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Tag: kerrisdale

Posted on by Dr. Sherman Tung

Why Won’t My Eye Stop Twitching?

What is Myokymia?

Have you ever been going about your daily life when your eyes decide to give you a bad day? Have you ever experienced that annoying twitch in your eye that just won’t go away?

Eye twitching, or myokymia, is a relatively common condition. They are involuntary twitches and spasms in either your upper or lower lid, usually affecting only one at a time. Sometimes, they might not even be noticeable! Myokymia will usually go away on their own in a short amount of time.

right human eye
Source: Liam Welch via Unsplash

What would usually cause myokymia? Like you may expect, many lifestyle choices impact your risk. Eyelid twitching can be caused by:

  • Stress
  • Fatigue
  • Irritation of the eye
  • Allergies
  • Alcohol
  • Bright lights
  • Excess caffeine
  • Smoking
  • Change of diet
  • New medication

To lessen your chances of having this annoyance in your life, be sure to take care of yourself and rest your eyes regularly. If you are going to be looking at a bright screen for an extended period, make sure to look away every once in a while. You can also apply hydration eyedrops before doing so.

What can I do to relieve my symptoms?

If you are experiencing myokymia already, you can ease the discomfort by gently massaging the area. Cold compresses with a towel would also help relieve the symptoms, and we would also advise the following:

  • Tonic water with quinine (a muscle relaxant)
  • Magnesium-rich foods such as avocados, nuts & seeds, and various whole grain foods

If your myokymia becomes more serious, you can also Botox treatment. If the condition doesn’t go away within a few days and occurs more frequently, it would be best to seek advice from your medical doctor or optometrist. It’s never a bad idea to double-check and make sure it isn’t part of anything serious!

Should you have any concerns regarding your eye health, you can book an appointment with Eyelab. You can also get in touch by calling us at +1 (604) 260-1166 or via email at frontdesk@helloeyelab.com.

Posted on by Dr. Sherman Tung

Keratoconus

Photo by Sigmund/ Unsplash

The cornea plays a crucial role in focusing light onto the retina. In individuals with keratoconus, the cornea progressively thins and bulges, taking on a cone-like shape. As a result, vision becomes distorted and blurry, often accompanied by nearsightedness and astigmatism.  

Symptoms

Keratoconus doesn’t appear overnight; rather, it develops gradually, usually during adolescence or early adulthood. As the condition progresses, several symptoms become noticeable:

  1. Blurry and Distorted Vision
  2. Light Sensitivity
  3. Prescription Changes
  4. Halos and Glare
  5. Eye Strain and Headaches

Treatment

Treatment options vary depending on the severity of the condition, but may include

  • Eye glasses
  • Soft contact lenses
  • Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) lenses
  • Surgical interventions like collagen cross-linking or corneal transplant

If you suspect you have keratoconus or experience any unusual changes in your vision, it’s crucial to consult an eye doctor. Early diagnosis and appropriate management can make a significant difference in preserving your vision and overall well-being.

Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

Visual Skills and Sports Vision

Photo by Josh Hemsley on Unsplash

Did your routine eye exam go well? Do you have 20/20 vision? That’s great! However, there’s so much more to vision than seeing with perfect acuity. In fact, seeing 20/20 is only 1 of 17 different visual skills we have. Routine eye exams do not usually cover all of these skills since they tend to focus on ocular health and visual acuity. Skills such as eye tracking, eye teaming, and eye focusing can be measured using a different set of tests that is done during a Functional Vision Assessment (FVA).

Here is a summary of some visual skills that you need in everyday life. FVAs test all of these skills and more.

Visual SkillWhat Is ItExample
Fixationbeing able to hold focus on one main targetfinding an object and maintain eye contact with it
Pursuit (Moving Targets)being able to focus and follow moving targets without moving one’s headwatching a ball through the air
Saccades (Jumping)being able to jump from one object to anotherreading; you usually read one to three words at a time and then move on to the next set of words
Accommodation (Eye Focusin)being able to focus light that enters the eyes seeing an image that’s close to you then looking at an object far away right away
Binocular (Eye Teaming) coordinating both your eyes together as an object is moved from far to near and vice versa watching a moving target come close and moving far away

If you have trouble focusing on objects or have recently been in an accident that have impaired your visual skills, a FVA and Vision Therapy might be an option for you. During vision therapy, you are given the opportunity to improve these visual skills.

If your visual skills are adequate, you can actually improve them further! This is especially applicable if you play competitive sports. Many activities in vision therapy are directly applicable to sports such as basketball, volleyball, football and soccer. It can improve your reaction time, hand eye coordination, and visualization. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out we will be more than happy to provide you with more information.

Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

Headache or Ocular Migraine?

Photo by New Africa/ Shutterstock

Migraines are often associated with pounding headaches, but they can also affect your vision. Ocular migraines, also known as retinal migraines or visual migraines, are a unique type of migraine that primarily manifests as visual disturbances. This means that the symptoms revolve around your eyes and the way you perceive the world around you. The visual disturbances associated with ocular migraines are short-lived, lasting less than an hour.  

Visual disturbances can include:

  • Flickering lights
  • Shimmering or zigzag lines
  • Temporary blind spots
  • Momentary loss of vision in one eye

Triggers can include:

  • Stress
  • Hormonal fluctuations
  • Specific foods
  • Exposure to bright lights, or even distinct patterns

Although ocular migraines are relatively benign, it’s essential to distinguish them from more serious conditions that can cause similar visual disruptions, such as retinal detachment.

Always seek prompt medical attention if you experience sudden visual changes.

Posted on by Dr. Sherman Tung

Progent – The Diligent Contact Lens Cleaner

Are your ortho-K contact lenses or RGP lenses are starting to get irritating and uncomfortable? Ever feel like there is a foggy blur over your vision? Looking for an easy and effective way to deep clean your lenses? Here at Eyelab, one of our staff’s favourite products is the Progent Lens Cleaner.

How does it work?

Progent cleans lenses by loosening and removing protein deposits that build up on our contact lens over time. It effectively removes surface proteins on all ortho-K contact lenses and RGP lenses without the need for manual rubbing, which may damage the lenses. This product not only improves the comfort of lens-wear, it also helps maintain eye health and prolongs the life of your lenses. Progent deep cleans lenses much more effectively than daily cleaning products.

It comes with two solutions: Progent A (sodium hypochlorite) and Progent B (potassium bromide), which work together in an oxidation-reduction reaction to deep clean surface coatings without the abrasives or mechanical rubbing used in typical cleaning. In just thirty minutes, it effectively disinfects against all organisms that are likely to contaminate lenses, including yeast, mold, bacteria, and viruses.

Source: Menicom.com

At this point, you may be wondering how many complicated steps come with this cleaner? The easy answer is, just mix the A and B solutions, shake, and wait! Simply soak your lenses for 30 minutes – no rubbing required. By using this cleaner every 3 months (or more frequently if needed), your contact lenses can stay polished and well-maintained to better serve your vision.

Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

Toddler Eye Exams

When ensuring optimal health for your child, it is crucial to include eye exams as a routine component. As a parent, it may be unclear what to expect. Fear not! Here we outline all the information you must know before your toddler’s eye exam.

Why should my toddler’s eyes be checked?

A vision examination is a very important step in preparing children for their first day of school. As toddlers increasingly engage with their surroundings, they require the use of their eyes to focus on objects near and far, coordinate body movements, and of course to read and learn. Any vision problems need to be detected and treated before they lead to a learning and/or behaviour problem.

Source: @Karelnoppe Getty Images

It is important to have annual check-ups to monitor the overall health of your child’s eyes and determine if glasses are needed to see. In addition, how well the eyes move when reading, how well they work together, as well as how easily and quickly they can change focus from looking at a book to looking at the board.

What to expect in a toddler/preschool eye exam

This exam will likely involve more subjective questions and answers compared to infant exams, as your child may be mature enough to describe pictures, letters and their surroundings. The exam may end up being longer as we are able to do more testing.

In a typical eye exam for toddler/preschoolers, one can expect:

  • The child to either sit on a parent/guardian’s lap, or on their own in the exam chair
  • Identify different shapes, pictures, words, or letters
  • Following and looking at different objects or lights
  • Lights shone into the child’s eyes

What are the optometrists looking for during the eye exam?

  • Prescription
    • Are they farsighted or nearsighted? How much?
    • Is there a large difference between the two eyes?
      • For example, your child may have large amounts of far-sightedness in one eye but none in the other
      • It is important to note, children are unlikely to complain about this phenomenon because they cannot tell the difference
      • Large prescription differences between both eyes may require an optometrist to put in eye drops to get a more accurate assessment
  • Binocular vision
    • How well the eyes focus and team together
    • How well the eyes track when reading and follow a moving object
    • Is their eye straight? Turned in? Turned out?

What to look for as a parent

It is important to observe your child’s eyes in order to determine any concerns worth bringing up.

Symptoms to look for and consult an eye doctor if observed:

  • Excessive rubbing of eyes
  • Eye redness, watery, discharge
  • Eye turns – either in or out
  • Closing an eye
  • Clumsy – bumping into objects in their surroundings
  • Developmental delays can be a sign of vision issues
    • Delayed walking
    • Poor coordination

What can parents do to help ensure their toddler learns to see well?

  • 12 – 18 months
    • Language is developing quickly: use names for actions and objects
    • Engage in water and sand play with containers, cups, pails, plastic bottles
    • Provide crayons and large sheets of paper for creative scribbling
  • 18 – 24 months
    • Build towers and structures
    • Provide toys to put together/take apart
    • Challenge child to with obstacle courses of furniture and pillows
  • 2 years – 3 years
    • Running, tumbling, climbing
    • Encourage drawing and creating
    • Assist as beginning to classify objects, colours, shapes
  • 3 years – 4 years
    • Challenge child to dodge, throw, stop/go, turn sharp corners
    • Encourage manipulatives, puzzles, hidden pictures, sames/differences
    • Give time for drawing, colouring, activities with clay and play-dough
    • Read lots of books and stories together

Interested in bringing your child in for an eye exam at Eyelab? Book an appointment today!

Posted on by Dr. Melody Tong

Infant Eye Exams

When ensuring optimal health for your child, it is crucial to include eye exams as a routine component. As a parent, it may be unclear when to get your child tested and what to expect. Fear not! Here we outline all the information you must know.

Why should my baby’s eyes be checked?

Vision develops rapidly after birth. Any undetected vision problem can have a significant impact on infant and childhood development. The earlier a problem is detected and treated, the less likely it is that other areas of development will be affected. As your infant grows, they increasingly engage with their surroundings, requiring the use of their eyes to focus on objects near and far and to coordinate body movements.

When should I bring in my child?

An eye exam is recommended within the first 10-12 months of life. At this age they are able to sit on their own, fixate on objects, and follow light. If there are known cases of eye diseases within the family, such as glaucoma, strabismus (eye turns), or eye tumours, it may be in your best interest to bring your child in for an exam earlier. Routine eye exams can mitigate the progression and severity of potential eye conditions if caught early!

Brandon Day on Unsplash

What to expect in an infant eye exam

If you’re concerned that your child may not be mature enough to communicate sufficiently, there is no need to worry! These exams are largely objective, meaning an optometrist needs to simply observe and measure your child’s eye response to various stimuli.

In a typical eye exam for infants, one can expect:

  • The infant will be sitting on the parent/guardian’s lap
  • Preferential Looking to test how well the infant can see
  • Looking and following different objects or lights
  • Lights shone into the infant’s eyes

What are the optometrists looking for during the eye exam?

  • Prescription
    • Are they farsighted or nearsighted? How much?
    • Is there a large difference between the two eyes?
      • For example, your child may have large amounts of far-sightedness in one eye but none in the other
      • It is important to note, children are unlikely to complain about this phenomenon because they cannot tell the difference
      • Large prescription differences between both eyes may require an optometrist to put in eye drops to get a more accurate assessment
  • Eye Turns
    • Eye turns can manifest at different stages of your child’s life, such as during infancy and commonly between the ages of 2-3 years old, where children are more engaged and aware of their surroundings
  • Assess the eye health
    • To check for infections, redness, in-turned lashes, tumour growths, cataracts, or glaucoma in the back of the eye

What to look for as a parent

It is important to observe your child’s eyes in order to determine any concerns worth bringing up.

Symptoms to look for and consult an eye doctor if observed

  • Excessive rubbing of eyes
  • Eye redness
  • Watery eyes
  • Eye discharge
  • In pictures, their eye reflexes look different
    • One is red one is white
  • Eye turns – either in or out
  • Clumsy – bumping into objects in their surroundings
  • Developmental delays can be a sign of vision issues
    • Have not been crawling at their expected age

What can parents do to help ensure their baby learns to see well?

  • Birth – 6 months:
    • Lots of tummy time
    • Follow faces up, down, sideways, closer, farther
    • Make noises to the side so baby turns toward them
    • Change position frequently so their view of the world changes
    • Let baby bounce on the bed with support for both hands to encourage balancing
    • Lots of toys to touch, grasp, listen to and find with eyes and ears
    • Hold and feed your infant from alternating sides to promote development of both eyes
  • 6 – 12 months:
    • Lots of creeping and crawling time – do not rush your baby into walking
      • Creeping on all fours is very important for developing coordination of both the body and the eyes
    • Manipulative toys to grasp, roll, pick up, push, pull, bang, throw, squeeze
    • Play games that include dropping and picking up objects
    • Slowly roll balls for them to follow and stop
    • Use simple words and sentences about clothing, food, toys, and baby
    • Play Hide-and-Seek

Interested in bringing your child in for an eye exam at Eyelab? Book an appointment today!

Posted on by Dr. Elisa Xiao

What to do when my eyes are red and itchy from allergies?

Photo credit: Luis Galves @louiscesar

Allergic conjunctivitis, or eye allergies, happen when the eyes react to something that irritates them. When the eyes try to defend your body from an allergen it triggers the release of histamine from mast cells. As a result, your eyes (usually the eyelids and conjunctiva) become red, swollen, watery, and itchy. You may also wake up in the morning with puffy eyes. People who have eye allergies commonly have nasal allergies as well which causes stuffy nose and sneezing. Both conditions are closely related to seasonal allergies.

What are symptoms of eye allergies?

The most common eye allergy symptoms include:

  • Itching and watery discharge (teary eyes)
  • Redness and puffy eyelids
  • Sensitivity to light

If it’s related to seasonal allergies then both eyes are usually involved. Unlike pink eyes, eye allergies do not spread from person to person.

What causes eye allergies?

Some of the common allergens include:

  • Household dust
  • pollen from trees and grass
  • pet dander
  • mold
  • Smoke
  • Chemical scents such as detergents or perfume

Allergic reactions to perfume, cosmetics or drugs can also cause the eyes to have an allergic response. Some people may have an acute allergic reaction to a new facial product or an eye drop.

Sometimes, the eyes can react to other allergens that don’t necessarily come in direct contact with the eye. These can include specific foods or insect bites or stings.

Most allergic conjunctivitis can be treated with oral or over the counter antihistamine medication, anti-allergy eye drops, or steroid eye drops.

However, not all red and itchy eyes are caused by allergic conjunctivitis. Some people may think they have an eye allergy but in fact they have dry eyes or other types of inflammations. It is important for you to visit your eye care provider to get the proper diagnosis and treatment for your problem.

Posted on by Dr. Sherman Tung

8 Years Post PRK Laser Eye Surgery

In a previous post, I talked about my experience with laser eye surgery in 2014. Now, eight years later, I am extremely happy about my decision to undergo the surgery. My vision is still stable at 20/20 however I still experience dry eye from time to time.

One of the biggest pros of the surgery is being able to wake up in the morning and immediately see clearly. This surgery allowed me to tend to my twin daughters better in the middle of the night without having to find my glasses first. I also no longer have to worry about getting my contacts or glasses coming out when playing ultimate frisbee or during other physical activities. A smaller change in my life that I started to appreciate after the surgery was that I longer need to carry around microfiber cloths to clean my glasses.

However, now that I am reaching the age in which the effects of presbyopia (the gradual loss of your eyes’ ability to focus on nearby objects) becomes more prominent, I may need to use reading glasses. Overall, I am very glad I decided to get PRK and I have no regrets about it!

Book an appointment at Eyelab to learn more about whether you’re a candidate for laser eye surgery, and to discuss any questions or concerns you may have!

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!