Which treatments are better than patching for amblyopia?

Patching is often the worst treatment for amblyopia for a number of reasons, including loss of self-esteem and exposure to bullying.  There are more effective and pleasant treatments available.  Read more...

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The ultimate amblyopia infographic

The amblyopia experts at Vision Help have created this helpful info-graphic to help spread the word on the latest science in treating amblyopia (lazy eye).  We are re-posting it here to help spread the word on the latest treatments and the important information that patching for many hours a day is an out-dated and unnecessary practice.

Advanced treatments are available at our Vancouver vision clinic at at the clinics of developmental optometrists across North America.  To find a doctor near you, visit the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Related articles:

More evidence that patching alone is not good enough for treating amblyopia

Apr 29, 2013

Patching alone is not good enough for amblyopia ... - See for Life
Apr 22, 2013

Active therapy is more effective for amblyopia
Nov 20, 2011

Childhood vision disorders lead to adult problems 
Jun 13, 2011

Retinal tear - what does it mean?

Having a retinal tear does not necessarily mean that your eye is generally unhealthy or compromised.  However, people who are highly myopic have a higher risk of developing a retinal tear because their eye is elongated which puts a strain on the retina. Note that the risk of retinal tears remains even after laser vision correction because laser vision correction does not correct the elongation of the eye.

A retinal tear is usually treated by a surgeon who will use a laser to seal the tear.  Sometimes the tear cannot be sealed completely which will result in a permanent loss of vision in a small part of the visual field of the affected eye.  However, patients usually never notice this because the healthy eye will compensate for the eye with the small tear.

A common sign of a retinal tear is to have flashes or floaters in your vision.  If this happens, see your optometrist right way.  If a retinal tear is found, you will be immediately referred to an eye surgeon for treatment.

What can go wrong if you don't get treatment for your dry eye?

Here is a post on DryEyeDoctor.ca about all of the rotten, horrible, no good, very bad things that can happen if people with dry eye syndrome ignore it and don't get any treatment.  And that list is beside the obvious that untreated dry eye give you a poor quality of life, with uncomfortable eyes and vision for your waking life.  Read more...

Caffeine improves dry eye syndrome - according to new study from Tokyo researchers

Caffeine intake can significantly increase the eye's ability to produce tears, a finding that could improve treatment of dry eye syndrome.  This is according to a new study published in the journal Ophthalmology by researchers at the University of Tokyo's School of Medicine.

Dry eye syndrome affects millions of people.  Depending on the study you read, between 5% and 30% of the population will experience dry eye syndrome at some point in their lives.  The severity of dry eye syndrome ranges from an annoyance to a debilitating, vision threatening illness that can ruin lives by making it impossible for the sufferer to hold down a job or drive a car.  Women and people who have had LASIK surgery are more at risk of dry eye syndrome although it can affect anyone.

All of the 78 participants in the study produced significantly more tears after consuming caffeine than after taking a placebo.

Dry eye syndrome has a number of different causes that include slower than normal of tear production, tear quality that is worse than normal or tears evaporating faster than normal from the surface of the eye.  Dry eye syndrome is sometimes called tear dysfunction syndrome to focus attention on the chief culprit of the disease: some sort of problem with tears. 

Caffeine is known to increase the secretions of various glads in the body.  For example, caffeine increases the secretion of saliva and digestive juices.  The study suggests that it may stimulate the gland the produces tears.

Dry eye can negatively impact the quality of your life.  If you think you have it, go see your optometrist.  A number of different treatments are available and it is likely that one of them can help you.

Here is a recent post we did on dry eye syndrome:

• Women make dry eye worse with makeup

In a city like Vancouver BC, where our clinic is located, there is a Starbucks on every corner.  I wonder if optometrists write fewer per capita prescriptions for dry eye medication.  If public health researchers do a study on that, you will here about it here first! 

The image at the top of this post is the chemical structure of caffeine.

Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Success Rate

I've had some questions lately about the success rate in treating convergence insufficiency.  With opometric Vision Therapy - which is the best available treatment - the success rate is 75%.  This result was found by the recent National Eye Institute study on convergence insufficiency treatments which found vision therapy to be the best treatment and pencil pushups to be ineffective.  Read more here: http://visiontherapy.ca/convergence.html