I had a patient yesterday who was in the eighth grade. The mom's complaint was that his studies were faltering. The patient was 20/20 at both reading and distance. The eyes also appeared healthy. I did note that there was a problem with the patient coordinating his eyes together. I prescribed a weak power reading prescription which seemed to make a significant difference in his reading comfort.

There are a couple of things I look for during the examination when evaluating kids for learning problems which are visually related. One questions I ask if the patient gets motion sickness, particularly in the back seat of the car as compared to the front seat. Also, I note if the patient has to bring the reading material either very close or far away to read. These findings usually indicate a visual problem that could cause a learning problem.

I had a college age student in my office yesterday. She had two complaints. Her vision was blurred at night. Also, her eyes were bothering her on the computer. Her distant vision was a little less than 20/20. Even though her vision was pretty good, her complaints were significant for her.

In her case, I had to prescribe for both the distance blur as well as for her complaints concerning working with the computer. This required two different small prescriptions. I have seen this type of case quite often. If I were to prescribed for her just the distance prescription, this could actually make the up close vision worse.

Every patient is different. Sometimes the prescription for distance and near is the same and sometimes it's not. The findings are determined during the examination and demonstrating its results to the patient.

Contact lens wearers. should always have a pair of back-up glasses. Most do. I have seen contact lens patients who have extremely poor vision, uncorrected, who don't have any glasses. I had a patient come into the office yesterday with an irritated eye. There was a small bleb on the front surface of the eye which meant she could not wear her contact lenses. She had no glasses. She did wind up getting glasses immediately. Contact lens wearers should always make sure they carry their back-up glasses with them in case their eyes are irritated and they have to remove them at once. Sometimes wearing a contact lens that irritates the eye for a period of time could cause significant infection.

We are now coming to a close of another year. I have now been practicing optometry for 28 years. I've been established here in my own practice in Rancho Cucamonga for over 20 years. I completely enjoy it. There are so many reasons why. For one, it's a people profession. Through my patient base as well as my networking through the community and the chambers of commerce, I have met many interesting people as well as making good friendships. Also, optometry is exciting for me. The patient could almost immediately realize the benefit of what you've done for them. I could also say that there are those who we have definitely changed their lives for the better as a result of out service. Also, there are a few who we could say we possibly have saved their sight or possibly their lives as a result of our services. Finally, looking back over the last 28 years, I am proud to be part of a profession that has advanced so dramatically over the years.

One of the more challenging patients we work with in the office is the long time contact lens wearer who has turned 40 or older and is losing their ability to focus up close with their contact lenses. There are three ways to deal with it. The first way is by far the easiest but sometimes least convenient, that is wearing reading glasses over the contact lenses for near. The second way and successful for some is wearing one eye for reading and one eye for distance. This causes a blur in one of the eyes for reading and blur in the other eye for distance. The issue that is very important here is driving, particularly at night. There are ways to deal with this situation. The third method of fitting this type of patient is with multifocal contact lenses. The technology of these lenses has improved greatly over the last several years. These lenses do not work on everybody but when they work, they work.

Individuals who use computers, particularly desktops, have particular visual needs. I had a patient who was prescribed a progressive lens for distance and near. He noticed that when he viewed the desktop, he wasn't able to view the screen comfortably. Since his computer was at about 22"-24" and he also had to view text at about 16", we prescribed him a bifocal with the top portion set for his computer distance and the bottom portion situated for 16". This worked out for him a lot better. What's important here is that the prescription is set for these distances. You would not be able to see clearly at far away with them. For further information regarding vision and computers, please visit my website at www.wehelpuc.com.

There have been many advances in contact lenses over the years. One of these advances involves the contact lens' ability to transmit oxygen. The more oxygen a contact lens can transmit, the healthier it is for the eye. These lenses are generally a silicone based lens. Basically, it is always safer to take a contact lens out than to sleep in it. Many infections that occur due to contact lens wear involve sleeping in the lenses. Even though I don't condone sleeping in the lenses, if you're going to do this, it is better to do this with a contact lens that transmits a significantly higher amount of oxygen.