Optometry West

If you only want contact lenses part time, a few days a week or just for vacation or hunting season, consider daily disposable lenses. You open a fresh new pair when you want to wear contacts, use them for the day or task (think scuba diving) and throw them away. No decontamination or cleaning or care. Then the next time you want to wear lenses, open a new fresh pair. No worrying how old or whether they were cleaned since the last wearing.

If you wear contacts an average of 2 times per week, then an exam, fitting and 90 day supply should cover your needs for a whole year and cost about the same as a 12 pair monthly replacement package including exam, fitting and reusable lenses. (Less than $250 per year.) Plus you'll save the $50 to $100 for solutions needed to take care of reusable lenses and have the convenience of no end-of-day care, just throw them away.

Sound interesting? Give us a call to talk more about it. How long has it been since your last vision exam?

Many flex spending accounts require you to use it or lose it by December 31st. (A few allow you to carry it over until March 31st.) Overdue for an eye exam, fresh contacts or glasses? See us before it's too late to use your dollars. So long as you pay us by December 31st, (or March 31st for a few of you) your reimbursement should be valid. We will itemize receipts for picky H-R departments.

Don't forget to set aside vision care dollars for 2009! Get Uncle Sam to give you the best true discount in health care by funding a Flexible Spending Account. You save 30-40% in Federal, State and Social Security taxes on all the out-of-pocket health care expenses you would spend anyway.

Call us now to schedule an eye exam or stop by to select a new fashion frame and lenses or sunglasses. 733-9669.

Ouch!!!**#% My eye hurts!
When your eye hurts, like the patient we worked in today on an emergency basis, you want relief fast. After assessing the situation, I administered my "magic drops" that numb the pain in about 20 seconds. I took photos of the damaged area and I gently removed the embedded particle in his cornea. Next I checked for other remnants, and assured him that it would start to hurt again when the drops wear off. We can't let him take any "magic drops" home because they would cause more tissue damage and slow the healing process if they were used repeatedly. I checked up by phone this evening with this patient and sure enough, the ache had come back for a couple hours but was now gone. No more contact lenses for two days till it heals completely.
If you get sudden eye pain, call me for a quick evaluation. We are definitely less expensive and require less waiting than the emergency room. Major medical insurance will usually pay for this kind of visit.

In our continuing search for new high-quality eyewear fashions we have chosen a new line of frames styles and Plano sunglasses from Jimmy Choo, famous for women's shoe designs. See the best of his new styles this summer in our fashion dispensary. Call 733-9669 to schedule a styling.

If the local chain store optical only works with one or two brands of contact lenses, they may not have the best choice for your needs. Optometry West offers dozens of types and designs to give you clear, comfortable, safe and healthy vision.

And many of our special designs do come with rebates up to $100 for a new fitting and a full year's supply of lenses. If you are not quite satisfied with your current lenses or just wonder if there is something new and better for you, give us a call.

Your eyes deserve more than just run of the mill care. Call 733-9669. Dr. Gary Spencer has over 25 years experience pleasing patients like you.

What's it like to be nearsighted?

Myopia or nearsightedness usually starts in the 6 to 12 year old and progresses until the late teens or early twenties. In the close-centered world of the myope, books, computers, and indoor tasks are not affected much but longer range vision like marker boards at school, friends across the street, traffic signs and sports scoreboards are blurry. Since the change is gradual, a young person may not realize that they see less well than they should. Often the school teacher is the first to notice the squinting or poor board copying skills of a student.

If your power is -2.00 Diopters or less, vision is clear up to 20 inches away so most close work tasks are easy without glasses. (If your eyes are unequal in power, they sometimes fight each other even on close tasks causing quick fatigue so glasses may still be helpful.) And if you are over age 40, being a small amount nearsighted means you can take your distance glasses off to read when all your perfect vision friends are fumbling for reading glasses because you see up close naturally. Higher nearsighted powers, especially above -4.00 Diopters, only allow you to see well about 10 inches away or less, too close for comfortable reading but still great for fine crafting or seeing extremely close to remove a splinter. And looking at Christmas tree lights is extra dazzling because of the starburst effect from pinpoint light sources that are blurred by the myopia.

If you have excellent distance vision and want to see what a myope experiences, try on a "dimestore reader" eyeglass in a +2.00 or +3.00 power. you should see up close just fine but if you look out across the store, you will see how frustrating distance vision is for an uncorrected myope. (If you see well in the distance with that +2.00 reader, then you should have an eye exam because you are farsighted and are straining to see at all distances much more than necessary without glasses!)

Try holding a plastic pop bottle cap about 3 inches from your eye while closing the other eye. Keep looking at the center of the cap but notice the view around you. The periphery of the room is still there but the cap is in the way of what you want to look at. You won't be able to read this with your side vision while accurately centering your gaze into the cap. That is what it's like to have macular degeneration. (Also known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration or AMD for short.)

Caused by leaking fluid in the central retina or toxins decaying the sharp part of your vision, this disease isn't total blindness, but it is devastating. It is much more common after age 60. Researchers have shown that damaged maculas have less lutein and other antioxidants than normal maculas. If one of your parents has AMD, you have a higher risk for it.

You can get extra lutein in your diet from spinach and collard greens. Three fist sized portions a week(cooked) or dinner size salads give a therapeutic amount of lutein (equal to 6-10 mg daily of supplements. Studies are showing that extra lutein in the diet can slow or reverse vision loss from macular degeneration. If you can't take the thought of that much spinach or greens in your diet (eat your vegetables!) then there are supplements that are nearly as good. You need 6-10 mg per day (not the 0.6 mg in Centrum with lutein). See the MedOp link in my favorite sites for one good source for lutein or lutein combined with a multi-vitamin /mineral/micro-nutrient tablet.

Another helpful addition to the diet is oily fish - salmon, sardines, tuna and other broiled fish. They contain omega-3 fatty acids -good fats that keep the body and retina healthy. You can also get supplements with omega-3 from fish/flaxseed/borage oil supplements. An added benefit is help with dry eyes when the omega-3's are added to your diet. (It takes several months to "see" the improvement.)

Other "eye vitamins" that major studies show to help include vitamin C, E, zinc, and beta-carotene. Several supplement makers market these as eye formulas in the right proportions.

While all these foods and supplements can slow or reverse existing macular degeneration in many people, they have not YET been proven to prevent it in the first place. Still the risk from any of these foods or supplements is minimal (unless you are a smoker- vitamin E increases the risk of lung cancer- or pregnant or nursing- mercury in some fish may be risky) and the benefit may be great.

See the Med-Op web site link at the bottom of my Links-Plexo below to find a source for these supplements.

For more info on supplements and macular degeneration, see this Prevention Magazine article listed on my favorite sites Plexo.

Since our Sean John collection arrived this summer, many patients have sent in friends to see our latest style trends. If you want a look that is fresh and new, stop by and see our latest offerings, personally selected to appeal to our patients. (We have even received referrals from local optical chains that couldn't satisfy their patients' search for better style and quality.)

Don't forget the eye exam and eyewear check now that school has started. If your child can't see well, how will her grades be affected? Old or spoiled contact lenses leads to poor sports performance and unhealthy eyes. We have afternoon appointments available. Call us before after-school activities swamp your calendar.

All kids between the age of 6 and 18 should have annual vision exams. You can't always tell when something is going wrong.

Your child will love the frame styles we help him select. He'll look good and see well. Call us soon or stop by.

If all your kids are taken care of, congratulations! By the way, when was your last vision exam? We have morning and evening appointments available or even during your lunch hour. Call 733-9669.

As people age, the complaint of dry eyes goes up. Health problems like lupus, rosacia, and Sjogren's syndrome also have dry eye components. The first approach by doctors after evaluating the severity of the problem is to recommend a dry eye comfort drop for daily use and a thicker gel-type drop for use at night. Since many people have sludgy oil in the meibomian glands that run the vertical length of the eyelids, warm compresses on closed eyelids for several minutes twice a day improves oil flow. A good oil layer keeps tears from evaporating so fast. I recommend over the counter products like Thera-Tears and Thera-Tears Gel as good starting eye drops. Unlike Murine and Visine, they have no preservatives that can cause stinging or drier eyes as a side effect. If this does not help after 2-3 weeks, more heroic treatments are available.

Our poor American diet is high in bad fats and short in good fats. Fish oil and flaxseed oil supplements can improve the tear quality as well as dry skin. It may take several months for these supplements to make a difference. If an inflammatory process is involved, a short course of prescription non-steroidal drops my help break the cycle and allow better tear production. Rosacia patients may benefit from oral tetracycline-like drugs that have more of an anti-inflammatory than an antibiotic effect.

Another new prescription eye drop is Restasis. It acts like a non-steroidal and has been shown to re-energize some of the lipid and mucin producing glands on the underside of the lid that maintain part of the tear layer. It often takes 2-3 months of use before patients can tell if it is helping and at $90 per month,it can be a costly experiment. When it works, it is fantastic. The next level of treatment if dry eyes are from lack of tear production is punctum plugs. These tiny devices create a moister eye by plugging the drainage canals at the inner edge of the lid by the nose so the tears that are present can't drain away into the sinuses. Collagen plugs dissolve away after a week or two as a test to see if they help. If they do, more permanent silicon plugs are installed. This minor insertion "surgery" can be performed by optometrists or ophthalmologists and costs several hundred dollars. Major medical usually covers much of this cost.

There is help when dry eyes bother you. See your eye doctor for relief of this chronic problem. In my plexo I will have a link to MedOp.com. for omega 3 supplements.

Since your family doctor is the primary gatekeeper for your health and wellbeing, he gets scolded by the "record police" if he doesn't have documentation of an annual eye exam in his records. I write several reports a week to family doctors about my diabetic patients and how their eyes are weathering this disease. Fortunately, most of the reports are good news. If you are diabetic, feel free to ask us to provide your vision care and report to your family doctor.

Some family doc's are in the habit of referring diabetic patients to ophthalmologists just because they are more familiar with those specialists. Optometrists fees are generally lower and your wait for an appointment much shorter. We also take more personal time for each patient with on time appointments so your total exam experience is more pleasant. Call for your next appointment soon.

We display all kinds of designer frames and can order out even more... but that doesn't mean anything if the frame style doesn't look good on you. My expert assistants take the time to find a great fashion look for you without compromising your need to see well and feel comfortable wearing your eyewear.

Contact lenses are cheap... and worthless if they don't fit you safely or give you comfortable vision. Optometry West provides many types and brands of lenses to get the best possible performance tailored to your unique needs. We are one of the few offices around that will polish your rigid gas permeable contacts in the office rather than mail them away for this service. There are new soft lenses that reduce complaints about dry or irritated eyes and disposables that give new wearers peace of mind if they have accidents while learning to handle contacts. There are lenses that change eye color and lenses for people who need bifocals or astigmatism correction. Since one size does not fit all, the extra choices we offer compared to the optical chains assures you of a more satisfactory fit and happy lens wear experience. Call (231) 733-9669 for your appointment soon.

(T)or(F)
1)You need an eye exam every five years unless you notice a problem sooner.

2)Optometry West has been in business for 13 years.

3)You can get the same contact lens rebates from purchases at Optometry West as you can from the mail order internet contacts sellers.

answers:
1) False - you should have an exam every one to two years even if you think it all is OK. Something might be going wrong. (Contact lens prescriptions expire after one year for a very good reason, your safety and visual health)

2) False - Optometry West is starting its 26th year pleasing patients like you.

3) True - With rebates of $15 to $100 on contact lens purchases plus personalized advice,fitting and service after the sale (try getting a replacement lens for a defective or just uncomfortable lens from the internet)and competitive fees for materials, Optometry West is the smart choice for contact lens fitting and orders.