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Question and Answer“My vision seems to change every time I blink and I have to blink harder at the computer to keep things clear. What’s going on? Is this a glasses issue or do I need eye drops?” –Terri via email

Terri, it sounds to me more like a dry eye issue than a refractive issue with your glasses. It is important to recognize that the first refractive structure that light hits on its way to your retina isn’t your lens or cornea, but rather you tears. A spotty layer of tears will negatively impact light’s ability to focus on your retinas. Using a computer, especially for prolonged periods of time, can result in computer vision syndrome, or CVS. CVS patients tend to blink much less while working at the computer and as a result they often also suffer from dry eyes. Depending on the type of dry eye you might have, there would be different treatment options which may include eye drops or punctal plugs. I would strongly suggest making an appointment with our eye doctors to have them assess the health of the fronts of your eyes. I’m sure we can get you seeing clearly and more comfortably!

“I was told that I can’t have LASIK because my eyes are football-shaped. Is that true?” –Ron via email

The old football analogy! Astigmatism usually results from the cornea not being completely round and an astigmatic cornea is often likened to the unique curves of a football. Most of our patients have some amount of astigmatism, and it is true that there is a certain amount that would make LASIK not a great idea. However, LASIK can successfully correct even moderate amounts of astigmatism, so if you’ve been told that your astigmatism prevents you from getting LASIK, that may not be the case anymore. A lot of your questions would be answered by coming in to Vista Eye Care for a consultation with the folks from the TLC Vision Center. TLC visits Vista Eye Care once every couple of months and does a LASIK consult day. If they determine that your corneas are too thin, you may be a better candidate for PRK which is a similar laser-refractive procedure that works better with higher amounts of astigmatism or thin corneas. For patients with very high astigmatism or farsighted patients looking into refractive surgery, other options exist with intraocular lenses. Learn more about our latest LASIK consult day here.

“If my child passed their eye test at school, they don’t need to be seen by an eye doctor, right” –Fran via email

The testing done at schools is generally only a vision screening. Those tests rarely look at other aspects of eye and vision functionality. Knowing that your child can read a letter chart on a wall far away is certainly a good thing, but your child may still have significant farsightedness, astigmatism or other eye health concerns that go undiagnosed outside of an eye care professional’s office. Our annual comprehensive eye and vision exams include not only measuring a patient’s visual acuity (ability to read that letter chart), but also checks the function of eyes movement, pupils, lid movement, reading vision, color vision, depth perception, ability to focus, eye posture, health of the ocular surface, lens health (checking for congenital cataracts), health check of the back of the eye, and of course measuring the glasses prescription for distance as well as near vision. Our annual comprehensive eye and vision examination is recommended for all our patients starting at 6 months of age. Vision is far too important of a sense not to formally check with a good exam from your optometrist.

Ready to schedule your annual eye check-up?

Ready to schedule your annual eye check-up?