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Are you interested in laser eye surgery but not sure if you are a suitable candidate or have doubts about the risks and side effects? Here is a general guideline about laser eye surgery to help you with your decision.

Am I A Good Candidate?

• Are you over the age of 18?
• Is your prescription stable?
• Is your cornea thick enough?
• Are your eyes in good health?

If you can answer yes to these questions you are likely a good candidate for laser eye surgery!

What are the risks or side effects?

Just like all surgical procedures, there are risks. However, when performed by an experienced surgeon, the risk of complications is quite low.

The most common risks and side effects are:

• Undercorrection or overcorrection: occurs when the refractive error was not fully corrected or corrected more than intended. Both cases can lead to blurry vision but can be fixed by an enhancement procedure.
• Corneal haze: a clouding of the cornea during the healing process and may cause blurry vision. Corneal haze eventually disappears on its own but may take months or years.
• Dry eye: eyes may be dry for the first few months after surgery.
• Irritation and sensitivity to bright lights: both are extremely common after surgery and typically lasts for a few days but subsides as the eyes heal.

If you are unsure about any of these questions, please visit us for an eye exam and we can address further questions or concerns about your suitability.

Did you know that up to 80% of a child’s learning comes from vision? If your child can read the board from the back of the room, that’s great, but it does not translate to seeing what’s written on the board and processing it properly.

As a child grows up, their brain and eyes work together to develop their binocular vision skills. For example, saccades or “jumping” is an important visual skill for reading. Jumping is being able to quickly move your eyes from one object to the next and when one reads, they usually read one to three words at a time before moving on to the next set of words.

The eyes and brain must work together to process information that is given to us. For example, if a child has difficulty seeing two similar letters (p and q, d and b) they may have visual discrimination issues. If a child is constantly bumping into things or has difficulty colouring within the lines, they may have visual-motor integration issues. This all means that the eyes and the brain are not working together properly to perform these tasks.

When should you be concerned? If you notice your child losing their place when reading, seeing double or having an extremely short attention span, there may be a visual skills or processing problem. In comprehensive eye exams, up to 50% of these vision related problems are missed just because the exams tend to focus on other ocular diseases.

At Eyelab, we perform Functional Vision Assessments and Developmental Vision Analyses that will test these skills that are not usually assessed in regular eye exams. After testing, you are given a comprehensive report of what tests were performed and the results from each test. The report will also include recommendations on how your child can improve his/her visual deficiencies. Vision therapy may be recommended to improve on any of the deficient visual skills.

Most parents always inquire tips on how to help their children with their screen time. Here are a couple of recommendations we always share with our patients.

1. Spend 2 hours a day outdoors (Studies have shown it can slow down the initiation of myopia progression)
2. Spend less than 1 hour of screen time per day if it is not related to school work.
3. Proper lighting. Make sure your room eliminates any glare from external sources such as the windows.
4. Blink! We usually blink about 15 times a minute. When we are performing a near task, we blink about 3 times a minute which can cause dry eye/irritation to our eyes.
5. Monitor placement. Make sure your computer is 15-20 degrees below eye level and your computer is approximately 40-75cm away
6. Avoid reading or using a cell phone in bed.
7. Practice the 20/20/20 rule. 20 minutes close up work, 20 seconds break and look at an object at least 20 feet away.

If you are worried about your child’s vision or eye health, please book an appointment with us.

We can help!

Of the many patients that have visited me with their main complaint being about a burning sensation in their eyes or their eyes feel very dry, most of them typically have clogged oil glands. A portion of my patients have been previously misdiagnosed with blepharitis when it was actually Demodex. What is Demodex? It is a mite that resides in the eyelashes’ hair follicles which causes itchiness, scaling of the eyelids, irritation and recurrent styes.

How did I get them?

It’s part of our normal flora – some patients will experience more and some less. It isn’t something we can completely get rid of, but we can manage it. When the population hits a critical mass, this is where we see problems arising in our ocular system.

What can we do?

The best treatment is a course of tea tree oil to manage and limit the population. We use Cliradex and products from We Love Eyes to help clear these mites. Most of these treatments take about 5 weeks. The treatment plan consists of the initial 2 weeks to kill the mites and then latter 3 weeks to kill the rest of the eggs.

If you are suffering from dry eyes, come by for an evaluation. Our doctors are able to help assist your dry eyes.

Can I keep wearing my contact lenses?

You can keep wearing your contact lenses.

Currently there is no scientific evidence that contact lens wearers have an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 compared with glasses wearers.

What are some of your advice to contact lens wearers?

Good hygiene is important.

Avoid touching your nose, mouth, eyes and face with unwashed hands. Always wash your hands thoroughly before handling your contact lenses. To review proper wearing and caring for contact lenses you can watch this contact lens training video by Acuvue, a leading contact lens company. Also, make sure you are replacing your contact lens cases regularly as well.

Can I continue wearing contact lenses if I’m sick?

If you are sick, temporarily stop contact lens wear.

Contact lens wearers who are ill should temporarily revert to wearing glasses. You can resume use with a fresh pair of contact lenses and lens case once you return to full health. As your eye health practitioner this is also why we always recommend our contact lens wearers to have a pair of glasses even if they mostly wear contact lenses.

Is contact lens disinfecting solution effective against COVID 19?

Hydrogen peroxide-based systems (Such as Clear care) for cleaning, disinfecting, and storing soft and hard contact lenses should be effective against coronavirus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there is currently not enough scientific evidence to determine the efficacy of other disinfection methods, such as multipurpose solution and ultrasonic cleaners, against the virus. Hydrogen peroxide-based cleaning system is available at Eyelab.