Luckily it is that time of year when many of of us come out of our winter hybernation and begin to go outdoors to enjoy the sunshine & flowers. I for one last weekend traveled to St. George, UT to hopefully enjoy some warmth, sunshine, help maintain my parents home there, and ride in a 100 mile bike ride. Well it didn’t turn out exactly as planned. Just after I arrived there it started raining and it didn’t let up until it was time to leave. Who would have thought a desert could be so wet. I still rode in the bike ride with my brother and we completed the ride all the while being drenched in rain. At least we got our exercise, we had rain gear and it was great to spend some time with my brother and his wonderful wife.
Now that it is time to get outside it is also time to apply some sunscreen and also to where those sunglasses. While it is important to get some sun exposure in order to provide your body with the vitamin D it needs, not a lot of exposure is needed for this purpose. Sunglasses are valuable for eye protection. I call them sunblock for your eyes. Your eyes can also be damaged by the sun’s rays. Tumors can develop in and around the eyes due to excessive sun exposure. Be weary of your children particularly and encourage them to use sunglasses. Most of our sun exposure that can cause problems later in life is obtained by age 18. The lens inside the eye also has less sun protection as a youth. As we age our lens changes color and consistency which blocks some of the sun’s harmful rays.
For children’s sunglasses, be sure to get some that are fun and that they like so that they will be more inclined to wear them. Be sure to set an example by wearing sunglasses yourself. There are children’s sunglasses with a variety of shapes, colors, and themes. There are sunglasses based on cartoon characters. If all else fails you may need to resort to using your imagination or an incentive program to get them to keep the sunglasses on.
Eyeglass and Sunglass vendors will be present at Davis Vision Center on September 17 from 8am to 5pm to offer great deals and giveaways including free sunglasses. We will also be offering free Lasik screenings. Come see the latest Oakley and Maui Jim styles.
It’s that time of year when everything is more green outside and all the trees are opening their buds, the flowers are in full bloom, and the grass seems to grow an inch every day. It’s so exciting that we all want to put on our flip-flops or running shoes and get to the great outdoors.
Unfortunately for many of us the plants blooming and our getting outside more is a recipe for allergies. We go outside and start mowing the lawn and boom! suddenly we feel like we got something in our eye and it starts to itch and get red. Sometimes the white portion of our eye (conjunctiva) becomes so swollen that it protrudes between our lids when we close the eye.
When this happens it is best not to rub your eyes but grab a cool clean washcloth and put it on the eye to relieve the itching sensation. If you have hayfever symptoms such as scratchy runny nose or scratchy roof of your mouth you may want to go to your nearest pharmacy and get an oral antihistamine. Just remember that many of these drugs can make you quite drowsy and they do make your eyes more dry. If your symptoms are solely related to your eyes then you may choose an over the counter vasoconstrictor eye drop such as Vasocon A, Naphcon A, or Opcon A. While these drops do tend to help the symptoms they can with frequent use cause growth of the blood vessels on your eyes causing a more permanent red eye. I prefer an antihistamine eye drop such as Pataday, Patanol, Elestat, Zaditor, or Bepreve. These drops do require a prescription so you will nee to see a physician first. We at Davis Vision Center are always happy to see you to help you or your family member out with this.
So the next time you start to itch remember the above.
Announcing the arrival at Davis Vision Center of new technology. Davis Vision Center has just acquired a new technology that allows us to image parts of your eye in exquisite detail. This technology is called Optical Coherence Tomography or OCT. The instrument, called the Cirrus OCT, is manufactured by Carl Zeiss Meditec a German company. It is a Fourier-Domain OCT that uses optical interference patterns to obtain microscopic 3D images of your eye particularly the retina, optic nerve, as well as the cornea and lens. We can use this instrument to detect and follow diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, epiretinal membranes, diabetic retinal or macular edema, macular holes and traction, retinal detachment, and many others. Davis Vision Center is one the first general ophthalmology practices in Utah to offer this technology.
We enjoyed a fun Christmas party at Gardner Village last night. We had a great dinner followed by a Christmas Bingo game with prizes. The staff really liked the Christmas bonuses and Dr. Davis got a great gift from the staff – a gift certificate at REI where he visits regularly. It was great getting to know everyone better on a less formal basis especially Drs. Hepworth and Johnson who have both joined us this year.
Dr. Hepworth is a great and fun loving guy. He is an Optometrist who specializes in hard to fit contacts.
Dr. Johnson is the newest member of our team. He was a professor of Oculoplastic Surgery at Duke University but he has returned Utah to be with family and we are happy to have him. He specializes in plastic surgery of the face. He does a beautiful job on cosmetic surgery as well as facial trauma.
Eye rubbing is common with many of us. Most of us rub our eyes sometimes without even recognizing that we do it. But it can have detrimental effects on our eyes. Eye rubbing causes inflammation to occur making our eyes and lids red. It has been linked to eye diseases such as cataracts and keratoconus. It also loosens the skin around the eyes contributing to drooping eyelids as we age. It can have detrimental effects if we have had recent eye surgery. So next time you’re tempted to rub think twice.
Today all Davis Vision Center staff enjoyed a birthday lunch. Two staff members had birthdays so we decided to go have some mexican food at Guadalahonkys in Draper. It was lots of fun even though it was a little scary driving in the snow storm.
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