Archive for August, 2011

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Career Paths

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

If you’re toying with your future career plans, starting out for Uni or just thinking of change of direction, you could do worse then look into a future in Optics. Here’s our personality profile based summary of what you should work towards…..

Optometrists/ Ophthalmic Opticians – you can be a bit nerdy, a bit medical, a bit techno genius, a bit of a people person – all this adds up the perfect Optician! They need to be good listeners, good at dragging the real problem out of people, and good at twiddling with lots of bits of equipment. Your daily routine includes eye testing, fitting contact lenses, screening for eye disease, and ordering the rest of the team about!! Your Uni course leads to a degree, and it’s vocational training for the real world and the final day to day job.

Dispensing Opticians – you need to be a bit techno, a style advisor, a good listener, and enjoy manipulating frames and fiddling behind people’s ears! Your day includes helping patients to choose the perfect frame and lens combination, dealing with technical lens enquiries, fitting, adjusting, and repairing frames. You can study part or full time, leading to a professional diploma or a degree.

Workshop Technicians – you can be as nerdy as you like, pottering around a lab, not having to deal with the public! Day to day you’ll be making up glasses, repairing frames, advising opticians on lenses, listening to obscure experimental rock (maybe that’s just our guy!!) and patiently repairing frames, however decrepit they look when you get them! Many practices train in house, but there are some formal training courses.

Optical Assistant – you have to be a warm and friendly people person, a bit techno, excellent at organisation, and cool under pressure! You ensure the smooth running of the practice, while making tea for Opticians, and holding the hands of nervous patients through pre-screening and choosing specs. You usually get involved in selecting specs, and fittings. Training can be in house, but there are several courses to give you more background knowledge.

See how much fun working in optics can be? So just decide on your strengths, and maybe one day we’ll be greeting you here at the Internet Glasses Company!

Varifocal Glasses

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Fighting Fatigue

Friday, August 12th, 2011

For many of us our working life now revolves around staring at the computer screen all day, and if you’re over forty you’ll need specs for close and middle distance rather than the far distance glasses required in the past. Baby boomers are now around age 60, and lead busy and dynamic lives, again often involving long periods of time at the computer. According to statistics over 100 million Americans spend over 50% of their working day at the VDU. Then add in mobile phones, i-pads, gaming consoles……our world is getting closer to us all the time…….

Few people wear specs made for their computer, which means they’re struggling for huge amounts of time every day with glasses not designed for purpose. This is a contributing factor to a collection of symptoms called visual fatigue syndrome, which affects up to 83% of the US population at some point in their lives. This is due to a combination of environmental, physical and physiological factors, leading to tired eyes, headaches, blurred vision, neck and shoulder pain. A vague collection of problems that will fluctuate, and it takes some detective work by your GP or optician to discover your problem.

If you are a computer user over age forty, there are many products out there to give you better vision and make life more comfortable. You can have single vision glasses just for the screen, but they won’t benefit you in using laptops, tablets, or mobiles. Vocational lenses combine a wide reading area with mid-distance, like a simplified varifocal lens, and will allow you to do everything up to arms length. Some designs give a small amount of far distance vision too. For general purpose lenses and sporadic computer use, varifocals let you do everything, but you may have to adjust your screen.

Varifocal Glasses

So if the visual fatigue syndrome symptoms sound familiar to you, have a chat with your optician. Take a list of which devices you use, how long you use them for, and your working distance for your computer.

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Passion for Italian

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Checking through our stock frames last week, and browsing catalogues looking for new ranges, it’s more noticeable than ever how many designers and manufacturers are Italian. As they’re a nation famed for their good looks and innate sense of style, this can only be good news for consumers! So what makes Italians such experts on spec style?

In the UK a huge number of the top quality frames we import are from five big boys – Luxottica, Marchon, Marcolin, Safilo and DeRigo. Between them they manufacture frames for the biggest names in fashion – including Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Fendi, YSL, Pucci, Police, Paul Smith……the list goes on. Many of these design houses are Italian too. The system works by designers finding the manufacturer who shares their vision in terms of what they want to create, and who has the skill to make the product to the high standards they expect for their clothing and accessory ranges. Many factories are even situated on the same area, the beautiful Dolomite Mountains.

A spec frame goes through hundreds of processes before it reaches your face. The choice of materials, decoration and even small detail like the case have to be worked on with the designer, as it will reflect their reputation when it hits the shelves. Maybe the Italians are the best at interpreting the designers needs and translating this into the finished article – it’s rare that we come across a faulty designer frame of this quality, and each collection has it’s own distinctive look that carries the hallmarks of each design house.

Strolling through cities like Venice and Florence, it’s easy to spot the natives – men in sharply cut suits, women dressed up in high heels whatever the occasion. Italy is a byword for immaculate taste and style, and with their reputation for craftsmanship too, it’s not surprising that they play such a huge role in our eyewear. So if you want a little taste of Mediterranean magic, investigate some Italian style!

Varifocal glasses

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I Heard a Rumour

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

After a hectic week in practice, chatting to patients face to face instead of online conversations, I’ve again been faced with some universal questions that crop up very regularly. They’re perhaps not the kind of query that you’d ask your optician about, more the sort of untrue-truth that everyone seems to believe. So let’s try some myth busting and dispel these rumours once and for all……..

I know that if I have an eye test I’ll get the answers wrong, and end up with glasses….. Just because the optician is asking for a response from you, it doesn’t mean your eyesight will depend on your replies for ever after! Several parts of the test give your final lens power, and they will re-check again and again, with tiny differences in the options to refine and perfect your prescription. They will know if one answer is a bit off kilter!

I’ve got an astigmatism, so I can’t wear contact lenses……..An astigmatism is a common eye defect that means your eyeball is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football, and your lens prescription has one power to correct the long axis of the rugby ball, and one for the short. We can do this with specs or contact lenses, and nowadays it’s rare for anyone not to be able to wear contact lenses, at least for some of the time.

I need help for reading, so I’m long sighted…..Before age forty, eye defects fall into the categories of long or short sightedness, possibly with an astigmatism too. If you’re long sighted vision is tricky at all distances, if you’re short sighted you can see close too but not far away. After age forty your eyes lose the ability to focus close too, regardless of your general prescription. This is called presbyopia. So you need correction for your long or short sightedness, and the presbyopia. This usually involves varifocals, bifocals or specs for reading and distance.

If I wear glasses my eyes will get weaker……..Your eye defect, whether long sighted, short sighted or astigmatic are caused by the shape and curve of the eyeball and some of the structures that contribute to your sight. You can’t change those factors, whatever you do. Glasses will just make you used to seeing clearly, so you’ll feel more comfortable with them on. We can’t perform the miracle of changing your sight!!

Varifocal Glasses

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Calculating the Cataract Risk

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Cataracts are a pesky problem that as our population ages, we’re all more likely to suffer from. They’re a change in the clear lens that sits in your eye behind the pupil, where the lens becomes more like a frosted window than a clear one, and as the cataract progresses you’ll need surgery to remove the faulty lens and replace it with an implanted artificial one. While this surgery is simple and pretty painless nowadays, it’s best all round if avoided, so what are the risk factors for cataract, and can you avoid them?

1.Age – a fact of life that as time goes by, so does your cataract risk. At age 75 you’ll have a 37% chance of it. You can reduce this likelihood by keeping to a healthy BMI, taking moderate exercise, and wearing a UV filter in your specs.

2.Diabetes – As well as everything else Diabetics have to contend with, they are also at higher risk of a particular type of cataract, and at an earlier age than the rest of the population.

3.Gender – sadly girls, due to hormonal fluctuations, cataract risk is higher for the fairer sex.

4.Genetics – as well as cursing your forebears for your knobbly knees or male pattern baldness, you can also thank them for your cataracts!

5.Geography – You’re more likely to develop cataract if you live nearer to the equator because of…………

6.Light – UV gives the highest risk, so don’t forget your sunnies, especially for children, who spend up to three times more time outside than adults.

7.Steroids – use of steroids carries an associated risk.

8.Myopia – Not only are very short sighted people at higher risk of retinal detachments, they’re also at more risk of cataracts. Life just isn’t fair!

9.Smoking – although this is dependent on other factors too, there is evidence that beside all the other problems caused by the evil weed, cataract can be added to the list.

So there you go – some factors you can do something about, others you can’t – but don’t say we didn’t warn you!!

Varifocal Glasses

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The Dark Side

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Colour is flooding our shelves this summer, with every combination – however bonkers – flaunting itself on frame linings, sides, fronts and even in the cases. Pink with green anyone? Lilac with orange? Within this explosion of all things bright and beautiful there’s a micro trend that anyone with a fondness for the dark side might be tempted by……….

Gothic good looks have been a fashion favourite since Twilight and True Blood set our pulses racing, and like all other accessories, frames have been no exception. A touch of the darkly dramatic is a delicious compliment to satanic dark good looks, or a stunning contrast if you’re pale and interesting.

Think bold black, passionate purple, or deepest blood red, all with lashings of baroque detail to make any passing stranger stop dead in their tracks and look deep into your eyes….

This is not a look for the faint hearted, but if you have a penchant for all shades of black in your wardrobe, and a slash of red for your lipstick, then airy summer blue, yellows and lime colour blocking will never get you excited. Something more sultry and belonging to hot summer nights will be more your style……..so if your skin is pale with a hint of blue, go for cold reds, dark purple or black. If you do venture into the summer sun and have a touch of a tan, go for tortoiseshell brown, olive green or tomato red. Dress this up or down as much as you want with chunky engraved detailing, tattoo type embellishments, and inset chunky stones. Stay cool and mysterious through those tiresome summer months and let your inner punk-vampire- princess shine though…..

Varifocal Glasses

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The Perfect Pupil

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

If eyes are the window to the soul, then pupils must be the vital heart of things, a dark window that allows opticians and ardent suitors the opportunity to really look deep into the eyes. The pupil is a central hole, surrounded by a ring of muscle that controls it’s size, allowing the pupil to widen or constrict, depending on light conditions and how much you like what you’re seeing!

If you’re in bright light, your pupil closes down; stopping damaging UV rays from reaching the delicate internal structures inside the eye that make up your visual system. The lens just behind your pupil may suffer from cataract at some stage of life, and one of the reasons for this is UV exposure. Macular degeneration is also partly caused by UV. Never buy a cheap pair of sunglasses without full UV filters – they will make your pupil open up, flooding the exposed eye with UV.

Pupils are usually the same size, responding equally to stimulus. A difference of up to a millimetre between the two is however common, and usually it’s just because the two eyes are slightly different. Now for the science bit – different size pupils have the cool medical name of anisocoria. If this is normal for the patient then when we dim the lights and examine the pupils we’ll see that they both react in the same way, at the same time.

If pupils remain at different sizes under different lighting conditions, then there may be an underlying problem. This could be due to a fault in nerve supply to the eye, or an anatomical problem. Medication (or recreational!) drugs may also affect pupil size. If it’s suddenly apparent that pupils are different sizes, then this should be investigated. There are several medical conditions that can give rise to this symptom, some more serious than others, so seek advice if you suddenly notice this problem.

If you gaze into the eyes of that special someone who makes your heart beat a bit faster – no not your optician! -  Then your pupils will dilate, so it’s a useful indicator if you’re out on a blind date! You might want to cover up with sunglasses if you want to keep your feelings to yourself!

Varifocal Glasses

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