Blog – Page 12 – Westside Optometry

Do you have Cataracts?

June 18, 2014June 18, 2014 Karen Griffith

June is cataract awareness month.

Here are some of the clues that you might have cataracts?

Vision is cloudy or blurred
Vision is discolored
Vision is impaired at night and there is more glare
Vision is double in one eye

A cataract is the clouding of the lens of the eye. The proteins in the lens discolor and clump causing blurry and obscured vision. Age is the leading cause, but certain medications can speed up the process also. Two contributing factors that you can control are protecting your eyes from UV damage by wearing sunglasses, and to stop smoking.

For more details about cataracts click here.

Eyes on the Road

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014 Karen Griffith

As summer approaches, millions of California drivers will hit the road for family vacations, ball games, barbecues, and beach parties. Many will have their car checked out to ensure it is in good working order before embarking on a major trip. However, not many drivers will even think about having their eyes checked as well. Not surprisingly, a driver’s vision guides 90% of driving decisions, so good eyesight is essential for road safety.
Having the proper vision skills and/or prescription is important for many reasons:
Distance Vision
Adequate distance vision acuity is imperative for judging distances and reaction time when driving. Poor distance vision increases the risk of making unreliable judgements with potentially disastrous results – even the simplest reactions take 0.4 seconds, so if distance vision is poor, signs or objects may not be seen until it is too late to react safely.
Peripheral Vision
Good peripheral vision allows drivers to survey the area without looking away from the road. This includes early recognition of cross-traffic, pedestrians, animals, signs, and changes in flow of traffic. Impaired peripheral vision can result in the driver failing to react to a hazard on the far left or right, failing to stop at a stoplight suspended over an intersection, weaving while negotiating a curve, or driving too close to parked cars.
Night Vision
Safe night driving requires the ability to see low contrast objects and in low light conditions. Impaired night vision can result in tailgating, failing to steer when necessary (since it is difficult to see low contrast features such as edges or irregularities in the road surface), and recovery from glare of oncoming headlights.
Glare
Glare refers to the disruption of vision due to veiling luminance. Important visual skills for drivers are glare resistance – the extent to which the driver can still see critical objects while facing a steady source of glare (setting sun, headlights), and glare recovery – rapidity with which the driver’s functioning vision returns to what it was before the glare was encountered. If these skills are not adequate, the driver can miss curves, strike an animal or pedestrian, or crash into slow moving or stopped vehicles.
Besides regular optometric exams, additional tips for good vision while driving include:

Always wear sunglasses when driving to reduce glare – especially in sunny California!
Keep headlights, tail lights, windshields and eye glasses clean.
Keep side and rear view mirrors adjusted correctly to increase your field of vision and reduce glare from headlights.
Always wear glasses or contact lenses if they have been prescribed for driving use.

Regular optometric exams are especially important for senior citizens who drive. Visual ability decreases with age, and certain skills lessen with age-related eye diseases such as glaucoma, which narrows peripheral vision , and cataracts, which increases sensitivity to glare.

Schedule your eye exam before you hit the road.

Caring for your Glasses

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014 Karen Griffith

You have carefully selected the best lens design and material fit in a stylish frame; it is important to take good care of your new eyewear.

Remove glasses from your face with two hands
Never place glasses lens side down, it is best to put them in their case when not wearing them
Clean glasses with water and a little oil-free soap. Wipe them with a clean cloth or a cloth especially designed for your lenses
Do not leave glasses on the dashboard of your car. (It gets too hot for the frame and any coatings on the lenses)
If your glasses start to slide or feel lopsided on your face, come by the office for an adjustment

Screen Time

May 22, 2014May 22, 2014 Karen Griffith

Digital devices are getting smaller and smaller. This is great for portability, but not so great for the eyes.
Smaller devices mean smaller screens and that means the print is pretty tiny. The tendency is to hold the device closer to try to see the smaller text, but this requires greater effort to focus and keep the eyes aligned.
Also, depending on the screen resolution, holding the screen closer to the eyes can cause pixilation of characters, which blurs the text and contributes to eyestrain.
To reduce the risk of eyestrain from smaller screens, adjust the print to a larger size, increase the brightness of the screen to match your surroundings and take frequent breaks when reading long passages of text.
For sustained reading, use a tablet or notebook device and hold it farther from your eyes for greater viewing comfort. Or better yet, go outside and take a walk.

UV Protection for Children

May 14, 2014May 14, 2014 Karen Griffith

Babies, children and young adults have more transparent lenses in their eyes and more sensitive skin on their bodies. As a result, they are more susecptible to the adverse effects of overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. The negative effects of cumulative UV light exposure may not show up until later in life.
At 20 years of age, the average person has received 80% of their life’s UV exposure. This is why it is critical to protect our children’s eyes from the sun, beginning from their birth and continuing throughout their childhood.

For 13 Reasons Children should wear sunglasses, click here.

Westside Optometry has Babiator sunglasses for infants and children. These sunglasses, designed especially for kids, come in 2 sizes and 10 colors. They have an amazing guarantee for loss and breakage.

Why Polarized?

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014 Karen Griffith

Most of us wear sunglasses to reduce glare and brightness. Polarized sunglasses cut the glare and deliver sharp vision, 100% UV protection, and less eyestrain.

How do polarized lenses work?
When glare-causing light is reflected from surfaces, such as a flat road or smooth water, it is horizontally polarized (as opposed to light that is scattered in all directions). This experience creates a visually taxing and sometimes dangerous intensity of light called glare.
Polarized lenses are equipped with a special filter that blocks this type of intense reflected light to reduce glare effectively.

At Westside Optometry we offer prescription polarized sunglasses in your choice of frame, and whatever lens type you need, progressives, bifocal or single vision. We also feature Maui Jim sunglasses which are available with or without prescription with several choices of lens color. All of them are polarized. The Kipahulu is pictured above.

10 Steps to Relieve Computer Eye Strain

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014 Karen Griffith 2 Comments

Many occupations require the use of technology, often in the form of a computer, but also as a tablet or smartphone. Americans on average spend 6 to 9 hours a day in front of digital devices. Studies show that eye strain can cause physical fatigue, decreased productivity and increased work error.
Here are 10 easy steps you can take to reduce your computer eye strain and other symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS):

Get a Comprehensive Eye Exam

Having a comprehensive eye exam is the most important thing you can do to prevent or treat computer vision problems.

Use Proper Lighting

Eye strain is often caused by excessively bright light either from outdoor sunlight coming in through a window or from harsh interior lighting. When you use your computer, your ambient lighting should be about half as bright as that typically found in most offices. Eliminate exterior light by closing drapes, shades or blinds. If possible, position your computer monitor or screen so windows are to the side, instead of in front or behind it.

Minimize Glare

Glare on walls and finished surfaces, as well as reflections on your computer screen also can cause computer eye strain. Again, reduce the effect of outside and overhead lighting. If you wear glasses, request anti-reflective coating to reduce glare from the surface of your eyeglass lenses.

Upgrade your Display

If you are using an older CRT monitor replace it with and LCD (liquid crystal display), like those on a laptop. LCD screens are easier on the eyes and usually have an anti-reflective surface. When selecting a new flat panel display, select a screen with the highest resolution possible. Resolution is related to the “dot pitch” of the display. Generally, displays with a lower dot pitch have sharper images. Choose a display with a dot pitch of .28mm or smaller.

Adjust your Computer Display Settings

Adjusting the display settings of your computer can help reduce eye strain and fatigue.

Brightness. Adjust the brightness of the display so it’s approximately the same as the brightness of your surrounding workstation.
Text Size and Contrast. Adjust the text size and contrast for comfort, especially when reading or composing long documents.
Color Temperature. This is a technical term used to describe the spectrum of visible light emitted by a color display. Blue light is short-wavelength visible light that is associated with more eye strain than longer wavelength hues, such as orange and red. Reducing the color temperature of your display lowers the amount of blue light emitted by a color display for better long-term comfort.

Blink More Often

Blinking is very important when working at a computer; blinking moistens your eyes to prevent dryness and irritation. When working at a computer, people blink less frequently and most of those blinks are incomplete. The tears coating the eye evaporate more rapidly when the eye is wide open staring at a computer monitor. Also the air in many office environments is dry which can increase how quickly the tears evaporate. To reduce the risk of dry eyes during computer use, try to blink regularly and completely.

Exercise your Eyes

Another cause of computer eye strain is focusing fatigue. To reduce your risk of tiring your eyes by constantly focusing on your screen, look away from your computer at least every 20 minutes and gaze at a distant object (at least 20 feet away) for 20 seconds. I call this the 20-20-20 Rule. Looking away relaxes the focusing muscle inside the eye to reduce fatigue.

Take Breaks

To reduce your risk of CVS and neck, back and should pain, take frequent breaks during your computer day. This doesn’t mean check your phone; get up and move around.

Modify your Workstation

If you need to look back and forth between a printed page and a monitor, or between multiple monitors, make sure your targets are all the same distance from your eyes. Place written pages adjacent to the monitor, and place monitors in a semi-circle around you. Light the printed material well, but don’t shine the light in your eyes or at the monitor.

Consider Computer Eyewear

For the greatest comfort at your computer, you might benefit from having a pair of glasses made for your specific computer situation.

Two Colors, One Frame

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 Karen Griffith

Eyewear is not only a functional item that provides clear vision, but an important fashion accessory as well. Color is always an important part of glasses and allows individuals to express their personalities. The laminate designs have one color on the front of the frame and another on the back, Sometimes the temples are a different color or texture too.
This spring the trend is two or more colors on the frame front. To make this more dramatic, the colors are placed next to each other. Translucent, see-through color combinations that connect in the middle are very hip. This allows for an abundance of color choices while the wearer’s natural skin tone shines through.

Solid meets translucent is another popular design that combines a solid color along with a translucent color for a more attention-grabbing look.
Two-tone frames are eye catching and fun. With all the combinations and variations, the hardest job is deciding what to select.

Sunglasses as Prevention

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 Karen Griffith

According to a 2013 survey by the American Optometric Association, only 40% of Americans wear sunglasses for the ultraviolet (UV) protection. I assume other reasons people put on sunglasses are to block glare, provide comfort and to look good.

Sun protection matters year-round

Are you active in winter sports such as snowboarding? UV protection is needed no matter the season. Consider this: UV radiation increases by about 4% with every 1000 feet elevation gain – and those rays keep coming even on cloudy days.

UV exposure can do short-term eye damage

You may not know about sunburn of the eye or photokeratitis. This condition comes from excessive exposure to UV rays. It’s not permanent, but can be extremely painful.

The sun can lead to long-term vision loss

Without proper protection, you can do damage to your eyes. Long-term over-exposure raises the risk of cataracts, pterygium, age-related macular degeneration and even cancer.

Sunglasses make a difference for kids, too

I hope parents are slathering sunscreen on their kids before a day at the beach. Sunglasses are important too. A child’s eyes are more sensitive than an adult’s so the need for protection is more critical at a very young age.

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