Vision Tips from your local eye experts. We feel it is important to give you tips and insight into your eye health. These tips relate to your Eyes, Eye Procedures, Eye Surgery Options and Tips for Healthy Eyes.
Vision Tip #11. Drops If you use eye drops regularly, try cooling them in the refrigerator! Cool drops will be more soothing and better at reducing any inflammation or irritation you have!
Vision Tip # 12.Eye Protection Protect those eyes! Chronic exposure to the elements is not good for the surface of your eye. It can cause inflammation, irritation, dryness and in extreme situations, it can cause a pterygium to develop. Be sure to wear eye protection and keep those eyes lubricated in harsh conditions!
Vision Tip #13. Lid Holders What if I move my eye during LASIK? If you move your eye or blink during LASIK it’s ok. We want you to try and be steady but there is a lid holder that keeps you from blinking, a stabilization ring to stabilize the eye and a pupil tracker on the laser that follows your eye if it moves! So don’t worry!
Vision Tip #14. Dilated Eye Exam Believe it or not it is important to have your eyes dilated. How important depends on your age and if you have any other conditions that might cause eye problems. If you are over 60, you should probably have them dilated at least every 2 years. If you have a family history of eye conditions, however, that changes things. So you might need them dilated every year or more. It is also different if you, yourself have a condition that can manifest in the eyes, like diabetes. Your best bet is to talk to your doctor and come up a plan that is best for you.
Vision Tip #15. Omega 3 supplements and your eyes. There are a lot of studies on this and some of the evidence is conflicting, but I do personally find that omega 3 supplements improve lid health and dry eyes in many patients. The supplements improve the quality of the oils in the lid so that these oils are better able to coat they eye and minimize dryness. There are numerous other benefits of Omega 3s on you body but don’t over do it. Usually 1000mg of omega 3s is a good amount
Vision Tip #16. The 20/20/20 rule! This is a technique that helps relieve strain on the eyes that develops when we do a lot of near work. Between computers and phones and tablets our eyes do a lot of close up work. To ease the strain on your eyes, look across the room or out the window, every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. This allows us to blink and rehydrate the eyes. It also relaxes accommodation or the contraction of the lens and muscles inside the eye! Yes there are muscles inside your eye!
Vision Tip #17. Fluorescein Dye! This is the sticky yellow dye that we place in your eyes when you come to the eye doctor. It helps us check for any scratches, dryness and also helps check pressure. In surgery, we use it to make sure the incisions are sealed. For Retina, we inject Fluorescein dye to check for swelling and leaky vessels. It has many uses beyond the eye too both in forensics and engineering.
Vision Tip #18: Pupils! Try this one at home! The connections between the eyes and into the brain are complex. More complex than a one minute video can explain. But what is easy to understand is that the light responses in each eye are connected. And shining light in one eye generates a response in the other eye. This helps immensely when trying to diagnose different visual conditions and trying to isolate the cause of decreased vision! Check it out!
Vision Tip # 19. Intraocular Lenses (IOLs). When we remove your cataract, we replace the cloudy lens with a clear one. That new lens is called an intraocular lens or “IOL”. But the new lenses aren’t one size fits all! Patients have a lot of lens options these days, depending on how they want to see after surgery. We can correct for distance, near, both, and more. So, to account for all of these options, we have to have a lot of lenses on hand. I am sure we have one for you!
VisionTip #20: After Surgery After cataract surgery you can resume doing almost anything within a couple of days. EXCEPT SWIM. And definitely NO HOT TUBS. Specifically, don’t get your head under water. Pools and hot tubs aren’t as clean as you want them to be. And hot tub eye infections are nasty. In fact, in general don’t dunk your head in a hot tub. It’s not a great idea. Especially if you wear contacts. The bacteria gets under the lenses and grows! No swimming or hot tubs after cataract surgery or in contact lenses.
