UV protection and You!

We are all much better now at using sunscreen to protect ourselves from the damage that can happen through UV rays.  Can the same be said about protecting our eyes?

The harmful effects of ultra-violet radiation on the eyes has now been well documented, however, what many do not appreciate is how important it is to protect children's eyes.  Children spend more time playing outside, their pupils are larger allowing for more light (including non-visible light) to enter the eyes.  Research has also shown that a significant amount of our total lifetime UV exposure now happens by the age of 18 and we know that the damage adds up over time.

So how can we protect our eyes?

UV protection -definitely cool

There's obvious steps which can be taken, common with general sun protection, like wearing a wide brimmed hat.  We can not, however, put sun cream in our eyes, so how do we ensure that they are fully protected?

Sunglasses

The most obvious choice would be to use sunglasses, as long as they have UV protection.  You can look for certain marks like UVX or UV400 to ensure that the sunglasses will do the job properly.  Without proper UV protection, sunglasses could actually make sun damage worse as the pupils will dilate behind the dark lenses allowing more UV to enter they eye than without.

Sunglasses should be well fitting and thankfully current trends of either wrapped style or over-sized sunglasses definitely help to max out the protection and reduce peripheral light from entering the eyes.

Prescription Glasses

It may not be obvious that your prescription glasses can actually help to reduce the amount of UV light getting to the eyes.  Higher index plastic lens materials have inherent in-built UV protection as part of their optical characteristics and even standard plastic (1.5 index) can have a UV blocking treatment applied to it. 

With added benefits of being robust and durable, it is easily argued that 1.6 index plastic should now be our standard lens material of choice.  It is thinner and lighter than standard plastic, safer for the eyes with the UV protection and particularly beneficial in children's glasses as it is incredibly tough.

While prescription glasses wouldn't replace good sunglasses for overall sun protection, it is worthwhile taking the time to discuss your requirements with your optician to make sure that you are making the best choice overall.

Contact Lenses

We are increasingly finding contact lenses coming with built in UV protection and it is a feature of the lenses manufactured by Acuvue that all of their lenses have a UV blocker.  The big advantage of contact lenses in UV protection is in reducing peripheral light which gets in to the eye from oblique angles, light coming from the sides, above or below.  This Peripheral Light Factor can cause real problems for glasses and sunglasses as the light can "creep" around the edges of the glasses or be reflected from the skin and then from the back surface of the lens.

Acuvue lenses with UV protection as standard

While contact lenses will not protect the whole eye, as they only cover the cornea in the center, they will add a level of protection which is a great supplement to good quality sunglasses.  They will also allow you to choose from non-prescription sunglasses, perhaps opening up options in style, selection and having multiple pairs to suit your mood or the environment.

Whatever you are doing, whatever time of year, when you are going outside make sure that you have the best protection available and if you are unsure of what works for you, speak to your optician or optometrist for the best advice.

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