Wearing glasses for the first time can be a difficult adjustment for any child.

Being able to see clearly might not always seem worth it to them compared to how strange the glasses feel on their nose and ears or what their peers think, so what can you do as a parent to help them get in the habit and really love their glasses? We’ve come up with five good approaches you can use to make childrens glasses cool.

1. Make Sure Their Glasses Fit

Ill-fitting glasses, no matter how perfectly they correct your child’s vision, are not going to be fun to wear, and they will be taking them off every chance they get. Whether they fall too easily or pinch too hard, we have tools at our practice to correct the fit of glasses. If your childrens glasses don’t fit properly, come see us so we can adjust them.

2. Set Goals For Your Childs Glasses

For a child who isn’t willing to wear their glasses full-time from the start, a gradual ramp-up might be a good idea. You can begin small by expecting them to wear their glasses for just a half-hour, then increase to an hour, then two, and ultimately they’ll be wearing them all day. You could offer small prizes for achieving these milestones to give them more motivation.

3. Find Bespectacled Role Models

A great way to combat your child’s worries that they’ll be made fun of for wearing glasses is to remind them that some pretty awesome people wear glasses too. Show them pictures of some of their favorite actors or inspirational figures wearing glasses, and point out that characters like Harry Potter, Superman, and Supergirl wear glasses (even if the latter two only wear them as their mild-mannered disguises).

4. Let Them Choose Their Glasses

Another essential for helping your child feel confident in their glasses is to let them pick out their own frames! Glasses are like a customizable facial feature, and that makes them a wonderful expression of personal style. So forget about your own ideas of color coordination and fashion, because your child has their own idea of what cool glasses look like.

A similar factor to think about is how the glasses make your child look for their age. A toddler should wear glasses made for toddlers, but older children will feel embarrassed to wear “baby glasses.” They want adults and other kids to respect them for how grown-up they seem, and their glasses are part of that.

5. Stand Firm And Enlist Help

Perhaps the most important thing to do is to remain firm in your expectations. Even with the perfect, well-fitting glasses and good role models to look up to, if you aren’t a stickler about making sure your child meets their glasses goals, it might not matter. And for the times and places when you aren’t around to check that the glasses are on, you might be able to recruit other adults, like their teachers, to help.

We Can Help Too!

Another group of adults who can help your child grow to love wearing glasses is the team at our practice! We’re the biggest fans of childrens glasses you’ll meet, and we’re happy to share our enthusiasm and success stories. We’d love to hear from you, whether these five tips did the trick or if you need a few other ideas to try.

We can’t wait to see your child looking happy and confident in their glasses!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

March is Workplace Eye Wellness Month, and we want to make sure our patients have all the information they need to protect their eyes at work!

The type of job you have will determine what kinds of risks your eyes may be in for injury or health issues, so we’re going to break them up into two main categories: jobs that mainly involve physical labor and office jobs.

Preventing Workplace Eye Injuries

Jobs such as construction or manufacturing work, mining, carpentry, auto repair, electrical work, plumbing, welding, and maintenance are all high risk jobs when it comes to eye injury. More than two thousand workers in these fields have to seek medical attention for an eye injury every day.

That may sound alarming, but the good news is that 90 percent of these injuries can be prevented or at least reduced in severity through the use of proper safety equipment. If you work in one of these fields, make sure you wear your safety glasses, goggles, face shield, welding helmet, or full-face respirator as needed.

Office Jobs And Eye Safety

If you have an office job, you likely don’t face the same risks of eye injuries, but your work conditions could still be hazardous to your eye health. The most common eye problem for office workers is computer vision syndrome, also known as digital eye strain.

Constantly staring at your computer screen might not cause permanent damage to your eyesight, but it can make your eyes tired and irritated and negatively impact your work, with symptoms including headaches, neck pain, inattentiveness, back strain, and dry eye.

A few ways you can fight back against that eye strain include repositioning your screen, following the 20-20-20 rule, making an effort to blink more often, using artificial tears, drinking plenty of water, using an anti-glare screen or wearing computer glasses, and, finally, scheduling regular eye exams!

If you don’t know what the 20-20-20 rule is, just watch this short video

Bring Us Your Questions About Workplace Eye Safety

If you’ve been experiencing eye strain symptoms or think you might not be doing everything you can to protect your eyes from injury at work, just call us or stop by. We’d love to answer any questions you have, because we want all of our patients to be able to do their best work without having to fear for their eyes’ safety!

Make sure you’re showing your eyes some love!

Nearly everyone over the age of 65 will experience a reduced elasticity of the lenses of their eyes — a condition called presbyopia.

Those of us lucky enough to have perfect vision until that age will only require reading glasses to help with up-close vision. However, for the 42 percent of Americans who are nearsighted to begin with, a more complex solution will be necessary, such as bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses.

Bifocals: Pros And Cons

Bifocals are just what they sound like: glasses with one area that corrects nearsightedness and another area that corrects farsightedness. The worse presbyopia gets, it can start to affect middle distances too, and trifocals help by adding a middle strip for things like reading a computer screen.

If you’ve ever worn bifocals or trifocals, you know all about the line between the sections of the lenses. These lines can be distracting and create an odd “image jump” effect, and they can also serve as evidence of advancing age to anyone who sees them. Anyone who feels these drawbacks are too great to overlook might be more interested in progressive lenses.

The Science Of Progressive Lenses

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, progressive lenses do what bifocals and trifocals do but without the distracting lines. The way this works is that the prescription gradually changes along a corridor of power, going from supporting distance vision at the top to close vision at the bottom.

The trade off to make such a complex lens work is that the bottom corners of progressive lenses make things appear blurry. Fortunately, newer technology is helping to minimize this flaw. When we examine patients wishing to buy progressive lenses, we measure pupillary distance so that we can place the corridor of power in the best place.

Getting Used To Progressive Lenses

Any time we change the prescription or frame shape of our glasses, it will take some time to get used to the way things look. This is certainly the case for progressive lenses, especially if it’s your first time wearing them. A few things you can do to adjust more quickly include:

• moving your head instead of your eyes to see different things
• making sure the glasses fit properly so that the corridor of power stays in the right place
• practicing looking at objects at different differences by watching TV and reading a book at the same time
• not giving up! If you switch back and forth between your progressive lenses and your old bifocals, you’ll reset the clock on your eyes getting used to them!

Talk To Us About Your Next Pair Of Glasses

If you have any questions about progressive lenses, don’t hesitate to bring them to us. We want all of our patients at Levin Eye Care Center to have the perfect lenses to help them see clearly. And while we’re at it, we’ll help you find the perfect frames!

Thank you for being part of our practice family!

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.

Human eyesight is an incredibly complex system, and a problem like Glaucoma anywhere along the way can lead to seriously compromised vision.

One such problem is glaucoma, a group of eye conditions that affect millions of people in the US, making it the second most common cause of vision loss and blindness in the country. In most cases, this is the result of damage to the optic nerve from increased pressure in the eye.

Intraocular Pressure: A Delicate Balance

The human eye is filled with fluid — aqueous humor in the front chambers, vitreous humor in the larger rear chamber behind the lens. In a healthy eye, the pressure of this fluid remains within a safe range because the amount of aqueous humor being produced is equal to the amount flowing out through the pupil. In an eye with glaucoma, this drainage system does not work the way it should.

Common Risk Factors & Symptoms 

While everyone has some risk of developing glaucoma, certain factors can make it more likely. Glaucoma is far more common in people over 60, particularly minorities. Also, people of Asian descent are at greater risk of angle-closure glaucoma. Glaucoma sometimes offers no symptoms until it has done damage and that’s why it’s so important to get a yearly comprehensive eye exam. Also, age and hereditary can increase risk along with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, or sickle cell anemia.

A major risk factor for glaucoma is heredity. Someone with a sibling who has glaucoma is ten times more likely to develop it than someone who doesn’t. Other risk factors include eye injury and steroid use.

Why An Early Glaucoma Diagnosis Matters

Vision loss from glaucoma is irreversible and there is currently no cure for the disease, but medication and/or surgery can halt its progress as long as we diagnosed it in time. The key to early diagnosis is regular eye exams, especially for those with a high risk of developing the condition. Make sure you’re familiar with your family’s eye health history, and don’t forget to keep us in the loop!

Contact Us Today and make healthy vision a top priority!

Nights are long in the winter, and that means fewer hours of daylight for our morning and evening commutes.

Many of us feel safer driving during the day, particularly if our eyesight isn’t perfect. The dangers of night driving are very real, and we should all be taking them seriously, because our lives and the lives of others absolutely depend on it.

The Challenges Of Driving At Night

The road looks very different at night than it does in the day. Not only is it harder to see because of the darkened surroundings, but the glare of oncoming headlights can momentarily blind us to the curves of the road and obstacles in our way. And even if you feel confident in your ability to adjust to these conditions, other drivers around you may not be as confident in their own driving.

Aging Introduces New Difficulties

As we grow older, our night vision worsens. We have fewer rods (light-sensitive cells in our eyes that distinguish between light and dark) to detect objects in low light and our eyes’ lenses become stiffer and cloudier. Other conditions such as astigmatism can also make it difficult to see at night, affecting peripheral vision and depth perception and worsening glare.

Changes In Your Eyesight

If you’ve noticed any changes in your eyesight, such as halo effects, blurred, dim, or cloudy vision, or increased glare, they could be early symptoms of eye problems that will make it harder for you to drive safely at night. Another one to watch out for is eye fatigue. Even if you can see perfectly well, that won’t do much good if you struggle to focus while on the road. No matter what changes or difficulties you’re experiencing with your vision, schedule an eye appointment so that we can address the problem.

Aids To Night Driving

For those with mild to moderate difficulties with night driving, there are solutions to make it easier. The simplest is to keep the windshield and windows as clean as possible and make sure your headlights aren’t fogged over. Getting plenty of sleep and eating eye-healthy foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach will promote good eye health and reduce eye fatigue. You might also consider getting prescription night driving glasses, which reduce glare and light sensitivity.

For those who are doing all of these things and still struggling to see at night, it might be time to stay off the road after dark. It can be a struggle to adjust to a schedule of day driving only, but it’s worth it to stay safe.

To learn more about nyctalopia, or night blindness here and check out this short video:

What We Can Do For You

Sometimes all we need to improve our sight for night driving is a simple adjustment to our glasses prescriptions, so if it’s been a while since your last eye exam, schedule one today. Make sure you bring any questions or concerns you have about driving at night with you when you come!

Drive safely, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

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 Vision Therapy has helped me get rid of my chronic migraines and changed my life.

Kristen came to Levin Eye Care Center suffering from almost constant, daily chronic migraines. Her neurologist prescribed her various medications over eight years for her symptoms, but they could only make the daily migraines less powerful, never less frequent and they still occurred daily!  Kristen’s neurologist suggested that she get a comprehensive eye exam to see if there might be a visual issue at the root of her problem.

During her comprehensive eye exam, Dr. Levin found Kristen’s problem—her eyes were not working together.  This meant that Vision Therapy would help her with her migraines.  After, a few weeks of Vision Therapy Kristen noticed her chronic migraines were becoming less intense—with no changes to her medications!

Upon completion of her Vision Therapy at Levin Eye Care Center, Kristen is enjoying a 90% reduction in her migraines, reducing both in intensity and frequency!  The vision therapy sessions she undertook and the home exercises she performed have “strengthened her eyes” by making new connections in her brain—more healthy connections that help her avoid the migraines.

Kristen stated:

I’m ecstatic with the results of Vision Therapy!  The staff was amazing and always friendly.  This experience has been great, and Vision Therapy is so much fun!

Congratulations Kristen!

The American Migraine Foundation explains how chronic migraines affects sensory processing and visual perception. If you know anyone who struggles with these issues, please call us so we can help!

Spring is in the air…and that means so are allergies.

Seasonal allergies affect millions of people every year, and they can be particularly hard on our eyes, leaving them red, itchy, and watery. Why does this happen and what can we do about it?

Why Do We Get Seasonal Allergies?

While there are plenty of allergens that can make our eyes water year round, such as dust and pet dander, seasonal allergies typically flare up twice a year: in the spring and the fall. This can mean long months of congestion, an itchy nose, mouth, eyes, or throat, puffy eyes, sneezing, and coughing for people with allergies.

The reason our allergies act up the most during spring and fall is that trees and grass pollinate throughout the spring, while ragweed pollinates in the fall. Mold will also send out spores around the same time. Allergic reactions, including seasonal allergies, are the result of our immune systems overreacting to these allergens. Unfortunately, much of this overreaction takes place right on the surface of our eyes.

Allergies Versus Our Eyes

Depending on how your body reacts to allergens, you could experience a wide variety of eye-related symptoms during allergy seasons. The most common are the aforementioned itchiness, redness, and watery discharge. These could be accompanied by a burning sensation, contact lens discomfort, swollen eyelids, and a scratchy or gritty feeling. You could also experience adverse side-effects from decongestants, which might dry out your eyes as well as your sinuses, making them even more vulnerable to airborne allergens.

Allergy Prevention And Treatment

Because many allergens are airborne, avoiding allergic reactions can be difficult, but there are a few things you can do to minimize your exposure. It’s best to stay indoors on extra windy days when the most allergens are in the air. You should also wear a pollen mask while doing yard work, and avoid using window fans that could blow pollen and spores into your house. Sunglasses (or regular glasses) can shield your eyes from pollen.

If you do end up having an allergy attack, drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and use eye drops if your eyes are irritated, especially if your allergy medications are drying out your eyes. You might want to swap out your contacts for glasses until you feel better, because contact lenses can make your eyes more vulnerable. And try not to rub your eyes very often, because doing so will only irritate them more!

Fighting Back Against Allergies Together!

If you’re experiencing significant eye irritation, whether as an effect of seasonal allergies or for any other reason, don’t hesitate to come see us! Keeping your eyes healthy is our top priority, and together we can come up with the best plan to beat those allergies.

Thank you for putting your trust in our practice!

Blue Light has many eye doctors concerned about the effects our screen time could have on our vision and our health.

Nearly two decades into the 21st century, most of us have nightly rituals that include checking our smartphones before bed. This might not be the healthiest way to end our days. Many eye doctors are concerned about the effects our screen time could have on our vision and our health, and the main cause of that concern is blue light.

What Is Blue Light?

You might remember from your high school science classes that the electromagnetic spectrum ranges from low-energy radio waves to high-energy gamma waves. The colors and light we see make up a very small sliver of this spectrum. Waves of blue light scatter more easily than the others, which is what makes the sky and large bodies of water appear blue.

Blue Light & Our Brains

The main source of blue light is the sun, and our bodies are programmed to respond to that light. During the day, the blue light in sunlight boosts our attention, memory, energy levels, reaction times, and overall mood. It’s the signal to our brains that we should be up and about. Absence of blue light signals that we should be resting.

The problem in modern times is that we are surrounded by artificial sources of blue light that confuse these signals, particularly LED and fluorescent lights and the screens of our electronic devices. Blue light suppresses the release of melatonin in our brains, which leads to a lower quality of sleep, which in turn can contribute to a variety of negative health effects.

Blue Light And Our Eyes

The visible light with the highest intensity is blue light, and just above it on the spectrum is UV radiation. One concern is that, because blue light is so close to UV radiation in wavelength, it might be similarly harmful, particularly to our vision. The screens on our electronic devices may not emit light anywhere near as bright as sunlight (which contains both blue light and UV radiation), but the time we spend staring at our screens is time we spend exposing our eyes to blue light.

It’s not clear yet how much blue light exposure is enough to cause lasting harm to our vision, but it could be contributing to macular degeneration (loss of central vision), a condition normally associated with advancing age. To be on the safe side, we would be wise to limit our exposure.

Cutting Back On The Blue

To avoid blue light’s adverse effects on our sleep cycles, we should avoid looking at screens in the last hour or two before bed. If that sounds difficult, there are other options, all of which can also help with minimizing the effects of blue light on our vision.

• Use warmer lighting in your home by buying more yellow-tinted LED lightbulbs instead of the bright white ones.
• Wear orange tinted glasses that filter out blue light while working at your office computer, or use a screen protector that does the same without altering your entire field of vision.
• Use screen filters or apps on your devices that eliminate blue light. The colors will be very different, but the screen will be easier on your eyes in the late evening. Download the app Flux to help with digital eye strain.

Get Started With An Eye Exam

If you’re concerned about the effect blue light may be having on your eyes, schedule an eye exam with us. We can determine whether there is any damage and help you come up with a plan to minimize harmful variables such as UV and blue light.

Your healthy vision is our top priority!

Have your eyes ever felt gritty and watery after an outdoor adventure? Maybe you felt a burning sensation and suffered temporary vision loss?

If this sounds familiar to you, you may have been exposed to high levels of UV rays from light reflections while boating, hiking at high elevation, or participating in snow sports like skiing and snowboarding. This condition, formally called photokeratitis, is particularly common in winter, and you might have heard of it by the name “snow blindness.”

Why Snow Blindness?

Photokeratitis is essentially getting a sunburn on the surface of your eye. This can happen in most climates with strong sunlight, particularly when there are reflective surfaces such as white sand, water, or especially snow. You could also get it without any sun at all, from man-made sources of light like welding torches!

The reason photokeratitis is so much more common in winter is that the snow reflects up to 80 percent of the UV rays that hit the ground, so your eyes get almost a double dose of sunlight. The high altitude is a factor as well. One of the dangerous things about photokeratitis is that, like a normal sunburn, it can take hours before the symptoms appear. As a result, you might keep exposing your eyes to harmful UV rays even after the damage has begun, making the condition more severe.

Soothing Snowblind Eyes

If you do get snow blindness as you enjoy winter activities, there are a few simple ways you can treat it to help your eyes recover more quickly. Photokeratitis dries out the eyes, so you’ll want to restore the lost moisture with things like wet cloths, humidifiers, and eyedrops. Remove your contacts if you wear them and avoid rubbing your eyes. If possible, you might also want to cover the affected eye (or eyes) with patches so that they aren’t further irritated by additional light.

Having The Right Eye Protection

Knowing how to treat snow blindness is useful, but it’s even better to avoid getting it in the first place. That’s where protective eye wear comes in, so you can spend as much time as you want shredding moguls on your snowboard or carving slopes on your skis this season. Make sure to get sunglasses — or, preferably, ski goggles — that block 100 percent of UV light. Polarized lenses will also greatly reduce glare and help you see contrast better in the snow.

We’re Here For You

Snow blindness typically heals on its own after a day or two, but if your symptoms are worsening after the first day or aren’t going away after the second day, you should come see us immediately. We hope you have a wonderful time this ski season, but don’t forget to protect your vision!

We love all of our patients!

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.

It’s always a good idea to schedule regular eye exams, but under certain circumstances, you might need to come see us between those regular appointments.

What do we mean by “regular eye exams?” Well, that varies, largely depending on age. Children should have their first eye exam at six months, their second at three years, and their third before they begin first grade.

From ages six to 60, the American Optometric Academy recommends that people whose vision isn’t considered “at-risk” have an eye exam every other year, and then once every year from age 60 on. For those with “at-risk” vision, the best schedule will be determined by the optometrist.

What Does It Mean To Be “At Risk?”

Several factors can put an individual’s vision at greater risk than the general populace. These include having diabetes or hypertension. These diseases can have a severe impact on vision health. A family history of glaucoma or macular degeneration is also a major risk factor.

Many prescription drugs have eye-related side effects, like dry eye, and we’ll want to carefully monitor your vision health if you’re taking these types of medications. Contact lenses also present an increased risk of eye infection and other complications.

When To Throw Out The Schedule

At-risk or not, as mentioned above, there are several circumstances in which you shouldn’t wait until your next regular eye exams appointment to pay us a visit:

• You Always Have A Headache
• Your Eye Is Infected
• There are Bright Flashes And Floaters Galore
• That Eye Pain Is Becoming A Bit Much
• You’ve Been Squinting For Days
• You Have Diabetes, Or It Runs In Your Family

You’ve Been Squinting More

If you notice that you’ve had to squint to read road signs, that’s a good sign that you’re due for a prescription change—or, if you haven’t needed glasses before now, that you might need to start wearing them. Squinting will only get you so far.

Bright Flashes And Floaters

It’s perfectly normal to have a few floaters hanging around in your eyes. They can be annoying, but they usually aren’t a problem. However, if you suddenly see a bunch of new ones, you should definitely schedule an appointment, particularly if the floaters are accompanied by bright flashes of light or loss of peripheral vision. These are symptoms of retinal detachment, and can cause permanent blindness if not treated quickly enough.

To learn a bit more about floaters, watch the video below:

Frequent Headaches

Headaches aren’t always the result of eye problems, but it isn’t uncommon for optometrists to spot the causes of chronic headaches first. You may be having these headaches because of eye strain caused by your digital screens. If so, there’s no need to continue suffering in silence when we can help.

Eye Infection

Sometimes eye infections clear up on their own, but that isn’t a risk worth taking. If you’re experiencing blurred vision, light sensitivity, unusual discharge from your eye, itchiness, redness, or pain, come see us as soon as you can. Even if you think it’s just dry eye, it’s still important to come see us, because untreated dry eye can open the door to serious infections.

We’re Looking Out For Your Vision Health

Good vision health is crucial to a high quality of life, and we don’t want you to miss out on any opportunities or amazing views. Any reason for concern about your vision health is reason enough to schedule an early appointment.

Thank you for being a 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.