Eye Protective Spectacles

Eye Protective Spectacles

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

The eye is a delicate and sensitive organ and can not resist impact or exposure to harsh chemical fumes which are quite common in most industrial and work site environments. Such hazardous environments put the eyes at a high risk of trauma and therefore makes it absolutely important to have the eyes protected with safety EYE wears in such environments. 

Some of the common types of  protective EYE wears are as follows. 


Regular corrective spectacles 

Glasses with anti reflective could protect your eyes from disturbing glare from various light source such as compute screen and vehicle head lamp at night.  Glasses with transition helps protect the eyes from the harshness of the rays of sunlight. Polarized sun glasses give better protection to the eyes in the sun. The help eliminate harmful UV rays from the sun.

Safety Spectacles 

Safety Spectacles often have side shields and required to be worn by occupational workers. They are designed to protect the eyes against hazards such as flying objects, fragments, big or small particles. They are made of plastic or metal frames and often have an impact-resistance with or without a prescription.

Safety googles

Safety googles are designed to protect the eyes. They are designed to fit closely to the contours around the eye area. This forms a protective seal around the eyes and therefore protects the eyes from liquid splash, dust or any air-born material.

Most of them are made of impact-resistance material and incorporates the wearers prescription. However, some workers simply wear their goggle over their regular spectacle if there is a enough room for the spectacle to fit behind the googles.

Face shield

This is meant to provide protection to the entire face. However, if used alone, it may not give the eyes the desired protection it needs. To ensure that the eye is well protected, face shield should be worn over safety Spectacles or googles.

Photophobia

Photophobia

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

 

Photophobia is a term often used by eye-care professionals and refers to sensitivity of the eyes to light- sunlight or indoor light. it is pronounced as “foto-fobia”. Photo stands for ‘light’ and phobia stands for ‘fear’. This translates to ‘fear of light’.  

 

You are ‘photophobic’ if you are intolerant to light and always experience discomfort under minimal light conditions. In other words, people who are photophobic can not tolerate a tolerable degree of light. They may experience discomfort such as headaches, frowning and squint their eyes and often in a hurry to leave the sun. This condition is more common in tropical than temperate countries.

Conditions That Cause Or Worsen Photophobia

Some of the conditions that cause, trigger or worsen photophobia are cataract surgery, refractive laser procedure, migraine headache, underlying medical conditions, cornea injury or transplant, side effect of some medications, and hormonal changes in women, albinism etc. 

How To Protect Your Eyes

Photophobic patients need to protect their eyes in the sun. They need to wear transition lenses. However, some of them may find regular transition lenses not dark enough for outdoor activities or on a bright sunny day. In this case, I will advise the use of polarized lenses. There are  many non-prescription polarized glasses out there in the market. However you can get a polarised recommended glasses from any Eye-care/Optical establishment if you wear recommended glasses.

 

Polarised sunglasses protect your eyes against harmful UV rays, eliminates uncomfortable eye-straining glare, keeps the eye muscle relax, maintains clarity of vision and improves visual contrast.

I will also recommend the use of sun visor in the vehicle whenever necessary. Not only is it protective, it helps cut-off blinding-glare of the sunrays that could affect your vision and compromise your driving safety. For those who are extremely photophobic ( albinos) and can avoid bright light conditions, avoidance may be the best approach.  

 

Written By:

Austin Madu, OD   

( Optometrist )                                

 

Your Eyes and Migraine Headache

Your Eyes and Migraine Headache

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

Headache is a common symptom of many health, stressful or vision/eye conditions and often presented by patients to eye care professionals as a reason for coming to do eye test. It should be noted that there are many types of headaches. Some are associated with vision defect. Some are not. The most commonly presented headache today are ‘ocular‘ and ‘migraine‘ headaches which will be discussed on this page.

Ocular headache is associated with eye strain and often results from a person’s uncorrected vision defect – e.g. Short or long sightedness, astigmatism etc.

The cause of migraine headache is not clearly understood. But some medical experts have linked it to dilation and contraction of the cranial (head) artery. Most people who get migraine headache often associate it with their eyes or the need to wear corrective glasses. Contrary to this assumption, prescription glasses do not stop a migraine headaches except in very rare cases where the ‘trigger factor’ of the migraine is eye strain due to uncorrected vision defect.

Trigger Factors

These are situations, conditions or factors that trigger migraine headaches. The trigger factor for some migraine patients may be noise, loud vibrating music, hunger or stress. For some, it could be very bright light, hot Sun, sleeplessness eating a certain type of food or nuts that they are allergic to. In some rare cases, menstrual period is a trigger factor for some women. Identifying and trying to stay away from the trigger factor helps a migraine patient take preventive measure which could be as simple as taking medication before the headache starts.

Symptoms 

Migraine is often one sided, mild or severe, could last for hours or days and may be associated with nausea, vomiting, light headedness or feeling upset. The severity, frequency of occurrence and duration is not the same for every migraine patient. Most migraine patients can not withstand bright light – they are photophobic.

Nevertheless, there are few cases where prolonged eye strain due to uncorrected vision defect may be a trigger factor. In these very rare cases, prescription glasses will help. However while most migraine patients may get relief from headache when they sleep in a completely dark and quiet room others must take medications to get a relief. Most Migraine Headache medications are non prescription medications

Computer Blue Light – Should You Be Concerned?

Computer Blue Light – Should You Be Concerned?

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

The use of computer and other digital devices have become an absolute necessity in almost everything we do today. These devices; computers, tablets, smart phones etc make our lives easy but not without some discomfort on the eyes. One component that is common with these devices is the screen. The screen illuminates and emits light which the eyes of the users are exposed to. A portion of this light is a high energy visible BLUE-Light (HEVBL ) and has in recent times become a great concern for digital display devices ( DDD ) users.

What is BLUE LIGHT all about?Blue-Light is a High Energy Visible Light ( HEVBL) in the light spectrum. It is made up of two portions I – The harmful portion ( 320 – 420 nm) which is some what, unsafe for the eyes and the unharmful portion (420 – 500 nm ) which is safe and essential to the eyes.

However, HEVBL is considered to be harmful to the eyes by some researchers and optical-products marketers claiming that HEVBL could put the eyes at a risk of developing macular degeneration and that exposure to it at night time could suppress the ‘sleep hormone’ ( melatonin ) which regulates the sleep cycle and mood.

From my understanding, exposure to ANY direct bright light at night can affect sleep hormone and sleep mood. In other words, constant or prolonged direct exposure of the eyes to ANY bright and unnatural light is unhealthy to the eyes. Not necessarily only the blue Light. Even though Blue-Light, for many computer users and children may be of concern, it should be remembered as I earlier said, that a portion of it is safe and healthy to the eyes and therefore should not trigger fear or anxiety among computer users.

However, the over-all effect of prolonged use of computer or other digital devices, which causes digital vision discomfort ( DVD ) should be of greater or equal concern as that of the blue light. But this seems to have been overlooked or at least, underrated in recent times due to the emphasis on Blue light by internet advertisement and marketers.

Causes of Digital Vision Discomfort And How to Prevent Or Handle it?

Computer Vision Discomfort (DVD) is a common eye/vision discomfort experienced by computer or Digital Display Device ( DDD ) users. Its causes are as follows;

1) Screen Brightness 

Excessive screen brightness produces reflective and distracting glare and cause of eye strain. You can reduce or eliminate this by tilting the screen of your device at a suitable glare-free angle or reducing the brightness of the screen and light source in your room ( or office, if you can ). Having an Anti-reflective ( anti-glare) coating on your lens if you wear glasses, should also help reduce such annoying glare.

2) Prolong Use 

Not giving your eyes a rest from prolonged focus on a digital device could put a lot of strain on your eye-muscles and cause visual fatigue. My advise is to take short breaks or adjust your focus by looking away from your computer screen. Look as far away as you can, within your surroundings. This will help relax strained muscles. Do this every 10 -15 minutes. With this practice, you don’t have to frequently leave your office desk.

3) Vision Defect 

A computer user with vision defect ( short sightedness, long sightedness etc) will experience discomfort with prolonged use. This may be eye strain, blurry vision, visual fatigue, headache, watery eyes etc. Eye examination and corrective lenses will be necessary in this case.

4) Blinking rate 

Your blinking rate reduces when working on the computer or DDD. And you may not be aware of it. This could make your eyes feel dry and cause burning sensation. Conscious frequent blinking will help in this case to lubricate the eyes if you don’t have Chronic Dry Eyes. However, if you have chronic dry eyes, this symptom may worsen and you would have to use an Eye drop as needed. Most of these Eye drops are OTC ( over the counter ) drops.

4) Font Size – The smaller the font size of your text, the more likely you are to strain your eyes to see, therefore increase and Work with a larger font size whenever possible.

5 ) Type of Computer Screen 

These days, majority of people depend on their Laptop/PC computers to do their job, business or hold meetings. This has led to an increase in screen time for most people and therefore makes the type of screen of the computer an important factor that should not be over looked. I recommend a NON-reflective screen. The more glossy and reflective the screen of your laptop/PC is, the more it produces distracting reflections and uncomfortable glare. Although I am not recommending a particular brand or model of Laptop, the brand and model of laptop I use has non-reflective screen. It produces little or no glare, therefore I work on it longer than I do with my other digital display devices (DDD).

 

Written By:

Austin Madu, OD                                                                                                                     ( Optometrist )

7 Things You Do That Make Your Eyes Itchy

7 Things You Do That Make Your Eyes Itchy

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

Itchy eyes is a common eye discomfort. It is one of the symptoms of allergic eye reaction to impurities or foreign bodies that come in contact with the eyes. Everyone at some point has experienced it. The causes of itchy eyes are quite common and very much around us. Some of these factors are preventable but some are not. Nevertheless, our actions or the daily activities that we engage in could cause itchy eyes. Some of these factors are as follows;


Dust 

The most common home impurity that trigger eye allergic reaction and make the eyes itchy is dust. Dusty environment will most likely trigger ocular ( eye ) allergy especially If you are allergic to dust ( and most people are ). Cleaning cobwebs in your homes without a protective glasses is a common means of introducing germs / foriegn bodies into your eyes. Your eyes may start to Itch minutes or hours after cleaning. Avoid dusty environment if you can. If you can’t, have your face, nose and eyes properly covered with face shield or safety goggles when working in dusty environment or cleaning cobwebs.

 

Air spray or chemical fumes 

This range from industrial chemicals in the work place to household cleaning agents. Janitors are on daily basis in contact with various cleaning chemical agents and therefore should protect their eyes from these chemicals. As harmless as most household/spray are, some of them could be very harsh to the eyes and trigger a burning and itchy sensation that may have a long lasting effect in the eyes and similar to that of dry eyes. Anti allergic eye drop may help in this case. Nevertheless, preventive approach is the best approach.

Pets and poultry animals 

People love their pets and the animals they breed. As a result, they are in constant physical contact with them. Having many cats, chickens, dogs or other kinds of domestic animals ( especially the ones without veterinary care ) in and out of your living space could trigger ocular allergy especially in children. Some children are allergic to the fur or feathers of their pets and their parents unaware of it. This could lead to long-standing allergic conjunctivitis and constant itchy eyes.

Teddy bear 

Cuddling and Sleeping with Teddy bear is fun and soothing for most children. But this may not be soothing or comforting if it is filthy. Dusty and dirty teddy bears and germs will, some day, trigger eye allergic reaction or get the child’s eyes infected. This is because some children use their teddy bears as pillows which therefore brings it in close contact with their face and eyes. Teddy bears should be cleaned or sanitised frequently to prevent this.


Make-Up 

Most women apply make-up. There is nothing wrong with that. But if a woman’s skin is sensitive to a specific type of make-up, she will experience an allergic eye reaction from it. This may be dry itchy skin around the eyes or serious itchy red eyes. As a result of this, I will advise that the woman stops using make-up for sometime and observe to see if the itching will stop.


Foods and drinks 

Some people who are allergic to certain types of food. Like they say “ one man food is another man’s poison”. This could range from your favorite food, snack, drink to nuts and dairy products. If your are allergic to what you consume, your body will react to it in one way or another. It may be in the form of itchy skin, skin rash, scratchy throat, feverish condition or itchy eyes.

Wiping your eyes with cloth

Wiping your eyes with cloth could get your eyes infected. This may be the use of handkerchief, face towel or a piece of face cloth. These fabrics are often not clean enough to make contact with the eyes. People often pull out these face cloth from their pockets or hand bags, wipe their eyes with them and put it back into their pocket or bag. Sometimes they carelessly rest it on a dirty desk and pick up the same cloth to wipe their face or teary eyes. 

It should be noted that our pockets, bags, purses, desks, chairs, shelves etc are often not free of germs and dust, as a result, this unhygienic practice exposes your eyes to germs.  This could trigger allergies and itchy eyes or infection.

To prevent this eye condition, I advise the use of disposable paper towel to wipe watery eyes.

Written By;

Austin Madu, OD

(Optometrist )