Do I Need Glasses?

Do you ever find yourself having difficulty reading a street sign; or perhaps you have trouble making out the words in the book you are reading. If you are struggling with your vision, you are making life unnecessarily difficult on yourself. If you are looking to put an end to the constant eyestrain & headaches that are associated with vision problems, you have come to the right place.

The first and most important step you can take to put your vision problems to rest is to schedule an eye exam. However, in the meantime, it can also be helpful to gain an understanding of which eye conditions may be impeding your vision:

• Do you have trouble seeing objects that are afar? This can be a sign of myopia, or more commonly referred to as nearsightedness.
• Do you find it a challenge to focus on close objects for a sustained period of time? This can be a sign of hyperopia (farsightedness).
• Do you continually squint at objects to make them clear? This can be a sign of astigmatism.

If you believe you are suffering from any of the aforementioned conditions, it is imperative you schedule an eye exam and see your optometrist as soon as possible. Once you have completed an eye exam, your optometrist will be able to determine the best possible treatment option (eyeglasses, contact lenses, eye exercises, etc.) for your particular condition.

While the prescribed treatment option should be able to improve your eyesight, there is a possibility that you are suffering from an eye disease that will not be immediately resolved. At the onset, many eye diseases will be subtle to begin and worsen as the condition develops. For this reason, it is essential that you stay up-to-date with eye exams.

Questions to Consider Before Choosing Contacts

While contact lenses may not have the same ability to make a bold statement like a pair of designer frames can, they do offer several functional advantages over glasses. Whether it’s a choice of comfort, convenience, or just simply personal preference, more and more people are scheduling eye exams and ordering contact lenses each day. If you are thinking about switching to contacts, here are three questions to consider before visiting your eye doctor.

1.)    How Often Will You Be Wearing Contacts?
One of the very first questions you should ask yourself is how often do you plan to wear your contacts. It’s important to determine the frequency of your contact usage, as it will help determine which type of contacts you choose, either hard (rigid gas permeable) or soft.

Will you only wear your contacts every now and then, or will you be wearing contacts each and every day? If you are the latter, hard contacts may make the most sense. Although they take some time to adjust to, with regular every day usage, hard contacts will become more comfortable. However, if you are looking for flexibility and plan on switching back and forth between contacts and glasses, soft contacts may be the best option as they require little time to adjust to.

2.)    Do You Intend to Wear Your Contacts For Long Periods of Time?
Do you envision yourself taking your contacts out each night before bed or do you plan on sleeping with your contacts in? If you plan to continually wear your contacts, let your optometrist know. While extended usage of contacts is often advised against, as it can create health risks, the FDA has approved certain contacts that allow high amounts of oxygen to pass through for extended & overnight wear.

3.)    Will You Have the Time to Properly Care for Your Contacts?
You are probably already thinking of all the convenience contacts will offer, but remember, they require proper care to keep your eyes healthy and happy. This will involve cleaning not only your contacts themselves, but also the case that your contacts are stored in each day. If you are not up to the task of cleaning and disinfecting your lenses and cases each and every day, look towards single use disposable lenses.

If you’ve taken the time to consider these three important questions, your next step will be to schedule an eye exam with your optometrist and get fitted for your new contact lenses!

The Importance of Regular Eye Exams

Routine eye exams are an essential part of maintaining healthy vision.  During an exam, your eye doctor will test your eyes, the accuracy of your current prescription, and for common eye diseases.  In fact, eye doctors are often the first to catch chronic systemic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes.  A comprehensive eye exam includes careful testing of all aspects of your vision.

Below are a few items your doctor will look for:

Refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatisms.

Amblyopia which occurs when one eye is stronger than the other, causing the weaker eye to experience permanent vision impairment as it learns to depend on the stronger eye.   

Strabismus or crossed eyes.

Focusing problems such as incompletely developed focusing skills in children or declines in focus ability due to aging.

Eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.

Other diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure that your eye doctor can detect early signs of by looking at your eye’s blood vessels, retina, etc.

To maintain healthy vision, follow the eye exam frequency recommendations below:

Before the age of 40:  Every 2 Years

Between the ages of 41 – 64:  Every year

After the age of 65:  Every 6 months to a year

Anyone with risk factors should be tested every 6 months to a year

Foods for Eye Health

If you list them all in one place, it sounds like a catalogue of alien species or perhaps a list of powerful prescription medicines, but chemicals such as carotenoids, zeaxanthin, and lutein are found in many common foods and have been shown in studies to improve your eye health, especially when it comes to preventing age-related conditions and degeneration.

Just as getting regular, annual eye exams increases your chances of detecting an eye or other health condition early, eating the following foods is a simple way to take preventative steps to maintain your eye health.

Whenever there’s a discussion of healthy eating, dark green vegetables tend to get top billing, and for good reason. These veggies are high in vitamin C, which may help prevent glaucoma. They also contain lots of lutein and zeaxanthin, two chemicals in the antioxidant family that can help reduce your risk of macular degeneration.

Carrots, sweet potatoes and many other bright orange fruits and vegetables tend to be good sources of beta carotene, which is a building block for vitamin A. Vitamin A in turn helps prevent night blindness and keeps your corneas healthy.

Another great food group for helping you maintain your eye health is foods that are high in omega 3 (see it sounds like a distant, uncharted planet) fatty acids. Salmon, flax seeds, and avocado are some sources of this special type of beneficial fat, which, among other things, is thought to reduce the risk of dry eye syndrome.

Here are a few more foods for eye health you should know about: broccoli, citrus fruits, peaches, mangoes, curry, dill, parsley, garlic, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, walnuts, wheat germ, and almonds. The list could go on and on, but you don’t need to eat every single food on that list. As long as you maintain a healthy balance, it will increase your odds of having healthier vision for a long time to come.

Can Contact Lenses Get Lost in Your Eye?

It’s happened to most contact lens wearers at one point or another. Your lenses accidentally slide off center and gets stuck behind your eyelid. It can be uncomfortable, but the first thing you need to know is that contact lenses cannot get lost behind your eye. They cannot somehow infiltrate your brain or any other parts of your body despite the pervasiveness of this myth. It is a physical impossibility.

The membrane that protects the eye acts as a barrier and prevents anything, even something as small as a contact lens, from getting behind it. Lenses usually get unseated from the center of your eye because they are too dry or you’ve been rubbing your eyes excessively. Thinner lenses also tend to get dislocated more easily so someone who wears dailies might be more familiar with the contact lenses scavenger hunt than someone who wears longer term gas permeable lenses.

Here are some steps to follow if your contact lens gets shifted off the center of your eye:

For soft contact lenses –

1) Look down at your nose and close your eyes.

2) Put one of your fingers on your eyelid at the corner of your eye closest to your nose.

3) Gently massage the lens towards the other corner of your eye.

4) Open your eye and remove the lens.

For hard lenses –

1)Make sure you’re over a surface where the lens won’t get lost if it pops out. It’s best to use a light colored surface where the lens won’t bounce such as a hand towel.

2) Hold your eyelid out of the way and use a hand mirror to locate the lens. If you have trouble finding it, the lens may have fallen out already leaving a lingering itchiness or irritation.

3) Once you’ve found the lens on your eye, you can use the lower portion of your lid to push the lens outward. Alternately, some eye doctors will provide you with a small plunger that suctions the convex side of the lens for just such situations.

If all else fails, you should consult an eye doctor. If your lenses are repeatedly falling off center, it may be time to get a contact lens eye exam to try to diagnose the problem.

Lessons From Leslie Nielsen: How to Tell If You Need Glasses?

Yesterday the comedic actor Leslie Nielsen died of pneumonia at the age of 74. Nielsen is perhaps best remembered for his slapstick and satiric turns in movies like Airplane!, The Naked Gun series and the live action version of the 1950’s cartoon Mr. Magoo.

Nielsen’s role as the title character in that last film was that of an oddball millionaire with poor vision who refuses to wear glasses and consequently gets into all kinds of trouble. In tribute to Nielsen and his portrayal of Mr. Magoo, this post is about ways to tell if you need glasses and should get an eye exam.

The American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends that children have their first eye exam by their first birthday and, as we’ve written before it’s a good idea to get an eye exam annually from then on. However, here are some signs that you shouldn’t hold out for even a year before getting checked up.

• If you have blurry vision or difficulty seeing at night, you should get an eye exam. People often notice this problem in the course of their nighttime driving.
• If you’re seeing floating spots or other irregularities in your vision, you should get it checked with an optometrist as soon as possible.
• If your eyes often get tired and you find yourself squinting a lot you should get an eye exam.
• If you have trouble viewing things that are very close by or very far away you may need corrective eyewear.
• Finally, if you experience recurring headaches it makes sense to get your vision examined.

Not only will getting an eye exam improve your daily quality of life, but it can help diagnose other serious medical conditions before they deteriorate. So learn from the example of Mr. Magoo, swallow your fear and/or pride, and get your eyes checked.

November is Diabetes Month, Get an Eye Exam

As we’ve told you before, getting an eye exam can catch many medical conditions in their early stages, including diabetes. This month, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) is mobilizing people in the fight against diabetes and Cohen’s Fashion Optical is standing by to help.

If you get a comprehensive eye exam, an optometrist can aid in detecting diabetes, or more precisely its symptom, diabetic retinopathy, by examining the blood vessels in your eye. If diabetes goes untreated, it can result in vision impairment and even blindness. In fact, there are 24 million children and adults living with diabetes in this country and 57 million more Americans at risk for the disease.

Here are some interesting statistics from the ADA on growing the impact of diabetes on American people:

• The death rate from diabetes continues to climb. Since 1987, the death rate due to diabetes has increased by 45%, while the death rates due to cancer, heart disease, and stroke have declined.

• The ADA etimates that the total national cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States is $174 billion.

• Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults.

• One out of every 3 children (and 1 in 2 minority children) born in the United States today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue.

This is clearly a problem that isn’t going away. So do your part to help fight diabetes. Get a comprehensive eye exam and tell your friends to do the same.