“I try to be proactive about my health in general. Is there anything I can do to make sure that my eyes stay healthy?” –Tim via email
Tim, there are lots of things you can do to make sure your eyes stay healthy. The first, and easiest thing to do is to make sure you have your eyes checked regularly. Our eye doctors recommend yearly eye and vision check-ups to assure that our patients have clear, comfortable vision, and have healthy eyes. Some eye diseases are acute such as pink eye, or ocular trauma. These diseases are often easy to identify, however there are a variety of eye diseases that occur slowly and don’t have symptoms in their early stages. It is very beneficial, for example, to monitor patients’ intraocular pressure over time, as higher eye pressures can lead to a chronic eye disease called glaucoma. Macular degeneration is an eye disease that affects a patient’s central vision. It is thought to be prevented by eating high antioxidant foods, and keeping ultraviolet light out of the eyes via sunglasses. Wearing sun protection and eating right are just two of the ways that you can help assure a lifetime of good eye health.
“I get my eyes checked every year, when should I start bringing my kids in to get their eyes checked?” –Mary via email
Our optometrists, and the American Optometric Association, recommend that children have their first eye exam at 6-12 months of age. This first exam provides an opportunity to check for congenital anomalies such as abnormal lid and eye position, cataracts, glaucoma, or retinal abnormalities. In addition, a technique called ‘retinoscopy’ allows our doctors to check for potentially problematic refractive error, that is, nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. If your child has a large amount of refractive error, there may be a risk of developing amblyopia. Amblyopia is much easier to address if it is diagnosed early in life. A common scenario involving amblyopia is where one eye has a large glasses prescription and the other eye doesn’t. The vision out of the eye with the larger prescription may not develop normally (i.e. that eye won’t be capable of seeing 20/20 on the letter chart). An eye that is perfectly healthy, but can’t see 20/20, is considered “lazy” or amblyopic. If that amblyopia is not diagnosed early, the eye may never see to its full potential. Please call us at (303) 450-2020 to schedule your child’s first eye exam.
“My eyes are consistently dry and I’ve used every eye drop there is. What are my options for avoiding all the watery eye, burning eye, and redness that keep bothering me?” –Sasha via email
Dry eye is a frustrating condition, and it is quite prevalent in a state with air as dry as Colorado! Depending on the type of dryness a patient has, there are many different options. Getting the initial inflammation under control via steroid medication and antibiotics is important. Once a good baseline of health has been established, good eye lubrication can be maintained with non-preserved artificial tears. Dr. Brian Abert, O.D., FAAO likes to utilize punctal plugs as they help the patient maintain more of their own tears in their eyes without having to constantly re-apply eye drops. Punctal plugs are usually covered nicely by health insurance and are a great, permanent way to help alleviate dry eye. Punctal plugs are easy to use, painless, and a good long-term solution to dry eye. Be sure to ask our eye docs about what you can do to make your dry eyes a thing of the past!