With rapid changes in healthcare technology and telemedicine, there's perhaps never been a more important time for optometrists to get involved in local and federal legislative initiatives. Deciding you want to make a difference in changing the course and direction of the profession is a vital first step, but the truth is that getting involved with legislative action can be daunting.  How do...

Deep, boring pain behind your eyes. Throbbing, pulsating pain in your temples. Vision changes, zig zags, flashing lights, or tunnel vision.  Nothing seems to help except lying down or just closing your eyes.  For the 13% of Americans living with chronic headaches and recurrent migraines, these symptoms are all too familiar.   In fact, those diagnosed with chronic migraines spend 15 or more days each month...

It's that time of year again! As new technology in the world of contact lenses continues to enter the marketplace and get FDA approval, older and less breathable contact lenses are being taken off the market.  Effective as of 11/1/2017 you can no longer get trial or diagnostic lenses of any contact lens listed below.  Here's a list of the recent discontinuations and...

Few cosmetic enhancements seem as desirable as longer lashes in today's beauty marketplace; from prescription serums to fiber mascaras, and false lashes to lash perming, the cosmetic industry is overrun with options for achieving gravity defying eyelashes.  Unfortunately one of the leading reasons why so many products exist for getting longer lashes is that all of the available enhancement options come with a...

If it's not obvious by the fact my "down-time" is spent here, blogging about my profession, I really love being an optometrist.  I would make that decision again even if I time-traveled back to my undergrad days (and please, don't let that recurring nightmare of facing tests and papers all over again ever become reality). But there are plenty of times in this...

We are what we eat, as the old saying goes, and as researchers delve deeper into chronic inflammatory conditions, the impact of our diet is hard to ignore.  Dry Eye Syndrome is the most common chronic inflammatory condition of the eye, affecting an estimated 20-30 million Americans. The name “dry eye” is a bit of medical misnomer – we know now that the...

If you're a long time reader, you'll know I've dedicated a lot of articles to writing about specialty contact lenses for keratoconus because its the specialty I've chosen to pursue in my own eyecare practice. In the five years that I have been out of optometry school, I've fit hundreds of patients with specialty contact lenses for irregular corneas, and over and over...

When's the last time you prescribed an antibiotic eye drop for a patient with an active hordeolum with significant cellulitis? You wouldn't, because you know it wouldn't work. Bacterial infections of the soft tissue around the eyelid are difficult to treat with eye drops alone because these drops can't adequately penetrate the skin. Prescribing oral medications and topical ointments are the best way...