Over the past twelve months we’ve been rocking at Wells Branch Vision Care. We finished the renovation of our office space in June. In July we added a number of designers to augment our collection. Among the new designers were bebe, Gucci and Nine West. We’ve expanded our glasses frame collection and now were pleased to do it again. WBVC is pleased to announce the arrival of Spy Optic.

The color orange is symbolic of much of life itself; bold, fiery, unique and sometimes blinding, a color that ignited a group of active friends in Southern California to re-invent eyewear. Their vision was orange and a single thought rang true: “it’s not seeing different things; it’s seeing the same things differently.”

Spy Optic was created by a group of action sports and motorsports enthusiasts who immersed themselves in the culture they knew best. The founders saw what was on the market for eyewear in 1994 and wanted to make sunglasses better. As authentic, well-connected action sports entrepreneurs, their unbridled enthusiasm for reinventing modern eyewear attracted the world’s best athletes from motorsports, surfing and snowboarding. Spy’s athletes became a huge and influential part of the Spy family and the team’s mojo combined with our designers’ innovative design sense helped fuel the brand’s rapid growth.

Spy’s design is not only aesthetically pleasing, but continues to push the technological limits in eyewear. Spy’s innovative patented Scoop® technology revolutionized its sport sunglass frames. The Spy Scoop® venting system combats lens fogging by promoting airflow between the lens and the wearer’s face. This system was such a success; its technology was seamlessly integrated and applied to its snow and motocross goggles. Spy’s polarization treatments superseded existing eyewear standards with its premium injected Trident polarized lenses. The lenses effectively eliminate more than 99% of blinding glare for precise, unobstructed vision.

What is dry eye syndrome?

Dry eye syndrome is a common condition that affects millions of Americans – women more often than men. In some instances, it is characterized by dry, irritated eyes due to a lack of lubricating tears. Surprisingly, it can also lead to excessively watery eyes due to tears lacking the proper balance of mucous, water, and oil to coat the eyes properly. Chronic dry eye can lead to damage of the eye’s surface, an increased risk of eye infections, and eventually, the inability to produce tears. Left untreated, severe forms of dry eye can even damage your vision.

How do I know if I have dry eye syndrome?

Symptoms of dry eyes may include burning and stinging. A foreign body sensation, like sand being in the eye, is often encountered. Vision can be blurred. Reflex tearing may be triggered causing excessively watery eyes. Sometimes, redness of the eye is experienced. When looking in a mirror, the eyes may seem to have lost their normal clearness and luster.

What causes dry eye syndrome?

Environment

Sunny, dry, or windy weather, heaters, air conditioners, and arid high altitudes increase the evaporation of tears from the surface of your eyes. You may experience dry eye symptoms while viewing television, computer screens, or while reading.

Tear Drainage

If you have too much tear drainage, you may experience dry eye symptoms and related congestion of the nose, throat, and sinuses.

Contact Lens Wear

Contact lens wear increases tear evaporation and related dry eye symptoms. Dryness may result in protein deposits on the lens, eye irritation, pain, infection, or sensitivity to contact lens solutions. Dry eye symptoms are the number one reason people stop wearing contact lenses.

Aging

Tear production gradually decreases with age. At age 65, the tear glands produce about 40 percent of the lubricating tears they produced at age 18. Decreased tear production may cause eye irritation and excess tearing or watery eyes.

Medications

Tear production may be reduced if you take certain medications, including decongestants, antihistamines, oral contraceptives, tranquilizers, and diuretics. If you are taking any medication, ask your doctor if it contributes to your dry eye condition.

Health Problems

Some special health problems can result in side effects of dry eye syndrome, such as arthritis, diabetes, thyroid abnormality, asthma, or an autoimmune condition known as Sjörgren’s Syndrome, which affects mostly middle-aged women. Also, women experiencing hormonal changes, such as pregnancy or menopause, may contract dry eye.

Can dry eye syndrome affect my ability to wear contact lenses?

Yes. Dry Eye Syndrome is the leading cause of contact lens intolerance or discomfort. Contacts can cause tears to evaporate from the eyes causing irritation, protein deposits, infection, and pain.

How is dry eye syndrome treated?

Common treatment of dry eye syndrome includes the use of artificial tears or artificial tear ointments. Prescription treatment options are available.

Other treatments for dry eye syndrome include the following:

-Wearing special eyewear, such as goggles or moisture chambers.

-Temporary plugs in the tear drain (punctum) to allow the eyes time to gain full use of the lubricating tears before they are drained away from the eye.

-Laser treatment or minor surgery to close the punctum permanently.

Dr. Hamilton will be leaving leaving in 2 days for a week long mission trip to Guyana, located in South America. Together with his team, he hopes to do over 1500 eye exams in a 5 day clinic, distributing glasses received from the Wisconsin Lion’s Club. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers over the next week. You can check out updates on the Facebook Page “Eyes for Guyana.”

If you haven’t been in lately — we’ve made a few changes at Wells Branch Vision Care. We just finished some major remodeling and the place looks great. Come by and see us!

Remodeling the office has allowed us to expand our glasses frame selection dramatically. We’ve added some new lines to fill in the gaps! So we are pleased to announce the addition of three new designers: bebe, Nine West and Gucci.

In addition to bebe, Nine West and Gucci — we are still carrying all of the great brands that you are used to including Ray Ban, BCBG, Sean Jean, Calvin Klein, CK, D&G, Carrera, Vogue, Cole Haan and Izod. We have something for everyone. Come by and check out the new selection!

Floaters appear as little “cobwebs” or specks that drift about in your field of vision. They are small, dark, shadowy shapes that can look like spots, thread-like strands, or squiggly lines. They move as your eyes move and seem to dart away when you try to look at them directly. They do not follow your eye movements precisely, and usually drift when your eyes stop moving.

In most cases, floaters are part of the natural aging process and simply an annoyance. They can be distracting at first, but eventually tend to “settle” at the bottom of the eye, becoming less bothersome. They usually settle below the line of sight and do not go away completely. Most people have floaters and learn to ignore them; they are usually not noticed until they become numerous or more prominent. Floaters can become apparent when looking at something bright, such as white paper or a blue sky.

Floaters occur when the vitreous, a gel-like substance that fills about 80 percent of the eye and helps it maintain a round shape, slowly shrinks. As the vitreous shrinks, it becomes somewhat stringy, and the strands can cast tiny shadows on the retina. These are floaters.

Floaters are more likely to develop as we age and are more common in people who are very nearsighted, have diabetes, or who have had a cataract operation. There are other, more serious causes of floaters, including infection, inflammation (uveitis), hemorrhaging, retinal tears, and injury to the
eye.

Sometimes a section of the vitreous pulls the fine fibers away from the retina all at once, rather than gradually, causing many new floaters to appear suddenly. This is called a vitreous detachment, which in most
cases is not sight threatening and requires no treatment. However, a sudden increase in floaters, possibly accompanied by light flashes or peripheral (side) vision loss, could indicate a retinal detachment.

A retinal detachment occurs when any part of the retina, the eye’s light-sensitive tissue, is lifted or pulled from its normal position at the back wall of the eye. A retinal detachment is a serious condition and should always be considered an emergency. If left untreated, it can lead to permanent visual impairment within two or three days or even blindness in the eye. Those who experience a sudden increase in floaters, flashes of light in peripheral vision, or a loss of peripheral vision should have their eye doctor examine their eyes as soon as possible.

Contact lenses always feel the best when they first come out of the package. In recent history, the eye care industry has moved dramatically away from yearly disposable soft contact lenses to more frequent replacement lenses. Today, most patients wear contacts that are disposed of every two weeks to one month.

My patients often remark that their contacts feel better at the beginning of their lifespan then when they are ready to be thrown out. Many people even decide that it’s time to replace their contacts when they can’t tolerate the comfort anymore! There are several reasons for this decrease in comfort that occurs as contacts get older.

First of all, contact lens materials are porous like a sponge. This feature allows the contact to retain moisture and breath better. But these pores tend to accumulate protein and fat deposits from the tear film. Many patients will eventually develop allergies to this accumulation of biological materials leading to lens discomfort.

Secondly, many contact lenses today are made of materials that repel water. In order to make them stay wet, a coating is applied to the lens at the end of the manufacturing process. This coating makes the lens wet and slippery and thus comfortable to wear. But these coatings are not terribly stable and tend to break down with contact lens wear. As the coating wears off, the contact lens gets dry and irritating.

Finally, contact lenses accumulate other environmental debris during their lifespan. These include pollens and other particulate in the air, anything that gets into a patient’s eye and even microbial colonies. All of these things can lead to contact lens discomfort, intolerance and even infection.

Does a fresh contact every day sound like a good idea? It turns out that in other parts of the developed world, daily disposable contacts are the norm. Their popularity has soared in Europe, Japan and Australia. They’ve been available here in the US for a long time, but we’ve been slow as a country to adopt them.

But daily disposable soft contact lenses offer a number of advantages:

-They are ideal for patients who suffer with eye allergies. These lenses only ever accumulate one day’s worth of allergen particulate from the air. Every morning, the patient puts on a clean, sterile lens out of the package.

-They are ideal for patients who are sensitive to contact lens cleaning solutions because they never have to be cleaned.

-Daily wearers with dry eye also find that using a fresh lens every day tends to soothe the dryness.

-Daily wearers hardly ever have problems with infections related to contact lens wear. Every morning when you put on a daily disposable contact lens, you are starting with a sterile product.

-They are great for trips. If a person is going on a beach vacation for four days, he or she just needs to grab four or five pairs of the lenses for the trip and throw them into the suitcase. Forget remembering a contact lens case or finding a bottle of solution that is less than 2 oz. for the TSA.

As it turns out, daily disposables do cost a little more than traditional replacement lenses. But the increased cost is offset by the fact that wearers don’t have to buy solution (usually about $100/year) and all the major manufacturers are offering rebates on daily disposables. One company is even offering a $100 rebate on a year supply of their product. Contact us and we can give you more details. The added benefits are worth any increase in price.

This really is the best product on the market for people who wear contacts every day. I highly recommend it and wholeheartedly believe that daily disposables are worth the extra cost. Think about it for yourself. I’d be glad to give you a hearty free sample of them at your next appointment!

Since graduating from optometry school in 2006, I have been amazed at the great blessings in my life. This abundance obliges me to consider an appropriate response. I think that we who are blessed are called to live a life characterized by gratitude. But pragmatically what does this mean?

About six months ago, a friend from optometry school contacted me to let me know that she was leading a group of people on a mission trip to Guyana. She asked me to consider coming down with them to help meet the eye care needs of people in Guyana. After great thought and prayer, I felt like I should go and I committed to participating.

Our mission team is amazing in its diversity. It includes four optometrists, seven optometry students, one medical student, three nurses, two opticians, a seminary student, a teacher and even a ranch wrangler! It has been exciting to watch this team come together.

Guyana is a small country located in northeast South America directly north of Brazil and sandwiched in between Suriname and Venezuela. Unfortunately, in the United States, it is best remembered as the location of the People’s Temple mass suicide led by Jim Jones in 1978. It is an English-speaking, sovereign state that associates more closely with the Caribbean nations than with the rest of South America. Its 770,000 people are composed principally of the descendants of slaves and indentured servants brought over from Africa and India during British colonial rule. In this South American country, east Indians make up the largest people group – approximately 43.5% in the most recent census.

Our plan is to travel to the settlement of Bath on the northeastern coast in mid August. We will work with a missionary couple, Andy and Kathleen Girwarnauth, who have recently established a church there. The Michigan Fellowship of Christian Optometrists has a long-standing relationship with this couple. This couple has a prolific ministry and I’m glad to be a part of it again. During our week-long trip, we will set up a make-shift clinic in the church and we hope to see between 1,500 and 1,700 patients.

I will be supporting myself financially. However it is going to cost each student $1,700 to participate. Please let me know if you are interested in supporting our efforts. There are a lot of things that you can do — from donating your old glasses to supporting us financially.

I will keep you updated as our plans progress. Thanks for your interest!

Upon entering their forties, most people begin to lose the ability to focus on objects up close. This is called presbyopia and is the reason why adults often wear reading glasses or bifocals. People in this age group need eye correction that not only clears up their distance vision, but helps them to read again too. This is when most glasses wearers begin wearing bifocals.

The options are a little different for contact lens wearers. Traditionally, contacts are used to correct distance vision (driving, watching TV, movies, etc.). So when a contact lens patient begins to need help with reading and other up close activities, the contact lens wearer has to consider new options. Three of the most popular choices are: (1) wearing reading glasses over the top of their contact lenses, (2) monovision contact lenses, and (3) multifocal contact lenses.

Below I’ll spend a few minutes explaining the pros and cons of these different options.

Reading Glasses Over Contacts

This is a sure fire way of getting great vision both up close and far away. A patient who chooses this first option will continue wearing the same contacts that they wore before they had problems with near vision. But when they want to read, they put reading glasses on over the top of their contacts. This option gives the best vision, but the patient has to keep track of a pair of reading glasses all the time.

Monovision

Monovision is an all-contact option. Most people who wear monovision contacts seldom need reading glasses. In this type of contact lens fit, the patient’s dominant eye is fit with a standard contact lens (probably the same as they’ve worn in the past). The non-dominant eye is fit with a reading lens that provides magnification for close up work.

Monovision can take a little time to get used to. In this type of a contact lens correction the patient’s brain learns to use the eye that is in focus for different tasks. When they are driving or watching TV, they learn to ‘look’ through their dominant eye that has the distance contact lens. When they are reading or doing other up-close task, they learn to focus with the non-dominant eye.

As bizarre as this sounds, many people wear monovision corrections and love it. It takes about a week of adaptation; after that it feels natural. In fact, many people who have been wearing monovision contacts for years will seek to make it permanent with laser vision correction.

The pros of monovision is that the contacts are less expensive then bifocal contacts, the vision is typically 20/20 both at distance and near, and monovision is available in a wide variety of contact lenses (including those for astigmatism), sizes and colors. The cons are that monovision takes a little longer to get used to, is somewhat unnatural and may reduce a person’s depth perception.

Bifocal Contact Lenses

Bifocal contact lenses attempt to give the patient the best of both worlds. They attempt to focus both up close and far away. Different brands use a variety of technologies to achieve this end. They are available in both hard and soft varieties.

The goal of multifocal contacts is to get the patient out of glasses most of the time. Most of my patients who wear multifocal contact lenses keep a pair of reading glasses around for really small text or low light situations.

The pros of multifocal contacts are that they don’t degrade depth perception like monvision, they are easy to adapt to, and the vision is fairly natural. The cons are that they are more expensive, they are not generally available for those with astigmatism, and oftentimes people still need reading glasses for some some tasks.

To conclude, there are many options out there. The options above are just the tip of the iceberg. Often we can mix and match these option to cater a solution that works for the individual. Our office has fairly good success with contact lenses after forty. If you are not satisfied with your current correction, please come in and talk to me.

A video crew recently came by Wells Branch Vision Care to interview Dr. Hamilton in regards to his surgery experience with Eye Lasik Austin.

Check out the interview by clicking here.

I recently returned from my yearly ski trip to Colorado. Over the past couple of years, I have become much more concerned with safety while in the mountains. Two friends recently suffered head injuries while skiing or snowboarding; so I started wearing a helmet. I almost always rent a four-wheel drive vehicle to mitigate the risk of snowy roads. And I’m very careful to protect my eyes.

The goggles that I’m wearing in the picture are brand new. I purchased them just before heading out west. Before the trip, I was pretty excited about the way they looked. I especially like the burnt orange mirror coat that unapologetically announces to everyone on the chairlift that I’m from Austin.

There are several purposes for ski goggles. First and foremost, they keep flying snow out of your eyes. They also keep your face warm and shield your eyes from the more intense UV radiation that is found at high altitudes. But they provide an even more basic function: physical protection.

In the past few years, I’ve gotten more interested in skiing through the trees. I like the adrenaline rush of making quick turns under the shade of towering pines. Furthermore, the quality of the snow in the trees is always better than the rest of the mountain. On days when it’s icy and barren on the regular runs, there’s always waist deep powder in the woods. And under the canopy of the trees, it’s amazingly quiet. The snow is powdery and all extraneous noises of the resort are absorbed providing a wonderful sense of solitude. For all these reasons, I love it.

On this most recent trip, I was practicing my new love of tree skiing. On one particular run, I connected a couple of great turns in the trees. At the end of the run, I turned to the left to leave the forested area. Unfortunately, there was no great way to exit. I tried to duck down as low as possible to ski under the horizontal branches of a lodgepole pine. I couldn’t get low enough. One of the branches hit me across the face leaving cuts on my right cheek. My brand new goggles didn’t fare so well either. The shiny new mirror coat had scratches all the way across.

I’m disappointed that the goggles aren’t as shiny as they once were. But after all, isn’t that the function of protective eye wear – to absorb the damage in the place of our eyes? I just had LASIK a few months ago. A pine tree branch hitting me in the face at high speed could have dislodged the LASIK flap causing a myriad of problems. I’m thankful that my eyes were protected.

Think about protecting your eyes for sports and other outdoor activities. As the old adage says, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s a lot easier to prevent hurting your eyes in the first place, than to fix them after the injury. With new sunglasses and goggle options — you can get this protection and look good at the same time!