All About Illusions Optometrists – Part 1

Jayese Unka started Illusions Optometrists because of his growing concern with practices in the industry relating to financial gain at the expense of thorough client care. Such examples include eye examination times being too short, prescribing of spectacles unnecessarily, prescribing of the wrong spectacle lens strength, and people either not being told or else not receiving complete advice about eye conditions they may have, such as macular degeneration. In this and next month’s press releases Jayesh addresses some of these problems.

Eye examinations get to a point where they only get faster by dropping certain investigative tests out, doing them incompletely or less thoroughly, or giving the client incomplete education about their conditions. Unfortunately Jayesh says he has had to address the consequences of a lot of patients not having adequate eye care at a previous provider, and this is not because they don’t know how to do the tests, it’s because they’re not taking the time to actually do them.

One of the most common issues Jayesh comes across is contact lens wearers who have giant lumps growing under their eyelids; they have been wearing contact lenses for years, have been attending regular check ups with other practitioners and are surprised when he everts their upper eyelids as they, “haven’t had that test done before”. This is a test which is supposed to be done routinely for contact lens wearers, as when these lumps become large enough they can start scratching the surface of the eyes, and they then require an often protracted course of treatment which may include minimal or no contact lens wear for things to be brought under control. If the condition is left untreated it can become increasingly uncomfortable (like a permanent sensation of grit in the eyes), and in extreme cases can even lead to infection and permanently impaired vision.

For the most part, there is no such things as “needing” glasses. Wearing or not wearing glasses, or wearing the incorrect prescription of glasses has not been scientifically shown to make your eyes get any better or any worse. The sole exception to this is from birth up until the age of 11, when having clear vision in both eyes is critical to ensuring that the vision pathways between the eyes and the brain develop correctly. Hence, the only situations where there is an absolute need for glasses are if you are aged 11 years or under or if you are not meeting the legal visual driving standard and want to be able to drive.

Glasses can certainly make things clearer and in certain cases relieve eye strain and headaches; often this is enough to create a need too. However if you are not having any problems with your vision then you should not be prescribed glasses without a very good reason. Glasses are a focussing aid; they’re there to help you and make things easier for you. There’s no point in getting them if you’re not struggling with anything. If your inexpensive ready readers are doing the trick, there’s no harm continuing to stay with those.

The core values of the team at Illusions Optometrists are to provide eye examinations with the same level of care that they would extend to any member of their own families, and to provide honest and genuine advice about the best solutions for your visual and eye health needs. To find out more about eye exam appointments and their eye clinic in Tauranga please go to http://www.illusionsoptom.co.nz .