Thinking of buying eyewear online… OPEN YOUR EYES

editor — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:05:14 +0000

Contact Lenses

Shopping for contacts on the internet may be convenient, but did you know that regulations exist for prescribing and dispensing contact lenses that are intended to protect consumers? Many online contact lens retailers are not regulated.

There are increasing concerns following reports of contact lens wearers experiencing eye health problems after buying lenses online, without getting proper eye care and professional advice.

All medical devices sold in Canada must have a Canadian Medical Device License, including contact lenses. Lenses that are sold online may not have the appropriate license and therefore would not be approved for distribution in Canada as they may not meet Health Canada’s requirements for safety.

Sales of contact lenses are regulated to protect consumers from eye health problems. Unfortunately, unregulated internet retailers are not obligated to check ‘specifications’ provided by the eye care professional, before supplying corrective lenses. Overseas distribution channels may have ‘grey market’ (counterfeit) product and risk being exposed to extreme temperature changes during transportation affecting the integrity of the contact lenses.

Contact lenses come into direct contact with the eye, one of the most delicate and sensitive organs of the human body, and carry a risk of irritation and infection that can lead to long- term problems for the wearer. It’s important to have lenses prescribed and fitted by a vision health professional or you may actually damage your eyes!

When you are professionally fitted for lenses several elements are evaluated including eye curvature, tear chemistry and the prescription itself. Your optometrist will chose an eye care solution for you based on compatibility of different lens materials, base curves and eye physiology. It’s not one size fits all.

Two studies^1,2 confirm increased risks associated with purchasing contact lenses online. The risk of serious infection was found to be nearly five times higher. See the HC site on Buying Medical Devices over the Internet: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/med_mat-eng.php.

The CAO website has a find an optometrist feature to help you take the first step toward making an appointment for an eye health examination or contact lens assessment.

Eye health is not just about getting new glasses

1. The incidence of and risk factors for contact lens related microbial keratitis in Australia and New Zealand Edwards, Catherine Patrice, Optometry & Vision Science, Faculty of Science, UNSW handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/3
2. Contact lenses purchased over the Internet place individuals potentially at risk for harmful eye care practices; Joshua Fogel, Ph.D., and Chaya Zidile www.aoa.org/documents/optm‐447‐Fogel.

Glasses

Shopping for glasses on the internet may seem harmless, but did you know that there are regulations for prescribing and dispensing eye glasses that are intended to protect consumers? Many online retailers are not regulated.

Prescription eyeglasses are classified and regulated as medical devices by Health Canada. Glasses purchased online may not meet Health Canada’s safety standards.

To ensure that your optical prescription is not expired (one or two years old), you should have your eyes examined by an optometrist or ophthalmologist regularly. Online sellers cannot assess your overall eye health and are therefore not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a regulated eye care professional.

Even with 20/20 vision, 1 in 7 Canadians will develop a serious eye disorder

Once you have a prescription you may purchase eyewear from a regulated eyewear provider. These trained professionals have the know-how to properly interpret your prescription and help you select the frames, lenses and lens coatings that are best suited to your individual eye-health needs.

Getting proper eye measurements and advice is the only way to ensure your prescription is safe and effective. The curvature and thickness of the lenses, the location of the optical centre in the frames and the position of bifocal or progressive lenses (if required) can affect your vision correction and is best determined in person by a vision health professional. Proper fitting eyeglasses will help you avoid fatigue, headaches, nausea, double vision, and pain or pressure around the nose or ears.

The CAO website has a find an optometrist feature to help you take the first step toward making an appointment for an eye health examination.

Eye health means more than just getting new glasses

Prescription Was Cut Back

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:43:48 +0000

Cutting back the glasses prescription when there is a big change is quite common. The problem with giving the full prescription is that it could be very hard for you to get used to it. It could take longer than a month to adjust and you may have severe headaches. Not something that most people are willing to tolerate. In your case specific reasons that would make it hard to adjust to the new prescription is the amount of time you’ve had your old prescription and the type of prescription that you have. The longer you have had your current prescription the harder it is to adjust to a new prescription. As well astigmatism (cyl) correction is the hardest type of prescription change to get used to. The amount that they are cutting it back by likely won’t affect your vision significantly. I would have done the same thing that your optometrist is suggesting.
Dr. Doman

Is Three-Month-Old Far-Sighted?

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:42:51 +0000

Ali,
It sounds like your baby is reacting very normally visually. I have a nine month old myself and I noticed the same thing when he was younger. If you were holding him he didn’t want to look at you, but would look at someone standing right beside me. Part of it is that they are curious about the world around them. Almost all babies are far-sighted and this is normal. It sounds like his vision is developing perfectly normally. Optometrists do routinely examine babies as young as six months, so you could definitely take him to see your optometrist when he is six months old. It would be quite rare for a baby to need glasses at such a young age. Most babies will grow out of their far-sightedness as they get older and will not require glasses. However some young children will be significantly far-sighted or near-sighted and will require glasses. For more information on baby’s vision visit our website: opto.ca/openyoureyes/caring-for-your-family/babys-vision.
Dr. Doman

Possible Lazy Eye

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:34:44 +0000

Hi Sean,
If your son has his eyes checked every year and everything is fine it is unlikely that he has a lazy eye. This is one of the main things that we look for when examining young children. It could be that it is a habit that he has developed or perhaps that’s his way of trying to really focus in on something. I assume that you have mentioned this problem to your optometrist? If he sees equally well with each eye and has good binocular vision there is no medical reason for this behaviour.

Dr. Doman

Eye Strain from Computer Use & Reading

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:31:02 +0000

Allie,
I cannot answer this question for you specifically without knowing your exact situation. I would definitely recommend making an appointment to see your optometrist to find out the cause of your eye strain and what the best treatment would be for you.. There are a number of reasons why glasses are sometimes better for computer use versus contact lenses. When on the computer specifically we blink 50% less than during other activities and as a result dry eye increases. This increase in dryness can be more noticeable with contact lenses than with glasses. Depending on a person’s age the focusing with contact lenses and glasses can be different. People who have myopia (near-sightedness) and are over 40 will start to experience increased strain and problems focusing on things up close (computer and print). These symptoms will be worse with contact lenses because you have to use more effort to focus on things up close compared to glasses. If you are over 40 ask your optometrist about multifocal contact lenses, which give better near vision. Anyone spending prolonged amount of time on a computer are advised to follow the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes they should take a 20 second break and look 20 feet away.
Dr. Doman

Eye Test with Drops

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:26:11 +0000

Brandon,
Checking your vision with the drops in will give the most accurate results. This is especially true with hyperopia or far-sightedness. In most people the results with and without drops will be the same. When we check the prescription for glasses ideally we want your focusing completely relaxed. Younger people have a very strong focusing ability, so strong that it is sometimes very hard for them to relax it during the test. We have a few ways of encouraging the focusing to relax, but the drops work the best. Some people have more of a problem relaxing their focus than others. It sounds like the prescription didn’t change much in your new glasses. It always takes some time to adjust to a change in a glasses prescription even if it is a small change. The fastest way to adjust is to wear them all the time. Another thing with hyperopia in young people is that without glasses the vision is not overly blurry as they can exert extra effort and focus more to make things clear. The problem with this is that it is not a good idea to do this on a continuous basis. Depending on the amount of the prescription some people are required to wear the glasses all the time, while others are only required to wear them during certain visual tasks. I would advise that you follow the advice of your optometrist and wear the glasses for what they recommended. I hope you will find this information to be helpful.

Dr. Doman

Pain Behind Left Eye; Sensitive to Light

Dr Carol Doman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:14:22 +0000

Patricia,
If you are having significant pain and extreme light sensitivity you should definitely make an appointment with your optometrist. They can evaluate to determine what is causing your symptoms. These symptoms could be a sign of several different things, some of which are quite serious. One thing that the optometrist would want to rule out would be iritis. Iritis is a condition where there is inflammation of the iris inside the eye. If this is left untreated it could lead to serious complications. Good luck solving your problem.

Dr. Doman

Strabismus Surgery

Dr Henry Smit — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:03:55 +0000

Dear Dave:
If you have 80% depth perception, it would seem to me that your eyes are likely aligned part of the time, or had been aligned at some time in the past. The chance of success with strabismus surgery tends to improve if the eyes have a pre-existing ability to co-ordinate and work together – which it appears that yours have.

Your first step should be to consult an optometrist to have a binocular vision assessment. He or she will be able to measure the degree of strabismus as well as your binocular depth perception. Based on the results of your assessment, your optometrist can refer you to an eye surgeon who will be able to discuss the potential benefits and risks of doing the surgery in your particular case. The benefits and risks vary from case to case based on the degree of misalignment and the direction of misalignment. However, based on your 80% depth perception, it appears that the possibility of corrective surgery is an option worth investigating in your case.

Best of luck,
Dr. Smit

Prescription Swimming Goggles

Dr Henry Smit — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:03:01 +0000

Dear Larry

If your only option is to get swimming goggles with the same prescription in both eyes, I would opt for the -3.25 lens, provided you have good vision in your non-dominant eye. This would potentially give you good vision for distance in your left eye and still reasonably good close up vision in the right eye. If you wear a -5.75 lens in both eyes, you would have blurred vision at all distances in your left eye.

If the goggles you are planning to purchase have a detachable bridge, you could consider buying a pair in each prescription. You could then dissemble each pair and reassemble them with a lens of each power in both pairs of goggles. It would be twice the investment, but you might be able to provide yourself with two pairs of goggles with the correct prescription for each eye.

Best of luck
Dr. Smit

Development of Myopia

Dr Henry Smit — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:40:46 +0000

Dear Bernie:
The debate about whether or not doing close work contributes to the development of nearsightedness has been argued for years without reaching a definite conclusion. It is believed that a number of factors contribute to the development of myopia, with genetic predisposition being near the top of the list. Although no one in your family wears glasses, I would not be surprised if you had more distant blood relatives who also had some measure of myopia.
It is true that, in typical cases, myopia stops progressing once the person’s eyes have reached their full adult size – usually in their early twenties. That being said, I have certainly seen patients in my practice who, like you, have continued to become more nearsighted through their adult years. A good number of them, like you, had spent a lot of time doing near tasks, but for many that was not the case. Additionally, there are many people today who spend much of their work time doing close work, and then spend several hours of leisure time doing close work such as reading or working on a computer. For most of these people, myopia does not progress.
Bernie, I don’t think the amount of near work you did was the cause of your nearsightedness. It could be argued that your near work may have contributed in some difficult to measure fashion, however, I do not think you need to blame yourself for your nearsightedness. The mechanisms that cause myopia are complex and not yet fully understood and not usually entirely attributable to the amount of close work that has been done.
Hope this is helpful.
Dr. Smit