Seasonal allergy sufferers are all too familiar with the itchy nose and sneezing that comes with a change of season. Some people suffer similar eye symptoms. Itchy, watery and red eyes could be a sign of seasonal ocular allergy, but before you grab that over the counter eye medication it might pay to get your eyes checked by an optometrist first.
In our Gold Coast Vision Therapy practice, the majority of our vision therapy is for what are called “Visual Dysfunctions”. These are vision problems affecting both children and adults that involve difficulties with focussing, eye-teaming and eye-aiming. The symptoms however, are not as obvious as vision problems affecting sight, and are not always simply corrected with glasses. A new study highlights that not all symptoms of vision problems appear as those directly “eye-related”.
This latest review of convergence insufficiency is an comprehensive review on this common vision problem, its impact and management. What I like about this article is that one of the authors, Dr Cooper is an excellent clinician, as well as a researcher. This provides valuable clinical pearls and insights into the interpretation of the research surrounding this common but under-diagnosed vision problem.
We have mixed feelings about the value of sight screenings for children. Why? On the one hand, sight screenings are valuable for detecting eye-turns, lazy eye and large prescription problems, particularly if performed prior to a child starting school. On the other hand, screenings are not suitable for picking up many other vision problems that do not cause poor sight. Additionally, screenings may lead parents to believe that once their child has “passed” a sight screening, no further testing needs to be done in the future.
Contact lenses for astigmatism correction, called “toric” lenses have been available for decades. The last decade has seen great advances in contact lens technology that means: