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FAQ

Q: What can I do about Digital Eye Strain?
A: We can help! There are various eyeglass lenses and lens coatings for people of all ages to relieve digital eye strain and ease fatigue after extended reading or computer use. Lens treatments, such as anti-reflective and blue light blocking coatings, protect your eyes and increase comfort. We also prescribe many different types of contact lenses to reduce reading discomfort and make it easier to switch focus from near to far.

Q: What is blue light and why is it dangerous?
A: Blue light is part of visible light and has a wavelength close to UV rays on the light spectrum. It is naturally produced by the sun, given off by fluorescent light bulbs, and emitted by LED screens on computer monitors, tablets, and smartphones. The eye's natural filters do not block blue light and chronic exposure may increase your risk for age-related macular degeneration. Evidence also shows that blue light exposure can lead to sleep problems.

Q: Are electronic devices really unhealthy for my eyes or is it all hype?
A: Our heavy use of electronic devices is causing Digital Eye Strain for people of all ages. Hoya research shows that 61% of adults experience eye strain due to prolonged use of electronic devices. Nearly 25% of children are on digital devices 3 or more hours per day and 40% of Millennials spend 9 or more hours per day on digital devices. The benefits of technology have a downside, especially fatigue brought on by stress to the accommodative (focusing) system. This stress can lead to headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision and difficulty when focusing from distance to near.

Q: What can I do to prevent eye fatigue?
A: Eye health issues can all lead to difficulty with near related visual tasks. ​Here are 5 Simple Tips for Avoiding Eye Strain from Near Vision Tasks. 1. Good posture: Whether you’re lying or sitting as you perform near tasks, having good posture can dramatically help with eye strain. If not, then you may be reading where one eye is farther away from the reading material than the other eye. If the head is angled away from the material, one eye’s view of the near task can often be completely blocked by the nose. Sit up straight, and face the reading material where both eyes appear equidistant from the reading material. Children are often the biggest culprits of poor posture when performing near tasks. 2. Incline of the reading material: If a page is lying on a flat surface like a table when you read it, the top part of the page is typically farther from the eye than the bottom part of the page. Then when you read across, line by line, from top to bottom, the distance between the reading material and your eyes is constantly changing. This causes the eyes to work harder. By propping the reading material up at an angle, it makes the top and bottom of the reading material more equidistant, thus making the eyes work less than when the material is on a flat surface. 3. Good lighting and contrast on your book/near task: With tablets, computers, and smart phones, we can usually have decent contrast. If the material is a book, or paper, it’s very important to have plenty of direct lighting on the reading material. This sounds simple, but too many people take this for granted, and then wonder why they get eye fatigue after reading for short periods of time. 4. Move your reading material a little bit farther away from your eyes: This can be especially effective for those approaching 40 and beyond! This doesn’t mean that you have to hold the near task as far from you as possible. Just be sure that it’s not too close to your face, and if you do get eye strain, try moving the near task a few inches farther from your eyes than you normally do. Children may lie on the floor or bed, and read or use hand-held devices positioned way too close to their faces, and often need to be reminded to adjust it, especially when they’re “in the zone” playing on a device. 5. If you have more than one simultaneous near task, try to make the multiple near tasks more equidistant: Many of my patients work on more than one monitor, or have a computer and also near-work beneath the monitor. If they have eye strain, I’ll often recommend that they try to make the monitors and multiple near tasks more equidistant, to reduce eye strain.​​ Be sure that you and your family members have annual eye health examinations. These tips do not replace having an annual eye health examination, updating your glasses/contacts if necessary, and visiting your optometrist if you have any visual or eye health problems in between routine eye doctor's appointments.

Q: What are CRT contact lenses?
A: Paragon CRT® Contact Lenses are therapeutic contact lenses that gently remold the cornea while you sleep to temporarily correct nearsightedness up to -6.00 diopters, and mild amounts of astigmatism. If you or your child have been diagnosed with nearsightedness (or myopia), Paragon CRT® Contact Lenses offers a non-invasive and non-surgical treatment.

Q: How does the Ortho-K assist in treating nearsightedness, and astigmatism.
A: The way to have clear vision is for light rays that travel through your eye to focus on your retina, orthokeratology does this by gently reshaping the cornea. It's a similar philosophy (changing corneal curvature) as LASIK but orthokeratology does no permanent damage or removal of corneal tissue as with LASIK.

Q: How does the Ortho-K slow the progression of childhood myopia.
A: It has been concluded in many studies that orthokeratology will halt or slow down the increase of axial length of the eye which is directly correlated to halting or slowing down progression of myopia.

Q: Please explain what Ortho-Keratology is and give a basic sense of how it works.
A: Orthokeratology is a procedure using specially designed gas permeable contact lenses to gently reshape the corneal curvature of the eye while sleeping. The lenses are designed to be removed upon awakening and the patient will have great vision throughout the day without the need of daily contact lenses or eyeglasses.

Q: What is it about this particular technology that you find most exciting, or the component that made you feel you need to use in this for your practice?
A: I love practicing orthokeratology because of the myopia control aspect. It's great to keep a child's nearsightedness from increasing exponentially and by doing that it will decrease the child's risk of developing retinal detachment or glaucoma in the future.

Q: What is Orthokeratolgy (Ortho-K)?
A: Did you ever wish you could wake up in the morning being able to see perfectly? By wearing Ortho-K lenses nightly, you can correct your vision if you are nearsighted to close to perfect vision. Your eye doctor will fit you with GP lenses that gently correct the shape of the front of your eye when you sleep. The correction remains for a day or two, so you must continue to use the contacts nightly if you want to maintain good vision during the day. Interested in trying Ortho-K lenses? Book a consultation today.

Q: What results can a patient expect from being treated with Ortho-k?
A: While being treated with orthokeratology, patients can expect clear daytime vision without the need of daytime glasses or contact lenses.

Q: What are the benefits of Ortho-k for kids?
A: Ortho-k can be an excellent option for children. Does your child’s prescription for myopia worsen progressively each year? Corrective refractive therapy may offer a solution to constant deteriorating vision. Studies have demonstrated that when children wear ortho-k lenses, myopia progression slows down. In addition, laser surgery is not available for kids under 18, so ortho-k is a great alternative to eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Q: Who can wear ortho-k lenses?
A: People who suffer from nearsightedness will benefit the most from CRT, especially if your eye doctor does not recommend refractive surgery. Patients of any age can benefit from this treatment. Corneal reshaping lenses are especially useful for people who find eyeglasses and contact lenses inconvenient for various reasons. Some people find contacts hard to wear for an entire day, or don’t want to wear them while playing sports.People who suffer from dry eye syndrome or allergies have a hard time wearing contacts. Ortho-k is a perfect solution for anyone who can’t wear contact lenses, and don’t like the look or feel of eyeglasses.

Q: When will the ortho-k lenses start working?
A: After one or two nights of wearing the lenses, you will notice that your vision has improved. It could take a bit longer to reach perfect vision. Most people report achieving clear and sharp vision within two weeks. FDA trials have shown that approximately 65% of all patients who use CRT achieve 20/20 visual acuity.

Q: Why should I take an image of my retina during my eye exam?
A: A picture can say a 1000 words, and this saying holds true with the eye. There are many components of the eye, but one of the most important parts of the eye is the retina,which is located in the back of the eye behind the pupil and lens inside. The retina is responsible for converting light energy into chemical signals that are then transferred via the optic nerve to the brain, where that information is processed, resulting in our vision. There are no pain receptors within the retina, and so you will never feel any issues in the retina that may be life threatening, such as melanomas, and sight threatening, such as glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. Changes within the retina can cause vision loss, therefore it is important for us to get imaging in the back of the eye so that we can check for any retinal disease, such as Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma, and so that we can establish a normal baseline so that we can monitor any changes more accurately. Dilations are also necessary for us to evaluate the back of the eye as well as imaging to ensure we have a complete overall sense of the eye.