Should You Try Plus Lenses?
I have mixed opinions about the use of plus lenses. My recent forum reply to a plus related comment sums up my position fairly well:I’m not a huge proponent of plus in general. For kids and prevention, yes. For professionals who need insane distance vision, yes. For those who need a lot of stimulus to make progress, yes. Generally, for the large majority of myopes, with the standard lifestyle (lots of close-up at work, not much outdoor time, a lot of playing on smartphones and TV), [...]
Glasses Cause Serious Psychological Stress In Children
Kairi posts a great study link in the forum today (published in OVPJournal, site here), looking at psychological stress in children from myopia development.As you already know, myopia isn't a real illness. Giving glasses to children for myopia is a terrible idea. I've been saying this for years, while working to help parents use a more holistic approach to manage their child's healthy eyesight. As usual, there is science substantiating these common sense premises:Psychological Stress in Childhood and Myopia Development Louise Katz, PhD, Columbia State [...]
Fixing Astigmatism: Should You Do Laser, Or Go Natural?
From Ophthalmology Times:Lake Villa, IL—Use of a proprietary femtosecond laser system (LENSAR Laser System, LENSAR) is making astigmatism correction easy, efficient, and more accurate, according to Mitchell A. Jackson, MDA software upgrade introduced in 2015 (Streamline) enables wireless transmission of preoperative topography data and an infrared image of the undilated eye to the laser. Intraoperatively, iris registration automatically adjusts for cyclorotation, eliminating the need to mark the cornea.Arcuate incision planning using the nomogram the surgeon programmed into the laser is completed at the touch of [...]
Make Time!
Written By DespinaContributing OptometristI was really struggling with the active focus this week. It just seemed to be harder work, like a real strain on the eyes, whereas I usually get it really easily. My eyes felt like they were sort of 'locked'. I even started swapping my contact lenses round, thinking maybe they were in the wrong eyes (they are 0.50 different so it can be hard to tell).But today, after an hour long walk on the beach, focusing on the ships, the horizon, [...]
Torturing Kids: You Might Not Want To Read This One
People sometimes suggest that I'm too hard on mainstream optometry. Hopefully lately the tone has been a little less definitive on that front. I'm trying to be more inclusive of potentially open minded optometrists! Progress, right? And as I point out, my strong bias comes from being exposed to hundreds and thousands (really!) of stories about individual's experiences with myopia. When you just have your own, perhaps not traumatizing experience, the things I say sometimes may sound harsh. Hey Jake, chill. It's just some [...]
Giant Eye Q&A Roundup Time!
The forum, I keep saying, is gold. Whenever I feel a moment of inspiration, it's usually answering a very specific question in the forum. I read something, and it reminds me of a previous experience, or something we sorted out with a student in the past. Along with that, great ideas, perspectives, and experiences are written up in the forum by students. If this resource existed back when I was just getting started trying to get off my -5.00, I'd have bought access to a forum [...]