Things to know in respect of your eyes health

Sudden blur or loss of vision, new flashes and floaters, darkness in periphery, painful eye, light sensitivity, chemical spill into the eye, trauma to the eye, new difference in size between the two pupils

Certain conditions of the eye are silent e.g. chronic open angle glaucoma in which the pressure of the eye increases in a painless fashion  and slowly damages the eye without the patient noticing anything.

By the time, the patient notices something it can be very advanced

Glaucoma is preventable but once damage is established it is not reversible

Treatment of glaucoma by eyedrops, laser and/or surgery is meant to slow down the progression of the disease

Some conditions including glaucoma, retinal detachment, migraines and visual problems can run in families

If you have glaucoma you should tell your family members to get their eyes checked if they have not

Dry eye patients have a reduced baseline tear production but can still have reflex tearing when their eyes are irritated

The main thing to know is that preservative-free eyedrops whether in large container that we squeeze upside down or in small individual mini vials are better for the surface of the eye in the long-term as the preservative in all other bottles can be toxic to the surface of the cornea

First, be sure to share all your medical history with your eye doctor as not all eyedrops are appropriate to all patients

Second, ask your doctor about how to do digital punctual occlusion while placing the eyedrop in order to maximize its effect into the eye while minimizing any side effects to the rest of the body

It is best to get frames that are stable over the nose as the best vision is obtained when the glasses are well aligned over the eyes

They are magnifiers and work best for patients who have prescriptions quite equal in both eyes with very little astigmatism

Ask your medical doctor if you can benefit from those

Both use an excimer laser and are done to correct vision however surface laser ablation is done without creating a flap and one needs to use a bandage contact lens for a few days afterwards. A LASIK procedure by definition has a flap created and this allows for quicker initial visual recovery

Your doctor can go over the indications for laser or LASIK and if you are a candidate for either or for both procedures

This could mean your are accommodating too much and your eyes are getting tired

You may need stronger glasses. You need to see your eye doctor.

Most patients can see fine after dilating drops.

Only patients with hidden amounts of farsightedness see much more blurred afterwards for a few hours until the effect of the drops wears off

No, cataracts do not come back but you may have a haze in the membrane holding your lens and this is fixable with a YAG laser procedure done in the office or you may have another eye problem

You need to see an eye doctor

Laser vision correction evaluation needs a detailed eye exam and tests after which your doctor will explain and recommend what is the best technique for every person in order to reduce the dependence on glasses. These could include but are not limited to glasses, contact lenses, surface laser (PRK), LASIK, femtoLASIK, phakic intraocular lenses and lens extraction.

Yes, increase reading or working distance and improve the surrounding light.

Eventually reading glasses are inevitable

An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor (EyeMed) who specializes after his medical degree in the medical and surgical treatment of eye conditions

An optometrist is not a medical doctor and studies about the science of optics, glasses and contact lenses in addition to diagnosing general eye diseases

One can be a general ophthalmologist and practice medical and surgical treatments of the eye.

In addition, there are different subspecialties in the eye and these include:

Cataract and anterior segment, cornea and external disease, refractive surgery (LASIK AND PHAKIC IOL), glaucoma, pediatric, neuro-ophthalmology, medical retina, surgical retina, uveitis, oncology and oculoplastic 

A lazy eye or amblyopic eye is an eye that cannot read the smallest normal letters despite the fact that there is no pathology that explains it except that the brain did not get used to using that eye to see through it. Typically this happens when there is a difference in glasses prescription between the 2 eyes or something blocking the eyesight like a congenital cataract or droopy lid in the affected eye

Yes if caught early on as a child, the earlier it is diagnosed the more likely one can recover the vision as a child with the help of an ophthalmologist and correct follow up

Yes these are floaters that are best recognized through clear backgrounds

Yes, you can. Talk to your doctor about the different options in intraocular lenses that are available to you

Yes, of course. This is the best way to see how well these medications are working, your doctor may ask you what time you used the drops before you came in to see him for that reason

It is a way to self monitor any changes in one’s central vision especially if one has dry age related macular degeneration 

Ask your doctor if you would benefit from its daily use