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Why do I need to be fitted for contact lenses? Did you know your glasses prescription is different from your contact lens prescription? When an optometrist fits you for contact lenses, they are ensuring several things:

  • Your eye is healthy enough to be wearing contact lenses. Conditions such as dry eyes and allergic conjunctivitis need to be treated before you can wear contact lenses. Eye conditions such as corneal scars, dystrophies, and/or irregular surfaces may require a fitting with specialty lenses.
  • The contact lens is the right type for your life style. Based on your occupation, extracurricular activities, and other needs, we can help you determine whether dailies, bi-weekly, or monthly contact lenses will meet your needs.
  • Finding a comfortable fit with good vision. We take measurements of your eyes to fit you in a comfortable lens. Many companies make contact lenses, and each have a set of parameters they work with. We can check if a lens is too tight or too loose on your eyes, how the contact lens moves when you blink, and whether it is centered on your eye. We also ensure each eye sees well both at a distance and near.

In addition, we first train new contact lens wearers on how to safety insert and remove contact lenses. We will go over the cleaning process, to ensure that lenses are handled safely because any buildup of proteins and debris on the lenses can cause damage to the cornea.

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a condition which causes distant objects to appear blurry. It is a particular concern with children, because myopia results in the lengthening of the eyeballs. As children’s eyes continue to grow, so does the progression of myopia. As a result, the retinal tissues gradually stretch, which can increase the risk of eye diseases later in life. Luckily, CooperVision’s MiSight 1 day lenses are an effective and child-friendly solution to managing myopia progression!

Source: CooperVision

How do they work?

The MiSight 1 day lenses are the first soft contact lenses proven to slow down the progression of myopia, through the use of ActivControl technology. When inserted on the eye, the center of the lens improves distance vision by correcting the refractive error and the concentric peripheral rings allow for myopic defocus. This defocusing is what is believed to reduce further lengthening of the eyeball, effectively impeding the progression of myopia. Not only have the MiSight 1 day lenses been clinically proven to slow down the progression of myopia by 59%, they are also comfortable to wear and easy to handle. In a three-year long study conducted on the MiSight 1 day lenses on children ages 8 -15 years, 90% of children reported that they preferred their MiSight 1 day lenses compared to their glasses and 90% of children were able to insert and remove the lenses on their own. Further, 100% of parents stated that their children were happy with their overall experience with the MiSight 1 day lenses, including the comfort, vision, ease of use, and freedom from glasses!

Curious to see if MiSight lenses are right for your children? Book an appointment with Eyelab to chat with one of our doctors. You can also get in touch by calling us at +1 (604) 260-1166 or via email at frontdesk@helloeyelab.com.

Dr. Sherman Tung

Dr. Sherman Tung
OD FAAO FIAOMC

Optometrist | Orthokeratology + Myopia Management
T 6042601166
E drsherman@helloeyelab.com

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.

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!

One of the most common eye conditions in the world is myopia, which is the inability to clearly see distant objects. A concern with myopia progression, especially in growing children, is the increase in axial length of the eyeball which has shown to increase the risk of developing eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataract, retinal detachment and many more.

It is estimated that half of the global population could be affected by myopia by 2050. Research suggests that a greater amount of time spent on near-work activities, such as computer work, is linked to an increased likelihood of myopia. Fortunately, there is a unique and innovative solution available: HOYA’s MiyoSmart lenses! They are a non-invasive, effective option for managing myopia progression.

Source: HOYA Vision

How do they work?

MiyoSmart lenses are corrective lenses that use Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments (DIMS) technology. The center of the lens corrects refractive error to improve distance vision, and the peripheral honeycomb-pattern maintains constant myopic defocus.

Source: HOYA Vision

Providing clear vision simultaneously with constant myopic defocus has been clinically demonstrated to inhibit eyeball elongation and slow down myopia progression. In fact, one study found that participants wearing MiyoSmart lenses with DIMS technology had, on average, a 59% reduction in myopia progression. They are made of impact-resistant materials and offer 100% UV protection, perfect for anybody with an active lifestyle!

If you have any questions about MiyoSmart lenses, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Our doctors would be happy to discuss the benefits of MiyoSmart lenses with you.