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January 26, 2010
Get a Free Prescription Pad
Our reading slant board had helped so many individuals through their vision therapy, reading disabilities and rehabilitating various functions of learning and seeing. We wanted to make recommending and ordering our reading slant board easy.
You can obtain and Visual Edge Prescription Pad for free by either submitting an address in which we could send it to, or by downloading our pdf and printing it out. Each pad contains instructions for ordering, contact information and a place for your information for the referral.
We always love hearing from our customers and their experience with our reading slant board, so if you have a testimonial or a question, please contact us and you may even be featured on our next blog!
January 19, 2010
Protecting Your Eyes from UV Rays
There has been multiple reports about the effects of the sun’s UV rays on the skin, from skin cancer, risks of sunburn and more. What we don’t hear about too often are the effects of UV rays and the eyes.
Constant UV exposure can cause the following damage to the eyes: macular degenerations, pinguecula, cataracts and pterygia.
HEV – high – energy visible radiation (aka blue light) can also contribute to macular degeneration.
Since you cannot see UV rays, it is a misconception to assume that your eyes are not at risk, just because of a cloudy day or lack of direct sunlight.
There are three types of UV Rays:
UVC Rays: Considered the most harmful because it is the highest – energy ray. Our ozone layer protects us from this particular ray, but with the depletion of the ozone layer, we are at risk of being affected by UVC Rays. It has a wavelength of 100-280nm.
UVB Rays: Longer wavelengths mean lower energy. Like UVC Rays, we are semi protected by the ozone layer to these rays, but some of the rays still reach the earth’s surface. UVB rays can cause a darkening of the skin (melanin production) and prolonged exposure can cause skin to age, wrinkle and discolor.
UVA Rays: Lower than UVC and UVB rays, these rays are the closest to being visible. These rays can penetrate and reach the lens/retina of the eye. This particular ray is what contributes to eye damage after prolonged exposure.
To protect your eyes, if you think you will be outside for an extended period of time, it’s suggested to wear sunglasses that offer 100% UV protection. UV rays are still present even on cloudy days.
January 12, 2010
3 Eye Exercises to Practice at Your Desk
Whenever studying or working at a computer, it’s easy to get consumed by the task at hand and forget that our eyes are muscles that need rest too. Here are three exercises in which you can practice at your desk to help promote the life and longevity of your eyesight.
The Trombone Method
image via allaboutvision.com
Looking Away and Around
The idea is that every 30 minutes of staring at the computer, you should take a 15 second break to look away and star at objects in your room at different distances. This helps your eyes adjust to seeing different lighting and focusing on items at different depths of field.
Getting Shut-Eye
Sleep has an array of healing capabilities where it allows our body to re-set and start fresh in the morning, but resting your eyes is not something you need a bed for. Taking time through-out the day to simply close your eyes, allows the muscles to relax and start fresh again. This not only helps prevent eye strain, but it also gives you a chance to come back to your work with a fresh new look to possibly see something you may not have caught before.
January 5, 2010
What are Polarized Lenses
There is a common use of polarized sunglasses for boaters, fisherman and water enthusiasts to reduce the glare of light being reflected from the water. To start off with, the definition of the world “polarized” is: a property of waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations. (google web definitions). What causes the glare is that light being reflected off of flat surfaces such as water or a slick road are frequently horizontally polarized. How polarized sunglasses work is that specialty Polarized lenses are constructed to block out horizontally polarized light by their vertically oriented polarizers.
The same technique has been used to also develop 3d effects in movies and visual effects.
For most things, polarized lenses provide an added benefit for reducing glare, but for skiers and snowboarders, sometimes that glare is needed to serve as warning of a slick patch of ice ahead.
By controlling how reflected light appears, polarized lenses can help seeing a bit easier during outdoor activities. For more information contact your local eye care physician.