Cool places for cool kids?

As a new(ish) business we're keen to make sure that we are progressing and growing. One thing that is incredibly important for any optometry business is to ensure that they have a loyal patient base who like to come for their eye examinations. The reasons for this are relatively obvious, it is the solid foundation on which a business can be built, giving repeat business and a collection of advocates for your businesses and services (assuming you do a good job).

One of the hardest things to do when getting going is to create your "own" patients, people may already have a place that they go to for their eye examinations. Perhaps they have gone to their family eye doctor, which they have gone to for years; maybe they shop around from place to place with no real loyalty to any particular optometrist, seeking convenience when necessary.

To this end, as a new optometry clinic, we need to make sure that we are promoting our availability, the skill and dedication of our optometrists (Dr John Wilson and Dr Euan McGinty) and the range of services we offer.

You can perhaps imagine our disappointment, then, when we heard a friend of a friend asked, "but they don't see children, do they?". Errh ... YES!!

It would appear that the confusion came about because of the chic, cool, trendy, cutting edge, funky design of our office (enough superlatives, I think).  Apparently, though, it didn't come across as being child-friendly.

Child friendly space - read on ...

Both John and Euan are dads and know how important it is that children have regular eye examinations.  So much of children's learning is done visually that it good eyesight is integral to good quality childhood development.

Paediatric optometry is of particular interest Euan and as he's our resident uber-geek who does our website, it was one of the reasons that very early on we had a page dedicated to children's eye examinations: http://www.oceanoptometry.ca/index.php/children-s-eye-examinations.

Sometimes people are surprised when we positively advocate for regular eye examinations from a very young age, as young as six months old.  It is crucially important to assess the vision early and regularly to ensure that if any intervention is required then it can be done at the correct time and followed up accurately.  There is no doubt that we all want the best for our children, at this is true of Ocean Optometry as well.

When it comes to glasses for children, we also wish to excel at that as well.   We didn't want to just have adult glasses which have been made smaller, we wanted exceptional eyewear for our exceptional children.  As with all our collections it was important for us to research the ranges available and to select something which we felt best met the criteria.

There is no doubt that ic-berlin has really created something truly special when it comes to children's eyewear.  Their collection is designed by children and their designers to create a complete product by children, for children.  In their own words:

"For children, there are 15 models at ic! berlin. There are eyewear designs by children for children, but also crackers designed by our designers. ic! berlin glasses are lightweight, strong and beautiful. Children should have something like this.

Anyone who has children knows they can be very challenging and very very accurate ..

This challenge we glady accept. The cooperation with them makes us much fun and the kids are "stolz wie Bolle" (Berlin speak for proud). We have children badges for all of our glasses."


As we find more ranges which meet our demanding criteria we will be further expanding the selection of children's eyewear available.


A couple of final thoughts come to mind.

Firstly, why shouldn't children choose an optometry office which is cool and trendy in their outlook?  Soon enough these children will be the cool and trendy ones, as parents we will no longer be hip or groovy, we won't get their music, their fashion sense ... their friends.  As parents, though, we will always be there for them!

Secondly, having a cool and trendy optometry office with a polished concrete floor is great for children - it's incredibly easy to wipe clean and is fantastic for remote control cars!

So ... yes ... bring in your children and your families, we'd love to see them!

Ocean Optometry is definitely a cool place for cool kids of all ages!

Seeing Red?

Last week we took a peek at some fabulous blue eyeglasses that may have made you rethink what colours will work for you.

This week it's reds turn...

ic! berlin - Nameless

A true vibrant, bold red - ic!berlin 'Nameless' combines a powerful colour and shape. Not for the faint of heart this frame is a real head-turner.  Very often when choosing glasses people may shy away from the bolder and more vibrant colours, thinking "I can't wear that".  It is not until you try the frame on, though, that you get a real sense of how the colour works for you.  The bold and dramatic Nameless completely works if you are brave enough to try it on:

Another way that the brightness of the frame can be altered is with the finish of the material, take Dasha for example:

SALT. - Dasha

Precise finishing, a soft matte tone and a combination of red and black makes this SALT. frame  perfectly wearable as either an ophthalmic frame or sunglasses.  The warmer colours incorporated in this frame natural complement many skin tones and creates a bold, yet professional, look.

Rock Optika - Blue Note

Solid style, solid construction Rock Optika knocks it out of the park with 'Blue Note' in Red Zeppelin. How to make a statement without saying a word. 

The strong angles complement the fiery colour of the Rock Optika model.  Release your inner rockstar when you choose this model!

Claire Goldsmith - Wing

Not ready for a full on set of red? This pair by Claire Goldsmith combines subtle architectural details with just a whisper of red throughout the inside of the frame.

Classic, elegant lines, married together with the finest quality Italian acetates and timeless craftsmanship.  A timeless model like Wing manages to be modern, while capturing a vintage spirit of bygone Hollywood glamour.

ic! berlin Boombox!

BOOM!

There you have it, explosive styling, intricate details and an attitude as fierce as the wearer.  Here red takes centre stage in the lenses, proving its versatility and vibrancy.  Big and bold this frame is completely wearable ... if you dare!

Got the blues?

One thing I notice a lot of in the dispensary is when patients are trying on frames they always seem to shy away from certain colours. Blue, red, yellow and green are a few of the bright, beautiful colours that wait patiently on the shelf until a brave soul takes the plunge and realizes - Wow - I CAN wear blue/red/green/rainbow! 

Amazing.

One problem with fashion, I feel, is that people often get stuck in certain rules. They feel that their skin tone, hair colour, eye colour, etc predetermines what palette of colours they are destined to wear and this often extends to eye wear. Yes - those "rules" do tend to work and there are some colours that lend themselves beautifully to many skin tones BUT (and this is a big but) there are always exceptions and style rules are made to be broken.

The beauty of eyeglass frames is not only shape and colour - but material, texture, tone and polish. Such details can make a huge difference in how a certain frame looks and works with an individual's style and complete look. Case in point? Blue...

RockOptika - Herrington  'The Blues'

This is a BLUE frame that means business! Bold, bright and sassy it certainly makes a statement. I love how the strong style balances perfectly with the shiny polish of the indigo coloured acetate.

You don't just wear this frame you own it.

ic! berlin - 'Marie' in electric light blue

True class and style meet in this gorgeous electric light blue frame. Hand-crafted, extremely lightweight surgical stainless steel transforms to become discretely luminous by the addition of tiny crystals deposited onto the frame. This beauty really shines.

Drift - 'Atticus'

Texture can play a huge role in eyewear design and it's often over looked. The beautiful soft, matte finish on the acetate front of this frame plays well with the elegant hand-crafted wooden temples. When you try this on you may even forget that the frame front is indigo - your attention simply focuses on the soft textures and superb balance.

SALT. - Taryn in Jade Pearl Gradient

It's all about tone with this frame. Bold and exciting it's bright ocean blue acetate is softened ever so slightly by the crystal gradient. This frame is an ice-breaker, a conversation piece - a statement.  It combines beautifully the elements of the ocean, powerful and yet serene.

TD Tom Davies - showcasing a selection of acetate colour choices

Your frame should be as unique as you are. Sometimes what we have on display may not be quite what you're looking for. You may think - I love that frame but I wish it was a matte finish or I like the shape but I need it to be larger...well no matter what you want to change our TD Tom Davies bespoke collection will have an answer.

Like a tailored suit, these frames are individually hand-crafted to perfectly complement you. Simply choose the frame style you like and we work with you to customize the rest. By changing size, colour and/or finish we can design a frame that fits you - impeccably.

The eye examination ... what do you see back there?

One of the greatest privileges of being an optometrist is to be able to look at our patient's eyes in great detail, including right through the pupil to the back of the eye.  The eye is an amazing organ with many intricate details which we routinely examine as part of our eye examinations and so often we take our sight for granted, but many may wonder what are we actually looking at back there when we examine the eyes.

Examining the eyes isn't as scary as some may think, especially given the popular myth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the eyes somehow recorded what we saw and that if you photographed the eyes of a dead person you could see the last thing they saw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optography and http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/eye/optography.cfm).  This popular concept was used as a plot device in some fiction of the time and was even employed as an investigative technique for some actual forensic investigations.

Our digital retinal camera

At Ocean Optometry we are pleased to include retinal photography as part of our standard comprehensive
eye examination* and we use a Nikon DSLR camera back mounted on a digital retinal camera to capture the images even before you see Dr McGinty or Dr Wilson.  These images are seamlessly integrated into your electronic health record at Ocean and will be reviewed with you by our doctors as part of your eye examination.

Here is an example of one of our digital images:

Digital Retinal Image - Right Eye

You can clearly see some very important structures in the eye, although on first glance it may resemble more the appearance of Mars or the Sun towards sunset.  The salmon pink colour of this photograph shows a nice healthy retina, with the blood vessels overlying the retina.  The lighter/thinner blood vessels are the arteries, which supply oxygenated and nutrient rich blood to the tissues.  The darker/thicker vessels are the veins which take the blood back to the heart.  The vessels branch out from a single point, with smaller and smaller branches, nicely resembling a tree in appearance.

In the lighter pink areas, almost yellow, the retina is light enough that the underlying blood vessel structure is visible.  This is from the white of the eye, right round at the back of the eye!

The point where the blood vessels enter and leave is also the point where the optic nerve leaves the eye to take the information to the brain about what we are seeing.  This is the optic nerve head or the optic disc and creates the natural blind spot in the eye which we all have.  Careful examination of the optic nerve head is very important to help to assess for the presence of glaucoma.  Using digital photographs as part of our eye examination allows for careful comparison in appearance of the optic nerve head between visits to help detect change over time.

Central in the picture is a darker area, called the macula.  The macula is the area of greatest sensitivity of the retina, it has the highest density of light receptive cone cells present, the highest density of pigment underlying the macula and has a very rich supply of nutrients provided through the underlying vessel structure.  Unfortunately, if this area is damaged the impact on our quality of vision can be significant and this is why regular assessment to look for signs of diseases such as Macular Degeneration is important.

One final feature we often get asked about when we are discussing the retinal images is "what is that bump/lump in the top right corner?".  This is a historical feature in retinal photographs and is always in the top right corner as a way of saying "This way up!".  Prior to digital photography, retinal photographs relied upon either 35mm slide film of polaroid film to capture the images, once printed a photograph could be rotated and with slide, flipped even, which could lead to confusion over the area of the eye you were looking at or if you were looking at a right or a left eye.  So don't worry about the bump, we want it to be there!

* There is a $25 co-pay for digital retinal photography for MSI paid eye examinations.

Quality ensured using our Nikon camera

Buying glasses online

Right!  It's time to face up to this bête noire, buying your glasses online.

In a way, Euan always feels a little sheepish when discussing this.  Euan has often been asked to speak at continuing education conferences about IT, technology and computer geekery, especially when relating to optometric practice. Back in 2002 he was giving a continuing education workshop and talked at length about practices embracing this new technology.  He discussed the importance of having a website as a virtual shop-window and about the benefits to practice management, internal communication and electronic health records.  He also confidently stated that he did not feel people would buy their glasses online, that it was an inherently tactile process and that this could not be replicated virtually.

What a fool!

Or was he?

Online eyewear purchases are now definitely a factor in the industry, albeit a small percentage of the overall market.

Every optometrist and optician has heard the words, "Can I have my PD?".  As professions built around helping people, answering questions like these are always very difficult to do, without seeming argumentative or adversarial.  We are hard wired to want to say, "Yes".  Let us wait for a moment, though, do we not also have a duty to do the best for our patients/clients?

At Ocean Optometry, we think so and we think this is an over-riding factor.

When we dispense a pair of spectacles we try to create as pleasant an experience as possible.  There is a nice environment in which to choose your glasses, there is some fabulous music playing, we have sourced the world's finest eyewear for you to select from and, ultimately, we have experts in eyewear to help facilitate the whole process.

My word, you say, all that's going to cost a lot - just give me the glasses, that's what I wear on my face!

You have to remember, though, that ultimately we are a business.  Dress it up how you want, but we only will stay in business if people purchase services (eye examinations, eye care, etc) and products (glasses, contacts) from us.  As ultimate eye-geeks, we know very well who the competition is, we know what the market is and we know what we have to do.  Therefore our prices aren't extreme or ridiculous, they are competitive, aggressive and, ultimately, fair.  Is it fair-trade eyewear?  We think so.  Is it good value?  Absolutely so!

What many people may not realise, though, is that when we dispense eyewear the process is not just a case of picking items off a shelf, we are creating a bespoke, unique and customised finished product - combining frames, prescription, fashion, lifestyle, function and aesthetics.

When we are dispensing eyewear, we don't take you coldly, step-by-step through the process.  Unlike buying glasses online, we don't ask you to input your prescription and click 'Next'; we don't ask for your PD, click 'Next'; choose your frame, 'Add to basket'; choose lenses from pre-determined options, 'Add to basket'; confirm name; confirm address; credit card details the same?; confirm delivery; hope for the best; yada, yada, click, click, click, NEXT!

We involve you.

Choosing eyewear is a harmonious relationship combining so many different factors, or, at least, it should be.  As the eyeglasses wearer, you maybe aren't aware of all of the considerations that our opticians and optometrists go through when helping you choose your eyewear ... and that's great.

Perhaps the online purchasers (if they are still reading) are possibly thinking, "yeah, yeah, yeah, so what, I'll get the same glasses online and save some cash".  Certainly, that is your choice and we want everyone to be happy with their purchasing decision, so if they are happy, that's the main thing.

Only, please don't be surprised if you come to us and ask us to adjust, maintain, sort your glasses that you have purchased elsewhere and find our experts are not willing to do it for free.  Please don't be surprised if your vision isn't optimal with your glasses ordered without ever trying them on.  Please don't be surprised when we are not excited about the so-so quality of the eyewear you have purchased elsewhere - we could have stocked it, but for many reasons we didn't.

We realise that this blog post won't be for everyone.  Madness, I know, we should be trying to appeal to as many as possible, except ... except ... we really love share our enthusiasm for all things eye-geekery with everyone who comes in to Ocean.  We will always offer tremendous value, we will always offer fabulous eyewear and we will always value the skill, knowledge, services and dedication of our professionals.  Does it cost more?  Yes  ... No ... perhaps ... but, you know what, it is worth so, so much more.

Do you want your PD?  Well, we could do that ... but you'd be making a mistake!  Just for the record when we dispense eyewear we take measurements of at least four different paramaters.  Ordering glasses with just the PD would be like buying tires with only the wheel diameter and hoping that the rest is somehow just right!  Of course, with tires it doesn't really matter about the profile, width or if they're all-season or winter or summer tires, does it?