Halloween will be upon us before we know it. It’s a good time to consider some key eye safety points for young and old alike.
News & Resources
An important announcement for our patients
On December 1st, Dr. Evelyn St George will retire from Gloucester & Almonte Family Optometrists after 33 years with the clinics.
Fall Hours for Our Clinics
As August comes to a close, we would like to remind you of current clinic hours, upcoming statutory holiday closures, and Saturday openings in Almonte this fall.
Cosmetics & Your Eyes
For many of us, applying cosmetics is just part of the morning routine, but it’s easy to forget that eye makeup can cause unwanted problems.
Summer Hours & Eye Safety
Summer hours at both of our clinics mean early closures on Fridays (2pm) starting this Friday, 25 June and running throughout July and August. We hope that all of our patients enjoy a fun and safe Canada Day and a great summer ahead.
Summer Eye Safety
We’ve rounded up some past articles we’ve shared about eye safety in the summer months:
Statutory Holidays
Our eye clinics are always closed for statutory holidays, including:
Canada Day (July 1st), the August Civic Holiday (August 2nd) and Labour Day (September 6th)
Almonte Saturday Openings
There are no Saturday openings in the summer. After a break in July and August, Saturday openings will resume on the following schedule in Almonte (8am to 2pm):
Fall 2021: Sept 11, 25 | Oct 9, 23 | Nov 6, 20 | Dec 4, 18
Your Children’s Eyes
Over the years we’ve shared a number of articles on the blog about children’s eyes and eyecare. This month we’re sharing a roundup of those posts to help you keep your children’s vision top of mind.
Job Posting
Almonte Family Optometrists is hiring. Our busy optometric practice is looking for an energetic person to join our team. Experience in a health care setting is preferred but not required. This is a part-time position, approximately 25-30 hours per week. Flexibility in work hours is required. Salary is dependent on experience and education.
The successful applicant will be the first point of contact for our patient and should exhibit good customer service skills, telephone manner and an ability to work with minimal supervision. Attention to detail and a positive and pleasant demeanor is extremely important.
If you are interested in becoming a member of our team, please email your resume to: almonte@ottawafamilyeyecare.com. No phone calls please.
Do you know the signs of retinal detachment?
This serious condition can lead to permanent blindness if not treated promptly. Know the signs!
Tips for Adapting to Progressive Lenses
If you’ve needed help with your distance vision in the past and you’re over the age of 40, you’ll notice at some point that you also need help with reading material close up. In the past, this meant either juggling distance and reading glasses, or choosing “bifocals” or “trifocals”.
Progressive lenses have made the need for “bifocals” or “trifocals” more appealing. With no visible line dividing the lenses, progressives do away with a significant visual distraction (and help to achieve a more youthful appearance!). Progressives also mean you can rely on just one pair of glasses.
What’s it like?
Although a transition period is definitely needed, the success rate in adapting is very high. From our extensive experience, we can say that 97 to 98% of people adapt comfortably and quickly to their progressives.
It’s important to be aware of the symptoms that can be experienced during the initial period of adaptation:
- Headaches
- Nausea / dizziness, including ‘swimmy’ or ‘swaying’ sensation in vision
- Depth perception (e.g. feeling uncertain about how far away some objects are from you)
- Uncertainty around stairs, changes in level
- Changes in peripheral vision can make the main field of vision feel narrow
Most issues will be particularly noticeable in the first few minutes of wear, and symptoms can persist for 2 to 4 weeks. However, in most cases, the adaptation period is just days.
What can I do?
The flexibility and benefits to be gained from switching to progressives is very much worth it for most people. There are a number of things you can do to help make the change progress more quickly.
Preparing for progressives
- Be prepared to tell your optometrist about your main activities (work, hobbies, home tasks, etc.) so that you can have the right lenses customized to your lifestyle.
- Choose frames that are extremely comfortable and well adjusted to your face.
Once you have them
- Spend time getting used to the new areas in your lenses: near, intermediate, and far. Learning these zones and using them properly will make a huge difference.
- The most critical thing you can do is to commit to wearing your new progressives exclusively. Taking the change slowly by alternating with your previous lenses will only make the change harder and draw it out.
Personalizing your lenses
Step one that we talked about above is really important. We all live differently, and it’s important for your optometrist to know if you spend much more time outdoors and focusing more on intermediate and distant objects, or if you typically spend more time working in an office setting, studio, or kitchen where you’re switching your eyes between more things in close proximity.
A good understanding of how you live will help your optometrist to fit your lenses to your lifestyle and increase your comfort with the whole process.
Thinking you might be ready for progressives? Make an appointment with either our Gloucester clinic or our Almonte clinic.
Smoking and Your Eyes
Most of us are more than familiar with the raft of health problems associated with smoking and second-hand smoke, but did you know tobacco use is a preventable cause of blindness?