Blog

Thank you for visiting The Eye Doctor Shop.  I am an Optometrist in Kansas City, Missouri and have been providing eyecare for patients at my multi-location practice for 20+ years.  You can find our offices at VSEyecare.com.  I talk to patients everyday about their vision and eye health.  I wanted to share with you a patient that I saw for the first time today and some of the discussion we had.  If you are not getting the level of eyecare that you need, I'd be happy to help you find a great eye doctor near you.  You can email me directly at DrPowell@VSEyecare.com

The patient I saw today is a really nice 54 year old lady.  She has a pair of Progressive lens eyeglasses that she got from a low dollar, high volume eyeglasses retailer.  She has never liked them.  She says that when she looks at her computer they are really hard to use.  She also told me that her eyes are sometimes dry and itchy. 

During her exam, I did a refraction - that's the part where we check your vision and have you look through the goofy glasses and ask you which is better 1 or 2.  She was seeing a great 20/20 with each eye and her up close vision was perfect with some extra bifocal help.  I recommended to her that having a pair of Computer Progressive eyeglasses would work really well.  We use the Essilor Computer lens.  This lens will give her a nice wide and clear computer distance vision and will also give her really clear vision for the desktop.  She was even thinking she would wear these to read in bed at night or to look at her phone in bed at night.  She will still have an everyday pair of Progressive lenses - but we talked about using a "brand name" Progressive - one that will give her better Intermediate vision.  I like the Varilux X, it has a great intermediate range.  There are over 100 different Progressive lens designs - and some are pretty bad.  Make sure you get a good one!!

When I looked at her eyes, I could see that her tears were not working well - the outside of or eyes needs to have a coating of tears all the time.  If you think of your lips and what happens when they get dry, your eyes are very similar.  Your eyes need good moisture all the time.  If your eyes are "crying" or watering a lot, those are not the good tears that we need.  I talked to her about this and she is going to use Oasys Tears twice a day in each eye and start taking a good triglyceride fish oil - TG Omega 3 is the one I recommended to her. 

We also tested her dark adaptation - this is the ability of the eye to adjust from light to dark.  When our eyes have a delayed dark adaptation, this is the earlies indication of macular degeneration.  She did show a delay in her dark adaptation testing, so we will have her come back and see us so that we can assess her risk for macular degeneration more thoroughly and potentially initiate treatment if needed. 

I will try to share some cases with you so that you can get a feel for what happens in a thorough eye exam.  Please reach out if I can help you.  My email is drpowell@vseyecare.com