Q: At what age do you recommend someone starts using contact lenses?

A: For cosmetic purposes, Simon Eye Associates usually recommends contact lenses to those no younger than 12.  Wearing contact lenses is a responsibility.  There is work involved to keep them in proper order and that takes some maturity to do.  However, if there is a medical reason for contact lenses, we might be inclined to change our minds and recommend them to younger users.

Q: Are there any reasons why one wouldn’t be able to wear contact lenses?

A: Yes. Certain corneal conditions such as dry eye or history of infection are contraindications for contact lens wear. Certain work environments might not allow one to wear contact lenses.

Q: What types of contacts are available for me?

Rigid gas permeable (hard) and hydrogels (soft) are the two types of materials. There are contacts for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism and those that require presbyopic correction (bifocals). There are also special contact lenses for those with irregular corneas (keratoconus, corneal transplants).

Q: What factors should people consider before deciding whether to get contacts? Or when deciding what type of contacts to get?

A: Factors to consider are:

• Responsibility to care and handle the contacts correctly.
• Can the contacts meet my visual demands?
• Environmental factors — Where I will be wearing them (dusty work environment, camping, etc.)?
• Is my eye healthy enough to wear contact lenses?

Q: How much work is involved with wearing contacts?

A: Care and handling only require a few minutes a day but are critical for maintaining healthy vision and eyes.

Contact Lenses

This is an interesting article by a guy named Ted Webb.  We seem to be approaching the future faster than ever.  Read on…

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) are developing bionic contact lenses with light-emitting diode (LED) circuitry that may lead to a future with people accessing the World Wide Web directly on their eyeballs, effectively giving us superhuman eye sight with immediate demigod-like access to humankind’s knowledge.  Imagine meeting a man for the first time on the street, and without saying a word, knowing his name with Facebook-like precision and whether he brushed his teeth that morning.

Sound far-fetched?

Think again. Carnegie Mellon University game designer Jesse Schell (NOT connected to the UW bionic eye lens research) says we’ll have Wi-Fi connected toothbrushes within five years, signaling what he calls the coming “Gamepocalypse.  Not much of a leap to have your toothbrushing data uploaded to the Web and immediately seen by a complete stranger’s bionic eye lenses, is it? Schell’s idea is that everyone will be playing games on the Web, fun, supposedly harmless games that will help us brush our teeth more often and become better people. Yes, we all know that the entire reason we’re here and everything in life is about becoming “better people,”  more perfect people, right? But, my question is, what is coming? What is the real meaning of the future, the meaning beyond the “Gamepocalypse”? When you begin putting together all the technology and research going on, what kind of picture is emerging? Is it really what we, as human beings, want? Do we have any choice? Or does technology choose for us? Does our ability to build something actually mean that we should build it?

To hear some researchers talk, you’d think the future will be one big Garden of Eden paradise, a utopia of technology, that information will save everyone.  But at what cost to our humanity? What will it mean to be “human” in 100 years? Will human beings exist? Or will our humanity be erased by technology, when humans and machines become one? I’m highly suspicious this modern Prometheus will be all he’s cracked up to be, all he’s drummed up to be by these brilliant minds, the bored Pied Pipers of our age. What love and compassion and hope will Prometheus have when he becomes a mediocre puny, but arrogant “god,” lost in worship, not to Nature, or God, but rather, to a technological Cloud that pretends it has “all knowledge”?

Babak A. Parviz, the UW faculty member who spearheaded the bionic contact lenses research there, does a fantastic job thoroughly describing his research in an article he wrote for IEEE Spectrum. But, it’s also interesting that at the beginning of his article, in the third paragraph, he mentions the “Terminator” movies, in which the Terminator robot, programmed to kill humans, can see all kinds of information directly in his vision. In the films, as the Terminator sees a human, it can also see the human’s height, weight, all kinds of information, scrolling across his vision. Information that makes it so much easier to kill humans with. Keep in mind, the Terminators are a product of SkyNet, originally built by a military-industrial complex.

“These visions (if I may) might seem far-fetched, but a contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory,” Parviz writes, noting the lenses can’t “run subtitles on our surroundings yet.” But, according to the researcher, at least one lens has been built with LED, powered wirelessly. Parviz goes on to say, “What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology.”

Bionic Contact Lenses

Many people are confused as to whether or not they are actually taking good care of their eyes.  What does that really mean? Well, now we’ve developed a short quiz to help you determine whether or not you know how to take care of your eyes and what you should be doing.  Take the following quiz and see how you do:

1. How often do you see your eye doctor for an eye exam?

1. Whenever I feel like it
2. When I can’t see as well as I could before
3. At least every two years
4. I don’t

2. Which food is the best source of Lutein, that incredibly eye-healthy nutrient

1. Kale
2. Potatoes
3. Carrots
4. McDonalds

3. Which of the following could damage your eyesight?

1. Staring at your computer screen all day
2. Smoking
3. Reading in dim light
4. Driving on the left side of the road

4. Which eye disease can cause 40% loss of sight before you even notice it?

1. Glaucoma
2. Cataracts
3. You’d notice anything wrong with your eyes
4. Pink eye

5. If you get an eye infection should you?

1. Go straight to the hospital or your eye doctor
2. Use natural, or organic eye drops
3. Just wait it out, it will get better
4. Have a nice cup of tea

6. You want new sunglasses. Do you?

1. Buy the cheapest pair
2. Get fake Gucci’s on eBay
3. Make sure you buy ones that have passed safety regulations
4. Spend as much as you possibly can to look the best

7. Which of these is a symptom of age related macular degeneration?

1. Pain
2. Loss of central vision
3. Loss of side vision
4. Forgetting to pick your grandchildren up from school

Here are the answers:

1. You should have your eyes checked at least every 2 years.

2. Green leafy, Kale is the best food to provide the nutrient Lutein, most needed by eyes to perform at their best.

3. If you smoke you’re up to 4 times more likely to develop age related macular degeneration.

4. Glaucoma has been called the sneak thief of sight. It sneaks up and gradually causes your vision to move inwards.

5. Go straight to your doctor or eye doctor.  Serious problems can be avoided by rapid action.

6. Always check the safety regulations before buying any sunglasses.  Buy a pair that blocks 100% of UV rays.

7. Loss of central vision is a sign of age related macular degeneration, which affects almost a third of the people above 75 years old.  It is a very tricky disease to detect and only your eye doctor can know for sure.

How did you score? How many questions did you get right?

1-2 You have probably been lucky to not get any serious eye diseases, or injuries.  But you should study up some more on eye health and learn how to take better care of your eyes.

3-4 You’re doing pretty well, but you also need to be a bit more diligent when it comes to the health of your eyes.  Check back on the answers you got wrong and read our other Simon Eye blogs for more useful data.

5-7 Congratulations! It looks like you’re doing very well and know your stuff.  Keep it up.  Knowledge is the first defense in the fight to keep our eyes healthy and happy.

Healthy Vision Longer

At Simon Eye Associates we do a lot for one’s eyes and eyesight.  But we would prefer our patients take extra steps in preventing the problems they come to use to solve.  Recently, we have been gathering data for our readers on ways and means to do just that.  When we stumbled across this article, first published in Optometry Today, we knew we had found something of great benefit to you, our patient.  Enjoy!

To mark National Eye Week (November 9-15), the sight care charity has joined forces with healthcare provider, Simplyhealth to alert the public about the eye health risks associated with certain lifestyle choices. Together they are highlighting the effects that obesity, smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise and excessive alcohol consumption can have on a person’s eyesight.

Although smoking has been identified as a key element in the development of age-related macular degeneration, just 9.7% of the 13 million smokers in Britain are aware of this link, whist 92.2% and 87.7% are aware of its association with lung cancer and heart disease respectively.

Furthermore, although a small amount of red wine has been found to be beneficial for the eyes, too much alcohol will interfere with the liver. If the liver is damaged, the production of glutathione – which prevents cell damage that leads to cataracts, glaucoma and retinopathy – is reduced.

Around 30 minutes of exercise five-times a week is also encouraged by the Trust. Regular exercise increases the oxygen supply to the retina and optic nerve, as well as lowering the pressure which builds up in the eye.

Iain Anderson, chairman of The Eyecare Trust, said: “There is growing evidence that lifestyle factors play a significant role in determining the long-term health of our eyes. Making the right lifestyle choices from the start can help preserve your vision. However, it’s never too late to make changes, as in some instances vision that is already in decline can be restored by following a healthy diet, taking regular exercise and generally cutting down on the things that we know are bad for us like cigarettes and alcohol.”

Squash the Bad Lifestyle Habits