What Is the Latest Fashion Trend for Eyeglasses?

January 28, 2009 by Amy Nutt  
Filed under Eye Care Articles

by Amy Nutt

Trends in eyeglasses may seem as though they change more often than your prescription. If you are in the market for new glasses, here are some of the things you need to know about recent trends.

Big Is in, but Only Sometimes

Big frames are in style right now, but only for sunglasses. What does this mean for you as you shop for new eyeglasses? You may consider splurging for prescription sunglasses with big, bold frames. These protect your eyes well and add that ‘Hollywood’ flair to your overall look.

Thick Frames Are All the Rage

Look at a picture of your relatives from the 70s, and you will notice that they wore thick, boxy, plastic frames. Todays glasses take a modern spin on this style. The lenses are smaller and rectangular in shape, but the thick, dark frames are definitely in, creating a sort of ‘geek chic’ look. In addition, colored plastic frames are in style, and many people are enjoying coordinating their glasses to match their outfits. Imagine donning a pair of pink glasses with your favorite pink blouse, and then trading them for a blue pair for that evening dress you own.

John Lennon Inspired Frames

Completely round glasses, such as those often worn by John Lennon, are also popular right now. Again, the frames are usually plastic, and they come in a variety of fashionable colors and patterns. Tortoiseshell is one option for those that want a little bit of color in their specs.

Rimless Glasses

Believe it or not, you can now buy glasses that have no rims. These have a noseband and some decoration on the earpieces, but there is nothing surrounding the lens. They can make quite a statement and draw attention to your eyes, rather than to your glasses.

Classic Styles Always Work

Thin, metal rims surrounding a lens shape that fits your face, whether circular, oval, or even square, are almost always an option. You can buy designer frames in these styles, and you will know that your glasses will match just about any outfit you may be wearing. Sometimes less is more, and these understated glasses will be fashionable for many years, help draw attention to your eyes, not your glasses, and work well in corporate America.

Dont Forget Your Face Shape

Wearing the latest trends is great, but only if they look good on you. Everyone has a unique face shape, and some frames will not look good on you. First think about the position of your eyes on your face. Make sure that your eyes fall within the center of the frames you are looking to buy. Also, consider your faces width. You should only have a small space between the edge of the frames and the side of your face.

Your eyebrow is another consideration. Never buy glasses that cross your brow line, and make sure that they are either quite a bit below or above your brows. Choose lenses that fit the proportions of your body as well. If you are slender and short, thick, bulky glasses are going to look out of place on your face. This applies to choosing rimless glasses as well.

The Bottom Line

While you may think you know what type of glasses you want and what latest trend you wish to wear, you cannot truly know what glasses will look great on you until you try them on. If you are going to order glasses online, visit a store so that you can try on several different styles and find the one that fits your face shape well before you order online. When you put on a pair of glasses that is trendy and looks good on you, you will know that they are the perfect pair the moment you look in the mirror!

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Understanding the Benefits of Lasik or Laser Eye Surgery

January 24, 2009 by AMED  
Filed under Eye Care Articles

There are many prominent, as well as diverse, laser eye surgery clinics that offer the best available procedures at the most affordable charges and also accomplish high quality clinical distinction. Laser eye surgery may well cost about $1000 and the quick and simple process offers freedom from unclear and incorrect vision and offers an alternative to wearing glasses as well as contact lenses.

If you belong to the class of people that are sick and tired of wearing eye glasses day in and day out, the solution for you is Laser eye surgery.  With Laser eye surgery (otherwise called reflective surgery), the best method of eye surgery seem to have been unleashed. The fact that laser eye treatment is very safe, painless and leaves patients with better eye sights than prior to the surgery ensures it’s the most preferred all over the world.
I’m sure you need more explanation about how this method works, right?

Among all the tissues in the body, the corneal tissue is saddled with the task of ensuring we see clearly.  Before someone sees, certain chain of activities take place between the cornea and the retina; with the cornea receiving the light rays from an object, then ensuring the light rays fall on the retina.  When these light rays from objects don’t come together on the retina, the problem is known as refractive. When someone sees things in a view that’s blurred, this is most often why.

The conditions known as farsightedness or shortsightedness really depends on precisely how refracted the light rays are.  Laser eye treatment can be used to repair the corneal tissue with the power of Excimer, a highly qualitative laser.

Patients visions are then corrected as with the repair of the cornea tissues, the light rays can now converge on the right spot of the retina.  I was shocked when I discovered that the entire procedure just takes minutes!  Less than 24 hours after lasik, or laser eye surgery as it is sometimes called, you can have the vision you desire — without spending days in the hospital, as is normal with other types of surgeries.

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Can Special Effects Lenses Be Used Multiple Times or Only Once?

January 21, 2009 by Amy Nutt  
Filed under Eye Care Articles

by Amy Nutt

With the increasing popularity of special effects contact lenses, a common question that arises is – “How many times will I be able to use them?” The answer to this question is dependent upon many factors – who manufactured the lenses, what purpose the were designed for and how well you take care of them could all be major factors in how many times you can wear your special effects lenses.

Quality and Design

You’ve heard the old saying, “you get what you pay for?” Well, expect it to hold true for special effects contact lenses as it does for many of life’s important purchases including eyeglasses. If you only spent three dollars for your cat eye special effects contact lenses from the Halloween section at the convenience store at the gas station, don’t expect to get very many wears out of them. You’re more likely to end up with an eye infection than a long term fashion accessory from such a purchase.

If you go to a licensed eye care professional and spend money on a nicely designed and quality lens, then you could very easily wear them for several months without having any problems what so ever.

It isn’t necessarily the cost that determines exactly how many wears you’ll get out of your special effects lenses though, you could pay top dollar for a pair of one time lenses that were custom made. The possibilities are almost limitless when it comes to design, amazing artists can hand craft painted designs, the likes of which would have been impossible just a few years ago, onto clear lenses for special sequences and scenes on TV or in movies. It’s likely though that some of these ornate designs would be very uncomfortable or would hinder vision to the point that it wouldn’t be advisable to wear them for more than a few hours.

Even if you do go through the proper sources to obtain your lenses and pay for a quality product from a licensed distributor of contact lenses, it’s very possible that the type of lens you choose may only be suitable for a single wear. You need to check with your optometrist to see if the design you want is available in an extended wear lens or whether the manufacturer only makes it in a disposable or single wear style.

How you take Care of Them

You can buy top quality extended wear special effects contact lenses that could last you probably as long as you’d like them to, but if you don’t take care of them as per the instructions they won’t last nearly as long as they could. People who already wear contact lenses regularly and know the process of keeping them in good condition shouldn’t have any problem caring for special effects lenses, the cleaning and storage process may even be exactly the same as their prescription lenses. Some specialty lenses may require extra care to ensure a long life, but it should be very similar to regular contact lens maintenance.

You may, however, want to go the extra mile with your special effects lenses as far as care is concerned because good ones will likely cost you a lot more to replace than a regular set of contact lenses such as Acuvue – especially if they are prescription, and a similar pair may be much more difficult to find. Even if you are very careful with your special effects lenses, they can still get lost, or rip and become unusable, that’s why it’s best to take every precaution when it comes to the care and storage of these special lenses.

If you are in the market for a pair of special effects lenses that will be with you for a while, your best bet is to pay the extra money for a high quality extended wear lens, and then take care of it as best as you possibly can – that way, barring any unforeseen accidents, you can have your lenses for as long as you want to wear them.

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Would You Get Eye Problems From Wearing Special Effects Lenses?

January 18, 2009 by Amy Nutt  
Filed under Eye Care Articles

by Amy Nutt

Decorative and special effects lenses are rapidly increasing in popularity. People who were unhappy with their regular eye color can now simply pop in a different colored lens and be instantly transformed into someone else for an evening or weekend, and that person will often gain a good bit of confidence with the transformation. Its not uncommon for some people to have several different pairs of decorative or special effects lenses just like different pairs of eyeglasses so they can change eye color to match different outfits for different occasions.

Special effects lenses are used in conjunction with Halloween and costume parties and in theater productions all year long. Some special effects lenses are the piece that makes a costume complete – like a cats eye.

All too often though, someone will buy a special effects lens from an unreliable source to save time and money and end up suffering with a painful eye problem because of it.

Its true that decorative special effects contact lenses come in both prescription strengths as well as in zero-powered strengths so that people who dont have vision problems can comfortably wear them – this, however, does not meant that you dont have to be careful and take appropriate precautions before wearing them.

Theres a popular misconception that just because the contact lenses arent prescription strength that they are safe to be worn by anyone at any time without any risk to the wearer. Special effects contact lenses can, in reality, cause many eye problems, but there are some steps that someone who wants to wear them can take to ensure that they will be as safe as possible during the time that have the decorative contact lenses on.

What to do to be Safe

Before you sit down at your computer and order a pair of special effects lenses from some overseas store on the internet or run out and get a pair from a vending machine at a costume shop – you should know that these practices are likely to land you at the Optometrist with a nasty eye infection.

Your best bet to get a comfortable, high quality pair of lenses that will fit you properly is to schedule an appointment with a licensed eye care professional for an exam. Your eye exam will tell you for certain if it will be safe for you to wear lenses. If your exam shows that wearing contacts is safe for you, youll likely be able to get fitted and purchase the lenses that you want right at the office. This will ensure that you get the best quality product from someone who is supposed to be selling it. Even zero powered decorative contact lenses must be distributed through a licensed outlet, just because they arent designed to correct a vision problem doesnt mean that anyone who wants to sell them is allowed to sell them.

If you already wear contacts regularly, you should still ask your regular eye care professional what their opinion of you wearing special effects lenses is. If you havent had an eye exam in a while, they may want to see you to make sure the decorative lenses that you chooses will be available in your prescription so as to not cause any problems.

If you decide that wearing special effects lenses is for you and you are cleared to do so by a licensed professional, be sure to follow the instructions for wearing and caring for your lenses. Just like wearing regular contact lenses like Acuvue, you shouldnt wear them to bed, in the ocean or a pool and you should never swap lenses with anyone – even if they have the same prescription as you.

Even the slightest miss-step in following these instructions could lead to a serious eye problem – a problem much worse than not liking your current eye color.

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Why You Need Reading Glasses at Age 40

January 15, 2009 by Dr. Eric Stamper, OD  
Filed under Eye Care Articles

by Dr. Eric Stamper, OD

If you’ve reached the ripe young age of 40 then odds are you have trouble with your vision, specifically your near vision. You may even believe you brought this on yourself – maybe your mother was right when she said not to sit so close to the T.V. What has actually happened is that you have just joined about 135 Million other Americans in the Over 40 Club and your blurry near vision has nothing to do with your bad habits.

You have Presbyopia!

Presbyopia is actually blurry near vision due to a natural decrease in your eyes ability to focus. That’s right, it’s normal – it happens to everyone about age 40. Some have defined presbyopia as the shortening of the arms that prevent you from holding an object far enough away to be read. While this makes great comedy, it’s not true. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. Wives tales Would have you believe that wearing glasses make sit worse, the explanation is really simple.

Our eyes have a crystalline lens that is responsible for focusing your vision between mere objects and distant ones. When you are looking for a way to lens in your eye is relaxed, but when you look at something nearby, like a flower the lens flexes to focus on the flower. When you’re young, the lens is very flexible and active – it can focus on a distant Mountain, then seconds later read a roadmap held 4 inches from your nose. As you age the lens gets a little flicker around the middle and doesn’t like to flexes much.

Because of these changes the lens becomes unable to flex like when we were younger to focus on nearby objects. By age 40 that lens is so fat and lazy it won’t even help out when we’re trying to read the newspaper or see our watch. Objects at 40 centimeters, our usual reading distance, become blurry.

Even though this process continues through our life, it’s at 40 that we notice the change because we no longer do the nearby that we used to do. New lenses, such as glasses or contacts must be used to focus our near vision.

Americans today have many options to overcome this obstacle. In addition to the traditional bifocal or reading glass options we also have progressive lenses, which are no-line bifocals, there are a variety of bifocal contact lenses, there are implantable lenses, which are surgically inserted in place of a person’s natural lens by an ophthalmologist. Monovision LASIK is also another option for correction. For more details about the latest technological advances in optometry contact your local eye doctor.

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