4 Habits That are Bad for Your Eyes

We all have our individual quirks or habits. Some of them, like biting your nails, procrastinating, and texting while on the road, are behaviors you know you should avoid. Well, you can also add the following to your list because they can adversely affect your eye health.  

Eating unhealthy foods. Many age-related eye diseases can be prevented or alleviated if you consume a diet that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids as well as essential vitamins and minerals. You also need to make sure you’re drinking enough water, as this will help prevent the painful condition of dry eyes.

Getting poor sleep. The aging process can speed up, especially if you don’t allow your body to get enough rest. Studies have shown that your eyes need at least five hours of sleep every night to properly replenish. Without that downtime, your eyes won’t be able to work at their full potential. Eye spasms, dry eye, and popped blood vessel due to eye strain can all happen when you don’t get enough shut eye.

Smoking. Your risk for ocular diseases, such as cataracts and macular degeneration, increases when you smoke. For instances, studies show that people who smoke tobacco double their risk of developing cataracts and smokes are 2.4 times more likely to have uveitis, which is the inflammation of the eye’s middle layer.

Exposing your eyes to UV rays. Sunglasses are a must have when you’re outside, no matter what part of the year it is. Baring your eyes to UV rays opens the door to many ocular diseases, including eyelid cancer, macular degeneration, cataracts, and photokeratitis (a sunburned cornea).
And let’s not forgot one more bad habit—forgetting to schedule your annual eye exam! If you haven’t done so yet, this is your friendly reminder. Don’t wait another minute and give our practice a call today!

Diabetes: How Does Your Optometrist Fit In?

You probably associate diabetes with monitoring your blood sugar and diet and taking insulin shots. But did you know that diabetes is also the leading cause behind new cases of blindness in adults? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every 15 minutes there is someone with diabetes who loses their vision.  

Diabetes is a serious disease that requires consistent treatment and vigilant monitoring by someone who has diabetes and their team of health professionals. In fact, 8 percent of the entire U.S. population is afflicted with this disease—that’s nearly 24 million people.

For those who don’t have the disease, your optometrist can detect the symptoms of diabetes during a comprehensive eye exam. This is just another reason why it’s important to regularly schedule your exams.  With early discovery, we can help treat and prevent any blindness due to the disease.   

Please give our practice a call to schedule an appointment today! Diabetes is just one disorder we are able to detect and help treat. During your exam, we’ll also look for key signs of other conditions to make sure your overall health remains top notch.    

What is Color Blindness?

Color blindness is more common and less serious than you may think. Being completely color blind is very rare; it’s more likely that if someone is color blind they have trouble seeing red, green, blue, or a mix of those colors.

Most color blind problems are genetic and originate at birth; they usually don’t develop later in life (although it does occasionally happen). Color blindness occurs when one of the three types of cone cells in your eyes is missing or doesn’t work correctly.

Symptoms of color blindness (or color vision problems) include:

• Seeing some colors but not others
  
  
• Having difficulty telling a difference between two colors (for example, not being able to differentiate between red and green)
  
  
• Difficulty noticing the different shades in colors

If you or your child is experiencing any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment with our office. We can perform tests to determine if color blindness is the culprit and what, if any, treatment can be done.

Hereditary color blindness can’t be treated or corrected. However, there are rare cases where color blindness is caused by a cataract and surgery might be a solution.

For those who live with color blindness, there are some ways to better deal with the condition. Those include:

• Training yourself to look for visual cues that aren’t color based. For example, recognizing that the green light in a stoplight is at the top of the sign, while the red light is at the bottom.
  
  
• Wearing glasses that block glare can often help because they make it easier to see color contrast.

• Colored contact lenses are another option to try to differentiate or view colors better.

If you or someone you know thinks they have color blindness, they should schedule an eye exam with our office. We will determine what, if any, treatment can be done and offer suggestions on ways to manage your color vision problem.

Are Contact Lenses OK for Your Child?

There are many factors to consider when determining whether or not your child is ready for contact lenses. To help you make the right decision, here are three key questions to you need to ask yourself:

1. Are contact lenses safe?
Physically speaking, contact lenses are safe for children at a younger age than you might realize. In some cases, infants are fitted with contact lenses for conditions that are present at birth. And unlike adults, children are less likely to suffer from dry eyes, which makes them better candidates for wearing contact lenses.

2. Is my child ready for the responsibility?
The answer to this is obviously subjective. Only you know if your child is ready to take care of his or her contact lenses. Think about how they handle current responsibilities, such as homework and chores. Are they having issues with that? If so, contact lenses might not be in their best interest until they can properly manage these aspects of their life.

Another option to consider is offering your child disposable contacts in lieu of a single pair of permanent lenses. Not only will disposable lenses help ease with your child’s level of responsibility, but they can also help you avoid paying a hefty replacement cost in the event that something happens to your child’s permanent lenses.

3. Are contact lenses beneficial for my child?
Contacts may be safer for your child’s eyes, particularly if they are involved in sports. What’s more, contacts can also help increase your child’s range of vision more than glasses.

In addition, contacts may be a boost to your child’s self-esteem. Multiple studies indicate that the self confidence in teenagers saw a significant increase when they switched from glasses to contact lenses. This confidence also carried over from the social aspect of their life to their athletic performance.

If you’re thinking about switching your child from glasses to contact lenses, give us a call to schedule an eye exam. Our practice is more than happy to assist you with the transition and can recommendation the best options your child.

Tanning Beds: What's the Cost to Your Vision?

Now that summer is officially here, many people are starting to work on their perfect summer tan. There’s no doubt a nice tan is a bonus in the summer months, and thanks to tanning beds you can now get that sun-kissed glow year-round.

Much has been made of the damage tanning beds can do to your skin, but what about your eyes? How does the intense UV light affect your sight both short-term and long-term?

Unfortunately, the tanning goggles or one-time-use eye stickers you can get from a tanning salon do not offer you total protection from the harm of UV light damage. In reality, it’s best to avoid tanning at all—for both the health and safety of your skin and your eyes.

Not only can UV light contribute to the development of cataracts, but it can also cause skin cancer and ocular melanoma.  Macular degeneration has also been linked to UV light exposure. Oftentimes these long-term effects may not show up until much later in life, when it’s too late to undo the damage.

Photokeratitis is a short-term example of damage from UV light. Photokeratitis is essentially a sunburn on the cornea of your eye (one of the most integral parts of your eye). While only temporary, photokeratitis can be painful, cause swelling to the eye, and even result in blurred vision.

The implications of UV damage to vision are not relegated to only the outdoors. The strong UV light from tanning beds can be even more damaging because of the high concentration of UV exposure. For this reason, our practice recommends you avoid tanning beds. It's a smart choice to make because your eyes will be much less susceptible to the UV light-related conditions we discussed today.

Amazing Facts About The Human Eye: An Infographic

The human eye is a fascinating organ--that's why this week we're sharing a nifty infographic full of amazing facts about the eye. Enjoy!

 

What to do When Something Gets in Your Eye

Everyone’s been through this situation: One minute you’re going about life as happy as a clam, but then suddenly you feel something in your eye. It’s an unpleasant feeling, and your first instinct is to rub your eye to try to remedy the situation—we’re here to tell you, do not rub your eye!

You can harm yourself by rubbing your eye. Rubbing only irritates your eye more and increases the risk of dragging the object across your eye and scratching its surface. This is a painful injury because the cornea of your eye (the clear portion of your eye that contains the iris and pupil) contains a lot of nerve endings and is very sensitive. What’s more, you can also imbed objects into your eye when you rub it.

In lieu of rubbing out the offending object, here’s what you should do when you get something in your eye:

Try blinking your eye quickly. This can easily dislodge and dirt or debris that may have entered it.

Have someone else look at your eye to determine the location of the foreign body and whether it can be easily removed.

Use artificial tears or saline fluid to try to flush the object out of your eye.

Pull your upper eye lid down and out over your lower lid and then let it slide back. This simple trick can often help dislodge an object.

If you’ve already done the deed of rubbing your eye and you’re experiencing pain, please contact our office immediately. Our doctor will check for any scratches or embedded particles in your eye and effectively treat your case.