BLOG

What are the most important aspects of protecting your vision? You're probably thinking of annual eye exams, the right pair of glasses, or maybe sunglasses on a bright day. But one of the most powerful tools for maintaining healthy eyes has nothing to do with an eye doctor's office at all. It's y...

Life with cataracts can be like trying to see through a foggy window that can't be wiped clean. Cataracts are one of the most common eye conditions in the world, and the good news is that they're also one of the most treatable. Here's what you need to know. What Is a Cataract? A cataract is a clo...

Spending time in the water is one of summer's great pleasures. That's true whether you're doing laps at the pool, snorkeling on vacation, or splashing around at the lake, but water, especially treated or open water, poses real risks to your eyes. Understanding those risks and taking a few simple ...

Fireworks season is one of the most spectacular times of year. The brilliant colors, the dramatic bursts, the collective "ooh" of a crowd watching the sky light up on a warm summer night. But behind the beauty lies a genuine danger that sends thousands of people to emergency rooms every year. As ...

You're going about your day when something strange happens to your field of vision. A flickering arc of light creeps into your vision, or part of your visual field simply disappears. No headache, no warning. Just a sudden, unsettling change in what you see. This is often an ocular migraine, and w...

Finding the right pair of glasses is about more than lens strength or brand preference. The frames you choose interact with your natural features every single day, so picking a shape that flatters your face can make a meaningful difference in how you look and feel. The good news: a few simple gui...

When most people think about eyebrows and eyelashes, they think about aesthetics. But long before they became a focal point of beauty routines and makeup tutorials, brows and lashes evolved for one purpose: to protect your eyes. Understanding what they actually do can deepen your appreciation for...

Sunglasses are an essential tool for protecting your long-term eye health. But with so many styles, lens types, and price points on the market, it can be hard to know whether the pair on your face is actually doing its job. Here is what you need to know to choose wisely. UV Protection Is Non-Nego...

Our eyes are among the most sophisticated optical instruments in the natural world. Despite their small size, they contain millions of cells working in precise coordination to deliver a continuous, detailed picture of the world around you. Understanding how your eyes work can deepen your apprecia...

When it comes to vision and eye health, biology makes a difference. Research consistently shows that certain eye conditions affect women and men at different rates, with different levels of severity, and sometimes for different reasons. Understanding these differences can help you take a more pro...

Most people know that regular exercise keeps the body strong and healthy. Fewer people realize that your eyes and visual system can be trained and strengthened too. Visual skills go far beyond simply seeing clearly at a distance. They include how well your eyes work together, how quickly you can ...

You lock your doors at night, and you wash your hands before eating. You think carefully about what enters your body. But there is one entry point most people never consider securing: their eyes. The eyes are among the most exposed and vulnerable organs in the human body. Unlike the skin, which f...

Spring and summer bring longer days, warmer weather, and, for millions, hay fever. While most people reach for antihistamines to manage sneezing and a runny nose, the eyes are often the most uncomfortable battleground. Itchy, red, watery eyes can make the warmer months genuinely difficult, but wi...

Blinking is one of the most automatic things your body does. You do it thousands of times a day without a second thought. But this small, reflexive action plays a surprisingly large role in keeping your eyes healthy and comfortable. Here is what happens every time you blink, and why it matters. B...

Tanning beds are marketed as a convenient way to keep a sun-kissed glow year-round. But while most people know about the skin cancer risks, far fewer think about what that UV exposure is doing to their eyes. The answer may surprise you. The UV Threat You Can't See Tanning beds emit ultraviolet ra...

If you get frequent headaches, your eyes might be the cause. Many people reach for pain relievers without realizing that an underlying vision problem could be driving their discomfort. Understanding the link between your eyes and your head pain is the first step toward lasting relief. How Eye Str...

Scheduling an eye exam can feel like a low priority, especially if your vision seems fine. But routine eye exams are about much more than updating your glasses prescription. They give your eye doctor a chance to detect early signs of conditions like glaucoma, cataracts, and even diabetes, often b...

Your lenses are a significant investment in your vision and your health. Whether you wear glasses, contact lenses, or both, taking care of them properly means clearer vision, fewer replacements, and healthier eyes. Here are some practical tips to keep your lenses in great shape. Cleaning Your Gla...

When you look into someone's eyes, you typically expect to see a matching pair. But for those with heterochromia, their eyes tell a different story. This captivating condition results in two different colored eyes or variations of color within a single eye, creating a striking and memorable appea...

When most people hear "color blindness," they imagine a world drained of all color. This common misconception of eyesight like a black-and-white movie couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, complete color blindness is extremely rare, and most people with color vision deficiencies see the...

Most of us know that ultraviolet radiation can damage our skin. What fewer people realize is that UV light poses serious risks to our eyes as well. Understanding these risks is the first step toward protecting your vision for years to come. The Invisible Threat Ultraviolet light exists just beyon...

Have you ever seen a still image that appeared to move? Or looked at two identical objects that appeared to be different sizes? Welcome to the fascinating world of optical illusions, where your eyes and brain team up to play tricks on you. Optical illusions aren't just entertaining party tricks. ...

AMD is one of the leading causes of vision loss in adults over 50. This progressive eye condition affects the macula, the central part of the retina responsible for sharp, detailed vision. Understanding AMD's risk factors, recognizing early symptoms, and knowing available treatments can help pres...

Your eyes are one of your most valuable assets. Unfortunately, they're often overlooked when it comes to preventive health care. At our practice, we see countless patients who could have avoided vision problems with simple lifestyle changes and regular attention to their eye health. Here are our ...

Glaucoma is often called the "silent thief of sight," and for good reason. This group of eye diseases can gradually steal your vision without warning signs until significant damage has occurred. Understanding your risk factors is the first step in protecting your eyesight and catching this condit...

Driving after dark presents unique challenges that many people underestimate. While nighttime traffic is typically lighter, the reduced visibility significantly increases accident risk. Understanding how your eyes work in low-light conditions can help you stay safer on the road. The Science Behin...

As eye care professionals, we love when patients ask questions. It shows you're invested in your vision health, and it gives us a chance to share knowledge that can make a real difference in your daily life. Over the years, certain questions come up again and again. Here are answers to some of th...

What happens when a vision problem goes completely unnoticed? The consequences can ripple through a child's entire educational journey and beyond, affecting far more than just their ability to see clearly. The Immediate Classroom Struggles In the short term, undiagnosed vision problems create imm...

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system attacks healthy tissues. While many people associate these conditions with joint pain, fatigue, or skin problems, few realize that autoimmune diseases can significantly impact eye health. Understanding this connection is crucial for protecting your...

Parents play a crucial role in ensuring their child develops strong visual skills. Vision development begins in infancy and continues through adolescence, making early intervention and consistent care essential for optimal eye health. Understanding Vision Milestones Children's vision develops rap...

Winter brings stunning snowy landscapes and cozy holiday gatherings. Unfortunately, it also presents unique challenges for your eye health. While most people remember to bundle up with warm coats and gloves, eye protection often gets overlooked. Understanding how to safeguard your vision during t...

Most people know that smoking damages the lungs and heart. But did you know it's also one of the worst things you can do for your eyes? The connection between smoking and vision loss is stronger than most people realize, and it's something worth understanding if you smoke or live with someone who...

If you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar levels is essential. It's not just important for preventing complications with your heart, kidneys, or nerves — it's also crucial for protecting your vision. Diabetes is one of the leading causes of vision loss in adults, making regular eye exams ...

One of the eye's most captivating features is the variety of colors it can display. As eye care professionals, we're privileged to observe this diversity every day in our practice. Here are some fascinating facts about eye color that might surprise both you and your patients. The Science Behind E...

Retinal detachment is a serious medical emergency. It happens when the retina (the light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye) separates from its underlying supportive tissue. Without prompt treatment, retinal detachment can lead to permanent vision loss. Understanding the warning signs can h...

When patients walk into your practice today, they enjoy the benefits of modern technology. That means precision measurements, digital lens surfacing, and frames that combine durability with style. It's easy to forget that the sophisticated eyewear we prescribe represents centuries of innovation. ...

Visual impairment affects millions of people worldwide in many different ways. Understanding the different types of visual impairment and learning respectful ways to help can make a meaningful difference in someone's daily life. Low Vision Visual impairment exists on a spectrum, ranging from mild...

The health of our eyes and the quality of our sleep are very interconnected. While we often think of sleep as simply a time for rest, it plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy vision, and conversely, our eye health can significantly impact the quality of our sleep. How Sleep Benefits Your Ey...

The home is one of the most common places where eye injuries occur. Each year, thousands of Americans suffer preventable eye injuries while performing routine household tasks. Understanding the risks and taking simple precautions can help protect your vision and keep your eyes safe. Common Househ...

Our bodies undergo countless changes over time, and our eyes are no exception. Understanding the aging process of our visual system is crucial for maintaining optimal eye health and adapting to the inevitable changes that come with time. The Natural Timeline of Eye Changes Eye aging begins earlie...

Don't forget about safety when crafting your top-tier costume. Halloween is the perfect time to transform into your favorite character, and colored or special-effect contact lenses can make your costume truly spectacular. However, those dramatic vampire eyes or glowing zombie pupils need to be ch...

Your eyes work hard every day, processing massive amounts of visual information. They do this nonstop, while you read, drive, work on computers, and navigate the world around you. Yet many people put off regular eye exams until something feels wrong. The truth is, waiting until you notice problem...

For many people, eye makeup is part of a daily routine. Mascara, eyeliner, and eyeshadow can boost confidence and highlight features, but few stop to consider the risks these products pose to eye health. Because the eyes are delicate and vulnerable, it’s important to apply cosmetics with cautio...

Eye safety is an important part of playing sports. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked until an accident happens. Each year, thousands of eye injuries occur on the field or court, and many of them could have been prevented with the right precautions. Protecting your vision should be just as muc...

In today’s digital age, most of us spend hours each day in front of screens. Whether it’s a computer, phone, or tablet, all this screen time can leave our eyes feeling tired, dry, and strained. This condition, often referred to as digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome, is increasingl...

The animal kingdom is full of fascinating adaptations. Some of the most jaw-dropping examples can be found in eyes. From incredible vision capabilities to strange shapes and colors, these unique eyes help creatures hunt, hide, and survive. Let’s explore a few of nature’s most extraordinary oc...

As kids prepare to enter school, there’s usually a checklist of must-dos. That includes new backpacks, school supplies, doctor checkups, and maybe a trip to the dentist. But what about their vision? Too often, children’s eye health gets overlooked, especially when parents assume the quick “...

Pink eye (conjunctivitis) is one of the most common and contagious eye conditions. It occurs when the conjunctiva (the thin, clear tissue covering the white part of the eye and the inside of the eyelids) becomes inflamed or infected. The result is redness, irritation, and often a sticky discharge...

We often hear that “you are what you eat.” When it comes to eye health, that saying rings true. Just like the rest of your body, your eyes rely on a steady supply of nutrients to function at their best. While a healthy diet won’t guarantee perfect vision, it can help reduce your risk of dev...

Most people think that if they can see clearly, their eyes must be perfectly healthy. After all, isn’t 20/20 vision the gold standard? While sharp vision is important, it’s only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to your overall eye health. Many common and serious eye conditions can develo...

Getting used to wearing glasses for the first time? Here’s how to adjust with confidence. If you’ve just received your first pair of glasses, congratulations; you’re about to experience the world in sharper detail. But even though clearer vision is a big win, adjusting to life with glasses ...

Wearing glasses doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your makeup routine. In fact, the right makeup choices can enhance your look and complement your frames beautifully. Whether you wear bold statement glasses or simple, minimalist styles, these makeup tips can help you strike the perfect balance b...

Your daily habits have a lasting effect on your eye health. While age and genetics play a role in how our vision changes over time, many of the most common vision problems can be influenced positively or negatively by the choices we make every day. If you’re looking for ways to protect your eye...

Cataracts are a common age-related eye condition. They are often characterized by the clouding of the eye’s natural lens. This progressive clouding can significantly diminish clarity of vision, leading to symptoms like blurred or double vision, faded colors, light sensitivity, and difficulty se...

Water activities can be a major highlight of the summer months. However, the water environment can present unique challenges to the health and safety of your eyes. Understanding these potential risks and taking simple precautions can help ensure your aquatic adventures don't lead to eye irritatio...

As the Fourth of July approaches, many of us look forward to the fireworks shows. While these displays are a beloved tradition, they also pose a significant risk to eye health. Each year, thousands of people experience eye injuries due to fireworks, many of them children and bystanders. Fortunate...

Ocular migraines can be alarming when they first occur. They involve sudden visual disturbances that can appear with or without the classic pain of a traditional migraine. While usually short-lived and not dangerous on their own, ocular migraines can temporarily interfere with daily tasks like re...

Choosing the right pair of eyeglass frames isn’t just about correcting your vision. It’s also about feeling confident in how you look! The right frames can enhance your facial features, balance your proportions, and express your personality. With so many styles, shapes, colors, and thicknesse...

We often think of eyebrows and eyelashes as features that enhance our appearance. They frame the face and add expression to our eyes. While they certainly play an important role in aesthetics, these small but mighty structures also serve critical protective functions for our eyes. Understanding t...

Sunglasses are more than just a fashion statement, they're essential protection for your eyes. When we think about shielding ourselves from the sun, sunscreen and hats often come to mind first, but many people forget that our eyes are just as vulnerable to ultraviolet (UV) radiation as our skin. ...

How much do you remember about eye anatomy from biology class? The human eye is often described as one of the most complex and fascinating organs in the body. Responsible for our sense of sight, the eye works like a finely tuned camera, capturing light and converting it into signals the brain can...

When it comes to eye health, men and women are not affected equally. Biological differences, lifestyle factors, and even hormonal changes can influence the types of eye problems each gender is more likely to experience. Understanding these differences is key to helping everyone take the right ste...

When we think of athletes, attributes like speed and strength usually come to mind. However, equally critical to sports performance are the visual skills that allow athletes to process and react to visual information swiftly and accurately. Interestingly, these skills are not just innate; they ca...

Rubbing your eyes can feel like a harmless response to fatigue, irritation, or discomfort. Unfortunately, this common habit could be putting your eye health at risk. While it may offer temporary relief, the act of rubbing can actually worsen the situation by transferring harmful bacteria and othe...

Ready to navigate the irritations of seasonal allergies? Seasonal allergies are more than just a nuisance; for many, they are a significant disruptor of daily life, especially when it comes to eye health. Each year, as plants release pollen into the air, millions of people begin their battle with...

On average, we blink about 15-20 times every minute. That amounts to approximately 1,200 blinks an hour and a staggering 21,600 times a day (not counting the hours of sleep). Blinking is such a frequent and automatic part of our daily lives that most of us never stop to think about why we do it. ...

Many people are unaware of the health risks of tanning beds, especially to the eyes. While many seek the glowing appearance that comes from a tan, there are hidden risks, whether you prefer tanning beds or sunbathing. Understanding these risks can help you make informed decisions about your tanni...

Headaches are a common ailment that most people experience at some point in their lives. While they can be caused by various factors like stress, diet, or illness, many people may not realize that headaches can also be linked to eye problems. Understanding this connection is crucial for those who...

Maintaining optimal eye health starts with regular check-ups with the optometrist. Visiting your optometrist for an eye exam is crucial for maintaining not only your vision but also your overall health. For those who have never been, or who haven’t gone in a while, here’s what you can typical...

It's remarkable what a change a pair of thin contact lenses or pieces of glass can make. The transformation that occurs when you first put on glasses or contact lenses is nothing short of miraculous — suddenly, individual blades of grass and leaves on trees snap into clear focus. This clarity i...

"Color blindness" often conjures images of seeing the world in shades of gray. However, this condition typically manifests not as a complete absence of color, but as an inability to perceive certain hues correctly. Let's explore the fascinating world of color vision deficiency, its causes, types,...

The way someone's eyes look can leave a big impression. Eyes are often touted as the windows to the soul, captivating onlookers with their vast array of colors and expressions. Among these visual wonders is heterochromia, a rare phenomenon that not only adds mystery but also a striking beauty to ...

We hear a lot about the harm UV rays can do to our skin, but what about our eyes? Ultraviolet (UV) light, a type of radiation emitted by the sun, plays an essential role in our environment. However, it can also pose significant risks, particularly to our eyes. Understanding how UV light affects e...

Do you ever wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you? It certainly feels like it when looking at an optical illusion, but the fascinating world of these puzzling images extends far beyond simple visual tricks. These illusions reveal deep insights into the workings of our visual system, illus...

AMD is a condition that slowly erodes a person's detailed central vision. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) stands as a primary cause of irreversible vision loss in individuals over fifty. This condition stems from the gradual degradation of the macula, the central part of the retina dense w...

For many people, some form of reading glasses become necessary after age 40. As we age, the flexibility of the lenses in our eyes diminishes, leading to a common vision condition known as presbyopia. This change generally begins to affect individuals over the age of 40, marking a shift where even...

Healthy eyesight is an essential yet often overlooked aspect of living a fulfilling life. About one in six adults contends with eye conditions that could lead to significant vision loss or even blindness, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, and cataracts. These risks inc...

The pressure of the fluid in our eyes is incredibly important to our eye health. Maintaining clear vision involves a complex interaction of various components within the eye. When any of these components falter, it can significantly impact both vision and overall eye health. A critical but often ...

In the shorter days of winter, many of us find ourselves driving in the dark more frequently. This seasonal shift can be particularly challenging for those with less-than-perfect vision, making night driving not only more difficult but also potentially hazardous. However, with a few precautions, ...

Healthy vision is crucial for a child's educational and overall development. Experts believe that up to 80% of learning is visual, and many childhood learning challenges are connected to undiagnosed vision issues. How can parents ensure their children don't fall behind due to overlooked eye probl...

Autoimmune diseases can impact any part of the body, including the eyes. Autoimmune diseases are conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells. For individuals dealing with these conditions, understanding the potential impacts on vision is crucial. Here, we explore some c...

Did you know that learning to use our eyes effectively is a skill? We developed that skill as babies and toddlers, and our kids have to do that too. Just as babies need to learn to walk and talk, they also need to learn to see. From infancy through toddlerhood, there are many ways parents can sup...

Just because winter days are shorter, that doesn't mean we can slack on eye protection! The sun’s UV rays can be just as harmful on a snowy slope as they are on a sunny beach — sometimes even more so. Despite being bundled up in layers of winter gear, our eyes remain particularly vulnerable t...

Smoking has incredibly harmful effects on nearly every organ in the body, including the eyes. While the connection between smoking and lung cancer is well-established, many don't realize that smoking also poses significant risks to eye health. Research indicates that smokers have an elevated risk...

Diabetes, if not managed properly, can lead to various secondary health issues. Several of them significantly impact eye health. In fact, diabetes is a leading cause of blindness globally. Individuals with any type of diabetes are at risk of developing sight-threatening conditions such as diabeti...

Have you ever wondered what causes all the different eye colors out there? The beautiful array of human eye colors is governed by the same compound responsible for skin color — melanin. Not only does melanin give our eyes and skin their color, but it also helps protect them from sun damage, tho...

The human eye's complex structure makes it susceptible to a range of conditions. One of the most serious is retinal detachment. This condition, affecting roughly one in every 300 people, can lead to irreversible vision loss if not promptly addressed. Understanding the early warning signs is cruci...

The history of glasses is a fascinating tale of innovation spanning over two millennia. From ancient rudimentary aids to the sophisticated spectacles and contact lenses we use today, each development marks a significant leap forward in vision correction. Ancient Beginnings and Roman Ingenuity Rec...

There are limits to what glasses and contact lenses can correct. When the strongest prescriptions still leave someone unable to see clearly, they fall into the spectrum of visual impairment. Understanding this spectrum is important for everyone, not just those directly affected. Knowledge of visu...

Being sleep-deprived can hit the body like alcohol, but how does it affect our eyes? Achieving adequate sleep is essential for overall and ocular health, and interestingly, the relationship is reciprocal. By managing what we expose our eyes to before bedtime, we can enhance the quality of our sle...

An astounding 90% of eye injuries are preventable. However, many occur within the safety of our own homes. As we observe Eye Safety Awareness Month this October, it’s crucial to adopt straightforward precautions to safeguard our eyes from everyday risks. Whether it’s handling household chemic...

Aging brings many changes, and our eyesight is no exception. As we grow older, our vision can transform in various ways, from minor alterations to more serious conditions that could impact our quality of life. Recognizing these changes early is key to managing and mitigating potential issues effe...

Nothing beats costume contact lenses as a finishing touch on a great costume. However, it's crucial to remember that these are not mere accessories but medical devices that require careful consideration for the health and safety of your eyes. In this post, we'll guide you through essential tips t...

Eye exams are a crucial part of maintaining our overall health. Regular eye exams are essential, even if you don't think you need a new glasses or contact lens prescription. Our eyes are complex organs, and a lot can go wrong without noticeable symptoms. Regular check-ups are the best way to dete...

When it comes to your eyes, health and safety should always come before beauty. Though makeup has come a long way since the days of using harmful substances like lead or arsenic, even today’s safer formulas can pose risks if they get into your eyes. Eye infections and injuries can still occur, ...

Most eye injuries are entirely preventable. This includes those sustained during athletic activities. While eye protection is commonly associated with professions like welding, construction, or laboratory work, it's equally crucial for athletes. In the United States alone, proper eye protection c...

In today’s digital world, many of us spend several hours a day staring at screens. Whether it’s for work, study, or leisure, our increasing screen time can lead to digital eye strain, a condition that can cause discomfort, blurred vision, and headaches. Fortunately, there are several strategi...

When it comes to vision, nature is both diverse and innovative. Animals have evolved an array of visual abilities that often far surpass human capabilities, tailored to their unique environments and survival needs. This blog post explores some of the most intriguing differences between human eyes...

As parents, we aim to give our children every advantage in their educational journey. Clear vision is far more critical to a child's academic, social, and athletic success than often recognized. Did you know that as much as 80% of learning during a child's formative years is visual? While traditi...

Many of us have gotten or will get some form of pink eye. Pink eye, or conjunctivitis, is a prevalent eye condition marked by red, irritated eyes paired with discomfort and discharge, ranging from clear to thick and yellow. This infection involves the inflammation of the conjunctiva — the delic...

Have you ever wondered why carrots are credited with improving night vision? This belief actually stems from a clever piece of British wartime propaganda during World War II. To conceal their new radar technology, which was used to spot enemy aircraft at night, the British claimed that their pilo...

Many believe that achieving 20/20 vision marks the pinnacle of eye health. However, the full picture is a lot more complicated. While 20/20 vision indicates clear sight at 20 feet, it doesn't capture the entirety of ocular health. There are numerous vision issues that this measurement doesn't add...

Embarking on your glasses journey? You'll soon notice some subtle and surprising shifts in your everyday life — quirks and nuances you'd never anticipate. Ready to see how many you've already experienced? 1. Battles with Fog, Steam, and Humidity Removing the lid from a boiling pot or opening a ...

Selecting makeup that enhances your facial features can be a delightful challenge. However, for those who wear glasses, the task becomes a bit more complex. If your prescription significantly alters the size of your eyes, making them appear larger or smaller, you might consider switching to conta...

Maintaining an active lifestyle not only boosts overall health but also benefits our eyes. A balanced diet, adequate sleep, and regular exercise contribute to staying fit, feeling vibrant, and building strength. Additionally, these habits lower the risk of chronic conditions such as high blood pr...

Cataracts have been a major cause of blindness throughout history. The journey from ancient remedies to contemporary treatments reflects a profound evolution in medical science. In the United States alone, over 20 million adults over 40 are affected by cataracts, with the likelihood of occurrence...

Summer is here, and for many of us, that means heading to the water to cool off and have fun. Whether you’re planning to splash around in a pool, float down a river, paddle across a lake, ride the waves at the ocean, enjoy the thrills of a water park, or slide through your backyard on a Slip N ...

How do you celebrate the Fourth of July? Perhaps with a festive barbecue, a lively parade, or decked out in vibrant red, white, and blue attire? For many, fireworks are a highlight, dazzling us with their explosive beauty. But amidst the excitement, it's crucial to remember the risks involved. Fi...

Have you ever noticed a flickering spot of light that gradually expands until it dominates your field of vision? If so, you may have encountered an ocular migraine. This phenomenon can be quite unsettling if you're not familiar with what's occurring, and somewhat confusingly, it isn't always asso...

When choosing your next pair of glasses, what factors influence your decision? Consider adding your face shape to that list. Glasses are not just functional; they serve as a customizable element of your facial expression and are a distinctly visible part of your look. They provide a brilliant opp...

Eyelashes and eyebrows do much more than enhance our looks. Far from just being accessories for conveying emotions or casting playful looks, they play a vital role in eye health. Serving as a primary protective barrier, they help keep airborne particles and environmental threats at bay, safeguard...

Summer is coming, bringing with it extended daylight hours and abundant sunshine! With the arrival of the warmer months, many of us find ourselves spending more time outdoors. This increased exposure to sunlight also increases our exposure to harmful UV radiation. It's crucial to protect our eyes...

Do you recall learning about eye anatomy in biology class? Whether you're well-versed in the topic or didn't delve into it much, we're passionate about keeping our patients well-informed on everything related to the eyes. Within a space not much larger than a golf ball, our eyes convert light pho...

It might surprise you how different eyesight and eye health can be between the sexes. For instance, men are at a higher risk of sustaining serious eye injuries, while women are generally more susceptible to various eye diseases. Given these distinctions, what steps can both men and women take to ...

Visual skills are the unsung heroes in athletic performance. When envisioning the quintessential athlete, attributes like speed and strength typically dominate our perceptions. However, just as vital, yet often overlooked, are an athlete's visual skills. The ability to rapidly process and react t...

When we rub our eyes, we might be jeopardizing our eye health. Rubbing our eyes is often an automatic response during moments of fatigue, discomfort from a foreign object, or sensations of dryness and itchiness. While it might seem like a quick fix, this action can actually escalate the issue. Th...

It's hard to enjoy the sights and smells of springtime through seasonal allergies. Nearly one in every four people (kids and adults alike) experience seasonal allergies. What exactly causes these symptoms, such as redness, puffiness, and itchiness in our eyes during spring? While allergies are a ...

Why do we need to blink so often? If you take a moment to tally your blinks over a minute without altering your natural rhythm, you'll likely find that an adult blinks between ten to twenty times each minute, with each blink lasting only about a tenth of a second. Blinking: A Natural Eye Refreshm...

Before you seek a sun-kissed glow, understand the perils of indoor tanning booths. These risks extend beyond skin health to encompass serious threats to our eyes. A coalition of medical professionals, including physicians, dermatologists, surgeons, and eye specialists, recently testified before C...

Happy Workplace Eye Wellness Month! There's no better time to delve into the topic of maintaining eye safety in various occupational environments. The nature of eye hazards varies greatly depending on the type of work one engages in. While manual labor positions may expose individuals to direct d...

Frequent headaches can stem from unexpected sources, including vision problems. If you find yourself grappling with recurrent headaches, we recommend scheduling an eye examination to investigate potential vision-related factors. While headaches can arise from diverse origins and not all are linke...

About one in five adults in the United States has an undiagnosed eye condition. This underscores the critical importance of regular eye exams for maintaining optimal vision health. For those who have never undergone an eye exam, it's natural to feel uncertain about the process. However, we're her...

The impact of glasses and contact lenses, despite their small size, is profound. If you wear glasses or contacts, you likely recall the transformative moment when donning them let you to make out individual blades of grass and leaves on trees. Clear vision is essential for a multitude of daily ta...

Color blindness isn't all black and white. Despite common misconceptions, color blindness doesn't equate to seeing the world like a black and white movie. In fact, most individuals with color blindness can perceive some colors, albeit with varying degrees of vividness. Let's delve into the three ...

Eyes, the windows to the soul, captivate us with their myriad colors and expressions. Yet, there exists a phenomenon that elevates ocular allure to a whole new level—heterochromia. In this blog post, we embark on a fascinating journey into the intriguing world of mismatched eyes, exploring its ...

Are your eyes playing tricks on you? When staring at an optical illusion, it often feels that way. The intriguing world of optical illusions goes beyond mere visual deception; it delves into the intricate workings of our visual system, revealing that what we see is not solely a function of our ey...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of permanent vision loss for people over fifty. The slow loss of central vision occurs due to the deterioration of the macula, the part of the retina with the highest concentration of photoreceptor cells and the part that gives us our deta...

Why do people over the age of forty so often need reading glasses or bifocals? As the sands of time trickle away, the lenses in our eyes gradually lose their flexibility, leading to a common vision concern known as presbyopia. This optical evolution typically sets in after the age of 40, affectin...

A crucial yet oft-overlooked component of a high-quality life is healthy eyesight. Approximately one in six adults grapple with sight-threatening eye conditions, while a significant number experience some degree of vision loss as they age. Aging is a risk factor for prevalent causes of blindness,...

Maintaining clear eyesight is a complex interplay of many different components within the eye. When a single element falters, it can significantly affect vision and overall eye health. One often-overlooked factor is the fluid inside the eye, which must maintain a precise pressure range. Deviation...

As winter rolls in, the days get shorter, making night driving harder to avoid. For those of us without perfect eyesight, this annual adjustment can be stressful and potentially dangerous if we neglect the specific challenges posed by driving in the dark. Fortunately, a few simple precautions can...

Having healthy eyesight plays a massive role in children's education and development. Experts estimate that up to 80% of all learning is visual and that more than half of childhood learning difficulties can be linked to an undiagnosed vision problem. What can parents do to ensure that their child...

Autoimmune diseases are conditions in which the immune system turns on healthy cells. Some of these diseases can have a serious and negative impact on the health and function of the eyes. For those grappling with autoimmune conditions, it's crucial to be aware of the potential effects on vision. ...

Did you know that using our eyes is something we have to learn how to do? That's right, not only are we not born with fully developed eyesight, but all of the visual skills we use hundreds of times a day take a lot of practice to master, just like it takes a lot of practice learning to walk and t...

The shorter days in winter are no excuse to slack off on eye protection! The sun's UV rays can do just as much damage to our eyes on a snowy slope as they can at the beach, and sometimes more. We probably don't need sunscreen thanks to all of the layers of snow gear, but our eyes are still highly...

Smoking causes harm to every organ in the body, including the eyes. We usually think of lung cancer first when it comes to the harms of smoking, and maybe we think of oral health issues next, but even the parts of the body that don't come into direct contact with the smoke are in danger. Studies ...

If it isn't carefully controlled, diabetes can cause a wide variety of secondary health problems. Several of those specifically affect the eyes, to the point where diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide. All types of diabetes come with a risk of sight-threatening conditions ...

The same compound that determines our skin color also creates the variety of eye colors we see. In fact, it's the very same compound that protects our skin and eyes from getting damaged by the sun (though we still need sunglasses and sunscreen to finish the job). So how can one compound (melanin)...

The complexity of the human eye makes it vulnerable to a variety of problems. One of the most concerning is retinal detachment, a condition that can result in permanent vision loss without treatment. This sight-threatening problem affects one in every 300 individuals at some point in their lives....

Since at least 60 AD, people have been crafting tools to correct vision problems. There are records of Roman philosopher Seneca magnifying text with a glass globe of water. Emperor Nero needed a magnifying emerald to see gladiator fights more clearly. We don't have to resort to these kinds of rud...

Insufficient sleep can affect the mind and body like alcohol, but what does it do to our eyes? For the sake of both our overall health and our eye health, we need to be getting plenty of sleep, but it's actually a two-way street. If we are more careful about what we put in front of our eyes befor...

The vast majority of eye injuries (90%!) are preventable, and many of them happen at home. Broadly, the best way to prevent eye injuries is through simple precautions like minimizing unnecessary hazards around the house and yard and wearing protective gear whenever we have to work with harmful ch...

The older we get, the more our eyesight tends to change. As we age, our vision can undergo significant changes, ranging from the subtle to the sight-threatening. Early detection of age-related vision issues is crucial for effective management, which is why we urge our older patients to make regul...

A lot of Halloween costumes and cosplay outfits aren't really complete without costume contact lenses. This can be difficult, however, because unlike an intricately crafted outfit, costume contacts are medical devices, so it's important for the safety of your eyes that you source good costume len...

How often should you be getting an eye exam, considering your eye health history? Preventative care is as important for our eyes as it is for our teeth and our overall health, which means we should be getting regular eye exams even when we don't need a new glasses or contact lens prescription. Ou...

"Beauty is pain" is a bad idea in general, but especially when it comes to eyes and makeup. In the modern day, we no longer use makeup made of lead, arsenic, or mercury like people did in previous eras, but it's still not exactly pleasant or healthy to get makeup in your eye. Even makeup made of ...

The vast majority of eye injuries can be prevented easily, including sports eye injuries. How can we prevent them? By wearing the right eye protection. We often think eye protection is mainly for welders or construction workers or people working in chemistry labs, but it can also save an athlete'...

Our jobs are all about keeping human eyes healthy and making sure our patients see clearly. However, every once in a while, we like taking a look at the fascinating world of animal eyesight. There are some incredible eyes in nature that work very differently from the way human eyes do. Human Eyes...

Do you know how much time you're spending each day looking at screens? Between our work computers, tablets, TVs, and smartphones, the average person can rack up a pretty staggering amount of daily screentime these days. That can be pretty taxing on the eyes. All it takes to create a 90% risk of d...

As parents, we want to ensure that our children have the best possible start in their education. Making sure they can see clearly plays a more important role to a child’s education than most people realize. Did you know that up to 80% of a child's learning is linked to their vision? Good eyesig...

Pink eye is one of the most common eye infections we can get. Pink eye or conjunctivitis is characterized by redness in the whites of the eyes, accompanied by itchiness and discharge (which could be watery or thick and yellowish). Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva, which is th...

Do you know why people say carrots will give you good night vision? It’s actually a leftover piece of World War II British misinformation to trick the Germans. The British had just developed radar and didn’t want the Germans finding out how they were locating their planes at night, so they sp...

The first and last thing many people know about good eyesight is 20/20 vision. Contrary to popular understanding, however, having 20/20 vision isn’t the entire story of healthy eyesight. It’s only a tiny fraction; it simply means that you can see something clearly from 20 feet away without gl...

New to wearing glasses? They’re going to change your life in some not-so-obvious ways. A lot of those changes are silly little things that never would’ve occurred to you before you started wearing them. How many on our list can you already check off? 1. Fog, Steam, and Humidity Woes If you’...

It can be a challenge to choose the right makeup to flatter your facial features. For glasses-wearers, it can be even trickier. How can you adapt your makeup strategy to complement your glasses too, especially if your prescription is strong enough that your eyes appear either unusually large or u...

Staying active is great for our overall health, but it’s also good for our eye health. Eating well, sleeping enough, and getting exercise makes it easier to stay in shape, feel healthy, and grow stronger, and it also reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases, including high blood pressure...

Cataracts have been the leading cause of blindness all throughout history. In all that time, treatment for cataracts has unsurprisingly come a long way. Over 20 million American adults over the age of 40 will develop cataracts, and half will have them by age 80 — and that’s just Americans! Wh...

It’s summertime and that means lots of us are going to be spending as much time in the water as we can. Before you dive in, we recommend learning a little about some eye safety considerations that come with water activities (whether you prefer a pool, river, lake, ocean, water park, or backyard...

What does your Fourth of July involve? A barbecue? A parade? Wearing a lot of red, white, and blue? Fireworks are most likely on your list, and they certainly set this particular holiday apart. However, if we aren’t careful when enjoying fireworks, we could easily become seriously injured. Fire...

Have you ever had a shimmering patch of light appear in your vision, then widen until you can’t see anything else? If you answered yes, you might’ve experienced an ocular migraine. It can be very alarming to someone who doesn’t know what is happening, and the name is a little misleading bec...

What factors do you consider when picking the best new pair of glasses for you? We might recommend adding face shape to your list. Wearing glasses is like having a facial feature you can customize, and they’re a very noticeable part of your appearance. They’re a fantastic way to show off your...

Eyelashes and eyebrows serve a greater purpose beyond their aesthetic appeal. They are not merely tools for facial expressions or flirtatious glances. In fact, their most crucial role is to act as the first line of defense for our eyes, shielding them from contaminants and potential hazards prese...

Summer is around the corner, and so are longer days with more hours of sunlight! Most of us end up outside more often in the warm summer months, and that can expose our eyes to a lot of harmful UV radiation from the sun. That’s why it’s so important to wear UV-blocking sunglasses (though we s...

Do you remember much from biology class about eye anatomy? Maybe you didn’t cover it much in your class or maybe you remember all of it, but we love keeping our patients informed about all things eye-related. All inside a space smaller than a golf ball, our eyes transform photons of light into ...

There are many differences between men and women — even when it comes to vision and eye health. Men, for example, are more likely to experience sight-threatening eye injuries than women, whereas women tend to be more vulnerable to certain eye diseases. So what can men and women do to address th...

When we think of the traits of an athlete, we usually think of speed and strength first. A close third should be their visual skills. Athletes need to be able to process and react to visual information very quickly in order to play their sports well. The cool thing is that some of these visual sk...

A habit of rubbing your eyes could come back to bite you. We do that sort of thing without really thinking about it in moments when we’re tired, when we get something stuck in one eye, or when our eyes feel dry or itchy. It's an attempt to alleviate the problem, but in reality we could be creat...

Stopping to smell the spring flowers can be hard when your nose is stuffy and your eyes are swollen. What makes red, puffy, itchy eyes so common in the springtime? While it’s often allergies, it isn’t always, so let’s take a look at what can cause allergy system this time of year — along ...

We blink our eyes several times every minute of the day, but why do we need to? Count the number of times you blink in a minute (when you do this, don’t try blinking more or less frequently than you normally would). The typical number of blinks per minute for an adult is between ten and twenty,...

Anyone who enjoys a nice tan should be aware of the risks of tanning booths. Those risks include ones to eye health. A group of physicians, dermatologists, surgeons, and even eye doctors went before Congress to describe the negative health effects of tanning beds, and the World Health Organizatio...

Headaches can have a number of causes you wouldn’t expect, like an uncorrected vision problem. If you live with frequent headaches, it would be well worth your time to schedule an eye exam, if only to rule out a vision problem as the cause. Not all headaches are tied to vision and not all visio...

March is Workplace Eye Wellness Month, which makes it a great time to discuss eye safety on the job. That will mean very different things depending on your line of work. A manual labor job can present a lot of direct dangers to eye safety, while an office-type job is more likely to cause a lot of...

Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States has an undiagnosed eye condition. This startling statistic highlights the importance of regular eye exams for maintaining optimal vision health. We want to demystify the eye exam for anyone who has never had one and explain why they are so importan...

Glasses and contact lenses are small things that make a huge difference. If you wear glasses or contacts, you probably remember what it was like the first time you put them on and could suddenly see individual blades of grass and leaves on trees. The ability to see clearly is critical for so many...

Contrary to popular belief, color blindness does not mean seeing in black and white. Usually. The vast majority of colorblind people can still see some colors. Let’s take a look at the three basic categories of color blindness and how they can impact a person’s daily life. Red-Green Color Bli...

Most of us notice a person’s eye color almost immediately when we meet them. A striking pair of eyes can make a deep impression, and what could be more striking than a pair of eyes that don’t match? In scientific terms, that’s heterochromia, a phenomenon fairly common in cats and dogs but m...

Do you spend a lot of time after the sun goes down looking at a bright screen? For as long as we’ve been using handheld devices to go online (and probably longer), many of us have had our eyes riveted to bright screens late into the evening. As optometrists, we can’t approve of this bedtime r...

Age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of permanent vision loss for people over the age of fifty. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the slow loss of central vision due to the deterioration of the macula, the part of the retina with the highest concentration of photoreceptor c...

As we get older, the lenses in our eyes become less flexible. This is presbyopia, and it affects the majority of people older than 40. It’s why most people end up needing reading glasses even if they never needed glasses before. For those who already wear glasses or contacts, presbyopia makes t...

An underrated ingredient of a good quality of life is healthy eyesight. As many as one in six adults struggle with sight-threatening eye conditions and far more than that live with some level of vision loss as they get older. Age is a risk factor for many of the major causes of blindness, includi...

Clear eyesight requires all of the intricate parts and systems of the eye to work together. If one thing goes wrong inside the eye, it is often enough to seriously impact eyesight and the health of the eye. For example, we don’t often think much about the fluid inside the eye, but that fluid ha...

The shorter days of winter inevitably lead to more night driving than in the other seasons. Those of us without perfect eyesight may find it a stressful adjustment each year. It can even be a dangerous one if we don’t take the dangers of night driving into consideration. We can make a big diffe...

Babies aren’t born with visual skills; they actually have to learn how to see! We’re so used to our sense of sight that it seems automatic, but everything we do with our eyes is something we had to learn and develop in early life. Babies need to develop a number of visual skills to use their ...

Even if there are fewer hours of daylight in the winter, sunglasses are still important! UV rays can do just as much harm on a snowy mountain slope as they can at the beach. While our skin is protected by layers and layers of snow gear, our eyes are still vulnerable if we aren’t being careful a...

Many autoimmune diseases can interfere with the health and function of the eyes. An autoimmune disease is a disorder that causes the immune system to attack healthy cells. If you or someone you love has an autoimmune disease, it’s important to be aware of these possible effects, so let’s take...

Functioning, healthy eyesight plays a huge role in a child’s development and education. As much as 80% of all learning is visual, and experts estimate that over half of childhood learning difficulties trace back to undiagnosed vision problems. How can parents help ensure their child doesn’t e...

Smoking damages the entire body, and the eyes are no exception. The main health risk that tends to come to mind with a smoking habit is lung cancer, perhaps followed by oral health problems, but it doesn’t merely harm the parts of the body that come into direct contact with the smoke. Studies s...

Uncontrolled diabetes can wreak havoc on health in many ways, including eye health. All types of diabetes increase the risk of developing eye diseases including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma, and cataracts. When these diseases all go under the umbrella term “diabetic ey...

Melanin, the same compound that determines skin and hair color, is also responsible for different eye colors. Melanin helps to protect the eye by absorbing light (including some UV light) that hits the iris, which is the part of the eye that controls the amount of light that reaches the retina. H...

The human eye is complicated, and there are a lot of ways something can go wrong with it. The one we want to look at today is retinal detachment, a serious and sight-threatening condition that affects one in every 300 people at some time in their lives. It can be treated with early action, but fi...

People have been using tools to help them see clearly since at least 60 A.D. Roman philosopher Seneca is recorded to have used a glass globe of water to magnify text, while Emperor Nero would use a magnifying emerald to see gladiator fights better. We no longer need to resort to using water bowls...

Not all vision problems can be corrected with contact lenses or glasses. If even the strongest pair of glasses can’t produce clear vision, that is on the visual impairment spectrum. This spectrum is good for everyone to understand, even if they have perfect eyesight, so that we can know best ho...

Sleep deprivation hits the body and mind a lot like alcohol, but how does it affect our eyes? Getting enough sleep is great for our overall health and our eye health alike. At the other end of things, we can improve the quality of our sleep if we are more careful about what we put in front of our...

44% of all eye injuries happen at home, but 90% of eye injuries are preventable! We prevent them by taking simple precautionary measures such as wearing protective gear when we’re working with harmful chemicals or power tools, as well as by minimizing any unnecessary hazards we might have aroun...

Our eyesight, among many other things, tends to change as we get older. For any serious changes, it’s critical to get an early diagnosis. Many sight-threatening conditions that are associated with advancing age are combatted best by being discovered in the early stages. That’s the biggest we ...

Costume contact lenses are often a cool and spooky way to upgrade a Halloween costume or cosplay outfit. Unlike the rest of the costume, however, these contact lenses are medical devices. We should always take special care to buy safe ones that fit correctly. Follow these tips from the optometris...

Most dentists will recommend a cleaning and dental exam twice a year, but how often do we need our eyes checked? It’s as important to get preventative care for our eyes as for our teeth, and that means getting eye exams when we don’t need an updated prescription for our glasses or contact len...

The saying “beauty is pain” shouldn’t be true when it comes to eye makeup. Makeup might not be made of lead, arsenic, and mercury like it was in centuries past, but we should still be careful with it around our eyes. Even modern makeup made of the safest ingredients can increase our risk of...

Wearing the right eye protection can prevent an estimated 90% of eye injuries. In the US alone, that one simple precaution would prevent 27,000 out of the 30,000 yearly sports-related eye injuries. Eye protection isn’t only for welders or construction workers; it can be life-changing for athlet...

Human eyes are amazing, but there are some eyes in the animal kingdom that are pretty impressive too. Let’s look at a few of the most powerful eyes in nature and find out what makes them work so differently from the way ours do. The Main Similarities and Differences The main thing all eyes have...

How much of your day do you spend looking at a screen? Whether it’s your work computer, a tablet, or your smartphone, odds are if you’re living in the modern world, you’re probably spending a big chunk of your day with your eyes fixed on a bright screen. Unfortunately, digital eye strain is...

Eyesight is one of many things that changes as we age. Age is the biggest risk factor for many chronic or sight-threatening eye conditions, which is why it’s so important to be informed and able to recognize the signs of age-related vision loss. It’s also important to know what we can do to k...

Name five things you would expect to find in every school nurse’s office. Was the big E eye chart on your list? That’s the Snellen chart, named after Herman Snellen, a 19th-century Dutch eye doctor who developed it, and it’s a great diagnostic tool for catching nearsightedness. Unfortunatel...

Have you ever had pink eye? Conjunctivitis or pink eye is a very common disease characterized by redness in the whites of the eyes, itchiness, and either watery or thick discharge. Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva, the outer layer of tissue covering the surface of the eyes an...

Eating carrots is supposed to improve our eyesight, right? That’s actually a leftover idea from a British propaganda campaign during World War II. The British wanted to keep their newly developed radar technology a secret from the Germans, so they claimed as far and wide as possible that their ...

20/20 vision is often thought of as perfect eyesight, but it’s really just one part of it. All it means when someone has 20/20 vision is that they are able to see something clearly from 20 feet away without glasses. They could still be dealing with any number of a wide range of vision problems ...

Starting to wear glasses can be a big change for kids. They may often be tempted to leave their glasses at home instead of wearing them to school, even if that comes at the expense of hours of squinting and fuzzy scenery. We’re here to help parents appreciate the advantages that come with weari...

Figuring out the best way to flatter our facial features with makeup is already tricky, but how about when we add glasses? You might need to adapt your makeup strategy a little to be as effective as you want with glasses on, particularly if your prescription is strong enough to make your eyes app...

An active lifestyle is great for our overall health, but also specifically the health of our eyes. We have an easier time staying in shape, feeling healthy, and getting stronger when we’re eating well, sleeping enough, and staying active. We also reduce our risk of developing chronic diseases l...

The world’s leading cause of blindness has always been cataracts. Naturally, treatment has come a long way. In the US alone, over 20 million adults over the age of 40 will develop cataracts. By age 80, half of all US adults will have them. In a healthy eye, the lens is filled with transparent p...

Before we all jump into the nearest body of water this summer, let’s take a look at some eye safety tips. Not much can ruin your fun summer day as much as an eye injury or infection. Follow these tips to protect your eyes while you enjoy the cool water (whether that’s pool, river, lake, ocean...

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Independence Day celebrations? Most likely, you thought of fireworks. They are certainly a dazzling and exciting part of the festivities, but they can also be a serious hazard if not handled with caution. Fireworks aren’t just pretty...

If you’ve ever had a patch of shimmering light widen to fill your field of vision, you might’ve had an ocular migraine. It can be quite an alarming experience for someone who hasn’t had one before and doesn’t know what is happening. The name is also a little misleading because ocular migr...

Do you choose glasses frames based on how well they fit the shape of your face? Whatever glasses you wear, they will be a large portion of anyone’s first impression of you. Aside from helping you see, glasses are a great way to show off your personality, but there are a few things to take into ...

We don’t just have eyelashes and eyebrows to look pretty. They also aren’t there simply to help us make facial expressions or flirty looks. Their most important job is actually to be the first line of defense our eyes have against contaminants and other hazards in the air. The Defense Eyelash...

Summer is almost here, and that means longer days with more sunlight! We tend to spend more time outdoors in the warm summer months, which exposes our eyes to more sunlight and the harmful UV rays that come with it. Sunglasses that block UV rays are great for protecting our eyes in all seasons, b...

How much do you know about the structures of the human eye? All within something as small as a large marble, photons of light are transformed into streams of accurate, detailed, moving images that we are able to interpret and react to. Our sense of sight keeps us connected to our surroundings in ...

You might be surprised how different vision and eye health can be between men and women. For instance, men are more likely to sustain a sight-threatening eye injury than women, but women are more vulnerable to a variety of eye diseases. What can men and women do to address their unique eye health...

The first traits we tend to associate with athletes are speed and strength, but vision should be a close third. Good visual skills are as essential to an athlete’s success as having strong muscles. An athlete needs to be able to process and react to visual information in a split second. What’...

Do you have a habit of rubbing your eyes? It’s the kind of thing we tend to do without really noticing whenever we’re tired, our eyes are itchy or dry, or we get something stuck in them. It’s an automatic response to try to alleviate the issue. The trouble is that it’s likely to do more h...

It’s difficult to enjoy a beautiful spring day through swollen eyes and a stuffy nose. Why is springtime so often accompanied by red, puffy, and itchy eyes? The answer isn’t always allergies, so let’s look at the different things that can cause allergy symptoms in the spring and what we can...

We blink multiple times every minute, but do you know why it’s so important? Time yourself for a minute and see how many times you blink. The average for adults is between ten and twenty times per minute, with each blink lasting a tenth of a second. Blinking Cleans and Refreshes Our Eyes Every ...

Uncorrected vision problems can lead to symptoms you might not expect, like frequent headaches. If you deal with a lot of headaches, scheduling an eye exam would be well worth your time, even if only to rule a vision problem out as a cause. Headaches aren’t always tied to vision and every visio...

Indoor tanning is NOT a safe alternative to sunbathing, including for eye health. In fact, indoor tanning is so unsafe that a group of eye doctors, dermatologists, surgeons, and other physicians went before Congress to brief them about the negative health effects, and the World Health Organizatio...

For Workplace Eye Wellness Month, we’re giving you a guide to protecting your eye health at work! Obviously, eye safety will mean something very different depending on the type of work you do. Working on a computer is very different from working at a worksite, so we’re dividing the tips into ...

Eye exams (from a real optometrist, not an app) are critical for maintaining lifelong healthy vision. We want to celebrate Save Your Vision Month by making an entire blog post out of the top reasons everyone should put an eye exam on their calendar. The ideal frequency of your eye exams depends o...

Glasses or contact lenses might be small, but they make a massive difference in our daily lives. Anyone who wears glasses or contacts (unless they’ve had them since they were toddlers) can remember what it was like to suddenly be able to see individual leaves and blades of grass when they start...

There are many different ways a person can be colorblind, and only the rarest type results in seeing in black and white. Complete color blindness is called monochromacy, and it’s so rare that only one person in 33,000 has it. For most people with color blindness, it only affects certain colors,...

Statistically, the first thing we notice about a person when we meet them is their eye color. An interesting pair of eyes can make a lasting impression, but the most unforgettable are probably the ones that don’t match. The scientific term for mismatched eye colors is heterochromia. It’s fair...

How much of your nightly routine is lit up by a bright screen? For at least as long as we’ve had handheld devices connecting us to the internet, many of us have been online with our eyes glued to a screen late into the night. This is not an optometrist-approved bedtime ritual. Our screens emit ...

For people age fifty and older, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of permanent vision loss. AMD is the gradual loss of central vision as the part of the retina with the highest concentration of photoreceptor cells (the macula, which is responsible for our detailed central ...

The older we get, the more the lenses in our eyes lose their flexibility. This is a process called presbyopia. It’s the main reason the majority of seniors need reading glasses even if they never needed corrective lenses before. Those of us who already need glasses to correct nearsightedness en...

So many intricate parts have to work together to make clear eyesight possible. This is because the human eye is incredibly complex, but the trouble is that just one thing going wrong can seriously compromise a person’s vision health. One example that might not seem obvious to most people is the...

Healthy eyesight is an important part of having a good quality of life. Up to one in every six adults struggles with a sight-threatening eye condition and many more than that experience a degree of vision loss as they age. Many of the major causes of blindness and low vision are connected to age,...

The days are shorter in winter, so we inevitably end up driving at night a little more. Any of us who don’t have perfect eyesight can find this a stressful adjustment to make each year, and it can be a dangerous one if we’re not taking the dangers of night driving into careful consideration. ...

Healthy, functioning eyesight is incredibly important to a child’s education and development. That’s because as much as 80% of all learning is visual, and experts estimate that more than half of childhood learning difficulties are the result of undiagnosed vision problems. So what can parents...

Did you know that babies have to learn how to see? It might seem strange, since using our eyes is something we do automatically all day, but babies need to develop a number of visual skills in order to effectively use their eyes and process what they’re seeing, just like they have to learn how ...

We might get more hours of daylight in the summer, but sunglasses are important in winter too! Harmful UV rays can do just as much damage on a snowy mountainside as on a sandy beach. Our skin might be protected by layers of snow gear in winter, but our eyes are still vulnerable if we aren’t car...

A smoking habit damages every organ and system in the body, including the eyes. We typically think of lung cancer as the main health risk associated with smoking, and then maybe oral health problems next, but the parts of the body that have direct contact with the smoke aren’t the only ones hur...

One of the many things diabetes can impact when it isn’t carefully controlled is eyesight. Whether it’s type 1, type 2, or gestational diabetes (which functions like type 2 while it lasts), the risk of developing a variety of eye diseases (including cataracts, diabetic macular edema, diabetic...

Human eye color comes from melanin, the same compound that determines skin and hair color. Melanin absorbs light, even some UV light, which is important for the iris — the part of the eye that controls how much light enters the pupil. Melanin and Pigment Types There are two different types of m...

Human eyes are incredibly complex, which means there are many ways something can go wrong. The particular one we want to focus on is retinal detachment: a serious, sight-threatening condition that will affect 1 in every 300 people at some point in their lives. Retinal detachment can be treated wi...

Since as early as 60 A.D., people have been using vision-correcting tools to help them see. Around that time, the Roman philosopher Seneca used a glass globe of water to magnify text, while Emperor Nero needed a magnifying emerald to see gladiator fights. Thanks to millennia of innovations since ...

Vision problems can’t all be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. When even the strongest corrective lenses aren’t enough to produce clear vision, that’s visual impairment. Even for those of us who don’t live with visual impairments of our own, it’s good to understand them so that ...

Studies have shown that sleep deprivation hits the body and mind a lot like alcohol. That isn’t great, but where do our eyes fit into the equation? When we get enough sleep, it’s great for both our overall health and our eye health, and we can also improve our quality of sleep by changing wha...

44% of all eye injuries happen in the home. The good news is that up to 90% of eye injuries are preventable if we take simple precautionary measures like wearing protective gear when working with chemicals or power tools and minimizing the unnecessary hazards around the home. Identifying the Home...

A great way to take a Halloween costume or cosplay outfit to the next level is with costume contact lenses. However, unlike every other piece of a costume, contact lenses are medical devices, so we need to take special care to make sure we buy ones that are safe and fit properly. Here are a few i...

Back in the old days, makeup was full of ingredients like lead, arsenic, and mercury. Thankfully we don’t have to worry whether or not we’re putting actual poison on our faces when we apply modern makeup, but we should still take a few precautions to protect our eyes from unnecessary injury a...

Your dentist has probably told you to get a cleaning and exam every six months, but how often should we get eye exams? Preventative care is as important for eye health as for dental health, even when you don’t need a new glasses or contact lens prescription. Our eyes are incredibly complex and ...

Among the many changes our bodies undergo as we get older are the changes to our eyesight. Early diagnosis is critical for stopping many sight-threatening conditions in their tracks, which is why we should be on the watch for signs of age-related vision loss. There are also more benign ways our e...

An estimated 90% of eye injuries are preventable if the right eye protection is worn. That means that 27,000 out of 30,000 sports-related eye injuries in America could be avoided by taking this one simple precaution. You might think of eye protection as something for welders or construction worke...

We wouldn’t have gone into the optometry field if we weren’t fascinated by eyes, and there are some incredible ones in nature. There is such incredible variation in how eyes work across the animal kingdom that we could spend years studying and barely scratch the surface, so to start out, we j...

Digital screens have become an increasingly prominent part of our lives in recent decades. Whether you work from home on your computer, work from an office on your computer, or simply own a smartphone, you are likely spending a significant portion of your day with your eyes fixed on a bright scre...

A staple of every school nurse’s office is the big E eye chart. That chart, the formal name of which is the Snellen chart (after the 19th-century Dutch eye doctor Herman Snellen who developed it), is certainly a good diagnostic tool for catching nearsightedness, but there are many other things ...

How much do you know about conjunctivitis (pink eye)? The main symptoms of pink eye are the redness that gives it its common name, itchiness, and either thick or watery discharge. Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the clear outer layer of tissue that covers the surface of our eyes and the insi...

We tend to think of 20/20 vision being a synonym for perfect eyesight, but that isn’t quite true. All it means when someone has 20/20 vision is that they have normal visual acuity without refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. There is a wide range of vision pro...

We’ve all heard that eating carrots will give us amazing eyesight. Fun fact: that idea is actually leftover World War II propaganda. The British wanted to keep their new radar technology secret from the Germans, so they claimed far and wide that their airmen got superhuman night vision by eatin...

Wearing glasses can be a big adjustment for kids when they’re just starting out. The temptation can sometimes be to leave the glasses at home instead of wearing them, even though that means going through a day of fuzzy vistas and squinting. That’s why today’s post is all about helping paren...

It’s hard enough figuring out the most flattering makeup for our facial features — what about when we add glasses? Your makeup strategy might need some adapting to keep you looking your best with the glasses on, especially if your prescription makes your eyes look unusually large or small. Yo...

Staying active is great for our health, including the health of our eyes! Eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly are how we stay in shape, feel healthier, and get stronger. We can reduce our risk of developing chronic health problems like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure,...

Cataracts are the world’s leading cause of blindness, and the history of treating them is long and fascinating. Over 20 million adults 40 and up in the US will develop cataracts, and by the time they reach 80, half of them will. Normally, the lenses in our eyes are filled with transparent prote...

Let’s go over a few eye safety facts before we all start playing in the water this summer! There’s nothing like an eye injury or infection to ruin a fun summer day, so make sure to follow these tips to protect your eyes will you enjoy the water, whether at a pool, a water park, or at a natura...

Fireworks are probably the most iconic part of every year’s Independence Day festivities. The danger with fireworks is that a lot of people forget that they are explosives, and that’s how they caused 12 deaths and ten thousand injuries in 2019 alone (mostly between mid-June and mid-July), acc...

Have you ever seen a patch of shimmering light that widened until it filled your field of vision? If yes, then you may have had an ocular migraine. They’re usually not something to worry about, but they can be pretty alarming for someone who’s never had one before. The word “migraine” her...

Do you know how to find glasses frames that suit your features? The glasses you choose will be a huge part of the first impression you make on people. They’re a great way to show off your personal sense of style, but fashion isn’t the only factor to take into consideration. What Shape Is Your...

Summer is almost here; are you as excited as we are? A lot of us do more outdoor activities in the summer than in other seasons, and that exposes our eyes to more harmful UV rays than in the other seasons. This is why it’s so important that we have good, UV-blocking sunglasses to protect our ey...

The human eye is amazingly complex. All inside something the size of a large marble, light waves are converted into continuous streams of detailed, accurate, moving images that we can understand and respond to. Our vision connects us to our surroundings more than any of our other senses and makes...

Men and women aren’t just different in the obvious ways; their eyes are different too! Women are more susceptible to many different eye diseases than men, but men have their own unique eye health concerns. What’s more, men and women don’t process visual information quite the same. How Men P...

When we think of athletes, we probably think of speed and strength first, but what about vision? Strong visual skills are just as important to an athlete’s success as strong muscles. Athletes have to be able to process visual information very quickly so that they can respond to it. The cool thi...

When you think of the differences between men and women, vision and eye health probably aren’t on the list. By the time you finish reading this, they might be new additions, because women face many different eye health concerns over the course of their lives than men do. Women are more vulnerab...

When was the last time you rubbed your eyes? Most of us do it often enough that we might not even notice it every time it happens. Whether we’re tired, our eyes are dry or itchy, or we get something stuck in one of them, rubbing them is a quick and easy way to make them feel better — except i...

Nothing can ruin the beauty of spring quite so quickly as an allergy attack. What is it about the springtime that makes eyes turn red, itchy, and puffy? Is it only allergies? How can we tell when it’s something else? And, of course, what can we do to defeat seasonal allergies so that we can enj...

Blinking does a lot for the health and function of our eyes. Have you ever counted the number of times you blink in one minute? On average, adults blink between ten and twenty times per minute, and each blink lasts just a tenth of a second. We Blink to Keep Our Eyes Clean and Fresh With every bli...

Frequent headaches could be a symptom of an uncorrected vision problem. That’s right, if you experience a lot of headaches, it would be worth your time to schedule an eye exam. Not every headache is tied to a vision problem, and not all untreated vision problems result in headaches, but the con...

You might have heard that indoor tanning is a safe alternative to sunbathing, but that is false. A group of eye doctors, surgeons, dermatologists, and other physicians actually spoke to Congress in a briefing about the negative health effects of indoor tanning. The World Health Organization warns...

March is Workplace Eye Wellness month, so let’s celebrate by taking stock of a few ways to protect our eyes at work! This is going to mean very different things depending on what kind of job you have, whether you work from home or in an office, or you work at a worksite. That’s why we’re di...

Regular eye exams (from an optometrist, not an app) are critical for lifelong healthy vision. We’re celebrating Save Your Vision Month by devoting an entire blog post to the top reasons to put an eye exam on the calendar. How often they should happen will depend on your individual situation, bu...

Corrective lenses are such small things that make such enormous differences in our lives. Most people who wear glasses or contacts can remember what it was like the first time they were able to see individual blades of grass and leaves on trees after putting them on. It’s important to take good...

Being colorblind can mean a lot of different things, yet only in rare cases does it mean seeing in black and white. The technical term for complete color blindness is monochromacy, and it only affects one person in 33,000. Most people with a form of color blindness can see certain colors, but whi...

What’s the first thing you notice about a person when you meet them? Statistically, there’s a good chance it’s their eye color! A striking pair of eyes can really make an impression — and that goes double when they’re two different colors. The scientific term for having different colore...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss for people over 50. What is AMD? It’s the gradual loss of central vision as the macula (the part of the retina where photoreceptor cells are most concentrated, giving us our detailed central vision) deteriorat...

How big of a role does a bright screen play in your nightly routine? Since the advent of handheld devices that could access the internet, a lot of us have been browsing websites late into the night, our eyes glued to a bright little screen, making sure we haven’t missed any updates before we go...

As we age, the lenses in our eyes gradually lose their flexibility. This process is called presbyopia, and it’s the main reason most seniors need reading glasses for up-close work. For those of us who already need glasses to correct nearsightedness, however, the solution is a little more comple...

Having healthy eyesight is a critical component of maintaining a good quality of life. As many as one sixth of adults struggle with an eye condition that threatens their sight, and far more will experience a certain amount of vision loss as they get older. Some of the leading causes of low vision...

Human eyes are incredible — and incredibly complicated. The downside is that this means we can experience big problems with our vision health if just one thing goes wrong. One factor that might not seem obvious is the pressure of the fluid in the chambers of the eye. If it rises too much, it ca...

As much as we might want to avoid it, we tend to end up driving at night more often in winter. The days get shorter and the nights get longer, and driving in these winter months can be especially stressful for those of us with weak night vision. What can we do to make sure that we continue to dri...

Healthy eyesight is hugely important to a child’s development and education. As much as 80% of all learning is visual, and it’s estimated that more than half of childhood learning difficulties come from undiagnosed vision problems. What can parents do to ensure their kids don’t have to stru...

Aging affects us in all kinds of ways, and that includes our eyesight. In fact, age is the biggest risk factor for a number of chronic eye problems that can threaten our vision, which is why it’s so essential to be informed and stay on the lookout for signs of age-related vision loss. There’s...

It may seem strange, but sunglasses are just as important in winter as they are in summer. The same UV rays that give us sunburns on the beach are just as dangerous on a snowy mountain. Even if most of our skin is covered by thick layers of snow gear, our eyes can still be vulnerable without the ...

Seeing isn’t just something babies do automatically; they have to learn how first! Just like learning how to walk and talk, babies have to develop a number of visual skills in order to use their eyes effectively and understand what they’re looking at. It’s a process that parents can do a lo...

Smoking is harmful to every system in the body, including eyesight. Lung cancer is the risk we most commonly associate with a smoking habit, followed by oral health problems, but it doesn’t stop with the parts of the body the smoke comes in contact with. As eye doctors, we want to focus on how ...

We hear a lot of the same questions from our patients, so let’s address them in an FAQ! You’d be surprised how many patients wonder the same things about eye health and optometry. If you’ve been too shy to ask one of these but have always wondered, you won’t have to anymore! 5. Is staring...

Healthy vision is one of the many things diabetes can harm if it isn’t carefully controlled. This is true for both type 1, type 2, and even gestational diabetes (which works like type 2 while it lasts). With diabetes, the risk of developing a number of eye diseases goes up, including cataracts,...

Human eyes are remarkable, highly complex organs. Most of the time, they’re able to function fairly well, but there’s a lot that can go wrong. The one we want to focus on today is retinal detachment, a condition that will affect 1 in every 300 people sometime during their lives. Retinal detac...

People have been using vision-correcting tools of some kind since as early as 60 A.D. Roman philosopher Seneca from that time used a glass globe of water to magnify the text he was reading, and Emperor Nero couldn’t see gladiator fights very well without his magnifying emerald. We’re glad we ...

Not all vision problems can be corrected by wearing glasses or contacts. When vision is so poor that corrective lenses aren’t enough, we call it visual impairment. It’s important for everyone to be aware of the vision problems that fall into this umbrella, because whether they affect us perso...

When we don’t manage to get a full night’s sleep, we feel it long into the next day. Studies show that sleep deprivation has similar effects on the body and mind as alcohol. But what does sleep have to do with eyesight? You might be surprised. Getting enough sleep does wonders for our overall...

Almost half of the eye injuries that happen each year happen at home! That means that, in the places people should be safest, they’re still getting over a million eye injuries a year. The good news is that eye injuries are easy to prevent, so let’s take a look at the measures we can take to m...

Modern makeup doesn’t contain lead, mercury, and arsenic like it used to in bygone eras. Still, how safe is it around our eyes? We’ve all heard that beauty is pain, but we in the eye care business have to put our foot down when it comes to unnecessary eye infection and injury risks. We’re n...

Colored contact lenses are sometimes the perfect final touch to take a Halloween costume to the next level. Unfortunately, not all costume lenses are created equal — or with equal concern for wearer safety. With Halloween coming up, we want to give all of our costume-loving patients some guidan...

Dentists will tell you that you should have a dental exam every six months, but what about eye exams? Eye health is a little different than dental health, but preventative care is still a good idea, even when you don’t need a new prescription for your glasses or contacts. The human eye is incre...

A lot changes as we get older, including our eyesight. As we age, we should be vigilant in watching for signs of age-related vision loss, because early diagnosis is critical in preventing many sight-threatening conditions from progressing. We want our patients to be as informed as possible so tha...

As eye care professionals, we’re big fans of eye protection, and that includes eye protection in sports. 90 percent of eye injuries can be prevented by wearing the right eye protection, which means 27,000 out of the annual 30,000 sports-related eye injuries in America could be avoided with this...

Just because we work with human eyesight, it doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate some of the unique eyes in nature. Depending on how they hunt (or avoid being hunted), where they live, and even how big they are, animals have a wide array of vision adaptations that human eyes don’t have. Let’...

Many who have to rely heavily on digital devices for work have felt the discomfort of digital eye strain. Even if you’re on a device for social or entertainment reasons rather than professional ones, you might be familiar with this problem too. It only takes two hours of screen time per day to ...

What comes to mind when you think of a school nurse’s office? We’re guessing your list probably includes vinyl recovery beds, jars full of wooden tongue depressors, and the big E eye chart. For over a century and a half, that big E chart (officially called the Snellen chart) has been an excel...

Can you recognize the symptoms of conjunctivitis (pink eye) when you see them? The main ones are redness, itchiness, and either watery or thick discharge. Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva, which is the clear outer layer of tissue that covers the surface of our eyes, as well a...

“20/20 vision” and “perfect eyesight” are often used interchangeably, but they really shouldn’t be. There is a wide range of vision problems that have nothing to do with refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. These problems tend to go massively undiagno...

Kids often struggle to adjust to having to wear glasses. They’re already used to not being able to see clearly; the strange feeling of the glasses on their nose and ears and possibly teasing from their peers might not seem like a great trade for clear vision. What is a parent to do? Good eyesig...

Eating carrots might not really give you great night vision, but certain foods do have eye health benefits. Choosing good, nutritious foods to eat is critical for overall health. There are also a few ways it will specifically help to keep our eyes healthier, including lowering our risk of develop...

Using makeup to enhance your style or look your best can get a little trickier when glasses or contacts are in the equation. For glasses wearers, your makeup approach might have to adjust depending on what kind of frames you have and whether your prescription makes your eyes look bigger or smalle...

What are some of the things we can do to keep our eyes healthy? Eat carrots? Wear sunglasses? While carrots do provide good nutrients for our eyes and we definitely recommend wearing sunglasses any time you’re in the sun during the brightest hours of the day, no matter what time of year it is, ...

In the US alone, cataracts affect over 20 million adults 40 and older and half of all seniors age 80 and up. Over time, the lenses in our eyes can become clouded by clumps of protein, resulting in worsening symptoms like reduced night vision, light sensitivity, glare, halo effects around lights, ...

Before diving into the pool this summer, make sure you’re aware of the eye safety facts. What can we do to protect our eyes while we cool off in the pool or have a swim in a lake? What are we protecting our eyes from anyway? Eye Irritants in the Water If you’ve ever felt a burning, stinging s...

We all love celebrating Independence Day with some good food, friends and family, and a dazzling display of fireworks. However, it’s easy to forget that fireworks are explosives. Injuries from fireworks are so common that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) publishes yearly reports on...

Our eyebrows and eyelashes aren’t just there for decoration. They’re not even just there for helping us make different facial expressions or to make our eyes stand out. They’re actually the first line of defense our eyes have against airborne contaminants and other hazards. How Eyelashes Pr...

Things are heating up for summer! For a lot of us, that probably means spending more time outside, but it also means more exposure to harmful UV rays. Are you prepared with the proper sun protection, particularly sunglasses? UV Rays Versus Healthy Vision Even if we’re careful not to look direct...

When we pick out new glasses, we want frames that will help us look our best. Glasses are a huge part of a person’s look — why do you think nobody recognizes Superman behind the Clark Kent glasses? Because of the difference glasses make to our appearance, there’s a lot to consider when choo...

Have you ever stopped to think about how amazing the human eye is? These complicated organs take light waves bouncing off the things in front of us and convert those into a continuous stream moving images that are accurate and detailed. They arguably connect us to our surroundings more than any o...

Being a successful athlete isn’t just about speed and strength — it’s also about vision. In order to be able to perform at their peak physical ability, athletes also need to be able to see and effectively and quickly process and respond to visual information, and that involves a number of d...

Men and women might not come from different planets, but there are certainly a lot of differences between the two — even with eye health. Women, unfortunately, tend to be more vulnerable to a number of eye diseases, even if they are less likely than men to sustain a sight-threatening eye injury...

Spring is a beautiful season with lots of flowers and vibrant greens...but it can be hard to enjoy when you have allergies. So why does springtime leave so many of us with itchy, red, and puffy eyes? How can we be sure it’s allergies and not something else, and what can we do to keep our eyes f...

Most of us rub our eyes many times in the course of the day without really thinking about it. Whether we’re tired, our eyes feel dry or itchy, or there’s something stuck in one of them, it seems like the easiest way to make it feel better is to rub them a little. Unfortunately, doing that is ...

Do you know how many times you blink in a minute? Probably not off the top of your head, but it’s an important number, because blinking is essential to good eye health. On average, adults blink between 10 and 20 times every minute. Each blink only takes a tenth of a second, but it’s a very im...

If you suffer from frequent headaches, it might be time to schedule an eye exam. For many people, headaches can be a symptom of uncorrected vision problems. This doesn’t happen in all cases of uncorrected or undiagnosed vision problems, and of course not all headaches are caused by vision probl...

Some people might think of indoor tanning as the safer alternative to sunbathing, but that is far from accurate. In fact, in a briefing before the US Congress, eye doctors, dermatologists, surgeons, and other physicians spoke about the dangers of indoor tanning, and the World Health Organization ...

In honor of Workplace Eye Wellness Month, it’s time for a look at the steps we can all take to protect our eyes while we work. Depending on what type of job you have, your eyes will face different risks of health issues or injury, so we want to approach this in two broad categories: office jobs...

Whether you wear corrective lenses or not, regular eye exams are critical for maintaining good eye health! March is Save Your Vision Month, which makes it a great time to take a closer look at a few of the biggest reasons to make sure an eye exam makes it into our schedules at least every other y...

For people age 50 and older, age-related macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of irreversible vision loss. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes the gradual loss of central vision through the deterioration of the macula, or the part of the retina that gives us our sharp, deta...

Corrective lenses are wonderful things that allow us to enjoy the advantages of good eyesight, and we need to take good care of them. Whether you wear glasses or contact lenses, we want to offer you a few tips on how to make sure they last as long as they should so you can get the most out of the...

Just because someone is colorblind, it doesn’t mean they see the world like a black-and-white movie. That type of color blindness does exist and is called monochromacy, but it is by far the rarest form of color blindness. There are different ways it can happen, just like there are different way...

Eye color is one of the first traits we notice when we meet someone new. If you’ve ever met someone with two different eye colors, then you’ve seen what heterochromia looks like. Only three out of every five hundred people have it, though, so it’s not that common (but you might have seen an...

What is your routine as you get ready for bed? Most of our nightly routines include items like brushing teeth, taking out contact lenses, and washing our faces, but how many of us also make sure to check our smartphones for any last updates before we go to sleep? This probably isn’t the best wa...

Presbyopia is farsightedness caused by the increasing rigidity of the lens in the eye as we age. It affects nearly everyone older than 65, and for the 42 percent of Americans who are already nearsighted, this creates a complication. People who previously had 20/20 vision can just grab a pair of r...

There are a lot of things to consider when choosing a new pair of glasses, but what about new contacts? There may not be quite as much variety because you don’t have to think about frame shape and color, but there are still several different types of contact lenses to choose from. Let’s take ...

Our eyes are incredible, complicated organs. Many different components need to work together for us to be able to see. This means that when one of those components breaks down, it can cause big problems for eyesight. A component you might not think of is the pressure of the fluid inside the eye. ...

Protecting our eyesight is one of the most basic things we can do to maintain a good quality of life. One in six adults deals with a sight-threatening eye problem, and many more than that will experience increasing vision loss with age. Leading causes of blindness and low vision are age-related d...

In winter, when the days are shorter, we tend to end up driving more at night. For those of us without perfect eyesight, this can be an increasingly stressful adjustment to make every year, and we should all take the dangers of night driving into careful consideration. It won’t just make a diff...

The majority of people will experience changes to their eyesight as they age. It’s essential to stay on the watch for signs of age-related vision loss the older we get. As eye health professionals, one of our priorities is making sure our patients are informed so that they both know what to exp...

When we think of sunburns, most of us probably imagine sandy beaches and summer heat, but we can get sunburned in any season, including winter. In fact, winter can be even more dangerous in some ways. Just because most of our skin is bundled up from the cold, that doesn’t mean our eyes are safe...

Did you know that babies have to learn how to see, just as much as they have to learn how to walk and talk? That’s right, learning how to use their eyes and understand what they’re seeing is a process. There’s a lot we can do as parents to help them develop essential visual skills — every...

The most common health effects that come to mind when we think of smoking are lung cancer and bad teeth, but it doesn’t stop there. Smoking is harmful to every system in the body, and it’s also harmful to our vision. A smoking habit can do more damage to our eyesight than disease can, in a fe...

Many of our patients come to us with the same questions without realizing it. These are some of the questions we hear most often, and we’re sure that more people haven’t spoken up but don’t know the answers either. 1. “How often do I need to visit the optometrist?” Every patient is uniq...

Diabetes is a disease that can negatively affect health in many ways, including healthy eyesight. Diabetes brings with it an increased risk of developing several different eye diseases. These are grouped under the umbrella term “diabetic eye disease,” and they include cataracts, glaucoma, dia...

Our eyes are amazing, complex organs, but there are a lot of ways for things to go wrong. One that we want to educate our patients on today is retinal detachment. This is a serious, sight-threatening condition that affects 1 in every 300 people at some point in their lives, but it can be treated ...

The earliest example of someone using a tool to assist with vision (that we know of) is Roman philosopher Seneca. He used a glass globe of water to magnify text when he was reading. Around the same time (60 AD), Emperor Nero was using an emerald to see gladiator fights better. Glasses have obviou...

Sometimes it’s hard to get a full night’s sleep, but when we don’t, we definitely feel it. In fact, studies even show that not getting enough sleep has many of the same effects on the mind and body as alcohol. There’s an interesting relationship between our quality and quantity of sleep a...

Some vision problems are so extreme that simple glasses or contacts aren’t enough to completely fix them. These sorts of serious vision problems fall under the umbrella of visual impairment, and those of us with functional eyesight should be aware of these problems so that we can be ready to he...

Halloween is our favorite spooky time of year, but we need to talk about the potential dangers of costume contact lenses. The right pair of colored lenses will make a great final touch to an amazing Halloween costume, but not all contact lenses are created equal, and we want to make sure our pati...

Nearly half of all eye injuries each year occur in the same place: the home. That’s over a million eye injuries per year happening in the place where we should be safer than anywhere else! Fortunately, 90 percent of eye injuries are preventable, and there’s a lot we can do to minimize the ris...

Cosmetics have come a long way from the toxic powders used in the Renaissance and Victorian eras. We’re very happy that modern makeup is free of ingredients like lead, arsenic, and mercury. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s all perfectly safe to have around the eyes. The old saying might be “...

When was the last time you came in for an eye exam? If you don’t need a new glasses prescription, it might not seem necessary to schedule another eye exam, but eyes are very complicated organs with a lot of ways for things to go wrong. That’s why it’s important to make sure they’re workin...

As we get older, our bodies don’t function as well as they used to, and that includes our eyes. However, there’s a lot we can do to keep our eyes healthy, which is why we’d like to take a look at a few of the most common age-related vision and eye problems and what can be done to minimize t...

With the new school year under way, a lot of student athletes are getting back into their sports. Participating in a sport is thrilling and challenging, but it’s also potentially dangerous. Over 30,000 Americans are treated for sports-related eye injuries in a single year. Fortunately, as many ...

Our world is filled with a staggering array of animal life, and today we’d like to take a closer look at some of the best eyes nature has to offer. Instead of trying to identify one animal that has the best eyes overall, we’re breaking it up into categories: underwater vision, night vision, c...

Our modern digital devices give us access to all kinds of useful tools and information...but they’re not great for our eyes. All it takes to give us a 90 percent chance of developing digital eye strain is two hours of screen time per day. With so many of us on our devices for much longer than t...

Most of us remember going to the school nurse as a child, covering one eye at a time, and reading off lines from the big E chart to find out if we needed glasses. Unfortunately, as efficient as they may seem, these simple vision screenings don’t catch everything that could be wrong with a child...

Have your eyes been incredibly itchy, watery, and red lately? These are the main symptoms of conjunctivitis, or pink eye, which is the inflammation of the conjunctiva — the clear, thin outer layer of the whites of our eyes and the insides of our eyelids. Luckily, conjunctivitis is both preventa...

It’s easy to assume that being colorblind means living in a black-and-white film full time, but that’s not how it works in the vast majority of cases. Color Vision And Genetics A recessive gene located on the X chromosome is the main culprit behind most color blindness, which is why men are m...

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 ...

We use makeup to hide blemishes, enhance our natural beauty, and create our own personal style, but for glasses wearers, this can get a little tricky. We know the struggle. Makeup styles that would look fantastic on someone without glasses might become barely noticeable once the glasses go on. So...

One of the best things you can do to keep your eyes healthy is to keep your body active! Exercising helps us get stronger, stay in shape, and feel great. An active lifestyle is essential for our overall health, with benefits such as reducing our risk of developing chronic health problems like hea...

Cataracts are the world’s leading cause of blindness. In the US alone, they affect over 20 million adults over the age of forty and half of seniors aged eighty and up. Babies are sometimes born with congenital cataracts and require surgery so that their vision can develop normally. How Do Catar...

School’s out and it’s time for summer! For many of us, summer time means a lot of trips to the pool, but before we dive in, we should take a look at what we should be doing to protect our eyes while we’re cooling off underwater. Invest In A Good Pair Of Goggles Have you ever felt a burning,...

The Fourth of July is a wonderful day to enjoy good food, good company, and, of course, an awe-inspiring fireworks display. If we want to be able to keep enjoying the sight of the rockets’ red glare in future years, however, we need to make sure we’re not putting our eyes at unnecessary risk ...

If you’ve ever had a series of bright, flickering lights gradually obscure your vision and then go away, you might have had an ocular migraine. We typically think of migraines as the painful headaches that affect about 10 percent of the U.S. population, but the visual distortions that come with...

According to one MIT study, people might have a hard time identifying you if you didn’t have your eyebrows! While our eyebrows and eyelashes play a big role in the way our faces look, they aren’t just there to be pretty. In addition to helping us express emotion and stand out from the crowd, ...

Summer is a great time to get some cool sunglasses and relax on the beach, but we should really be wearing our sunglasses all year. Choosing the right pair of sunglasses is a little more complicated than finding the ones that best suit your style. Our first priority should always be finding the p...

Those of us who wear glasses know what a difference they can make to the way our faces look. Some of our friends might even have trouble recognizing us without our glasses at first. Because our glasses have such a big effect on our appearance, it’s crucial to understand how to take advantage of...

With summer just around the corner, a lot of us are probably looking forward to getting a lot of sun. However, it’s important to be careful not to expose our eyes (or our skin) to too much ultraviolet radiation, as it can cause a number of problems both in the short-term and the long-term. What...

Our eyes are amazing, complicated organs. Many different parts have to work together to convert the light bouncing off everything around us into a continuous stream of images that we can understand. What are these different parts and how do they contribute to our ability to see? The Parts Of The ...

We tend to only think of tears when something makes us cry, whether we’re watching a touching or tragic movie or we’re laughing so hard that our eyes water. However, tears are really the unsung heroes of eye health. They come in different types and there’s more to them than just water, so l...

Spring is here! Unfortunately, for many of us, spring comes with seasonal allergies that leave our eyes red, puffy, and itchy. Why does this happen to us every year? What can we do to help our eyes enjoy the spring season better? What Causes Seasonal Allergies? Technically, allergies aren’t lim...

We all know there are differences between men and women, but it might surprise you that some of those differences have to do with our eyes! In general, women are less likely than men to sustain an eye injury during their lifetime, but the unfortunate tradeoff is being more susceptible to various ...

If you’ve ever been near the pharmacy in a grocery store, you’ve probably seen the aisles of nutrition supplements for sale. These products claim to have a variety of benefits, but today we just want to focus on two: flaxseed oil and fish oil, and what they can do to combat dry eye. The Dange...

You’ve heard of reading glasses. You’ve heard of sunglasses. But what are computer glasses? Have your eyes ever felt tired and itchy after a long day of working in front of a computer screen? Or maybe you’ve been having more headaches than usual, or your vision gets blurry at some point in ...

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 ma...

We all have busy lives, so it can be easy to forget about things like scheduling regular eye exams. That’s why we’re using this blog post to give you five great reasons to remember your eyesight when you’re planning your time! 1. An Ounce Of Prevention… Many eye diseases, such as glaucoma...

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of vision loss for people over the age of 50. In AMD patients, vision loss occurs as the macula deteriorates over time. The macula is the part of the retina responsible for sharp, central vision, AMD can make it difficult or impo...

We all love our glasses and contact lenses for letting us enjoy the details of the world around us and perform our daily tasks. If we want them to do their job well and last as long as they should, though, we need to take proper care of them. Here are our top tips for glasses and contact lens mai...

It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of a smart contact lens seemed like the stuff of science fiction, but it’s pretty close to becoming science fact. What exactly are smart contact lenses, and what would they be for? Let’s take a look at a few of the different possibilities we could be seei...

Let’s face it: glasses and contact lenses are pretty amazing. For so many people around the world, two little pieces of clear material are the difference between living in a blurry, muddled world and being able to read, drive, and appreciate the details of their surroundings. How do these amazi...

Do you remember in old cartoons when a character would see a delicious plate of food and his eyes would comically bulge out like footballs? That pointed cone shape of the eye in such scenes isn’t much different from the effects of keratoconus, a vision disorder in which the cornea (the front pa...

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 Amer...

Compared to all the different frame styles and lens shapes of glasses, it might seem like contact lenses are much simpler. However, there are actually many different types of contact lenses too, varying in shape, durability, and material, and we’ll be taking all of these variables into account ...

Human eyesight is an incredibly complex system, and a problem 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 t...

One of the most essential things we can do to maintain our quality of life is protect our eyesight. Vision loss increases with age, and one in every six adults deals with a sight-threatening eye problem. Some of the leading causes of blindness and low vision are age-related diseases like macular ...

An estimated 60 percent of children with learning difficulties have undiagnosed vision problems, and 80 percent of learning is visual. This puts these children at a serious disadvantage in their education and their social development. So what can we do as parents to make sure this doesn’t happe...

An autoimmune disease is a disorder that causes the immune system to mistake healthy cells for dangerous pathogens and attack them. Many autoimmune diseases impact the health and function of the eyes. It’s important to be aware of these affects if you or someone you love has an autoimmune disea...

Because it’s so much colder outside in winter, our instinct might be to assume that we’re safe from damage from the sun. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We are just as vulnerable to harmful UV rays in winter as we are in summer. Our skin might be mostly bundled up from the cold, keeping ...

None of us is born with fully developed eyesight. It takes time for the structures of our eyes to finish growing, and it also takes time to learn how to use them. As parents, it’s important to understand how eyesight develops so that we can encourage healthy vision in our children and recognize...

Have you noticed any changes in your eyesight in the last few years? The older we get, the more important it is for us to be on the watch for symptoms of age-related vision loss. As your partners in life-long healthy vision, we at Vision Source® want to make sure you’re prepared. Common Types ...

It’s no secret that as we age, our eyesight suffers. Fortunately, there’s a lot we can do to preserve our vision. A few of the most common age-related vision problems are diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration. What’s crucial with many of these conditions is ear...

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 o...

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and that means it's time to talk about how diabetes impacts eye health. With diabetes comes the increased risk of developing a few different eye diseases, which are often referred to under the umbrella term of diabetic eye disease. These conditions include di...

The colors we see and the emotions we feel have an interesting and complex relationship. Have you ever heard the expressions “green with envy,” “feeling blue,” or “seeing red”? How did these colors come to be so closely tied to emotional connotations that we have figures of speech abo...

When we don’t get a good night’s sleep, we can really feel it in the morning. That grogginess, difficulty concentrating, and slowed reaction time — we all know the feeling. Lack of sleep, especially when it happens on a regular basis, can have many negative effects on our health, both short...

A pair of colored contact lenses can be the perfect final touch to a great Halloween costume. Our eyes are often the first things people notice about us, so they can play a huge role when we dress up as someone (or something) else. Costume contact lenses could make you a much more convincing zomb...

Most of the time, when we hear the word “blind,” we think that means total blindness, but it’s not always that simple. There is a wide range of visual impairment beyond what glasses can correct, and it’s important for sighted people to understand what that range is so that we will be bett...

Eye protection is easy to remember at work or when we play sports, but what about when we’re at home? Over a million eye injuries occur in people’s homes every year. That might sound scary, but the good news is that 90 percent of these injuries are preventable as long as we follow proper safe...

Give the gift of sight in support of World Sight Day. World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness and action to bring attention to the more than 1.2 billion people around the world who are blind or vision impaired due to lack of access to an eye exam and a pair of glasses. World Sight Day is on...

People have been using makeup to enhance their unique, natural features for thousands of years. Over the millennia, the priority with these beauty products hasn’t always been health, which might have something to do with the disturbing amount of lead-based powders in the history of makeup. You ...

Have you ever wondered how 3D movies work? Well the answer is different depending on what era of film you’re looking at, but the basic idea is to attempt to trick the eyes into thinking they’re not actually looking at a flat image, and it doesn’t work on everyone! A Brief History of 3D Film...

How long has it been since your last eye exam? A year? Two? Longer? How often should we be scheduling our eye exams, and what are some good reasons to come in between regular appointments? If you aren’t sure, then you’ve come to the right place, because we’re here to discuss the reasons to ...

When playing sports, we often take precautions to protect our arms, legs, fingers, and so on from unnecessary damage. While all of that is great, it’s even more important to protect our eyes. Some sports actually require protective eyewear, but even for the ones that don’t, we need to recogni...

The more we rely on digital screens for our jobs and our entertainment, the more strain we put on our eyes. All this screen time has resulted in over 60 percent of adult Americans reporting symptoms of digital eye strain, such as eye fatigue, headaches, neck or shoulder pain, eye irritation, itch...

Have you heard that eating carrots will give you great night vision? That’s actually a leftover idea from World War II propaganda. The British didn’t want enemy soldiers to learn about their new radar technology, so they claimed their airmen got their night vision by eating carrots! Whether o...

One of the first phrases that comes to mind when people think about eyesight is “20/20 vision.” We’ve heard since we were children sitting in the school nurse’s office waiting for our turn looking at the big E chart that 20/20 vision is the best, but what does it mean? Let’s take a look...

Human eyes are complex and powerful organs, but there are a few animals who have us beat when it comes to eyesight. Let’s take a look at some of the best peepers in the animal kingdom and find out what makes them so different from ours! Difference Between Human And Animal Vision All eyes work b...

A good pair of sunglasses is a wonderful thing to have on a bright summer day, but why is that? How do our sunglasses work? It’s not just about the dark tint. Different lenses have different effects, and knowing what those are enables you to choose the sunglasses that are best for you! The Colo...

The summer is a wonderful time to relax and enjoy ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we can slack off on eye safety. No matter what kind of summer water activity you like best, make sure to follow these safety tips to keep your eyes healthy and protected while you’re underwater. Always Wear Gog...

Have you been struggling to convince your child to wear their glasses? Many children struggle with getting used to glasses, whether it’s because they fear being teased or because the glasses feel strange on their faces, so how can we as parents make our children more excited to wear their glass...

Sunscreen and shade are essential to keeping our skin protected when enjoying time in the sun, but what about our eyes? Eyes need protection from the sun too! Let’s look at a few ways you can keep your eyes healthy when vacationing so that you can enjoy every precious moment. Choosing The Right...

Over 20 million adults age 40 and older and half of seniors 80 and older have cataracts, and that’s just in the US. Because cataracts are so common, it’s important to know what they are, their symptoms, and how they can be treated. The Basics Of Cataracts Normally, the proteins inside the len...

Makeup is a wonderful tool to help enhance the natural beauty we were born with. There are so many different types of makeup with many different effects. However, things can get a little complicated for glasses-wearers. Sometimes it feels like all our hard work is for nothing because the glasses ...

There’s something about a fireworks display that brings out feelings of childlike wonder in all of us. The last thing we want is for that enjoyment to be marred by eye injuries, but unfortunately, this happens far too often. Handle All Explosives With Care Fireworks might just seem like harmles...

Pink eye is a common eye infection that ten percent of people experience at some point in their lives. Fortunately, it isn’t serious and there are plenty of things you can do to relieve the symptoms, but it’s important to be able to recognize it in case it happens to you or a family member. W...

You might think eyebrows are just for making expressions and eyelashes are just for flirting, but there’s a lot more to them. Thick lashes and dark eyebrows are in right now, so these two facial features are getting a lot of attention in the fashion department. But do you know that they serve a...

One of the first things we notice about someone when we meet them is their eyes. The color, the shape, the expression, the eyelashes and eyebrows. In this post, we’re just going to focus on the color, because it’s a lot more complicated than you might expect! How Common Is Your Eye Color? The...

It doesn’t take much to irritate the surface of our eyes. Something as small as a speck of dust could make our eyes go from fine to itchy and watering in a second, but this sensitivity serves the crucial function of protecting our eyes from contaminants. Common Irritants Let’s take a closer l...

With summer almost here, many of us are looking forward to spending a lot of time outdoors. Before we head out, though, we need to make sure we’re protecting ourselves from the sun’s UV rays, both with sunscreen for our skin and with sunglasses for our eyes. Why We Need UV Protection We all k...

There is so much more going on with our eyes than we often realize. The eye is one of the most complicated organs in the body, with so many different parts working together to take the patterns of light bouncing off objects around us and converting them into the continuous stream of images that g...

Exercising for good health is a top priority for many people. We exercise to build strength, stay fit, and feel good. Staying active is crucial to overall health, including lowering our risk of chronic health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart conditions, and high blood pressure, but did you kn...

Tears play a vital role in the health and function of our eyes. That’s what makes dry eye such a serious problem. Tears serve as our eyes’ first line of defense against irritants like dust and germs, washing them away with every blink. They also enable our eyes to turn and swivel comfortably....

Haiti is a country with a population of 10 million people and only three optometrists. Learn how Vision Source is working to change that. Vision Source and Optometry Giving Sight officially open Haiti’s first optometry school, l’Université d’Etat d’Haiti on April 12th, 2018. Support...

Men and women have plenty of differences, but did you know that some of them have to do with eyesight and vision health? While men are more prone to eye injuries for various reasons, women are more susceptible to eye diseases. So what problems should women be on the watch for? Common Vision ...

Most people who start needing glasses or contacts while they’re young have at least one of three common vision problems: myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. These are all refractive errors, which means they’re problems with the way the eyes focus light, rather than an eye disease. Refractive ...

Over the last couple of decades, the internet has changed just about every aspect of our lives. From the way we shop to the way we gain information to the way we connect with friends, the Information Age is a very different world. The internet has made so many things easier, but sometimes that co...

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 ...

Although men and women have a lot in common, there are a few differences when it comes to eyesight and vision health. Men have some advantages women lack, such as lower risk for eye diseases in general, but they also some disadvantages women don’t have to worry as much about. Let’s take a loo...

Have you ever experienced a strange disruption to your vision, such as zigzagging circles or a blindspot surrounded by wavy lines? If so, you may have had an ocular migraine. When you hear the word “migraine,” you probably think of a painful headache, typically worse than an ev...

We cry for all kinds of reasons: a stubbed toe, a particularly poignant scene in a movie, freshly cut onions — the list goes on. Would it surprise you to learn that, chemically, not all tears are the same? Or how about that even though we usually do it when we’re upset, crying is actually goo...

Anyone who doesn’t have color blindness might expect it to work like black-and-white photography. It’s actually more complex than that. There are different types of color blindness, and whether or not you have it is almost always dictated by your genes. The Genetics Of Color Blindness Color b...

Whether you prefer glasses or contacts, there are specific things you need to do to take care of them. This is one area where glasses-wearers have it easier — no matter how well or poorly they maintain their glasses, it won’t impact the health of their eyes, which is not at all the case with ...

Laughter lines, retirement, and grandchildren are a few of the benefits of growing old. One of the drawbacks is the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). February is AMD Awareness Month, which makes it a good time to shine a spotlight on this progressive eye disease, which is the leadin...

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 ...

Contact lenses probably seem like a pretty recent invention, right? It’s true that they’ve only become popular in recent decades, but you might be surprised to learn that Leonardo da Vinci first sketched the concept of contact lenses way back in 1508! His version involved submerging one’s h...

Presbyopia, or farsightedness caused by reduced elasticity of the eye’s lens, affects nearly everyone older than 65. About 42 percent of Americans who are in their prime are nearsighted. For them, a simple pair of reading glasses can’t solve the problem of presbyopia, and that’s where bifoc...

If you wear glasses, you know the never-ending struggle to keep them clean of streaks, spots, smudges, and scratches. There are times when it’s tempting to just reach for the hem of your shirt, but if you want those lenses to last as long as they should, it’s important to clean them the right...

The optic nerve is what transmits visual data from the eye to the brain. When the optic nerve is damaged, our vision suffers. A group of conditions that threaten the optic nerve is glaucoma. In the United States, glaucoma is the second most common cause of vision loss and blindness, affecting thr...

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 part...

Vision impairment impacts a person’s life in many ways, whether they are completely blind or have low vision. Fortunately, it doesn’t require much effort for those of us with healthy vision to make things easier for our vision-impaired friends and family to get around and feel comfortable whe...

From the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed, more and more of us are on our smartphones, tablets, computers or other digital devices. That’s a lot of eyeballs glued to a lot of screens. If you count yourself among the 90% of adults who spend two or more hours a day in front of a screen...

Have you ever seen someone with eyes that are two different colors? This fascinating trait is called heterochromia, and only six people in a thousand have it. It can happen in different ways and for different reasons. Even if you haven’t seen someone with different colored eyes, you’ve likely...

Just like learning how to walk and talk, your baby also has to learn how to see! There are many ways you can help them develop their visual skills, from the right types of toys to buy to the right types of games to play with them at certain ages. The First Six Months A newborn’s world is filled...

Many of us schedule our eye exams knowing we have plenty of questions for the eye doctor. What a lot of patients don’t realize is that they share quite a few of these questions with their fellow patients, particularly when it comes to common vision fears and issues. That’s why Vision Source®...

We all try to be good stewards of the earth. We go out of our way to recycle paper, glass, plastic. Many of us even compost. But what about daily disposable contact lenses? We wear them once then toss them. Good for our eyes, not so good for the planet. Here’s some good news that may surprise y...

Every organ in the body can be harmed by smoking, and that includes the eyes. The disease we usually think of when we hear “health risks of smoking” is lung cancer, but the damage smoking can cause isn’t limited to the lungs. A smoking habit can actually damage eyesight faster than disease,...

How many times have you stepped outside looking forward to feeling the sun on your face, only to wince at the sudden glare? The obvious remedy is sunglasses, but that can become complicated for those of us with prescription glasses. Short of buying a separate pair of prescription sunglasses or we...

It’s easy to make fun of the idea that Superman can hide his identity behind a pair of glasses. However, anyone who wears glasses knows that they can make a major difference to the way someone’s face looks. They’re almost like a customizable facial feature! This is why it’s so important t...

The American Diabetes Association estimates that 23.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes. At least another 7 million remain undiagnosed, and that still doesn’t include the additional millions who are considered pre-diabetic. But what does diabetes have to do with vision health?...

Can you imagine wearing glasses with lenses made of crystal? Your ancestors could. Corrective lenses have come a long way from when they were first invented, and we aren’t just talking about what they can do for different types of vision problems, but what they’re actually made of. Timeline O...

Hollywood’s portrayal of blind people has come a long way from the old stereotypes of canes and dark glasses. Especially with characters like Daredevil gaining popularity, it’s getting easier to find examples of fictional blind people being amazing. While blind people in real life don’t hav...

If you’ve taken a lot of pictures, you might have noticed that the photos don’t always turn out the same as what we see. Why does that happen? Eyes and cameras both see images and they have a lot of mechanical similarities, but there are still many differences between them. Organic Aperture: ...

More than 2.5 million eye injuries occur every year, and half of those injuries happen at home. The good news is that 90 percent of eye injuries are completely preventable if we follow eye safety instructions and use eye protection! Take Precautions With Those DIY Projects We normally associate s...

Do you find yourself squinting to read your computer screen, or struggling to read your smartphone, menus, magazines or labels? If you do, and you’re over 40, chances are you have presbyopia. Presbyopia Signs And Symptoms Presbyopia is the normal change that occurs as your eye ages because the ...

We all get older and so do our eyes, but there’s still a lot we can do to keep our eyes healthy as we age. Today, we’d like to go over a few of the most common age-related eye problems and offer tips on keeping your eyes healthy and strong. Be Aware Of Common Eye Problems Many of us will begi...

It’s always a good idea to schedule regular eye exams, but there are several reasons for visiting your optometrist between those regular appointments. What do we mean by “regular appointments?” Well, that varies, largely depending on age. Children should have their first eye exam at si...

Nobody likes accidentally jabbing themselves in the eye with a mascara applicator, but that isn’t the only eye health concern when it comes to cosmetics. Makeup and certain cosmetic products can sometimes trigger allergic reactions, so it’s always a good idea to be careful when trying a new o...

Let’s play ball! With school and many sports seasons starting up again, we’re all excited to gear up and get in the game! While we enjoy the fun, we should also take precautions against eye injuries, which are alarmingly common in sports. Sports Eye Injury Statistics Every year, 42,000 athlet...

Every year, more than ten million patients visit eye doctors for problems related to digital eye strain. It doesn’t take much to produce digital eye strain—as little as two hours in front of a computer per day gives you a 90 percent chance to develop it. This makes it the single most common c...

We’ve all heard that eating carrots will improve our vision. They may not give us super night vision, but eating them can help keep our eyes healthy. What we choose to eat is one of the most important variables to our health. It affects our weight, our energy levels, our risk of many types of d...

Another summer behind us, another school year just ahead. So much to do to get ready. As you rush around getting new school clothes and school supplies, don’t forget to schedule your student’s back-to-school eye exam. This is an essential step for school readiness because poor vision can be a...

Are you ready for the total solar eclipse on August 21? If you live in the continental US, this could be your best opportunity to see such a rare phenomenon! What Is A Solar Eclipse? The sun is about 400 times larger than the moon, but it’s also 400 times farther away from the earth, which is w...

Our eyes are easily the most complex sensory organs we have. Our ability to see the world around us in clear, precise images is frankly incredible. But since we are a diurnal (awake during the daytime) species, our night vision is nowhere near as powerful as that of many animals. Human Vision Tag...

With school starting up again soon, now is a great time to start thinking about scheduling an eye appointment for your child. Classroom Vision Problems Are Varied Experts estimate that 10 percent of preschoolers have a vision problem significant enough to impact learning, and being nearsighted or...

Have you ever wondered where that chart with the big E in every eye doctor’s office came from? The famous eye chart is actually called the Snellen Chart. It was named for the 19th-century Dutch ophthalmologist who first developed it. Glasses Before Eye Charts Glasses were invented in Italy arou...

Summer is the time for fun in the sun and in the water, but it’s definitely not the time to take a break from eye safety. Whether you love river rafting, surfing, water-skiing, deep sea diving, synchronized swimming, or just enjoying a leisurely swim at the local pool, you’re probably going t...

Have you ever wondered just what sunglasses do for your eyes, and how? It’s a little more complex than just dropping a dark filter over your vision. Different Tints Do Different Things Did you know that the color of your sunglasses’ lenses affects what they do for your eyes? This goes beyond ...

Is there anything more American than hot dogs on the grill and fireworks in the sky? We all enjoy a patriotic pyrotechnics display, but fireworks are not without their risks. Explosives Are Not Toys To anyone lucky enough to have never been injured by fireworks, they might just seem like exciting...

Summer is here and you know what that means–family vacations, impromptu getaways and fun trips! Just like you, we couldn’t be more excited. But we also want to make sure that when you leave on vacation, you continue practicing the good habits that keep your eyes healthy! Follow these tip...

Lucky for you, it may be high time for a new pair of shades! We’re surrounded by things with expiration dates, from the food in our fridge to the moisturizer we put on our face at night. Over time, the lightbulbs in our lamps go out and the paint on our houses fade. But what about your sunglass...

Many of us spend a good portion of our day looking at a computer screen—some averaging as much as 10 hours of screen time per day! Even if you don't have a desk job that requires a lot of time in front of a computer, it's important to understand the effects it can have on our bodies and our vis...

With so many vitamins available to us, it’s hard to know which ones you really need to keep an eye out for! Today we want to share with you two vitamins in particular that both benefit eye health and prevent vision loss—vitamin A and beta-carotene. What Are Vitamin A And Beta-Carotene? P...

Spring is on the horizon and we couldn’t be more excited! Chirping birds, blooming flowers, and warmer weather are just a few of the things we look forward to when spring comes around. We have to admit though, there is one thing about the season that’s not particularly appealing, and that’s...

You can do just about anything online nowadays. Whether you’re buying new clothes or earning a degree, if you have an internet connection, you can accomplish it online! But what about your regular eye exams? Is an online test sufficient enough for that? Put simply, the answer is no! Online Eye ...

Time to explore two of the most common refractive errors: myopia and hyperopia! Normally, Light Is Focused Directly Onto The Retina Before we delve into what it means to be nearsighted or farsighted, let’s first talk about how a normal eye functions. Vision occurs when light enters the eye and,...

Want to know what our patients have been asking us? Here are the top five frequently asked questions our Vision Source® members get at their practices! FAQ #1: “How often do I need to visit the optometrist?” For those of you who do not need glasses or contacts, we encourage you to get a...

Your glasses are a unique expression of your personality. And with a few simple makeup techniques, you'll really get the look you want. We all know that our glasses pose a unique challenge when we're applying makeup. If you're wondering how to flatter your new fames during your makeup routine, ch...

Fine works of art, delicious cheeses, and beautiful antiques all take on special qualities as they age. Old eyeglass frames may develop a charm of their own too, but wear and tear will eventually take its toll. Whether you're sporting a pair of vintage specs, or you've simply had your frames...

When nights grow longer, and our morning and evening commute is spent driving in the dark, seeing the road clearly is a much more difficult task. Driving With Visual Distraction Is Dangerous! Unfortunately, many people don’t take this fact as seriously as they should. Perhaps they’ve become s...

Your eyes need protection year-round. Wear Your Sunglasses–Even In Winter You may be surprised to hear that unprotected eyes can sustain just as much damage from the sun in the winter months as they can during the summer, and sometimes more! Did you know that snow reflects 80 percent of UV radi...

As you stare at an optical illusion you may wonder… are your eyes playing tricks on you? To fully understand how optical illusions work, it’s important to grasp that the visual system is made up of more than just our eyes. In fact, optical illusions don’t necessarily trick our eyes—they t...

Do you ever notice your child’s eyes crossing or moving in different directions? Just as babies slowly learn to walk and talk, they must also learn how to see and correctly use their eyes to experience the world around them. Learning to focus their eyes, move them and use them together accurate...

Red, itchy, and watery eyes? Needless to say, pink eye is no fun! What Is Pink Eye? Luckily, there are some precautions you can take to avoid pink eye and the discomfort it entails. But first, what is it exactly? Pink eye–also called conjunctivitis–is irritation or inflammation of the conjunc...

Properly caring for your contact lenses is synonymous with caring for your eyes. Contact lenses are safely used by millions of people everyday. They do, however, carry a risk of eye infection if worn or cleaned improperly. Your eyes allow you to see and experience the world around you, so it’s ...

Did you know that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States? It is well known that smoking can lead to a number of lung-related diseases but in reality, the negative effects of smoking can be seen in almost every part of the body, especially your eyes. Smo...

Vision training exercises can improve key aspects of your game including depth perception, visual memory, and body-eye coordination. Strength and agility are not the only crucial skills on field or court. Many athletes overlook one of their best assets in their conditioning programs – their eye...

Don’t let vision correction stand in the way of the activities you love! We Provide Eyewear For Your Lifestyle We know that the eyewear you choose for everyday life may not exactly line up with your favorite after-work activities. If you’re an outdoor or sports enthusiast, managing your ...

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases today. In fact, 29.1 million people in the U.S. have diabetes and millions more living with the condition don’t even know they have it. This November, Diabetic Eye Disease Month, we want to help raise awareness about the vision complication...

It’s that time of year again! Have you used all of your remaining vision insurance benefits? What Is Vision Insurance? Whether you received your vision insurance through an employer or you enrolled in a plan on your own, you may be curious how it works. Each plan differs based on your insurance...

While wearing glasses instead of contacts may shave a few minutes off your morning routine, it’s important to remember they're not completely maintenance-free. If you’re hoping to prolong the life of your favorite eyewear, there are a couple of simple steps you can take to make sure they look...

Can you guess where nearly half of all eye injuries occur? There are approximately 2.5 million eye injuries in the United States each year. To many people’s surprise, around 50 percent of these injuries occur at home. Make Your Home Safe For Your Sight When we hear the words “protective eyewe...

While some people are die-hard 3D moviegoers, others struggle to see the characters come to life and leap off the screen. Why is this? And what does it have to do with our eyes? 3D Entertainment Attempts To Imitate Normal Vision Put simply, 3D films attempt to imitate how we see things all t...

Is your vision a priority when you’re playing sports? Eye Injuries Can Happen When You Least Expect Them The crisp smell of freshly cut grass on the soccer field, the gleam of the basketball court before a game, the cheering fans at the football stadium, the feeling of the baseball bat, familia...

Most everyone has some degree of astigmatism. And yet many people are confused as to what astigmatism actually is. Vision problems such as nearsightedness and farsightedness fortunately have names that make them pretty easy to understand. But have you ever wondered what astigmatism is? What It Me...

Do you remember how old you were when you learned to drive? How about when you got your first cell phone? Many of us hit these milestones at different ages as we were growing up, but when it comes to contact lenses, how old is “old enough?” So What Is The Right Age For Contact Lenses? To answ...

We’ve all felt it during a long day at our desk job or after a lengthy session of scrolling through social media on our smartphones–digital eye strain. But did you know your kids may be suffering too? In today’s world, children are using various digital devices just as much, if not more, th...

They say hindsight is 20/20. Even though we can reflect on past experiences through a seemingly perfect lens, is 20/20 as good as it gets when it comes to our vision? The Difference Between Visual Acuity And Our Vision Before we explore what those magic numbers mean, it’s important to clarify w...

Have you ever noticed specks, strings or cobwebs drift across your field of vision? Those are called eye floaters! If you’ve ever experienced them, you’ve probably wondered what they were and if they were a cause for concern. Here’s all you need to know about those sometimes bothersome floa...

The great Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Reading a good book is a wonderful way to feed our curiosity and fuel our intellect. But as we age, it may become more difficult to make out what’s wri...

An eye exam may be the last thing on your mind in the rush to get your children ready to go back to school. But in reality, no amount of new clothes, binders, backpacks or pencils will help your child succeed in school if they have an undetected problem with their vision. Why Back-To-School Eye E...

We are always talking about how amazing our eyes are! But have you ever stopped to think about how remarkable animals’ eyes can be? Sight is important to us as human beings, but for animals in the wild, vision is a matter of life and death. And due to differences in environment, each speci...

Dry eye is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In fact, it's one of the most common reasons that patients pay a visit to their eye doctor. We’ve all had those days where our eyes feel dry, tired and irritated. But what does it mean? And what if it persists? What Is Dry Eye Di...

Who doesn’t love sunglasses? A pair of stylish shades not only makes us more fashionable but also provides vital protection for our eyes! Where did the idea of sunglasses begin, though? Let’s learn a little bit more about the history of sunglasses and how they came to be what they are today. ...

Morning sickness, weight gain, back pain… These are common symptoms of pregnancy. But did you know pregnancy can affect your vision as well? A woman’s body goes through extraordinary changes during pregnancy. Some of them, like changes in hormones, metabolism, fluid retention and blood circul...

The Fourth of July is coming up and most of us are looking forward to the Independence Day parades, family celebrations, backyard barbecues, and of course, fireworks. As fun and beautiful as fireworks are, they can also be extremely dangerous. In fact, over 10,000 fireworks-related injuries were ...

From the early days of purely glass lenses to the advanced materials we use now, the technology in prescription lenses is constantly improving. Today, special lens coatings improve and protect our vision in ways we could only dream of before. Anti-reflective Coating Eliminates Lens Reflections Ha...

You may think getting an eye exam simply requires you to read a few lines on the eye chart, but it’s important to take advantage of each and every visit to your optometrist. For the average person, you only see your optometrist once or twice a year. In that time, we want to answer your question...

But are they better for your eyes than regular sunglasses? Think of polarized lenses as a tool for fine-tuning for your vision while wearing sunglasses. They are especially useful if you are an avid outdoorsman, an active athlete, or find yourself in high-glare situations.   Before we dig in...

Learn about the role nutrition plays in the health of your eyes.  The latest news on nutrition and cataracts comes to us from China, and in the spotlight is green tea for its protective benefits. This study looked at the tea drinking habits of 9,343 participants. Compared to non-tea-drinkers...

Do you ever find yourself rubbing your eyes as you wake up in the morning? How about after a long day working at your computer? When our eyes are tired or irritated, our first instinct may be to rub them for relief. Even though it seems harmless, that small sense of alleviation may come at a seri...

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness among older adults in the United States. In fact, more than half of all Americans have cataracts by the time they are 80 years old. We understand you may have questions about cataracts, so we'd like to take this opportunity to help you understand how t...

In today’s world, if you feel your vision growing weaker you simply go to the eye doctor and get a prescription for glasses or contact lenses. It wasn’t always so easy! Glasses have come a long way since their inception some time in the 13th century. Join us on a journey through time as we ex...

Did you see that sunset last night? How about the big game? Or were you watching your daughter take her first steps? Our eyes truly let us see some wonderful things. But how do eyes work? The eyes are fascinating and complex organs with many components. We’d like to help you understand exa...

Nothing makes us want a fresh spring salad more than chirping birds, blooming flowers, and a pleasant spring breeze. Not only can a good salad refresh your palette, it can benefit your vision as well! We’re taking advantage of all of our favorite in-season fruits and vegetables t...

Sunglasses are an essential year-round fashion accessory! We don’t deny you look great in those killer shades, but sunglasses are more than just a fashion statement. Those fancy new sunglasses are crucial to protecting your eyes from harmful UV rays! Not all sunglasses are created equal however...

Spring has sprung and with it comes beautiful flowers, chirping birds, and, you guessed it, seasonal allergies. While many think of fits of sneezing and congestion when thinking of allergies, they can have a dramatic effect on our eyes too. Eye allergies, also known as ocular allergies or allergi...

Light… it's the most essential element of vision. We are surrounded by it all day, whether it be natural or artificial. So it’s no surprise that we frequently get asked if certain types of light can negatively affect our eyes. Here we’ve compiled some tips so you can protect your eyes and p...

Women are at greater risk of serious eye disease, but there are steps you can take to protect your eyes. Numbers don’t lie, but they sure can make us think.  You may have heard the news that the vast majority of visually impaired people—two out of three—are women.  Part of the rea...

With all the crazy technology we see today, you probably haven’t thought much about the small wonder that helps you see all that cool tech: your contact lenses! The concept of the contact lens was conceived over 500 years ago! But it didn’t really become what it is today until the 20th c...

Eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow… Makeup can really make eyes pop! Despite the striking effect of beauty products, it’s important to remember that putting anything that close to your eye can potentially be harmful. We’ve compiled some cosmetic safety tips so you can look beautiful AND protect y...

We don't often pay attention to our blinking habits throughout the day. But whether we realize it or not, blinking is vitally important to our eye health. The average adult blinks between 10 and 20 times per minute. Even though a blink only takes one tenth of a second, all those blinks add up to ...

You just bought a new pair of glasses. The last thing you want to see are dirty or scratched up lenses! If you take good care of your glasses, they can last you several years. Here are some tips on how to keep your investment looking and feeling like new. Don’t Wipe Your Lenses When They’re D...

You know it’s been a long day when your eye starts twitching. These annoying little tics are often signs from our body telling us to have healthier habits! Eye twitching happens when the tiny muscles and nerves around the eye are stimulated. In most cases, minor twitching is painless and will g...

Getting glasses when you are young can be a difficult adjustment for any child. Helping children adjust properly and love their glasses may be difficult, but it can make all the difference! We care about your child's comfort and want them to become a proud wearer of spectacles! Here are some tips...

In today’s world, digital eye strain in the workplace is becoming increasingly common. However, being educated about eye strain is the first step in preventing it! Over 70 percent of Americans who work on a computer on a daily basis suffer from digital eye strain. The good news is it’s avoida...

When it comes to buying something as important as glasses or contact lenses, make sure you get them from the right source. While there are online options available, we’re here to tell you that there are important benefits to ordering from the experts! We Provide More Options In Style, Fit And B...

Download, print, and keep your eyes safe! Printable version of the checklist  With about 2,000 workplace eye injuries occurring each day, eye safety at work is a serious concern, one with long-term consequences. Approximately 10-20% of on the job injuries lead to temporary or even permanent ...

Are you suffering from headaches? You may want to ask yourself when your last eye exam was! If you have undetected or uncorrected vision problems, you may be suffering from headaches needlessly. Headaches Can Be Caused By Eyestrain A routine eye exam can uncover a variety of issues that may be ca...

Every time we open our eyes we are reminded of the remarkable gift of sight! Whether you’re watching the sunset or seeing your child take their first steps, your eyes allow you to see some pretty amazing things. Sadly, each year about one million eye injuries occur in the United States–9...

The eye is an extremely amazing and unique organ. In fact, it is the only place in the body where a doctor can see part of the central nervous system—the optic nerve! What Is A Dilated Eye Exam? The pupil is the opening in the center of the eye. When your pupil is not dilated, it makes seeing a...

The Amsler Grid provides important clues about central vision. What you hear about aging eyes and the risks of macular degeneration may make you feel like there is nothing you can do to protect your vision. That is simply not true. Regular exams with your optometrist are the best way to detect an...

Contact lenses are safe, comfortable, and can change your lifestyle! However, taking proper care of them is crucial to your vision health. Improper contact care or cleaning can lead to infection and, in severe cases, vision loss. Remember these tips when it comes to contact lens care: Your O...

The second leading cause of blindness has no warning signs and some surprising risk factors. We may not notice changes in pressure until our car tire is flat or our garden hose is bursting with water. Pressure plays an important role in daily life and a very important one in eye health.   Un...

Put your practice on the path to success in the new year with these productivity tips from Dr. Walt West. When I started my first optometric practice, I knew little to nothing about business management. But, to be fair, that’s true of most optometrists. One of the things I clearly didn’t do w...

When the snow and cold of winter begin to roll in, we often take steps to protect ourselves from the impending cold and flu season. But it may surprise you to know that the cold of winter may have a few potential risks in store for our vision as well. 3 Factors That Impact Vision in Winter #1: Dr...

When it comes to reading, there are some key differences between computer screens, e-readers, and printed books and newspapers. The question is, how does each affect our eyes? Reading On A Screen May Make Our Eyes Work Harder Computer screens, smartphones, and tablets display text and images diff...

Indoor tanning beds are infamous for their dangerous effects on skin. What most people don't realize is that the very thing in tanning beds that causes skin cancer (ultraviolet radiation) can also damage your vision. Indoor Tanning Is Risky Business Indoor tanning initially gained its popularity ...

During the course of our lifetime, our eyes witness countless breathtaking moments. Whether we're surrounded by a beautiful landscape or simply seeing the joy in a loved one's face, we want to see these moments as clearly as possible—no matter what stage of life we're in. Vision Changes Ar...

Our sense of vision is a wonderfully beautiful and complex part of our everyday life. On an average day it may be easy to take it for granted, but it's important to take time to recognize what makes all of that beauty possible—our eyes! We'd like to celebrate our fascinating eyes by sharin...

We all have a nightly routine. But what we may not realize is that some of our bedtime habits could be harming our eyes and overall health. Here's a few helpful tips to help you get some better shut-eye: Take Your Contacts Out Before Going To Sleep We know that after a long day it can be hard to ...

Did you know that roughly a quarter of a million children are seen in hospital emergency rooms each year due to toy-related injuries? About half of these injuries are to the head and face, and many affect the eyes. While they may be fun to buy for birthdays and other occasions, certain toys pose ...

The way we perceive the world depends largely on our mood. Have you ever felt angry and as a result, little things annoyed you that usually wouldn't? Have you ever felt so happy that seemingly nothing could bring you down? We have all had these experiences, but did you know that something si...

More than 29 million people in the United States are living with diabetes. 86 million Americans—more than one out of three—have prediabetes, and vision problems are one of the foremost complications accompanying this disease. It is important to know what those problems are and, most important...

Cataracts are the most common cause of vision loss in people over the age of 40 and are the principal cause of blindness throughout the world. Considering the prevalence of this medical condition, we want to make sure you know the facts about cataracts, their signs and symptoms, and treatmen...

Undetected vision problems can affect children in every aspect of their lives. Even as an infant, poor vision can affect a child’s behavior, learning and development, and much more. According to the American Optometric Association, infants should have their first comprehensive eye exam at the a...

We've heard more than once that carrots are good for our eyes. But they're certainly not the only food that can benefit our sight! Here are some of our favorite foods that help promote and maintain healthy eyes. Vegetables And Leafy Greens Have you ever wondered why they say carrots are so good f...

Astigmatism may be one of the most commonly misunderstood eye conditions. Many believe it's caused by improper lighting, that it can lead to more serious eye problems, or—something we’ve all likely thought at some point—that it's called "a stigmatism." The Basics Of Astigmatism So let’s c...

It's been a long day. As you lay down in bed, you dispel all the stresses and frustrations and instead focus on one mental image: one beautiful picture that reminds you just how lucky you are, a moment that always makes you smile. Can you see it? What's The Most Beautiful Thing You've Ever S...

Halloween is just around the corner! Vision Source is here to help you get ready with 13 eye safety tricks and delicious treats that are sure to catch everyone’s eye. TRICK: Carry soft, flexible props. Sharp swords are just asking for trouble. Keep everyone’s eyes safe by leaving props at hom...

We humans have a lot to brag about among our relatives in the animal kingdom. Our biggest advantages stem from our highly advanced brains, allowing us to communicate and create tools. But when it comes to vision, a lot of animals have us beat—in more ways than one! Here are three visual abiliti...

Everyone sees the world’s beauty from a different perspective. Unfortunately, women stand a far greater risk of developing eye conditions, which may prevent them from seeing this beauty at all. How much greater is a woman's risk of permanent vision loss? The numbers may surprise ...

For us, outstanding vision care is centered around one-on-one relationships. As our Vision Source® members listen and share with you, they become better acquainted with your unique eye health profile and how it affects your day-to-day life. This helps them tailor not only their treatme...

The last few decades have seen an astonishing increase in the prevalence of children’s myopia. Why is it happening and what can you do about it? Myopia, also called nearsightedness, affects an estimated 30 percent of the population. In the vast majority of cases, it develops during early childh...

Did you know there are roughly 40,000 sports-related eye injuries every year in the U.S. alone? Eye protection is important for everyone with an active lifestyle, but especially for young people who play a school sport. In fact, most victims of sports-related eye injuries are children. Sport...

Smoking is directly tied to the leading causes of blindness. Accelerated by tobacco use, cataracts and macular degeneration affect millions of people, robbing them of full, clear vision. Chemicals in cigarette smoke not only put our own eyes at risk, but secondhand exposure can affect those aroun...

Some people swim while wearing contact lenses, risking serious damage to their vision. Eye Irritation Isn’t Just Caused By Chlorine While many of us associate swimming pools with the smell with chlorine, the real culprits are chemicals that form when chlorine mixes with sweat, dirt, a...

The summer is coming to a close -- are your child's eyes ready for school? Back-to-School is a happy, yet stressful time for parents. We’re all searching for the coolest outfits and the best school supplies to get their year started right. And for many, new eyeglasses top the list. But have you...

They may not have been cool when you were a kid, but more and more kids are choosing "geek" glasses these days. And they're doing it voluntarily! Why? Because "geek chic" is in. It has been for awhile in fact. First reports of the trend started popping up in the mid 2000s, and whil...

Our eyes are often the truest indicators of health A quick glance at someone’s eyes can reveal their mood, stress level, and whether or not they got enough sleep last night! But this goes much, much deeper. When your Vision Source® doctor takes a closer look at your eyes, he or she&n...

When did you last replace your contact lens case? Has it been so long you don’t remember? We know the value of getting full use from household items. But whether it’s a towel, toothbrush or toaster—eventually, things need to be replaced. For your vision health, replacing your cont...

Back-to-school season is a great time to schedule an eye appointment. In less than a month, the school year begins. New classes and extracurricular activities will soon be the focus. Take advantage of the last days of summer to make sure your children are seeing their very bes...

It is estimated that 3 million Americans have glaucoma, but only half know they do. Glaucoma is serious eye disease and the second leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the world. The two most common forms of glaucoma are Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma and Acute Angle-Closure Glaucoma. ...

Our eye color comes from our iris, the tissue surrounding the pupil of our eye. Each iris has a unique pattern of ridges and folds, specific only to you! Iris Patterns Have Been Observed Since Ancient Times The iris works much like a camera’s aperture, regulating light levels and help...

We wear our glasses all day, but we don’t think much about the toll the day takes on our lenses. You can’t always avoid having your glasses scratched or bent, but there are a lot of things you can do to preserve the clarity of your lenses and integrity of your frames. Tip #1: C...

Each Vision Source® practice is dedicated to bringing you personalized, professional care. We want you to feel at home in our practice, and we love visiting with you. The more we understand about your habits, concerns, and existing health conditions, the more personalized care we can provid...

When it comes to sunglasses, what you can’t see can hurt you! You may think your shades are doing their job by just taking away the sun’s glare. But sunglasses have another important purpose—blocking invisible ultraviolet light. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light can cause short-term discom...

Do you experience frequent headaches? Are you squinting a lot? It may be time to get glasses. Approximately half of the U.S. wears some sort of corrective lens. But many people who would benefit from vision correction don’t even know they have a problem or are avoiding the trip to their eye doc...

Exercise improves our mood, keeps our bodies fit, and decreases risk for certain diseases. Did you know that exercise may also reduce your risk for eye disease? Exercise Keeps Our Eyes Feeling Young! Studies show that regular physical activity may decrease our chances of developing age-relat...

Over 9,000 fireworks injuries occur each year. Many of these injuries include eye damage—sometimes permanently compromising vision! It’s Fireworks Safety Month Too many of us forget that fireworks are dangerous, explosive devices, NOT family-friendly toys! Always follow safe practices ar...