye, right?

In many cases this was so. The first soft lenses were made of a material called HEMA, a plastic-like polymer that made the lenses very soft and comfortable. The downside to this material was that it didn’t allow very much oxygen to the cornea (significantly less than the hard lenses), which bred a different line of health risks to the eye.

As contact lens companies tried to deal with these new issues, they started to create frequent-replacement lenses made from SiHy, or silicone hydrogel. The oxygen transmission problem was solved, but an interesting new phenomenon occurred.

Because these were supposed to be the “healthiest” lenses ever created, many people started to overwear their lenses, which led to inflamed, red, itchy eyes; corneal ulcers; and hypoxia (lack of oxygen) from sleeping in lenses at night. A new […]

Getting your eyes dilated can be inconvenient – dilation makes your eyes light sensitive, which can make it difficult to read books or use phones and computers for a few 4 hours.

So wouldn’t it be great to have another drop to reverse the effects of dilation?

On Dec. 31, 1990, dapiprazole, under the trade name Rev-Eyes, was approved by the FDA and thought to be the answer to all the post-dilation problems. It was marketed for treatment of medically-induced dilation by stimulating pupillary constriction and restoration of accommodative function for reading.

In clinical practice, dapiprazole took between one to two hours to return pupils to pre-dilation size.

Side effects such as stinging upon instillation, conjunctival hyperemia (redness of eye), headache, and a few instances of ptosis (lid drooping), with a possible additional dollar cost to patients, seemed to lessen dapiprazole’s overall clinical benefit.

Reading ability returned in approximately 43 minutes with dapiprazole vs 66 minutes without the drop (Optom Vis Sci 1994 May; 71(5):319-22). The main complaint that people had after using dapiprazole was the conjunctival hyperemia, which lasted […]

Need a chuckle or a groan?  Here you go…

1. Did you hear about the guy who just found out he was color blind?  It hit him right out of the purple!

2. What happened to the lab tech when he fell into the grinder?  He made a spectacle of himself.

3. Why is our staff so amazing?  They were all bright pupils!

4. Why did the smartphone have to wear glasses?  It lost all of its contacts.

5. What did one pupil say to the other?  I’m dilated to meet you.

6. What do you call a potato wearing glasses?  A Spec-Tater!

7. What do you call an optician living on an Alaskan island?  An optical Aleutian.

8. What was the innocent lens’s excuse to the policeman?  "I’ve been framed, officer!"

9. Where is the eye located?  Between the H and the J.

10. Where does bad light end up?  In Prism!

What do amblyopia, strabismus, and convergence insufficiency all have in common? These are all serious and relatively common eye conditions that children can have.

Did you know that 80% of learning comes through vision? The proverb that states ”A picture is worth a thousand words” is true!  If a child has a hard time seeing, it stand to reason that she will have a hard time learning.

Let’s explore amblyopia, or “lazy eye.” It affects 3-5% of the population, enough that the federal government funded children’s yearly eye exams through the Accountable Care Act or ObamaCare health initiative. Amblyopia occurs when the anatomical structure of the eye is normal but the “brain-eye connection” is malfunctioning. In other words, it is like plugging your computer into the outlet but the power cord is faulty.

Amblyopia needs to be caught early in life–in fact if it is not caught and treated early (before age 8) it can lead to permanent vision impairment. Correction with glasses or contacts and patching the good eye are ways it is treated. Most eye doctors […]