Archive for the ‘Eye Health’ Category

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Vital Statistics

Friday, July 9th, 2010

As professionals we take serious notice of all of our trade journals and the press to give us up to date information about every aspect of our working life. We need to know about new trends, advances in technology and health, and items that may appear in the National press and we’ll be asked about. Surveys are always of particular interest to us, because it’s fascinating to know what the General public are thinking!

A cause for concern was a survey which claimed that 90% of the public are not aware that UV rays are as dangerous to the eyes as they are to the skin. The raised incidence of skin cancers has led to a vast amount of publicity regarding the dangers of unprotected UV exposure, but the message does not seem to have filtered through that several eye diseases can be triggered by UV. 42% of people surveyed did not know there was anything they could do to protect their eyes – so if you’re one of them here’s some information – wear kite marked sunglasses whenever you’re out in the sun, making sure they offer 100% protection against all forms of UV. This can protect your eyes against developing Cataracts, Macular Degeneration and Pinguecula. If you’re ordering new specs you can add a UV filter, even to clear lenses, for maximum protection.

We were surprised to read that although 79% of people know that they should have an eye exam every two years, only 60% actually do have examinations that regularly. For many patients the test is free, and it’s an opportunity to check your eye health and many aspects of your general health as well as sight. When 90% of us fear losing our sight over any other sense, it makes sense to keep up to date with this quick and simple part of your wellbeing and good health routine.

The next worry was a survey saying 18% of people under age twenty do not wear their prescribed glasses. While this won’t cause damage long term, it will cause eye strain short term, and at a time when exams and studying will be causing stress even with perfect sight. So make sure your children choose fashionable frames that they will enjoy wearing! Only 3% of under 18s wear contact lenses, which should be a viable alternative to specs wear. In other age groups the uptake of contact lenses is 26%, so try not to let constraints of time and money prevent your teenager from trying contact lenses – a few appointments will sort their sight correction out, for less than that new pair of trainers that they think they can’t live without!

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Look me in the Eye…..

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

With growing awareness of body language and eye contact, nowadays we’re more conscious than ever of the importance of how we come across to others. The pressure is increased even further if you suffer from an eye condition that affects the way you look, especially when it comes to the super sensitive issue of your eyes.

One of the most common problems patients suffer from is lazy eye, or  as people often call it. One eye wanders and does not focus as with as normal eye. This can make it difficult for other people to tell where you are looking. It can be successfully operated on, so do bring it up with your optician, it may be possible for you to be referred to the hospital eye service for assessment.

Cosmetic problems with the coloured part of the eye, the Iris, are more unusual. We have patients with different coloured eyes, or with a segment of the Iris missing. This can be treated with coloured contact lenses, which we can use to match the different colours, or to disguise a gap in the Iris. This can produce excellent results without resorting to surgery.

Ptosis is a term which covers drooping lids due to muscle defects. The muscles which control the eyelids are a complex mechanism and any difficulties with the system can impair vision if the lids droop down across the eye. Surgery can help in some cases, or you can have a slim metal prop attached to your specs which lifts the faulty lid.

Any of these issues may also be helped when it comes to changing your specs – small and fashionable frames, possibly with a light tint will give your more confidence and a small measure of camouflage. It’s never to late to look into solutions for these problems, and new techniques may give you options now that weren’t possible a few

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Double Check

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

As we all know, seeing the optician is about more than whether you need correction for your sight – it’s also an opportunity to have your eye health and some general health issues checked out. The full eye examination is a blend of discussion with patients, using equipment and the optician’s knowledge and expertise. A common query from patients is that they worry if anything has been missed, or if their responses to the optician’s questions were the right ones. So here’s a comforting thought – the examination is a series of double and triple checks and we have several ways of diagnosing any problems.

When it comes to your prescription, and the confusing question of – which is better, number 1 or number 2? – Patients often worry that gave the wrong answer, and they won’t be able to see with their glasses! The first thing you should know is that every time the optician asks you the 1 or 2 question they are re-checking and refining results over and over again. They also use the information of your age, previous prescriptions and general eye health to make sure your results look logical. Some opticians also use Retinoscopy, a hand held instrument reads your prescription and gives them a valuable starting point and double check.

The puff of air test reads the internal pressure of the eye, as high pressure can be a sign of Glaucoma. But we don’t just rely on that reading – the optician also examines the area around the Optic nerve head to check for signs of Glaucoma too. Again your age and comparison to previous results gives extra reassurance.

By questioning you on your general health and that of your family, discussing your lifestyle and looking at your eye health history, opticians build up a picture of potential problems. Your standard of vision also gives clues. Ophthalmoscopy is the use of another hand held instrument that checks eye health, giving opticians the opportunity to look right inside the eye and check for signs of Retinal problems, Glaucoma, and Cataract. Retinal Imaging Cameras give a different view and allow us to store results so we can refer back to them.

A mix of experience, knowledge, training and different techniques give us masses of information about your eyes and health, so don’t worry that we’ll miss anything or that your response might not have been the right one. Your optician sees everything – and double checks it.

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Healthy Eyes Check List

Friday, June 25th, 2010

We all know that we need to take regular exercise and eat healthily to look after our bodies. There are screening programmes run by the NHS and lots of advice in the media about illness and wellness that help us to maintain good general health. More specifically, what can you do make sure our eyes are healthy? In your every day life, is there anything you can do? Here are our top five tips to ensure you have done all you can to safeguard your sight:

1.    Protect your eyes – wear safety shields or safety specs for dangerous jobs and follow health and safety guidelines at work. Speak to your HR department if you don’t think you have proper protective equipment. Wear UV protection outdoors, which can be a sunspec tint or clear UV coat, especially if you have light coloured eyes or a family history of Macular degeneration. Sunglasses should have the British Standards mark BS EN 1836 to prove they give full UV protection.

2.    Maintain Healthy Eyes – stop smoking! It’s a proven cause of cataract and Macular Degeneration. Eat a varied diet rich in green leafy vegetables and a mixture of different coloured fruits, salads, and veg. Ask your optician about retinal imagining, which will show up the earliest signs of disease. Nutritional supplements may help to prevent or halt symptoms.

3.    Be Aware – Ask around about your relative’s eye health history to make sure there are no hereditary diseases you should know about. If there is Glaucoma in your immediate family your eye tests will be free of charge when you’re over forty. If you suddenly develop any symptoms – flashing lights, blurred vision, floaters or eye pain you must be checked immediately. Although these often have simple explanations they can, in rare cases, be indicators of more serious problems.

4.    Visit Your Optician – Get into the routine of regular check ups, they’re equally important if you have glasses, contact lenses or no prescription at all. Your optician can keep a check on your sight and the health of your eye, as well as picking up some general health problems. They can refer you to the Hospital Eye Service or your GP for further treatment, and monitor results.

5.    Look After Your Eye Wear – Always wear your up to date prescription and follow instructions to the letter about contact lens care. Never over wear lenses or use solutions other than those suggested by your practitioner. Look after your specs to keep coatings, lenses and frames in tip-top condition. Scratches and blemishes on lenses may interfere with your sight and cause problems in conditions such as low light.

Prevention is always better than cure, and these simple steps will ensure you are doing all you can to maintain your precious gift of sight.

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Road Test – Titanium Frames

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

I’ve suffered with my sinuses for years, and wearing my glasses always made this worse. When my sinuses are painful the weight of specs is terrible, making my eyes swell and my nose really tender. This year my hay fever has made it uncomfortable to use my contact lenses, so I decided I had to find some alternative glasses that I can wear.

I mailed off some queries and the InternetGlassesCompany gave me some ideas that might help. I’m only a bit short sighted, so I usually just pick any glasses I like and plastic lenses. I decided that I needed to do everything possible to reduce the weight of my specs, so I was sent some try-before-you-buy frames. There were some with a cord holding the lens in, and some made of different materials. I opted for Titanium, which apparently is tough, light, and doesn’t irritate the skin. I also ordered thin material lenses, and went for a small frame, so there would be less of it!

I was really excited when the spex arrived. They were incredibly light compared to my old ones, especially my chunky plastic frames. They had also fitted big bridge pads to spread the weight over my poor little nose. They felt blissful when I put them on. As they’re small they don’t rest on my cheeks, so within a couple of days my puffy eyes had gone back to normal. No more propping my specs away from my face by the evening, when it was either blurry TV or arm ache as I sat and held my glasses up!

The Titanium is very shiny and slim, and my thin lenses look very sleek in the frames. I thought these would be a necessity frame, (like having Orthopaedic shoes!) but I quite like the minimalist look of them, they’re a nice change from my plastics. They have certainly solved the problem, and the little changes have all added up to really comfy specs.

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Kick the Habit

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Everyone would probably agree that sight is the most precious of our senses. Most of us could not imagine how we would conduct our lives if we couldn’t see. Yet millions of are risking our sight every day without being aware of it.

Nowadays we all know that smoking causes heart disease, lung disease and hundreds of other adverse effects in our bodies. Relatively few people however seem to attach their smoking habit to the risk of serious eye disease. There are approximately 13 million smokers in the UK, and they are twice as likely to lose their sight in later life as non-smokers. They are putting themselves in danger of developing Macular Degeneration, which affects sight by destroying the Macula, responsible for the centre of the field of vision. We use this delicate area of the eye for fine detail and damage there makes it difficult to carry on with everyday life as normal.

Macular Degeneration is the commonest cause of sight loss in the Western world, with an estimated half a million sufferers in the UK. 55,000 of these patients may have the disease due to a history of smoking. There are two forms of the disease, wet and dry. Wet can be treated by Laser if caught immediately, dry has no cure at present but taking dietary supplements may protect the eye and halt symptoms. Researchers are pinning their hopes on stem cell research at present, and developing techniques of transplanting cells from healthy areas of the eye to the diseased Macula.

Giving up smoking at any stage of life can help to reduce your chances of getting Macular Degeneration. At present it’s the only proven cause of the disease, so anything patients can do to protect their sight in later life is surely worth it – so if you’re still lighting up, kick that habit today!

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Making Hay!

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

While some of us can’t wait for Summer, swapping our Uggs for flip flops the minute we hit Easter, others dread the sunny season due to the misery, stuffy heads and streaming noses of hay fever season. This causes lots of problems to spec and contact lens wearers, and we see a high incidence of hay fever related issues from around May onwards, when the tree pollen bursts forth.

Hay fever is nothing to do with actual fever as of course it’s an allergy, affecting about 25% of the UK Population. It can begin in childhood but in most sufferers it starts from the teens onwards. Some people are affected more badly than others, and the degree of reaction can vary from year to year. Symptoms affect the upper respiratory tract, ranging through itchy eyes, runny noses, sneezing, coughing, sore throats, and wheezing, but unlike the common cold it will change with the pollen count and will affect the sufferer through several weeks while their particular pollen problem is air born.

Our biggest group of unhappy patients are contact lens wearers, who can’t bear to wear their lenses in sore, itchy eyes. The first thing to do is check that it’s an allergic reaction, not bacterial, so don’t confuse hay fever with Conjunctivitis! The latter can be cleared with drops from your chemist or GP. If your lenses are of a type that covers the Iris and fits closely you may even be better off wearing your lenses, as the irritation won’t reach the Cornea. Many patients do have to abandon their contacts through the summer and wear specs until their allergy has cleared. If you need eye drops make sure they are compatible with contact lens wear, your pharmacist will advise you if you’re not sure.

Sunglasses often help, with a large lens shielding the eye and keeping some pollen out. They are also soothing for sore eyes in cutting glare and making sensitive eyes more comfortable. Go for 100% UV protection, in a wrap around style with the darkest possible lenses.

Spec wearers will suffer if their noses are blocked and sinuses become inflamed. As the bridge of the nose bears the weight of glasses this can be very sensitive and uncomfortable. A lightweight frame will help you, and a plastic frame has a bridge that spreads the weight, fitting closer to the face to keep the pollen out.

A few simple measures will help to ease your discomfort while you wait for the anti-histamines to kick in, and at least you have an excuse to treat yourself to a new pair of specs!

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As Time Goes By

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

As opticians we are obviously fully trained and qualified in every aspect of sight care, from eye and general health issues, to what specs you should have to improve your golf swing! Within all these areas of expertise we also have to remember that every patient is an individual, with their very own specific questions and concerns. One of the most important things we have to keep in mind is that sight changes throughout life. So what do we look out for as time goes by?

From the first minute we are born, every part of our body changes, and eyes are no exception. Across every age range about 66% of the population wear some form of sight correction. Your chances of a visual defect occurring increases as you age, and the biggest change is when we reach our mid-forties, and need help for reading. This can be a sensitive issue for many patients! Fifty may be the new thirty but nobody told our eyes about this!! The statistics show that only 33% of people wear glasses under the age of 35, but nearly everyone needs them over age 65.

As our lives are increasingly full and dynamic, even retired people get involved in every kind of sporting activity and use computers for their leisure time. The days of simple reading glasses are over for most of us, so we have to take care not to make assumptions about which patients need what. We’ve got an 89 year old gentleman who still goes skiing, and a 91 year old who has just learnt to e-mail her Great Grandchildren! So we have to look out for eye health problems that occur with age, and then disregard age when it comes to discussing specs. The most common eye health problems are Glaucoma, in the over 40 age group, and Macular degeneration in the over 60s.

If ill health strikes and patients become frail, illness may affect aspects of sight and lifestyle which we can help with. It may be as simple as recommending a daylight reading lamp to help with close work at night, or a referral to a Low Vision Aid (LVA) clinic. Visual problems may have to be corrected with something more complex than a pair of specs, and the LVA clinic will help with magnifiers to improve quality of life in specific eye conditions.

Every day brings a new challenge, and being aware of a patients’ age helps us to make full diagnosis and help in every way possible.

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Changing Times

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Having watched many patients over the years cope with Cataract surgery, it’s very interesting to see the progress that has been made with both the operation itself and the aftercare. Cataract is usually a condition of later life, when the lens inside your eye – not the one in your specs! – Goes opaque over time. Contributing factors can be trauma, smoking, and UV exposure. More rarely babies are born with congenital Cataracts.

As opticians the first sign that we see are tiny opacities within the lens in the eye. We monitor these closely, and tell the patient a Cataract is developing when we are sure that changes are occurring. The operation can only be performed when the cataract is ready, so we refer to an Ophthalmologist and they make the decision as to when the eyes are ready. If both eyes need treatment this is done at separate times.

Back in the good old days, the op required general anaesthetic, a large incision, stitches that sometimes affected the resulting prescription, and very strong specs. The patient also needed drops for quite some time after surgery. This had a big impact on the patients daily routine, and as patients are usually elderly, it was difficult and stressful. If there was a lengthy wait between the two eyes the patient’s sight was badly affected until after the second op.

Thank goodness we’ve moved on! Waiting lists are now shorter and procedures have been simplified and streamlined at every step of the way. Local anaesthetic is used, and the opaque lens is now replaced with an implant, so even patients who were very short sighted before the op only need minimal prescriptions and are back on their feet immediately

It’s now as routine as having a tooth filled, and has little impact on the daily life of the patient. If their sight is fully corrected it may even be better than for several years before hand. Where we used to dread telling people our diagnosis, it’s now often a relief to be able to send patients on to actually have better sight.

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Keep it in the Family

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Within families it’s interesting to see what lovely traits get passed on from generation to generation. Knobbly knees? An obsession with train spotting? Freckles? We can look back at family photos and spot the likenesses, which can be a bonding moment and at the very least, quite interesting. But what if knowing about your family history could save your sight?

Like any other physical trait, eye conditions can be inherited. There are two important things to do here. Firstly, know your family history, and ask questions about any eye health issues. Patients come in and vaguely say that Great Grandma had funny specs, but it doesn’t help us in monitoring your eye health. Secondly, make sure you tell your optician what you find out! Pass on any information, and check if you need more regular eye tests. For instance, if you’re over forty and a close relative has Glaucoma, then you should have a test every year, which is free under the NHS.

Some eye problems are down to anatomy, so this could be an inherited trait just like eye or hair colour. Long or short sightedness, lazy eye, Glaucoma are just some of the problems that Mum or Dad may have kindly passed onto you! Age Related Macular Degeneration is more likely to occur if you have every light coloured eyes, so wear good quality sunglasses, have regular Retinal Imaging to check for early signs, and take an eye health supplement.

While your Optician is always on the look out for early signs of eye disease, knowing your family history gives you an extra advantage in knowing about early symptoms and preventative measures. Take your children for regular sight tests and pass on medical history. Don’t forget to tell your siblings if any problems arise – they’ll appreciate the advance warning too.

So even though you don’t want to keep health problems in the family, keeping the information there might just save someone’s sight.

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