Tanning Beds: Not Optometrist Approved

Anyone who enjoys a nice tan should be aware of the risks of tanning booths.

Those risks include ones to eye health. A group of physicians, dermatologists, surgeons, and even eye doctors went before Congress to describe the negative health effects of tanning beds, and the World Health Organization has warned for years that they come with a high risk of skin cancer. What are their effects on eye health?

UV Exposure Is Always Bad for the Eyes

Just like we get sunburned when we’re outside without sunscreen, our eyes are damaged any time they are exposed to UV radiation. The effects are cumulative over the course of a lifetime, which means that even if there doesn’t seem to be any damage in the moment, it can build over time with more exposure.

What makes a tanning bed so dangerous is that the levels of UV radiation are 100 times what we can get by being outside on a sunny day. It can do serious damage to our skin, including the thin skin of our eyelids, and it can also damage our eyes.

Keeping Your Eyes Closed Isn’t Enough

Even shutting your eyes tightly in a tanning bed isn’t enough protection against UV rays of that strength. In the short term, being in a tanning bed could lead to eye problems like blurry vision, dry eye, and sunburn — because, yes, eyes can sunburn too. We call it photokeratitis when the cornea (the clear layer that covers the surface of the eye) becomes sunburned. Symptoms include a gritty feeling under the eyelids, runniness, burning, and redness. Dry eye can also leave the eyes irritated and red, and insufficient tear production increases the chance of developing eye infections.

Long-Term Impact of Tanning Beds

Repeated visits to tanning beds can lead to more serious eye problems, even sight-threatening ones like macular degeneration and cataracts. These conditions are typically associated with old age, but that’s because cumulative damage from UV exposure normally takes decades to reach that level. Indoor tanning can shorten that timeframe considerably.

Macular degeneration involves the deterioration of the detailed central vision, while cataracts form when the transparent proteins in the lens of the eye clump together until they become opaque, dulling colors and eventually completely obscuring vision.

Eye Health Matters More Than Skin Tone

Achieving a skin tone a few shades darker isn’t worth the UV damage it can do to your skin and your eyes. We can’t stop you if you really want to visit a tanning salon (or if you want to go out and sunbathe), but we strongly urge our patients to prioritize eye and skin health over beauty standards that are constantly changing. It would be much safer to use bronzer. Make sure to wear UV-blocking sunglasses whenever you’re outside during the day, and if you do go tanning, never leave off the protective goggles.

We hope lifelong eye health is as much of a priority for you as it is for us!

Top image by Flickr user TimOve used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Eyes and Headaches Are Often Linked

Headaches can have a number of causes you wouldn’t expect, like an uncorrected vision problem.

If you live with frequent headaches, it would be well worth your time to schedule an eye exam, if only to rule out a vision problem as the cause. Not all headaches are tied to vision and not all vision problems cause headaches, but there is a significant amount of overlap between the two.

Headaches and Digital Eye Strain

We enjoy many benefits from modern technology, but it can also cause us problems. One of those can happen after hours of staring at bright screens every day (whether for fun or work), and that’s digital eye strain. Symptoms of digital eye strain include blurred vision, tired and aching eyes, difficulty focusing, and even frequent headaches.

Screens aren’t the only way to get eye strain. An untreated vision problem like farsightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism, or age-related farsightedness (presbyopia) can put a lot of stress on the eye, forcing it to try to compensate for the problem. In the case of astigmatism, the cornea is abnormally shaped, bending light in ways it shouldn’t and forcing a lot of squinting. The excessive squinting alone can contribute to headaches.

With hyperopia and presbyopia, the eye’s lens makes nearby objects look blurred by focusing images slightly behind the retina instead of directly against it. Trying to read small print with either of these eye problems can become a literal headache, and the older we get, the less flexible the lenses of our eyes become, making it an increasing issue even for people who never needed glasses before.

Even Kids Can Get Headaches From Eye Problems

A child with an undiagnosed vision problem is just as vulnerable to frequent headaches as an adult. That’s just one reason why every child should receive a comprehensive eye exam from an actual eye doctor before starting school (as opposed to a vision screening from the school nurse). Kids are even less likely to make the connection between their headaches and an eye problem than adults, and it could drastically impact their education and development.

The Right Prescription Makes a Difference

Changes in vision tend to happen so gradually that we don’t notice for months or even years that our old glasses aren’t doing the trick anymore. Most of the time, vision-related headaches could be due to something as simple as an outdated contact lens or glasses prescription.

Sight-Threatening Conditions and Headaches

A link between eyes and headaches might not always be as simple as an outdated prescription. Headaches are also a symptom of glaucoma, an eye disease in which pressure building up against the optic nerve causes permanent vision loss. Cataracts can also cause headaches. The best way to stop sight-threatening conditions in their tracks is by catching them early through regular eye exams.

An Eye Exam Could Save You a Headache!

Finding time for a regular eye exam is worth it no matter how busy our schedules become, especially if you’ve been suffering from frequent headaches and have no idea what is causing them. We can either identify the cause of your headaches or cross eye problems off the list of potential causes when you come in for your next appointment.

We love seeing our patients!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Eye Health and Safety at Work

March is Workplace Eye Wellness Month, which makes it a great time to discuss eye safety on the job.

That will mean very different things depending on your line of work. A manual labor job can present a lot of direct dangers to eye safety, while an office-type job is more likely to cause a lot of eye strain.

Preventing Eye Injuries on a Worksite

Jobs in trades like welding, carpentry, mining, construction, and even lab work can mean being surrounded by eye hazards. Eye injuries are so common in these fields that as many as 2,000 workers require medical treatment for them every single day. Let’s work on cutting down those numbers.

90% of eye injuries are preventable if the right safety measures and equipment are used. That means not neglecting safety goggles, glasses, a full-face respirator, or a face shield, depending on what’s appropriate for the profession. It could mean the difference between losing your eyesight and just having a normal day on the job!

Keeping Your Eyes Healthy and Happy in an Office Setting

With office jobs, there isn’t usually as high of a risk of projectiles, sparks, or chemicals flying around near the eyes, but there is a serious risk of developing digital eye strain (otherwise known as computer vision syndrome) from all the hours staring at a computer screen. Symptoms of digital eye strain include dry eye, discomfort, neck pain, back strain, more frequent headaches, and lower attentiveness and productivity.

Digital eye strain isn’t associated with long-term damage to vision or eye health, but it can make everyday activities more difficult, as it leaves the eyes irritated and tired and makes it more difficult to focus on tasks. Luckily, there are a few easy ways to minimize it.

Fighting Eye Strain

Eye strain doesn’t require equipment like face shields or goggles, though computer glasses can be helpful by blocking out blue light. Anti-glare screens also help. The simplest step anyone can take against it, however, is following the 20-20-20 rule. All it takes is a 20-second break from looking at the screen every 20 minutes and focusing on something at least 20 feet away.

Bring Us Your Workplace Eye Safety Concerns

We’re here to answer our patients’ (current or future!) questions about eye safety, and we look forward to your next eye exam. We want to make sure you have the information you need to protect your eyes, and we’d love to see you if it’s been a while since your last appointment.

Don’t forget to give your eyes the love they deserve!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What to Expect at an Eye Exam

Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States has an undiagnosed eye condition.

This startling statistic highlights the importance of regular eye exams for maintaining optimal vision health. We want to demystify the eye exam for anyone who has never had one and explain why they are so important for lifelong vision health.

Your Eye Exam Will Include…

First and foremost, an eye exam is a comprehensive evaluation of your vision and eye health. It typically includes a series of tests to assess your visual acuity, eye function, and overall eye health. These tests may include:

• Visual acuity tests: These tests measure how well you can see at various distances. You’ll be asked to read letters or symbols from an eye chart, with or without corrective lenses.
• Refraction tests: These tests determine your prescription for glasses or contact lenses. Your optometrist will use a device called a phoropter to determine the lenses that give you the clearest vision.
• Binocular vision tests: These tests assess how well your eyes work together. Your optometrist will check your eye alignment and how your eyes move together.
• Eye health evaluations: These evaluations may include a dilated eye exam to examine the inside of your eye. Your optometrist may also use specialized equipment to evaluate the health of your cornea, retina, and optic nerve.

What Information Should You Bring?

During an eye exam, your optometrist may also ask about your medical history and any current medications you’re taking. This information can help identify any underlying conditions that may be affecting your vision, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Early Detection and Eye Diseases

Why is it essential to schedule regular eye exams? For starters, many eye conditions, such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, have no early warning signs. Regular eye exams can detect these conditions in their early stages, allowing for more effective treatment and management. Additionally, changes in your vision can occur gradually, making it challenging to notice any issues until they become severe. Regular eye exams can catch these changes early, allowing for prompt treatment and improved outcomes.

Don’t Wait to Schedule An Appointment

An eye exam is a comprehensive evaluation of your vision and eye health. It includes a series of tests to assess your visual acuity, eye function, and overall eye health. Regular eye exams are essential for maintaining optimal vision health and detecting any underlying conditions that may be affecting your vision. If you’re overdue for an eye exam, we encourage you to schedule an appointment with your optometrist today. Don’t let an undiagnosed eye condition put your vision at risk. Take control of your eye health and schedule your next eye exam today.

We look forward to seeing you (and helping you see us clearly)!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Our Top Lens Care Tips

Glasses and contact lenses are small things that make a huge difference.

If you wear glasses or contacts, you probably remember what it was like the first time you put them on and could suddenly see individual blades of grass and leaves on trees. The ability to see clearly is critical for so many of our daily tasks, and that’s why it’s so important to take good care of our corrective lenses.

The Right Way to Clean and Store Glasses

Glasses need regular cleaning to keep them clear of the smudges, dust, oil, and other debris that tends to gather on them. Avoid reaching for the hem of your shirt, though. The best way to prevent scratches when cleaning glasses is to use a cotton or microfiber cloth and glasses cleaner. You can make your own glasses cleaner by adding a drop of dish soap to a small spray bottle of water.

If you don’t have your dedicated glasses cloth available and really need to clean off some smudges, the hem of your shirt is a much better option than tissues or napkins. Any paper-based material is made of wood and can leave scratches on your glasses. Also make sure to avoid using window cleaner or ammonia on your glasses because they will dissolve any protective coatings on them.

As to the proper storage of your glasses, make sure to keep them in their case whenever you aren’t wearing them. This will protect them from falling off surfaces or getting accidentally smashed.

Practice Good Contact Lens Safety

It’s a little more complicated to take good care of contact lenses, as they are medical devices that sit directly on top of the eye. Cleaning them, therefore, is as much about hygiene as it is about keeping them in good shape. We urge our patients to follow all of these tips:

• Always wash your hands before handling your contact lenses.
• Only use fresh contact lens solution for cleaning and storing contact lenses. A single use is enough to contaminate the solution!
• Do NOT use water on contact lenses (and using spit is even worse) because water contains microorganisms that could be harmful to your eyes.
• Follow all instructions on the packaging, including how often to replace contacts and how long to wear them before giving your eyes a rest.
• Never cut corners with contact lens care. Saving a little money by reusing contact lens solution isn’t worth the eye infection that could result.

More on Eye Infection Prevention

Eye infections are more of a risk for those who wear contact lenses, but there are many ways to minimize that risk. These include avoiding touching or rubbing your eyes (which can introduce germs, damage the lens, or even scratch the cornea), making a conscious effort to blink more often, staying hydrated, and using eye drops if your eyes feel uncomfortably dry.

Bring Us Your Lens Questions and Problems

No matter what kind of corrective lens you prefer, never hesitate to come to us with your questions about how to care for them. We want our patients to get the most out of their glasses or contact lenses. We also encourage you to get in touch about any irritation, redness, or other symptoms of eye infection that you may experience. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you again at your next regular eye exam.

Don’t forget that eye exams aren’t just for new prescriptions!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Color Blindness Is a Spectrum

Contrary to popular belief, color blindness does not mean seeing in black and white. Usually.

The vast majority of colorblind people can still see some colors. Let’s take a look at the three basic categories of color blindness and how they can impact a person’s daily life.

Red-Green Color Blindness

The most common type of color blindness is red-green color blindness, which affects around 8% of men and 0.5% of women of descent. The difference is because the gene for it is on the X chromosome, so men either have it or don’t, while women need two copies of the gene to be colorblind—if they only have one copy, they are carriers but not colorblind themselves.

In red-green color blindness, the cones in the eye responsible for distinguishing between red and green hues are either missing or do not function correctly. As a result, these individuals may have difficulty distinguishing between shades of red and green, and some colors may appear washed out or similar in appearance. Dogs and many other animals have red-green color blindness.

Blue-Yellow Color Blindness

Another type of color blindness is blue-yellow color blindness, which is less common than red-green color blindness. In blue-yellow color blindness, the cones in the eye responsible for distinguishing between blue and yellow hues are either missing or not functioning as they should, resulting in difficulty distinguishing between shades of blue and yellow.

True Black-and-White Vision

The third and rarest type of color blindness is total color blindness, or monochromacy, where individuals are completely unable to distinguish any colors. Total color blindness is a rare condition and affects only around 1 in 33,000 people. But life isn’t simply a black-and-white movie to monochromats; it typically means a lack of detailed central vision, because that comes from the cones, while they may only have functioning rods. They may also be very sensitive to bright light.

Color Blindness in Everyday Life

While color blindness may seem like a minor inconvenience, it can have a significant impact on daily life. Red-green color blindness can make it difficult to read traffic lights, maps, and graphs, and may limit job opportunities in certain fields, such as aviation or electrical work. Blue-yellow color blindness can make it difficult to distinguish between different colors in art or graphic design.

Aids for Living With Color Blindness

While there is no cure for color blindness, there are tools and techniques that can help individuals with color vision deficiencies. One common method is the use of color filters, which can in some cases enhance the contrast between colors and make it easier to distinguish between them. Color blindness corrective glasses and contact lenses are also available and can help some individuals see a broader range of colors. However, it is important to note that while these tools can improve color vision, they do not restore normal color vision.

The Optometrist Can Identify Color Blindness

During an eye exam, your optometrist will check for color vision deficiencies using specialized tests. They can also provide advice and support on managing color vision deficiencies and recommend appropriate tools and techniques. If you are experiencing difficulty distinguishing between colors or have concerns about your vision, don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with your optometrist. They can provide the necessary support and guidance to help you maintain a healthy, clear vision.

We love seeing our patients!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What Is Heterochromia?

Most of us notice a person’s eye color almost immediately when we meet them.

A striking pair of eyes can make a deep impression, and what could be more striking than a pair of eyes that don’t match? In scientific terms, that’s heterochromia, a phenomenon fairly common in cats and dogs but much rarer in humans, affecting only three out of every five hundred people. It comes in a few different varieties and happens for different reasons.

The Forms of Heterochromia

Josh Henderson and Alice Eve are two famous examples of heterochromia, each having one blue eye and one green eye. Completely mismatched irises like theirs are formally called heterochromia iridium or complete heterochromia.

Some people merely have a patch of a different color in one iris. That’s segmental heterochromia or heterochromia iridis. A good example is Henry Cavill, who has a patch of brown in his left iris, but otherwise his eyes are blue. Anthony Stewart Head has this form of heterochromia as well.

The most common form of heterochromia is central heterochromia, where the irises match each other but have a ring of a different color around the pupils. Olivia Wilde, for instance, has rings of brown at the center of her blue eyes. Central heterochromia may not stand out quite as dramatically as the asymmetrical types, but it is still very striking.

What Causes Heterochromia?

Most cases of heterochromia come from a harmless mutation in one of the genes affecting the way pigment develops in a person’s irises, but it could also happen after an injury or disease later in life. After prolonged inflammation in one of her eyes, Mila Kunis was left with mild heterochromia.

The most famous example of heterochromia caused by an injury was David Bowie. At age 15, he took a punch to his left eye in a fight over a girl. The iris was left paralyzed, resulting in uneven pupils or anisocoria for the rest of his life. While his eyes appeared asymmetrical due to the left eye being permanently dilated, the irises weren’t actually different colors.

Folklore of Asymmetrical Eye Color

Throughout history, different cultures have had different traditions about mismatched eyes. Pagans in eastern Europe thought they were witch eyes. Many native American cultures believed they were ghost eyes that gave the person the ability to see into heaven and earth. In modern times, we simply think they’re fascinating!

Let Us Take a Look at Your Eyes!

If you weren’t born with heterochromia, it is very unlikely you will develop it, but any change to your eyesight is worth bringing to our attention. You might only need a simple prescription change, but we want to make sure there aren’t any early signs of an eye disease that could threaten your vision.

Our patients’ eyes are beautiful!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How Does Blue Light Affect Our Eyes?

Do you spend a lot of time after the sun goes down looking at a bright screen?

For as long as we’ve been using handheld devices to go online (and probably longer), many of us have had our eyes riveted to bright screens late into the evening. As optometrists, we can’t approve of this bedtime ritual. Screens emit blue light, and that can throw off our internal clocks and possibly affect our eye health.

The Physics of the Visible Light Spectrum

All of the colors we perceive are on the visible light spectrum, just a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. Below visible light is infrared radiation and above blue and violet is ultraviolet radiation. Blue and violet are the highest-energy light waves we can see. (Fun fact: the reason the sky looks blue to us is that blue light scatters more easily than other colors. It’s called Rayleigh scattering.)

Our Sleep Cycles Must Battle Artificial Light

In all of human history, the only source of blue light was the sun — up until the last few decades. Our bodies interpret blue light as the signal that it’s time to be awake, so we tend to feel more attentive, remember things more easily, feel better, and have faster reactions during the day. As soon as the sun sets, the lack of blue light signals our bodies that it’s time to wind down for sleep. We aren’t biologically programmed to know the difference between the sun and artificial blue light.

This means that when we light up a screen before bed, we’re blasting our brains with a signal that it’s still time to be awake. Our brains respond by not releasing neurotransmitters that help us sleep, like melatonin. It then takes us longer to fall asleep and we might not enjoy very high-quality sleep. That contributes to a cycle of sleep deprivation and the negative health effects that come with it.

We can minimize these sleep issues by putting our devices away in the last hour before bed, or at least by switching them to night mode so that they don’t emit any blue light and trigger those subconscious signals in our brains.

Blue Light and Eye Health

Many optometrists have been concerned that blue light could be close enough to UV radiation that it might cause similar damage to our eyes, with effects like an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration. However, while our screens give off enough blue light to mess with our sleep schedules, they emit very little compared to the sun, and they don’t emit UV light at all.

The main concern with blue light and eye health is digital eye strain. Spending hours a day staring at a bright screen can make our eyes ache or have difficulty focusing. We could end up having more frequent headaches or struggle to get through our work. We can use tools like screen filters and computer glasses to help block blue light, but a simple trick that can help a lot is the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes of screentime, take a 20-second break to focus on something at least 20 feet away.

Come to Us With Your Questions About Blue Light

If you’ve experienced symptoms of eye strain during or after using bright screens, we’re happy to discuss it with you and answer your questions. We want to give our patients all the information they need to make smart choices for their eye health.

Each patient we see is a sight for sore eyes!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Spotlight: Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of permanent vision loss for people over the age of fifty.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the slow loss of central vision due to the deterioration of the macula, the part of the retina with the highest concentration of photoreceptor cells and the part that gives us our detailed central vision. Beyond a certain point, AMD can make it difficult or impossible to perform close-up tasks like reading or writing. It would also be incredibly unsafe to drive.

The Symptoms May Be Slow to Appear

AMD doesn’t come with a clear warning sign like pain. The early stages may not have any symptoms noticeable by the patient, making it easy to remain undetected until the advanced stages. This is a particular risk for patients who never see an eye doctor unless they need a glasses prescription update. As AMD begins to cause vision loss, things can look warped or dull, and dark, blurry patches can develop in the central vision.

Risk Factors of AMD

As indicated by the name, age is the biggest risk factor of AMD, and, along with race and genetics, it’s not a factor we can change or control. Compared to other races, white people are most at risk of developing AMD, and you should find out if AMD runs in your family. One risk factor we can absolutely control is smoking, which greatly increases the risk of AMD.

Wet and Dry AMD

9 out of 10 cases of AMD are dry AMD, which happens when the tissues of the macula thin over time while drusen (a fatty substance) builds up within it. This is a less serious form of AMD, but it can eventually progress into wet AMD.

Wet AMD has something in common with diabetic retinopathy: the body attempts to repair the retina by growing new blood vessels to strengthen the blood supply, but these new blood vessels are unstable and prone to leaking. They leave the macula scarred and contribute to vision loss. This form of AMD progresses faster than dry AMD.

Battle Against AMD With a Healthy Lifestyle

Currently, there is no cure for AMD, but it is possible to slow its progress and protect your eyesight. A healthy lifestyle is incredibly important. Getting the right nutrition by eating things like carrots, leafy greens, eggs, and fish, gives our eyes the building blocks they need to stay healthy, and staying active and avoiding harmful habits like smoking also help.

Your Most Important Ally Is the Eye Doctor

Early detection is the most important defense against vision loss from AMD and the only way to get it is with regular eye exams, even in times when you aren’t experiencing any symptoms of an eye problem. In particular, anyone over the age of 50 should make it a priority to schedule yearly eye exams.

Thank you for being part of our practice family!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Progressives, Bifocals, and Reading Glasses

As we get older, the lenses in our eyes become less flexible.

This is presbyopia, and it affects the majority of people older than 40. It’s why most people end up needing reading glasses even if they never needed glasses before. For those who already wear glasses or contacts, presbyopia makes things a little more complicated. You might choose to combine contacts with reading glasses or wear bifocals (or even trifocals if you spend a lot of time on computers) or progressives.

Bifocals and Trifocals: Pros and Cons

The way bifocals work is very simple. They’re basically two lenses combined into one pair of glasses, with the prescription for presbyopia nestled towards the bottom and the prescription for nearsightedness taking up the rest of the lens. As presbyopia gets worse, you may need an additional prescription to help with middle distances, like when working on a computer. These kinds of glasses with triple lenses are trifocals.

As simple as they are, they do have a downside: where the different prescriptions meet in the lens, there is a jarring image jump effect. They’re also culturally associated with middle and old age, just like braces are associated with teenagers, and many patients may not want to wear something they believe broadcasts their age.

Avoid the Image Jump: Progressive Lenses

If you don’t like the sound of the downsides of bifocals and trifocals and you don’t want to wear contacts with reading glasses, a sleek modern option is progressive lenses. These lenses combine multiple prescriptions into one continuous lens, taking out the jarring lines and the obvious appearance of bifocals. All it takes is tilting your head the right way to see clearly at any distance.

Push Through the Adjustment Period

Any change in your prescription can take a few days to get used to, but that’s especially true with your first pair of progressive lenses. They will likely feel uncomfortable at first, but you can help yourself adjust quickly by following these tips:

1. Fight the temptation to switch back to your old glasses when they feel uncomfortable. This will only reset the clock on getting used to progressives and prolong any eye strain symptoms.
2. It should feel very natural when you look through the “corridor of power” in the middle of the lens. If it doesn’t, that could mean the fit is off and needs adjusting.
3. Practice switching between focusing on distant and close objects by watching TV while reading.
4. Practice moving your head rather than your eyes to see clearly at different distances.

Bring Us Your Questions and Your Glasses!

If close-up objects have become a little fuzzier lately, schedule an appointment with us to learn more about how progressive lenses and whether they’re the best option for you. We can also make sure your glasses perfectly fit your face while you’re here!

Helping our patients see clearly is what we love to do!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.