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Tag: glasses

Posted on by Dr. Sherman Tung

Is it okay to buy glasses online? Do I really need an optometrist/ optician?

Photo by wu yi on Unsplash

When considering whether to buy your glasses online, at first it may seem more convenient and likely less costly. But the prescription given to you by your optometrist is only one piece of information that will determine how effective your glasses will be in improving your vision. Let’s consider the pros and cons:

Pros of buying online:

  • Wider selection of styles and colors
  • Many choices between different websites
  • Often can save on cost (but more on that later)

Cons of buying online:

  • You miss out on having a trained professional aid you in ensuring your glasses are the right fit in
    terms of comfort and effectiveness
  • Quality control of frames may often be sacrificed to maintain that low price you see online
  • Specific measurements such as PD, finding the best optical center, and measurements for
    progressives will either often be wrong or not available for online retailers
  • Prescription issues in general occur much more commonly when ordered online as opposed to
    in person

What could initially be seen as a way to save time and money in the first place may end up more costly for both in the long run if any of the above issues occur. In addition, common complaints with improperly selected glasses may include: headaches, fatigue, nausea/dizziness, eyestrain, glasses slipping off the nose, and pain/pressure marks on your nose/around the ears. Those with high prescriptions, children, complicated prescriptions, and multifocal prescriptions should especially consider in person options as opposed to online.

Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

What does my eye prescription mean?

Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

Eyeglass and contact lenses prescriptions can contain components and abbreviations that may be harder to decipher. Here are some of the common abbreviations and what they mean:

  • OD: or oculus dexter refers to your right eye
  • OS: or oculus sinister refers to your left eye
  • SPH: is the sphere and refers to the lens power required to help correct your vision. A (-) negative
    indicates nearsightedness and (+) positive indicates farsightedness
  • CYL: is the cylinder and refers to how much astigmatism you have if any. Astigmatism is caused
    by a cornea or lens that has a different shape than normal and multiple focal points.
    Astigmatism is very common.
  • AXIS: a number between 1 and 180, indicates exactly where the astigmatism appears on your
    eye
  • ADD: stands for the additional lens power needed to make it easier for you to read. This is seen
    on prescriptions for reading glasses or the lower portion of bifocal/progressive lenses
  • BO, BI, BU, BD stand for base out, base in, base up, and base down. These refer to the position
    of the prism on eyeglasses that correct double vision

For contact lenses you may see additional information such as the brand, mode of wear, and BC +
DIA.

  • BC: The base curve is the measurement that indicates the curvature and shape of your contact
    lenses. This is taken when the steepness or flatness of your cornea is measured.
  • DIA: The diameter is the measurement of the length that your contacts need to be to
    completely cover your cornea.
Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

Are You Ready For Your Eye Exam?

Photo by nrd on Unsplash

Having an annual eye exam is a great way to not only take care of your eyes but your overall health as well. Eye exams can detect early signs of conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your next visit!

What to think about:

  • Have I noticed any eye problems such as blurry vision, flashes of light, floaters, redness, or double vision?
  • Are my daily activities being affected by my vision?
  • How do I take care of my contact lenses or glasses
  • Have I had any surgeries or injuries in my eyes that I could let the doctor know about?
  • Any family history of eye conditions such as glaucoma?

What to bring:

  • Your current glasses or contact lenses even if you have multiple pairs for different tasks
  • A list of your medications/supplements you are taking
  • Have someone who can drive you home or a method of transportation ready for if you have your eyes dilated. This happens often in yearly eye exams and can make you sensitive to light and have blurry near vision (~4-6 hours)
  • Vision and health insurance information

Questions to ask:

  • Differences between contacts and glasses for you and how this compares to surgery options as well?
  • If anything has changed in my ocular health since the last visit?
  • What any symptoms you may have mean and what you can do to prevent them from getting worse or resolve?
  • When should I return for my next visit?

Posted on by Dr. Elisa Xiao

Vancouver’s First Optometry Clinic to Measure Eye Axial Length

This January, our clinic welcomed the New Year with a brand new “toy” — MYAH from Topcon, making us at Eyelab one of the first optometry clinic in Vancouver to measure and chart eye axial length. You may be wondering…what is so great about axial length measurements? Why do we care about how long the eyeball is?

As the eye increases in length, not only does our lens prescription increase, there’s a greater risk of ocular diseases (e.g. glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration). In fact, rapid progression of myopia in children is due to excessive elongation of the eye. Therefore, to monitor the effectiveness of myopia management treatments, axial length measurements are charted at each follow up visit, which serve as the standard of care for our myopia management program. For Ortho-k lens patients, axial length is one the primary measure used to evaluate myopia progression.

MYAH can help us advance our myopia management care in further ways as well as diagnosis and management of dry eye disease.

Dry Eye Assessment

Noninvasive tear break-up time (NIBUT) measurement

At Eyelab, we can evaluate the stability of your tear film by accurately measuring the tear break-up time non-invasively. Typically, tear break-up time is around 10 seconds — with shorter tear break-up time, especially below 5 seconds being indicative of dry eye disease.

Meibomian gland imaging

The meibomian glands are oil glands that are embedded in our eyelids which produce the lipid layer of the tear film and are expressed when we blink. Imaging glands allows doctors to analyze their shape and structure. Healthy glands will appear long and continuous in the image, assisting the production of oil in the eye for lubrication. Contrastingly, unhealthy glands will appear much shorter due to degradation and inspissated, thus producing oil of a “toothpaste” consistency, or be entirely clogged and unable to secrete oil.

Contact Lens Fitting

MYAH Topcon also allows our doctors to simulate fluorescent imaging to observe the Ortho-K and RGP contact lens fit. This noninvasive method is efficient and accurate at evaluating whether the lens will sit comfortably around the eye and provide effective treatment.

After learning about the cool features of the new machine at our clinic, are you curious to try out one of its services for yourself? Don’t hesitate – book an appointment with us today!