If you are seeing the 3 F’s, you might have a retinal tear or detachment and you should have an eye exam quickly.

The 3 F’s are:

• Flashes - flashing lights.
• Floaters - dozens of dark spots that persist in the center of your vision.
• Field cut - a curtain or shadow that usually starts in peripheral vision that may move to involve the center of vision.

The retina is the nerve tissue that lines the inside back wall of the eye and if there is a break in the retina, fluid can track underneath the retina and separate it from the eye wall. Depending on the location and degree of retinal detachment, there can be very serious vision loss.

If you have a new onset of any of the three symptoms above, you need to get in for an appointment fairly quickly (very quickly if there are two or more symptoms).

If you have just new flashes or new floaters you should be seen in the next few days. If you have both new flashes and new floaters or any field cut, you should be seen in the next 24 hours.

When you go to the office for an exam, your eyes will be dilated. A dilated eye exam is needed to examine the retina and the periphery. This may entail a scleral depression exam where gentle pressure is applied to the outside of the eye to examine the peripheral retina. Some people have a hard time driving after dilation.   since the dilating drops may last up to 6 hours, so you may want to have someone drive you to and from your appointment.

If the exam shows a retina tear, treatment would be a laser procedure to encircle the tear.

If a retinal tear is not treated in a timely manner, then it will progress into a retinal detachment. There are four treatment options for retinal detachment:

• Laser - A small retinal detachment can be walled off with a barrier laser to prevent further spread of the fluid and the retinal detachment.
• Pneumatic retinopexy - This is an office-based procedure that requires injecting a gas bubble inside the eye.  The patient then needs to position his or her head for the gas bubble to reposition the retina back along the inside wall of the eye. A freezing or laser procedure is then performed around the retinal break. This procedure has about 70% to 80% success rate, but not everyone is a good candidate for a pneumatic retinopexy.
• Scleral buckle - This is a surgery that needs to be performed in the operating room. This procedure involves placing a silicone band around the outside of the eye to bring the eye wall closer to the retina. The retinal tear is then treated with a freezing procedure.
• Vitrectomy - In this surgery, the gel - the vitreous inside the eye - is removed and the fluid underneath the retina is drained. The retinal tear is then treated with either a laser or freezing procedure. At the completion of the surgery, a gas bubble fills the eye to hold the retina in place.  The gas bubble will slowly dissipate over several weeks.  Sometimes a scleral buckle is combined with a vitrectomy surgery.

Prognosis

The final vision after retinal detachment repair is usually dependent on whether the center of the retina - called the macula - is involved. If the macula is detached, then there is usually some decrease in final vision after reattachment. Therefore, a good predictor is initial presenting vision. We recommend that anyone with symptoms of retinal detachments (flashes, floaters, or field cuts) have a dilated eye exam. The sooner the diagnosis is made, the better the treatment outcome.

Article contributed by Dr. Jane Pan

Do you have floaters in your vision?

Floaters are caused by thick areas in the gel-like fluid that fills the back cavity of your eye, called the vitreous.

Many people, especially highly near-sighted people, often see some degree of floaters for a good portion of their lives. Often, these floaters are in the periphery of your vision and may only be visible in certain lighting conditions. The most frequent conditions are when you are in bright sunlight and are looking toward the clear blue sky. This I know from personal experience as I have a floater in my left eye that I most often see when swimming outdoors. Every time I turn my head to the left to breathe I see this floater moving in my peripheral vision.

This is totally harmless other than when I’m swimming in the ocean and swear that sudden object in my peripheral vision is a shark bearing down on me. Some people who have floaters are not as lucky and the floater can be very central and almost constantly annoying, especially when trying to read.

The second scenario in which floaters occur is during the normal aging process.  The vitreous gel in the back of the eye starts to shrink as we age and at some point it collapses in on itself and pulls away from the retina. This sometimes results in a sudden set of new floaters.

When that happens you need to be checked for signs of a retinal tear or detachment.  As long as your retina survives that episode without any problems, the floaters themselves may stick around for a while and can be rather annoying.  

Most people eventually adapt to the floaters; the brain learns to filter them out so you are no longer aware of them. The vitreous can also collapse more as time goes on and the dense floater you are seeing initially may move further forward and drop lower in the eye so the shadow it is casting is less intense and more in the periphery of your vision where it is much easier to ignore.

The first line of treatment for floaters has been, and still is, to live with them. Once you have your retina checked and there is nothing wrong there, the floaters themselves are harmless and will not lead to any further deterioration of your vision, which is why, if at all possible, you should just live with them. This is especially true if the floaters are new because the overwhelming majority of people with new floaters will eventually get to the point where they are no longer seeing them or at least where they are not interfering with normal daily activities.

If you have tried to wait them out and live with them but they are still interfering with your normal daily activities, you may want to consider having them treated with a laser.

This treatment relatively new and involves using a special laser to try to break down large floaters into much smaller pieces that may no longer be visible. In a recent study of the laser treatment involving 52 patients, 36 were treated with the laser (a single laser treatment session) and 16 people had a sham treatment (meaning they went through everything the treated group did but did not actually have the real treatment done).  In the people who were actually treated, 54% reported a significant improvement in the floater symptoms while 0% in the sham group reported any improvement (no placebo effect). There were no significant side effects in either group.

Some points to note in the above study:

Fifty-four percent of people treated noted a significant improvement in their floater symptoms with a single treatment. That’s clearly not anywhere near a guaranteed improvement. Other people have noted an improvement after more than one session, bringing the total expected improvement into the 70% range, with one or more treatments. Another point to note is that there were no significant side effects to the treatment. Although true in this small study, it does not mean that there are no risks to the laser treatment. Although rare, there have been reports of damage to the retina, optic nerve or the lens of the eye.  

Another treatment that can be used to treat floaters is a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy. This involves surgically going inside the back of the eye and removing the vitreous. This surgical procedure carries a higher risk than the laser treatment and is not 100% effective.

In summary, this new laser treatment is a good addition to the tools to deal with significant floater problems. If you have floaters for at least six months and they are central and interfering with your normal daily activities such as reading or driving and you want to see if this laser treatment could be right for you, check with your eye doctor.

Article contributed by Dr. Brian Wnorowski, M.D.

Just like adults, children need to have their eyes examined. This begins at birth and continues into adulthood.

Following are my recommendations for when a child needs to be screened, and what is looked for at each stage.

A child’s first eye exam should be done either right at or shortly after birth. This is especially true for children who were born premature and a have very low birth weight and may need to be given oxygen. This is mainly done to screen for a disease of the retina called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), in which the retina does not develop properly as a result of the child receiving high levels of oxygen. Although rarer today due to the levels being monitored more closely, it is still a concern for premature babies.

The next level of an eye exam that I would recommend would be at 6 months. At this stage, your pediatric eye doctor will check your child’s basic visual abilities by making them look at lights, respond to colors, and be able to follow a moving object.

Your child’s ocular alignment will also be measured to ensure that he or she does not have strabismus, a constant inward or outward turning of one or both eyes. Parents are encouraged to look for these symptoms at home because swift intervention with surgery to align the eyes at this stage is crucial for their ocular and visual development.

It is also imperative for parents and medical professionals to be on the lookout for retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eye that more commonly affects young children than adults. At home, this might show up in a photo taken with a flash, where the reflection in the pupil is white rather than red. Other symptoms can include eye pain, eyes not moving in the same direction, pupils always being wide open, and irises of different colors. While these symptoms can be caused by other things, having a doctor check them immediately is important because early treatment can save your child’s sight, but advanced cases can lead to vision loss and possibly death if the cancer spreads.

After the 6-month exam, I usually recommend another exam around age 5, then yearly afterward. There are several reasons for this gap. First, any parent with a 2- to 4-year-old knows that it’s difficult for them to sit still for anything, let alone an eye exam. Trying to examine this young of a patient can be frustrating for the doctor, the parent, and the child. Nobody wins. By age 5, children are typically able to respond to questions and can (usually) concentrate on the task at hand. If necessary at this stage, their eyes will be measured for a prescription for glasses and checked for amblyopia, commonly known as a “lazy eye”. Detected early enough, amblyopia can be treated properly under close observation by the eye doctor.

The recommendations listed above are solely one doctor’s opinion of when children should have eye exams. The various medical bodies in pediatrics, ophthalmology, and optometry have different guidelines regarding exam frequency, but agree that while it is not essential that a healthy child’s eyes be examined every year, those with a personal or family history of inheritable eye disease be followed more closely.

1. Vision is so important to humans that almost half of your brain’s capacity is dedicated to visual perception.

2. The most active muscles in your body are the muscles that move your eyes.

3. The surface tissue of your cornea (the epithelium) is one of the quickest-healing tissues in your body. The entire corneal surface can turn over every 7 days.

4. Your eyes can get sunburned. It is called photokeratitis and it can make the corneal epithelium slough off just like your skin peels after a sunburn.

5. Ommatophobia is the fear of eyes.

6. You blink on average about 15 to 20 times per minute. That blink rate may decrease by 50% when you are doing a visually demanding task like reading or working on a computer – and that’s one reason those tasks can lead to more dry-eye symptoms.

7. Your retinas see the world upside down, but your brain flips the image around for you.

8. If you are farsighted (hyperopia) your eye is short, and if you are shortsighted (myopia) your eye is long.

9. An eyelash has a lifespan of about 5 months. If an eyelash falls out it takes about 6 weeks to fully grow back.

10. All blue-eyed people are related. The first person with blue eyes was thought to have lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. All people before that had brown eyes.

11. One in every 12 males has some degree of “color blindness.”

Alzheimer's Disease International estimates that the number of people living with dementia worldwide - nearly 44 million in 2014 - will almost double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050.

There is no single test that can show if a person has Alzheimer's, but doctors can almost always determine if a person has dementia, although it may be difficult to determine the exact cause. Diagnosing Alzheimer's requires careful medical evaluation, neurological testing and sometimes brain imaging and blood tests to rule out other causes of dementia.

Most of the testing for early disease - MRI scans of the brain, brain PET scans looking for amyloid, and spinal taps looking for certain proteins in the spinal fluid - are not very accurate, they are invasive and they can be expensive.

Researchers have now turned to findings in the eye to help with early detection and are hoping to find ways to make the diagnosis earlier when potential treatments may have a better outcome. There is also hope that these tests will be less expensive and invasive then the other options.

One of the tests that shows promise is an OCT of the retina. Almost every eye doctor’s office already has an OCT so if this research proves fruitful, the test could be done relatively cheaply because there is not a need to buy more expensive equipment. Right now, the average OCT exam is reimbursed at about the $50 per exam level, much less than the cost of an MRI or PET Scan.

Neuroscientists at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco showed a proof of concept in frontotemporal dementia, which is like Alzheimer’s but attacks much earlier and accounts for just 10% to 15% of dementia cases. They found that patients with frontotemporal dementia had thinning of the neuron layer of the retina on OCT.

In a study at Moorfields Eye Hospital they also found that people who had a thinner layer of neurons in the macula on an OCT exam were more likely to perform poorly on the cognitive tests - a clear warning sign they may be undergoing the early stages of dementia.

Study leader Dr. Fang Ko, said: “Our findings show a clear association between thinner macular retinal nerve fiber layer and poor cognition in the study population. This provides a possible new biomarker for studies of neurodegeneration.”

A second marker that is getting a careful look is identifying the presence of amyloid in the eye. Amyloid, thought to be one of the key causes of Alzheimer’s, which makes up most dementia cases, is often found to have formed into clumps and plaques in the brain. Scientists at Waterloo University in Canada found people with severe Alzheimer’s disease had deposits of a protein amyloid on their retinas.

Research being conducted at Lifespan-Rhode Island Hospital in Providence co-led by Peter Snyder, a professor of neurology at Brown University, and Cláudia Santos, a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island, is attempting to detect amyloid in the retina by OCT and follows people over time to see if the amyloid increases and if it correlates with cognitive impairment.

Another angle being pursued by a company called Cognoptix is looking for amyloid in the lens of the eye. Using Cognoptix's SAPPHIRE II system, which detects amyloid in the lens, a 40-person Phase 2 clinical trial was conducted at four sites. The study recruited patients who were clinically diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) via a rigorous neuropsychological and imaging workup. The study, using age-matched healthy controls, showed outstanding results of 85% sensitivity, and 95% specificity in predicting which people had probable AD.

The company is now planning a Phase 3 study that must show a strong correlation in a bigger study group to obtain ultimate FDA approval.

One of the other items I was going to include in this post was information on what visual symptoms occur in dementia patients and how family and friends can support them but I found an outstanding review already available online by the Alzheimer’s society that covers all those points. If you have a loved one with dementia this is an excellent read and I highly recommend you take the time to review it.

Article contributed by Dr. Brian Wnorowski, M.D.

This blog provides general information and discussion about eye health and related subjects. The words and other content provided in this blog, and in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. If the reader or any other person has a medical concern, he or she should consult with an appropriately licensed physician. The content of this blog cannot be reproduced or duplicated without the express written consent of Eye IQ.

Hygiene is critical to wearing your contact lenses

Contact lenses can significantly improve your vision but it’s very important to care for them properly to avoid potentially serious infections or other problems.

Your habits, supplies, and eye doctor are all essential to keeping your eyes healthy so it’s important to follow instructions for proper care and to call us if you have concerns. 

These recommendations will help extend the life of your contact lenses and keep your eyes safe and healthy. 

Your lens insertion and removal routine

• Before you handle contacts, wash and rinse your hands with a mild soap.
• Make sure the soap doesn’t have perfumes, oils, or lotions. They can leave a film on your hands.
• Dry your hands with a clean, lint-free towel before touching your contacts.
• It’s a good idea to keep your fingernails short and smooth so you won't damage your lenses or scratch your eye when inserting or removing your contacts.
• Lightly rubbing your contact in the palm of your hand with a few drops of solution helps remove surface build-up.
• Rinse your lenses thoroughly with a recommended solution before soaking the contacts overnight in a multi-purpose solution that completely covers each lens.
• Store lenses in the proper lens storage case.
• Don't use tap water or saliva to wash or store contact lenses or lens cases.
• If you use hair spray, use it before you put in your contacts.
• Put on eye makeup after you put in your lenses. Take them out before you remove makeup.
• Always follow the recommended contact lens replacement and wearing schedule prescribed.

Your supplies

• Use doctor-recommended solution.
• Rub and rinse your contact lens case with sterile contact lens solution. Never use water.
• Clean the case after each use.
• Replace your contact lens case at least once every three months. 
• Don’t “top off” solution. Use only fresh contact lens disinfecting solution in your case. 
• Never mix fresh solution with the old or used solution.
• Change your contact lens solution according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Your eye doctor

• Visit us yearly or as often as recommended.
• Ask us if you have questions about how to care for your contacts and case or if you are having any difficulties.
• Remove your contact lenses immediately if your eyes become irritated. Call us and let us know what’s going on.
• Call us if you have any sudden vision loss, blurred vision that doesn’t get better, light flashes, eye pain, infection, swelling, unusual redness, or irritation. 

Wear your contacts safely

• Some contacts need special care and products. Always use the disinfecting solution, eye drops, and enzymatic cleaners your doctor recommends. Some eye products or eye drops aren’t safe for contact wearers.
• Saline solution and rewetting drops do not disinfect lenses.
• Use a rewetting solution or plain saline solution to keep your eyes moist.
• Don’t wear your contacts when you go swimming in a pool or at the beach.
• Don't sleep in your contact lenses unless prescribed by your eye doctor.
• Don’t clean or store your contacts in water.
• See us for your regularly scheduled contact lens and eye examination.
• If you think you’ll have trouble remembering when to change your lenses, ask for a chart to track your schedule or make one for your needs.

Be sure to call us if you have any questions about caring for your contact lenses or if you’re eyes are having problems.

Is making an appointment for a comprehensive eye exam for your children on your back-to-school checklist? It needs to be.

No amount of new clothes, backpacks or supplies will help your child succeed in school if they have an undetected vision problem. 

The difference between eye exams and vision screenings

An annual exam done by an eye doctor is more focused than a visual screening done at school. School screenings are simply "pass-fail tests" that are often limited to measuring a child’s sight clarity and visual acuity up to a distance of 20 feet. But this can provide a false sense of security.

There are important differences between a screening and a comprehensive eye exam.

Where a screening tests only for visual acuity, comprehensive exams will test for acuity, chronic diseases, color vision and make sure the eyes are working together properly. This means a child may pass a vision screening at school because they are able to see the board, but they may not be able to see the words in the textbook in front of them.

Why back-to-school eye exams matter

Did you know that 1 out of 4 children has an undiagnosed vision problem because changes in their eyesight go unrecognized? 

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a common condition in children and often develops around the ages of 6 or 7. And nearsightedness can change very quickly, especially between the ages of 11 and 13, which means that an eye prescription can change rapidly over a short period of time. That’s why annual checkups are important.

Comprehensive eye exams can detect other eye conditions. Some children may have good distance vision but may struggle when reading up close. This is known as hyperopia or farsightedness. Other eye issues such as strabismus (misaligned eyes), astigmatism or amblyopia (lazy eye) are also detectable. 

Kids may not tell you they're having visions issues or even realize it. They may simply think everyone sees the same way they do. Kids often give indirect clues, such as holding books or device screens close to their face, having problems recalling what they've read, or avoiding reading altogether. Other signs could include a short attention span, frequent headaches, seeing double, rubbing their eyes or tilting their head to the side.

What to expect at your child's eye exam

Before the exam, explain that eye exams aren’t scary, and can be fun. A kid-friendly eye exam is quick for your child. After the doctor tests how she sees colors and letters using charts with pictures, shapes, and patterns, we will give you our assessment of your child’s eyes. 

If your child needs to wear glasses, we can even recommend frames and lenses best for their needs.

Set your child up for success

Staying consistent with eye exams is important because it can help your kids see their best in the classroom and when playing sports. Better vision can also mean better confidence because they are able see well. 

Because learning is so visual, making an eye examination a priority every year is an important investment you can make in your child's education. You should also be aware that your health insurance might cover pediatric eye exams.

With clearer vision, help make this school year their best ever!

Fireworks Eye Injuries Have More Than Doubled in Recent Years

Fireworks sales will be blazing across the country from now through the Fourth of July. As retailers begin their promotions, the American Academy of Ophthalmology is shining a light on this explosive fact: The number of eye injuries caused by fireworks has more than doubled in recent years.

Fireworks injuries cause approximately 10,000 emergency room visits each year, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The injuries largely occurred in the weeks before and after the Fourth of July. The CPSC’s most recent fireworks report showed that about 1,300 eye injuries related to fireworks were treated in U.S. emergency rooms in 2014, up from 600 reported in 2011.

To help prevent these injuries, the Academy is addressing four important things about consumer fireworks risks:

1. Small doesn’t equal safe. A common culprit of injuries are the fireworks often handed to small children – the classic sparkler. Many people mistakenly believe sparklers are harmless due to their size and the fact they don’t explode. However, they can reach temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees – hot enough to melt certain metals. 
2. Even though it looks like a dud, it may not act like one. At age 16, Jameson Lamb was hit square in the eye with a Roman candle that he thought had been extinguished. Now 20, Lamb has gone through multiple surgeries, including a corneal transplant and a stem cell transplant. 
3. Just because you’re not lighting or throwing it doesn’t mean you’re out of the firing line. An international study of fireworks-related eye injuries showed that half of those hurt were bystanders. The researchers also found that one in six of these injuries caused severe vision loss. 
4. The Fourth can be complete without using consumer fireworks. The Academy advises that the safest way to view fireworks is to watch a professional show where experts are controlling the displays.

If you experience a fireworks eye injury:

• Seek medical attention immediately.
• Avoid rubbing or rinsing the eyes or applying pressure.
• Do not remove any object from the eye, apply ointments, or take any pain medications before seeking medical help.

Watch the AAO’s animated public service announcement titled “Fireworks: The Blinding Truth.”

Article contributed by Dr. Brian Wnorowski, M.D.

The content of this blog cannot be reproduced or duplicated without the express written consent of Eye IQ

Eye exams, education are important when it comes to knowing about cataracts

Cataracts affect millions of Americans and are a common cause of vision loss as we age.

That’s why it’s important to be aware of cataract symptoms and to have regular eye exams to help diagnose problems and monitor your vision.

Cataracts affect your eyes by causing cloudiness or opacity to the normally clear lenses that focus light to the retina at the back of your eyes. A cataract distorts that light, which can cause blurry vision and make your eyes sensitive to bright lights – especially at night.

The water and protein that make up the lens or each eye can change as you age, with the protein clumping together to cloud the lens. As the cataract grows it becomes harder to see clearly and may require surgery to remove and replace the lens.

Causes of cataracts:

• Aging is the most common cause.
• Diseases such as diabetes or hypertension.
• Exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun.
• Smoking and excessive alcohol use.
• Injury to your eyes.
• Use of steroid medications
• Family history.

Symptoms of cataracts include:

• Blurry or cloudy vision.
• Problems with night vision.
• Glare from the sun, headlights or other light sources.
• Colors may start to seem faded.
• Double vision.

Diagnosis of cataracts:

While it is important to have regular eye exams, you should contact your eye care professional if you notice cataract symptoms. Testing can include:

• Visual acuity testing to determine how well you see at different distances.
• Visual field testing to check your peripheral vision.
• Questions about your vision and medical history.
• Examination of the lenses of your eyes to check for things that indicate a cataract.

Treatment of cataracts:

• The necessity of cataract surgery and the surgery itself is something that should be discussed by you and your eye doctor.
• Cataract surgery is very common and usually is performed without complication on an outpatient basis.
• The lens with the cataract is removed and often replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL), which is implanted in the eye about where your original lens was.
• Your doctor will discuss the recovery period after your surgery with you.
• While the IOL may correct your distance vision, it’s likely you will need reading glasses.

If an IOL can’t be used, your doctor will discuss options with you.

Things you can do to protect your eyes:

There is no scientific proof that you can prevent cataracts, but here are some things experts say can reduce your risk:

• Get regular eye exams. Early detection of eye problems might save your sight.
• Wear polarized sunglasses to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays.
• Quit smoking and limit alcohol consumption.
• Eat healthy, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish high in omega-3 fatty acids. These foods provide vitamin C, vitamin E, as wells as lutein and zeaxanthin. Be sure to discuss any diet change with your eye care professional.
• Keep diabetes under control.

It’s important to know how cataracts can affect your vision and even more vital to have regular eye exams to screen for cataracts and other problems that can affect your sight as you age.

We’re all aware that too much sun can cause skin cancer, but did you know the sun’s ultraviolet rays can also do lasting damage to your eyes?

That’s why it’s important for everyone to wear sunglasses and other lenses that block UV rays.

What is Ultraviolet Light?

UV radiation refers to the invisible rays that come from the sun and can harm our eyesight. Most notably, these rays are UVA and UVB.

UVA rays can hurt your central vision by damaging the lens and retina, which can lead to cataracts and macular degeneration. UVB rays can damage the front part of your eye, possibly leading to growths on the eye surface and causing corneal issues and distorted vision.

UV rays can come from many directions. They radiate directly from the sun, but they also are reflected from the ground, water, snow, sand and other bright surfaces. These rays can affect your eyes even when it’s cloudy.

These are some of the problems caused by UV rays:

• Macular Degeneration, which is a loss of central vision.
• Cataracts, which blur your eye’s lens and cause cloudy vision.
• Pterygium, a growth of pink, fleshly tissue that begins on the white of the eye.
• Photokeratitis, or “Sunburn of the eye,” which causes red eyes, sensitivity to light and excessive tearing.

The longer your eyes are exposed to solar radiation, the greater the risk of developing cataracts or macular degeneration later in life. That’s why it’s important for adults and children to wear sunglasses with up to 100% UV protection. And if you wear regular glasses or contacts, those lenses should have UV protection as well.

Preventing the damaging effects of ultraviolet light is simple. First and foremost, you should limit your exposure to the sun, and when you are in the sun you should wear proper eye protection and a broad-brimmed hat to block the sun’s rays from your eyes as much as possible.

Eyewear created to block UV rays gives you the most protection. All types of eyewear - including prescription and non-prescription glasses, contact lenses and lens implants - should block UVA and UVB rays.

Children and teenagers are at special risk from the harmful effects of UV rays, since their eyes do not have the same ability as adults to filter out some UV radiation. They also often spend more time outside than adults. Parents should teach kids the importance of wearing sunglasses and hats to block the sun’s rays. And any glasses they wear should be designed to block UV rays and glare.

You should choose sunglasses that:

• Block 99% to 100% of both UVA and UVB radiation.
• Are polarized to reduce glare and brightness.
• Are impact-resistant to further protect your eyes.
• Are comfortable to wear.
• Do not distort colors.

Things to consider when buying eyewear for outdoor activities:

• Wraparound frames provide more sun protection and can help block wind and debris.
• Lenses made from polycarbonate material are more impact-resistant and are lighter weight.
• Color makes a difference. Gray or green lenses are good for bright conditions, while yellow, amber or orange-red tints can increase contrast and clarity. The color you choose depends on your needs.
• Adding polarization to your lenses reduces glare and filters haze.

Come in and talk to us. We want to help you find the lenses that are right for your needs and to make sure your eyes get the ultimate protection.