1. Glaucoma
2. Macular Degeneration
3. Cataracts
4. Detached Retina
5. Diabetic Retinopathy
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Old wives tale “Carrots are good for your eyes”?
September 9th, 2012Vital Vision Veggies!!
Were you ever told as a child that carrots were good for your eyes? Turns out it’s not just an old wives tale!
Omega 3, carotenoids and vitamins A, C and E are essential for maintaining eye health.
Omega 3 is not produced by the body, so must be consumed. Carotenoids are antioxidants that protect the retina by absorbing harmful blue light. They can be found in brightly coloured vegetables.
Some of the best foods for your eyes are oily fish, curly kale, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, nuts and seeds, red pepper, red meats, kiwi fruit.
So no excuses… eat up!!!
15 Seconds to Impact ….
May 12th, 2012Silhouette Style Day
We recently had great event in our Blanchardstown practice. Victoria Graham,
a trained colour-me-beautiful style consultant came to the practice, along with a
representative from Silhouette eyewear. They brought along the complete range of
Silhouette rimless frames in all sizes, shapes and colours available, giving maximum
choice to the patients booked in that day.
Victoria took plenty of time with each individual patient, taking personality,
complexion, eye colour and face shape into consideration. She helped them to
choose the most flattering frame, one which complimented their colouring perfectly
and mirrored their personality.
Victoria realises the value of making a good impression:
‘Did you know that first impressions only take 15 seconds to make?
Interestingly, how we look has much greater impact than what we say; thus
choosing what we wear, including our glasses is very significant. How we
choose to dress sends out a distinct message to the world.
During a colour class we explore what colours are doing for you. We discover
the colours that give you a radiant glow rather than those that wash you out.
You have a unique skin tone and eye colour, which means some colours
make you look great, and some have completely the opposite effect.’
Everyone was delighted with the personal service, and the wonderful help Victoria
gave them to choose the most complimentary frames.
We will be having another Silhouette day in the future. Please phone us in
Rathmines (4971056) or Blanchardstown (8202900) to register your interest or book online.
Something great has become even better !
April 14th, 2012UV LIGHT IS A MAJOR HAZARD TO THE EYE
UV exposure is dangerous not only for our skin, it can also damage the inside of our eyes. This can contribute to several eye diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration. Even in cloudy weather, there is still a certain amount of UV radiation.
Clear glasses will help to stop some of this radiation from reaching the eye (the light is filtered as it passes through the thickness of the lens). However, there will also be unfiltered light reflected from the back surface of the glasses into your eye.
UV LIGHT BOUNCES BACK INTO YOUR EYES
In a previous blog, I mentioned the benefits of a Premium Crizal Scotchgard coating (resistant to dust, water, scratches, smudges and glare). This coating has now been improved even further, and now incorporates UV blocking technology to the front and back surface of the lens, giving maximum protection for the wearer, as good as the best sunglasses available.
NOW THERE IS A NEW SOLUTION
Now you can be confident that your eyes will be protected from UV light, even on a dull day when sunglasses might not be an option. Research suggest that we get 40% of UV exposure when we are not in full sunlight!. So it’s like wearing sunblock on your skin… you won’t notice the difference now, but you’ll be glad you did it when you’re older!
“Too Old for Contact lenses? Probably Not!
April 1st, 2012For myopic ( or shortsighted) people the choice is made early in life. If you are 16 and can’t see past the end of your arm, you know you need to wear corrective lenses most or all of the time and for these teenagers, contact lenses are an obvious choice. You can play sports with them, you have good all-round vision and importantly, even for those who love their fashion spectacle frames, contact lenses are a good choice on nights out. The vast majority of our first-time contact lens wearers are in their teens or early twenties and the majority of these are short-sighted.
For the hypermetropic person, often this is not even a consideration until the late thirties or early forties. The flexible crystalline lens inside the eye means that the long-sighted person can “get by” sometimes putting glasses on just to read or sometimes being totally unaware that they are longsighted. But like many things, with increasing age, that flexible lens slowly becomes less flexible and the hypermetropic person finds that first, reading and looking at computers are a problem, then gradually things in the distance become less clear. From the mid-forties onwards, this means many of our patients need either separate pairs of glasses for different tasks or the more convenient varifocals which allow clear vision at all distances.
I am often surprised when these patients, having become totally dependant on spectacles, after a lifetime of “perfect vision” say “I’d love to get contact lenses but I suppose I’m too old now.“ There seems to be a misconception about that the eyes become less tolerant as one gets older or that there is an upper age limit to contact lens wear.
Well, there isn’t! It is true that the eyes can become dryer with age but the advent of silicone-hydrogel lenses means that only those with quite a severe dry eye problem will be unable to tolerate contact lenses. And more importantly, in the past few years, contact lens manufacturers have realised that there is a growing demand for correction for presbyopia and there is much more choice now even for varifocal wearers. We now have a good choice of multifocal contact lenses, which allow the wearer to see clearly in the distance and also read the menu in a restaurant. They also afford the wearer much more choice when it comes to sunglasses, with your contact lenses in, you can choose any sunglasses you want, without being restricted to those which can be made up in prescription. You may not want to wear the lenses every day but it is nice to go out to a restaurant and be specs-free or to go to a wedding without having to consider how your new hat will go with your glasses.
So, ask us about contact lenses! You may actually hear the answer you would like!
Are Polarised Sunglasses better than normal Sunglasses?
January 21st, 2012
When looking at a flat surface like a road, the surface of still water, or the bonnet of a car, there is a lot of light reflected from the surface. This can be very dazzling and cause a lot of glare. Most of the light from a surface like this is reflected in the horizontal direction instead of being scattered in several directions.
Polarised lenses cut out all the glare in the horizontal direction, allowing you to see past those reflections. This enhances the colours visible beneath the reflection, the contrast of the object , and increases the overall visual comfort for the wearer. They are excellent for general use, and also for activities such as water sports and driving
Because the technology in this type of lens cuts out so much glare, the lens itself doesn’t need to be as strongly tinted as regular sunglasses. This means that they can be used more often, as they’re not excessively dark to look through. Also, when you’re driving you won’t have to take them on and off as much as normal sunglasses if the weather gets duller (as it tends to do a lot in Ireland!).
However, they should be used with caution while skiing, as they may cut out so much glare that the wearer might find it difficult to differentiate between snow and ice.
Can Nuts and Seafood help you see better ?
June 6th, 2011Nuts and Seafood can help you see better !
Deficiency in essential fatty acids such as Omega 3 & 6 can lead to visual problems including poor night vision and other problems with visual, spatial and attention processing.
The retina is the part of the eye that receives light signals which are transmitted to the brain by the nerves. 30 – 50% of the retina should be made up from omega 3 fatty acid DHA. Without this main component, the signalling capacity of the retina can be reduced by more than 1000 times! Omega 3 can be found in oily fish, seafood, wild game, and some organic meats. Omega 6 can be found in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, grains and dairy produce.
It is important to have these two Omegas in your diet to help with proper visual development and retinal functions.
Flights dry your eyes out
June 6th, 2011Going on a plane this summer..?
If you are planning a journey by air this summer, here are some handy tips for lens wearers:
- Bring some eye drops in your hand luggage and use them whenever your eyes feel dry during the flight.
- The air conditioning on planes recirculates the air and can dry up the surface of your eyes. This can cause them to feel uncomfortable and irritated.
- On long flights it is advisable to remove your contact lenses and wear your spectacles during the flight. This will help stop your eyes from feeling gritty and tired, leaving you ready to enjoy your holiday.
How do you know you need glasses ?
February 26th, 2011
Well you don’t!. You might think it is obvious, but deteriorating eyesight tends to creep up on you. Sight loss tends to be gradual and it only becomes apparent when you compare with someone else’s superior ability to see a small object at a distance or you find you are holding small print further away or you seek better light to read small print. These are all signs of deteriorating eyesight.
The only real way of determining if you need glasses is to call in for a sight examination. There are many other diseases which can be detected in a sight examination and often early detection can prevent further deterioration of certain diseases.
An eye examination re recommended at least ever two years. Your enhanced eye examination at our practices is the “Rolls Royce” of eye examinations. All eye examinations are not the same. Our enhanced eye examination takes approximately 30 minutes, where as a standard eye examination can generally be performed in about 15 minutes. Your sight is precious and is not one to scrimp on.
Do you think your eyesight can’t be improved? Don’t give up!
November 30th, 2010Macular Degeneration is an eye condition where your central vision gets gradually worse over time, and fine detailed work like reading becomes more difficult.
Last year we saw a patient in her 80’s who suffered from macular degeneration. She was having great difficulty reading, but assumed that nothing could be done to help her, as there’s no known cure for degeneration. However, when her daughter brought her in for an eye test we found that she also had cataracts. A cataract occurs when a clear jelly-like lens in one’s eye goes cloudy (usually with age), putting a shadow over the vision.
We referred the lady to an eye specialist in that field of expertise who removed the cataracts under operation. The cloudy lens was replaced with a clear artificial one. When a cataract is removed, the vision is no longer as dark and cloudy. Things start to look much brighter, and colours appear more vivid again.
We got a lovely letter from her daughter saying that she is now playing scrabble again! She wrote in the letter ‘Her quality of life has greatly improved. I hope that people in similar situations are aware that there is a chance that their vision can be improved’.
Even if someone feels their vision can’t get better, it’s worth having regular eye checks, just in case. You can also take eye vitamins such as Macushield to help your chances of avoiding macular degeneration later in life.
Laser Surgery : An independent view
July 5th, 2010What is it ?
In the last two decades the number of people who have had laser treatment to correct their eyesight has risen sharply. Laser surgery involves reshaping the front surface of the eye, the cornea, with a specially equipped laser in order to improve vision. Treatment is available for long-sighted, short-sighted and astigmatic patients. However, there are limits to the degree of each condition that can be treated with the laser. If your prescription falls outside the “treatable” range for laser surgery alternative surgeries may be suitable.
What’s the difference between LASIK and LASEK?
In LASIK: a thin layer of the cornea is lifted back after being cut with a machine called a microkeratome. Then, the laser is used to reshape the internal cornea. After the tissue has been reshaped, the flap is replaced in its original position and heals quickly.
In LASEK: a thin superficial layer of corneal cells is removed and the tissue beneath is treated with the laser. Unlike in LASIK, there is no “flap” created. After laser treatment, the cell layer is replaced and the eye covered with a bandage contact lens to allow it to heal. This method allows higher levels of myopia to be treated than LASIK. However, this treatment takes longer to heal and often provides more discomfort than LASIK.
If I have Laser Can I Throw Away My Glasses Forever?
The most likely answer to this question is No. If you are under 45 and have laser surgery to correct your vision to “20/20” or as close to perfect as possible in both eyes, you will need reading glasses from your mid 40’s or 50’s onwards. If you are over 40 and have already developed a reading prescription or remove your glasses to read, then having bilateral laser treatment may mean you will need a spectacle correction for either distance or near.
I’ve heard people talk about monovision, what is this?
From mid 40’s onwards people develop different distance and reading prescriptions – see Presbyopia. Correcting both eyes with laser treatment to make them “perfect” for distance means that reading glasses are necessary. Correcting both eyes so that they are “perfect” for reading means that distance glasses will probably be needed. In Monovision – one eye is corrected for distance vision and the other for near vision. In some cases this is achieved by performing laser on one eye only and leaving the other eye in it’s natural state.
When this works, it means that reliance on glasses for both distances is done away with. However, having two eyes focussing together and corrected for the same distance is what gives us binocular vision and gives critical depth perception.
Monovision does not work for everyone, some people will be aware of visual confusion as the eyes are focused at different distances and / or that judgement of depth is impaired. This is an important consideration for those people for whom critical depth perception is required in their occupation or hobbies. Often a trial with contact lenses to simulate monovision will be offered and patients can assess for themselves how comfortable they are.
Monovison may work better for early presbyopes with lower reading prescriptions, hence the success and comfort obtained in the first number of years after treatment may not be maintained over time.
Laser Surgery has brought freedom to many spectacle wearers, however, it is a surgical treatment and as such, carries risks. Many laser clinics have opened in Ireland over the past decade and anyone opting for the treatment should be confident and comfortable with the clinic they choose. As some clinics do not perform surgery on a daily basis, the surgeon may only attend once or twice a week and in some cases may fly in and out to carry out the scheduled surgeries. Before you decide where to have laser treatment or indeed if the treatment is suitable for you ask the following questions.
| - | Will I meet the surgeon before I am booked in for treatment? |
| - | Is the surgeon available 24/7 should there be any complications? |
| - | Am I likely to need glasses again and if so in how many years? |
| - | How long has this clinic been carrying out procedures and how many patients have been treated? What percentage of them needed additional treatment? |
| - | If I need a “top-up” treatment, do I have to pay for it? |
| - | If I am comfortable with monovision now, is it a guarantee that I won’t need spectacles again? |
| - | I have dry eye, is this likely to cause me additional problems after surgery? |
EyeBag soothes Dry, Red-Rimmed Eyes
May 29th, 2010EyeBag:
- If tears aren’t oily enough, they evaporate more quickly than normal causing the eyes to feel gritty and dry.
- In Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, the oil-producing glands in the eyelids are blocked by waxy deposits that don’t melt at body temperature.
- The usual way of treating this is by using a hot facecloth pressed onto the closed eyelid. However, this can be messy, and the facecloth loses heat quickly.
- An eye specialist in England invented the EyeBag. It is a silk and suedex eye compress that is heated up in the microwave and stays warm for up to 10 minutes.
- It melts the waxy deposits, stimulating the release of natural oils from the eyelid glands into the tears. Combined with lid massage, this makes the tears more oily, reducing tear evaporation and dryness. It can be reused up to 200 times.
- EyeBag users report a reduction in grittiness, whiter eyes, and increased success with contact lenses.
We stock EyeBags. Call in to pick up one for yourself or buy online!
Can smoking affect my eyes?
April 24th, 2010Smoking has been linked to various eye conditions. One of the most serious is macular degeneration.
As it progresses, macular degeneration means a loss of central vision, affecting your ability to read, drive and recognize faces. It is a leading cause of blindness in people over 65. There is no known cure.
Research shows that smokers are up to four times more likely to develop macular degeneration than non-smokers.
One study shows that, just one year after giving up smoking your risk of macular degeneration can be reduced by almost 7%.
Your eyesight is precious. It’s never too late to quit!
Don’t let astigmatism limit you!
March 29th, 2010Do you have astigmatism?
Have you been told in the past that contact lenses aren’t an option for you? You’ll be delighted to hear that in recent years, there have been several advances in ‘toric’ contact lenses for astigmatism. They are now even available in disposables (use once and throw away). This means that you can now enjoy clear vision with contact lenses despite having astigmatism.
What is astigmatism?
This word describes the shape of your eye. It means that your eye is more oval than round, (shaped more like a rugby ball than a football)..
This can be corrected in glasses by putting extra power in the lens in one direction only compared to the rest of the lens. This will help compensate for the irregular shape of your eye.
Because it is a correction for the shape of your eye, and not just the distance you’re looking at, it improves vision at all distances, including reading, computers and further away.
Are you tired of wearing glasses full time because contacts weren’t suitable for you before? It’s definitely worth trying again. Everyone likes to vary their look from time to time. Call in, and we can let you try some of the best contact lenses available for astigmatism.
Mary Browne F.A.O.I. – Rathmines
What’s happening to my eyes ? I’m forty something!
February 28th, 2010Do you sometimes feel that your arms are not long enough or that the light is too poor for reading or that print is getting smaller ? Are you now over 40 ? Your eyes are the window to your body and unfortunately like the rings which age a tree, the progressive deterioration in the ability of our lens to focus is directly related to our age.
It is a natural consequence of the aging process and impacts you even if you never had a eye sight problem before. We often hear of people who claim that they never required reading glasses, even though they were well past 50. They often had an undiagnosed prescription for short sightedness (They could not see perfectly in the distance).
While symptoms such as fatigue while using computers or doing close work, headaches, eyestrain, inability to read small print, can present suddenly, it generally has developed over a period of time.
The lens prescription you will require will be determined by a combination of computerised readings and Optometric skill and experience. However you should look on this as the beginning of taking better care of yourself. Your body needs more care at is ages to ensure you can enjoy life to the fullest. Your sight exam will include a wide range of checks for diseases which become more prevalent with age. After all looking through they eye is the only way to look inside the body without invasive techniques such as surgery. Care for your eyes and your health, your real wealth.
Are Green Energy Bulbs damaging your eyes ?
February 20th, 2010It was recently brought to our attention by an eye specialist that the amount of Ultra Violet radiation emitted by many of the new green energy bulbs is equivalent to being out on a sunny day. Would you expose your eyes to that level of radiation with out UV protection on your sunglasses ?
UV light is widely regarded as one of the causes of cataracts. The invisible UV component of sunlight promotes free radical damage in the lens. The greater the light intensity the greater the UV radiation dosage and resulting damage.
The impact of radiation is cumulative over ones life and thus we see the formation of skin cancers many years after sun exposure.
Some vitamin supplements can help with the prevention of cataracts and macula degeneration, but in most cases cataracts gradually get worse and an operation is required to remove the damaged lens and the insertion of a synthetic lens. These synthetic lenses have improved enormously over the years and one has no longer to wear the bottle bottom lens types in order to have good vision. However the operation is a somewhat uncomfortable experienced for a few weeks during the post operative healing process for many patients.
The Health Protection Agency in the UK have been one of the first to identify the problem with the new bulbs. The industry Lighting group has commissioned further independent research into the claims and have welcomed the precautionary advice issued.
More recently the Australian Government Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency conducted test on a number of well known branded lights and found that of the brands they tested that the bulbs did not created hazardous conditions for most skin types. However they did not address the impact of build up of radiation and the impact on eyesight with regard to development of cataracts.
The most comprehensive literature I can find on this matter suggests that more research is needed to determine if these bulbs can have negative health impacts. Green Facts.org give a reasonably balanced picture on the current status.
In conclusion – if there is danger – why not take the precaution of ensuring that if you work with a compact fluorescent lamp at your desk, make sure its got a cover and that your eyes are protected from any potential UV harm and preferably that you use an encapsulated double envelope such as that on the right of the picture below.
Encapsulated double envelope bulb on the right. Single envelope on the left.