Archive for November, 2009

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Bates Method: Natural Cure for Lazy Eye

November 25th, 2009

There is a good news for people suffering from lazy eye, or say cross eye or strabismus: they don’t have to wear corrective glasses, which makes them awkward, any more, for there is a natural cure for lazy eye. That is Bates Method, a kind of eye exercises developed by Dr. William Horatio Bates during the 1920s.

Dr. Bates creates Bates Method curing eye problems on the principle that eye health is closely related to what happen to the whole body. He holds that the healthy condition of each part in a body can not be separated and some indisposition of certain part may be the inducement of problems of other parts, for example, the eye problems. As a result, Dr. Bates advocates people to go out doing exercises more. The fresh air will do well to both your body health and eye health as well.

Additionally, Dr. Bates thought that one’s state of mind is also concerned with eye health. That is to say, if one is under stress or pressure all the time, his or her eye will be indirectly affected. Thus, Dr. Bates proposes a series of eye exercises to relax eyes, which are believed to be the all-natural method to cure lazy eyes rather than wearing corrective eyeglasses and having surgeries. Therefore, one of the ways to relieve eye problems, of course, including lazy eyes, is to keep up a good state of mind.

If you are still afflicted by lazy eye, why don’t you have a try of Bates Method. For one thing, it is a very safe method; for the other, it costs little. What is more, bates Method has been proved to be able to cure various kinds of eye problems, let alone lazy eye.

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The vision screening test before obtaining a driver’s license

November 25th, 2009

We know good vision is a very crucial factor for a car driver to guarantee both the drivers’ and passengers’ safety. So it should be extremely strict with the diver’s vision test.

In fact, the federal government has already carried out a federal vision standard, which includes at least ‘20/40 visions in each eye, 70 degree field of vision from center in each eye, and the ability to identify between different traffic signal colors. The standard is considered the minimum requirements if you are trying to obtain the diver license, which are studied and recommended by ophthalmologists and optometrists. But as the licenses are authorized by each state, the lowest requirement varies a little. If you are going to attend a driver’s license test, you can get the information from your local state.

Whether you have good vision or not you can get your license if your vision is satisfied with the lowest level in your state. If you have excellent vision, you are sure to pass the vision test, and you can at the same time get an unrestricted driver’s license. But if you have poor vision, it means you will receive a license with lens restriction. With that kind of license you have to wear the spectacles or contacts when you are driving, or else you will be fined or not allowed to drive for a period of time.

If you unfortunately fail the vision screening test, you can go to the ophthalmologist to have a full eye examination. The doctor will recommend you to take a right spectacle or even to have an eye surgery which can meet the driving needs. But the vision of 20/200 or poorer is not permitted to get a driver license. So if you have extremely poor vision, please stop driving both in respect  of yourself and others. After the examination, you are required to take a special driving test to assess if you are suitable for driving. There are some restrictions according to different poor eye condition, such as extra mirrors to improve the vision field, corrective lenses needed, daytime drive only, and certain road drive only (freeway drive forbidden). Though it may sounds a little strict, but we are sure everyone can understand the aim to keep each person safe.

Nowadays, there are a lot of ways to improve people’s vision. Laser surgery is one effective method. If you have had the eye surgery and get a quite good vision, you can go to the Division of Motor Vehicles to get rid of the lenses restriction on your driver license. Be sure to take all the relative documentations along with you, including the visual acuity, visual peripheral test results, date of the vision exam, and the signature of the ophthalmologist who give you the examination. Lack of any kind of above file is not allowed to get a restriction free license.

The vision screening test is necessary to keep the society work in an order. Traffic cop may sometimes check if you follow the driving rules including the vision rules, so it is better to keep your lately eye prescription at hand to avoid withdrawal of your driver license.

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Actions you take to remove your glasses

November 24th, 2009

Wearing a pair of glasses is a common way that people to get a clear vision. Definitely, it is an easy method to wear glasses and adjust the vision. But its defects are obvious that it is uncomfortable and the glasses are easily to become dirty. And whatever how often you clean them, they always seem to become dirty again and again. But there is a very simple way to put away your glasses and keep you away from eye doctor forever.

There are some basic steps you should follow to get better vision. First of all, you should get enough sleep in order to rest your eyes, which is something important but we all forget these fast paced days. When you get enough sleep you can see clearer.

Another way to see clearer is eye exercises. It takes little time to do eye exercises, just blink very fast for three seconds and close your eyes tight. It will help your natural eye correction and dig up your eyes’ full potential. It will just cost you very few time a day and the procedure is also very simple.

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Optical industry insider talks about eyeglasses

November 23rd, 2009

According to 2005 MIT report, the cost of a pair of mass produced eyeglasses is only 2 dollars. While most of the Americans are paying hundreds for a pair, even in online stores, the price of discount eyeglasses frames and lenses will cost 50 dollars.

Based on insiders of American optical industry, the general markup in most of the eyeglasses stores is from threefold to thirty fold. Though cheap stores like Walmart offers discount eyeglasses frames and lenses, but still insiders say a markup of fourfold is reasonable in the industry though facing the fierce competition from new entrants. Now with the booming of internet technology, online stores compete with brick and mortar ones, buyers can get even more discount eyeglasses frames and lenses at the price of only a fraction of the optical stores. Though people in the very beginning felt reluctant and worried to buy discount eyeglasses online, now more and more people are hunting for a best deal on the net. Even for those conservative people, they can at least buy the discount eyeglasses frames from web stores, and then go to optometrist’s office for installing lenses. In this way, he enjoys all the traditional optical services, meanwhile he can still save 50%. Furthermore, discount eyeglasses frames are especially good for those clear-lenses eyeglasses users who need not worry about the prescription preciseness.

Some American optical experts predict that optical stores are one of the last sections in America that will be finally decimated by the surge of online discount eyeglasses frames and cheap but same quality lenses.

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Categories of Laser Eye Surgery

November 23rd, 2009

More and more people choose to do eye surgery to correct eyes because they are bored with wearing eyeglasses and contacts. However, the categories of laser eye surgery vary greatly among each other and they actually fit different eye situations. So if you really opt to do eye surgery, you are recommended to do some studies on laser eye surgery.

LASIK, which is short for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, is considered to be the most common and popular kind of laser eye surgery and it is effective to correct the situations like myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Before your doctor is ready to do the surgery for you, they will request you to take off your contacts for a couple of weeks. Only in that way they can measure the amounts of corneal tissue to be removed in each eye during the surgery. The procedures of LASIK include flapping and remodeling process of corneal tissue. During the flapping procedure, you are required to keep your eyes wide open to let your surgeon use a metal blade to create a flap of corneal tissue. Then the surgeon will reach to the middle layer of cornea with the help of flap and do the cornea reshaping. Finally, the flap is repositioned and the surgery id done. However, you have to pay attention to lots of notice items after surgery. For example, you should use antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drop to prevent any eye infection. You should be away from strong lights to prevent any hurt to eyes again. So we can say both the surgery itself and healing process are important for a successful eye surgery.

PRK and LASEK, which mean photorefractive keratectomy and laser-assisted sub-epithelial keratectomy separately, are two revolutionary kinds of laser eye surgeries being completely different from LASIK. There is only one procedure during the both two operations, which is achieved by the way of ablation to vaporize a small part of tissue from the front eyes in order to reshape the cornea. As the corneal epithelium is regenerative and can be built for a short time, you do not have to worry about the discarding of corneal. The fact that the operations do not have the process of corneal cutting makes them to be well-known as no touch laser vision correction. These surgeries are characterized as no manual surgical instruments and only one excimer laser from the beginning to the end of the surgery.

Since you know the main categories of laser eye surgery and both their advantageous and disadvantageous, you can choose one that is most suitable for you. Good luck!

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Regular Eye Tests

November 23rd, 2009

It is encouraged in the UK that people with eye or vision problems should have an eye test every two years. There are a variety of reasons behind this, one of which is that it could save you a lot of troubles in later years if you do get regular eye tests.

Primarily, eye tests serve as a check-up to make sure that your vision correction prescription – your glasses and/or contact lenses – is up to date. Without right prescription, not only can your sight suffer but the condition of your eyes can deteriorate overall. It means that bigger problems may be arisen in the future which should be rectified in advance simply by taking an eye test.

Eye tests also serve as a way for optometrists to monitor any early signs of eye diseases. As with other health problems, the earlier a problem is identified, the sooner it can be treated – with a higher likelihood for success than if the problem is allowed to worsen. Problems like glaucoma and cataracts can be identified far earlier than they might be if left alone, and solved in a comparatively easy way.

During an eye test, your optometrist will adopt several measures to determine the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision. These include a discussion of your health and lifestyle, followed by tests such as the measurement of your spectacle power, the measurement of your eye pressure – key to discovering glaucoma – auto refraction to help with your base prescription and a test of your visual acuity. This test determines how well your vision works based on near and far distances, usually by reading letters on an eye chart.

There are many other tests with which your optometrist determines any other problems you may have, which check the general condition of your eyes, including the strength and flexibility of the surrounding muscles.

By booking regular eye tests, it is far more likely for you to save yourself from future pain and discomfort due to the greater chance of identifying any sign of diseases before they become too severe, and ensure your prescription is completely up to date so that you are not at risk of entailing any other damage.

Your optometrist will also be better informed to suggest a course of treatment, whether it is new glasses or LASIK laser eye surgery for corrective purposes – making regular eye tests an essential part of your routine health checks.

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All about See-Clearly Eye Exercises

November 22nd, 2009

On one encountering eyesight problems, either myopia or hypermetropia, it firstly occurs to him/her to choose a solution by wearing glasses, contact lenses or undergoing an eye surgery. Few has ever thought to find a natural way to improve eyesight problems, nor have any ophthalmologist told them. In recent years, a rumour that there are some see-clearly eye exercises to improve eyesight is popular on net and many net friends state that they have tried such exercises and have benefited from it greatly. So today I want to, over this issue, to make a verification that there indeed exists a natural vision therapy that is believed to be able to help correct faulty vision.

This natural vision correction is principle-based on useing eye muscles more to make them stronger and flexible, reducing the power and stress to eyes, in terms of Dr. Bates’ opinion that the main cause of most eyesight problems is stress. This is also the reason why when people get to their 40s, no matter whether they have eyesight problems or not before, they tend probably to have blur vision and need to wear glasses.

Then you may ask where you can get any information concerning specific techniques. Firstly I want to say it is almost impossible to get such information from an ophthalmologist, because in some degree, it affects his/her career. The best place is on Internet where many sites display various specific techniques and a lot people who have gotten tremendous results share their experiences.

All in all, see-clearly eye exercises are able to relax eyes and strengthen eye muscles. As long as you keep on taking exercises everyday, you will certainly be far away from glasses forever. In addition, such eye exercises do no harm to eye health. This is another advantage that it should be more preferable than any other ways to correct vision.

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Equilibrium between function and fashion

November 22nd, 2009

Glasses wearers used to have the impression that they will have to make great efforts in choosing glasses, which can always make them look older. With time goes by, nowadays, functions and fashion can be aggregated in the prescription eyeglasses.

Some people hold that now that it is possible to receive some eye surgery, why do they still take prescription glasses? The fact is that such surgery is not suitable for all people. Just image that glasses can sometimes be used as essential accessories, which can always embody the element of fashion, so do not feel furious about wearing glasses.

Nowadays, there appear some very fashionable glasses brands, which can always provide top glasses frames in the world. Of which, Sean John, Marco Jacobs are very typical examples. And it is very common to notice that many glasses wearers have loved these brands very much.

The image of Harry Potter has exerted great influences on the youngsters in terms of prescription glasses. As for this reason, prescribing glasses has become very popular thing among them. For the special features of the younger crowd, their glasses should be able to combat forceful impact. And of course, flexibility and elasticity are also very important.

Materials employed to produce such glasses are also the results of many considerations. Of which, Wood and bamboo are very common. They are not only can be renewed very easily, but can be used as products of environmental protection.

The disposed Plastic and metal frames are not the wastes like other dumps, which has attracted the caution of many environmentalist. In fact, the latest plastic metal frames are dominants in the glasses field. Some of the best materials are very welcomed, as Titanium and stainless steel, for they can help people who have suffered a lot from skin allergies.

In most cases, people will buy a lot of glasses to match their clothing. For instance, some women would like to wear colorful glasses for the sake of their accessories. Hence, it is very common to see people match their dresses with specific glasses frames.

Why does this happen? The foremost important factor is that some retailers are prompted some activities, in which consumers can benefit a lot, say, they can have two pairs at the price of one. Hence, some have got many glasses at a very low price.

Another reason is that glasses frames can be used for a very long time. Generally, some pairs of different glasses can be used for even longer time.

The last possibility might be that glasses are not only for the sole purpose of vision correction. Some people even think different frames can present their different glamour. People tend to wear different glasses on different occasions.

The facts foregoing proves that glasses prescription is a matter of function and fashion as well.

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Some important items on Contacts glasses

November 21st, 2009

For any wearer of glasses, he can either make eyeglasses or contacts glasses as his choices. It is true that with the rapid pace of the society, more people are more likely to buy contact lenses. And other factors may also be that contacts glasses can provide more convenience in their lives and works. When people take part in sports activities, for example, eyeglasses will cause many problems, whereas contacts glasses not. Or some people think that wearing eyeglasses has really harmed their personal images, and contacts glasses will doubtlessly remove such troubles.

It is true that the history of contacts glasses is really very short. But since the day when they made their first appearance, contacts glasses have enjoyed the widest popularity among the people with vision problems. The data has it that the number of people, who wear contacts glasses, has exceeded 100 million.

However, though there are only few people who can not wear contacts glasses, people are recommended to visit opticians or eye doctor before they decide to buy prescription contacts glasses. This is very important, especially for people who decide wear vision contact lens.

As one important sort of contacts glasses, vision contact lens is mainly for people who have vision problems. And vision correction is a very important feature of contacts glasses.

Wearer of vision contact lens should be very careful in their daily lives. Especially in the maintenance of vision contact lens, one should follow the instructions provided by the manufacturers. It is true that people with vision problems are more prone to be infected by bacteria, which will always lead to pretty serious outcomes. Just for this point, wearer should keep vision contact lens in suggested conditions; avoid infection caused by bacteria on the lens. And the last one is to wash hands before he decides to handle or wear vision contact lens.

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Differences between Trifocals and Bifocals

November 21st, 2009

Trifocals are a new group of special reading glasses which have three divisions on the lenses for correcting vision. It is different from traditional bifocals which have only two such divisions. The lower sections of the lens of trifocals are demarcated by a thin line which is a semi circular arc. One area is for near and the other for intermediate vision correction. And the part for intermediate rectification lies above the nearsighted correction area which is near the bottom of the lens. For those who used to wear bifocals may think it is strange to reading with glasses having three lines etched on it. As trifocals are new to most of people, it actually did need time for patient who uses this type of glasses to adjust to them. However, once you used to wear them, you will find it pretty easy to use and it is more convenient than bifocals.

After eye exam by the eye doctor, those people with extreme presbyopia, which means their net optical power with a special unit of diopter is very high, will be recommended to use trifocals. Because, unlike bifocals, trifocals can correct all ranges of vision, from nearby, intermediary to far distance, when bifocals can correct only two of them, either near vision or distance vision. Since trifocals can offer three levels of correction, it can give you a better vision. So, if you are one of the extreme presbyopia, you will get the better and more clarified vision when you use trifocals.

Trifocals are not only for those who have extreme presbyopia, it can also correct intermediate distance which can’t be provided by bifocals. For example, if your have a vision of -4 diopters, usually you will be recommended to use a glasses with a correction of 3 units, which means you vision is -1 diopter when you wear your reading glasses. The intermediate correction for such situation may be end up with a power of -2.5, which may take patients a little time to get used to it.

So with a single pair of trifocals, you can solve all problems that are related to presbyopia.

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