Do you wait until you notice a problem before visiting your eye doctor for an eye exam? Or do you schedule routine check-ups?

Many people are not aware of how important it is to have regular eye exams. In fact, it is the most dependable way to preserve your long-lasting eye health and quality vision.

Don’t make the mistake of waiting until you have a complaint about your vision before reserving your comprehensive eye exam. Book an appointment today with Dr. Emanuele Tomaini, your expert optometrist in Kincardine,Ontario.

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Are Eye Exams important ?

Clear and healthy vision plays a primary role in every part of your life, which is why preventive eye care is so critical. What you may not know is that many common eye diseases and vision conditions do not cause symptoms at the beginning. It is only when these disorders, such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration, progress to a later stage that problems appear. Unfortunately, that is also when vision damage has already occurred and treatment has a less positive prognosis. In contrast, when eye disease is caught early by an eye exam, your eye doctor can treat it immediately – before there is any irreversible vision loss.

Along with inspecting for eye disease, Dr. Emanuele Tomaini will also check your vision during an eye exam in our La Jolla office. Vision does not generally stay the same throughout all stages of life. We will verify that your current vision prescription is accurate to ensure that you receive the most appropriate vision correction, including eyeglasses, bifocal/multifocal, and contact lenses.

Kincardine Family Eye Care Eye Clinic and Eye Exams in Kincardine, Ontario

Many eye diseases can be quickly and easily diagnosed during a comprehensive eye exam. If you were diagnosed with an eye disease, such as Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular degeneration, Diabetic retinopathy, or Dry eye, you may be overwhelmed by the diagnosis and confused about what happens next. Will you need medications or surgery – now or in the future? Our Kincardine eye doctor has prepared the following answers to your questions about eye disease.

What to Expect During Your Eye Exam

We treat every patient who enters our Kincardine, Ontario, eye care center as a unique individual. That means you will benefit from the specific tests and procedures you need, depending upon your age, health condition, visual symptoms, and the judgment of our eye doctor.

In general, a complete eye exam begins with taking your case history and asking questions about your lifestyle requirements. We will then assess visual acuity, binocularity, color vision, peripheral vision, and ocular health. Your eye doctor may also use tonometry (puff test or blue light) to measure intraocular pressure, which is a screening procedure for glaucoma. Depending upon the results of all of these tests, we may perform additional procedures using the latest technology, such as digital retinal imaging and OCT scans.

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What to Expect During a Pediatric Eye Exam

Children are not simply little adults. That means they have different visual needs and risks than adults. As they grow, they may develop vision problems that could compromise learning and development. Only a comprehensive pediatric eye exam can detect these conditions. That’s why the American Optometric Association advises kids should have their eyes examined at six months old, at three years old (unless diagnosed with a vision condition that requires an earlier examination), and again before starting elementary school (age 5-6). If no vision correction or therapy is needed, follow-up eye exams should be scheduled every one to two years. Our eye doctor is highly qualified and experienced at performing specialized eye exams for kids in the Kincardine area.

During your child’s eye exam in our Kincardine Family Eye Care practice, we will evaluate the following functional vision skills:

• Visual acuity
• Eye teaming/Binocularity
• Focusing ability/Accommodation
• Hand-eye coordination
• Visual perception skills

Ocular health is the foundation for clear vision, and our optometrist will also examine the inner eye tissues, as well the tissues around the eye for any abnormalities. If necessary, we may use dilating eye drops to obtain a sharper view.

Find an eye exam near you!

Now that you are aware of all the reasons to have regular eye exams and what to expect during your appointment, we hope you’ll contact us to schedule a visit to our welcoming Kincardine optometry practice!

Call Kincardine Family Eye Care on 5193964230 to schedule an eye exam with our Kincardine optometrist. Alternatively book an appointment online here CLICK FOR AN APPOINTMENT

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Diabetes is becoming much more prevalent around the globe. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 425 million adults were living with diabetes in the year 2017 and 352 million more people were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. By 2045 the number of people diagnosed is expected to rise to 629 million.

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Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness as well as heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, neuropathy (nerve damage) and lower limb amputation. In fact, in 2017, diabetes was implicated in 4 million deaths worldwide. Nevertheless preventing these complications from diabetes is possible with proper treatment, medication and regular medical screenings as well as improving your diet, physical activity and adopting a healthy lifestyle.

“In 2014 alone, eye doctors found diabetes-related manifestation in 240,000 patients who were not aware they had diabetes, leading to a prompt diagnosis and care, which minimizes the risk of complications,” says AOA President Andrea P. Thau, O.D.

Kincardine Family Eye Care Eye Clinic and Diabetic Eye Exam in Kincardine, Ontario

Many eye diseases can be quickly and easily diagnosed during a comprehensive eye exam. If you were diagnosed with an eye disease, such as Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular degeneration, Diabetic retinopathy, or Dry eye, you may be overwhelmed by the diagnosis and confused about what happens next. Will you need medications or surgery – now or in the future? Our Kincardine eye doctor has prepared the following answers to your questions about eye disease.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the hormone insulin is either underproduced or ineffective in its ability to regulate blood sugar. Uncontrolled diabetes leads to hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, which damages many systems in the body such as the blood vessels and the nervous system.

How Does Diabetes Affect The Eyes?

Diabetic eye disease is a group of conditions which are caused, or worsened, by diabetes; including: diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma and cataracts. Diabetes increases the risk of cataracts by four times, and can increase dryness and reduce cornea sensation.

In diabetic retinopathy, over time, the tiny blood vessels within the eyes become damaged, causing leakage, poor oxygen circulation, then scarring of the sensitive tissue within the retina, which can result in further cell damage and scarring.

The longer you have diabetes, and the longer your blood sugar levels remain uncontrolled, the higher the chances of developing diabetic eye disease. Unlike many other vision-threatening conditions which are more prevalent in older individuals, diabetic eye disease is one of the main causes of vision loss in the younger, working-age population. Unfortunately, these eye conditions can lead to blindness if not caught early and treated. In fact, 2.6% of blindness worldwide is due to diabetes.

Diabetic Retinopathy

As mentioned above, diabetes can result in cumulative damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue located at the back of the eye. This is called diabetic retinopathy.

The retina is responsible for converting the light it receives into visual signals to the optic nerve in the brain. High blood sugar levels can cause the blood vessels in the retina to leak or hemorrhage, causing bleeding and distorting vision. In advanced stages, new blood vessels may begin to grow on the retinal surface causing scarring and further damaging cells in the retina. Diabetic retinopathy can eventually lead to blindness.

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Signs and Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy

The early stages of diabetic retinopathy often have no symptoms, which is why it’s vitally important to have frequent diabetic eye exams. As it progresses you may start to notice the following symptoms:

• Blurred or fluctuating vision or vision loss
• Floaters (dark spots or strings that appear to float in your visual field)
• Blind spots
• Color vision loss

There is no pain associated with diabetic retinopathy to signal any issues. If not controlled, as retinopathy continues it can cause retinal detachment and macular edema, two other serious conditions that threaten vision. Again, there are often NO signs or symptoms until more advanced stages.

A person with diabetes can do their part to control their blood sugar level. Following the physician’s medication plan, as well as diet and exercise recommendations can help slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy.

Retinal Detachment

Scar tissues caused by the breaking and forming of blood vessels in advanced retinopathy can lead to a retinal detachment in which the retina pulls away from the underlying tissue. This condition is a medical emergency and must be treated immediately as it can lead to permanent vision loss. Signs of a retinal detachment include a sudden onset of floaters or flashes in the vision.

Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

Diabetic macular edema occurs when the macula, a part of the retina responsible for clear central vision, becomes full of fluid (edema). It is a complication of diabetic retinopathy that occurs in about half of patients, and causes vision loss.

Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Macular Edema

While vision loss from diabetic retinopathy and DME often can’t be restored, with early detection there are some preventative treatments available. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (when the blood vessels begin to grow abnormally) can be treated by laser surgery, injections or a procedure called vitrectomy in which the vitreous gel in the center of the eye is removed and replaced. This will treat bleeding caused by ruptured blood vessels. DME can be treated with injection therapy, laser surgery or corticosteroids.

Prevent Vision Loss from Diabetes

The best way to prevent vision loss from diabetic eye disease is early detection and treatment. Since there may be no symptoms in the early stages, regular diabetic eye exams are critical for early diagnosis. In fact diabetics are now sometimes monitored by their health insurance to see if they are getting regular eye exams and premium rates can be affected by how regularly the patients get their eyes checked. Keeping diabetes under control through exercise, diet, medication and regular screenings will help to reduce the chances of vision loss and blindness from diabetes.

If you or a family member suffer from Diabetes, a consultation with one of our Eye Doctors, could be the next step to improving health and quality of life

Call Kincardine Family Eye Care on 5193964230 to schedule an eye exam with our Kincardine optometrist. Alternatively book an appointment online here CLICK FOR AN APPOINTMENT

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Know the symptoms of seasonal eye allergies and how to get rid of this pesky problem

As the weather warms, flower buds are opening, and your neighbors are dragging their lawnmowers out for an annual spring tune-up. And suddenly you find a need to rub your itchy, red, and sore eyes constantly. Yep, it’s that time of year again – the time that seasonal allergies blossom with the trees.

Nasal symptoms of seasonal allergies, like a runny nose and sneezing, usually get all the attention, but actually, eye allergies (your eye doctor may call it “allergic conjunctivitis”) are pretty common – affecting millions of people in the US. Grass allergy and pollen in the eyes are the primary cause of eye irritation. What’s the best treatment? And how can you get rid of your eye allergies?

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Eye exam to diagnose eye allergies in Kincardine, Ontario eye doctor’s tips on how to recognize and relieve allergies.

The ocular symptoms of your seasonal allergies are caused when your body’s immune system becomes sensitized and overreacts to an environmental trigger that’s really harmless. That trigger, called an allergen, makes contact with antibodies in your eyes – and these cells respond by releasing histamine. Histamine and other natural chemicals cause tiny blood vessels in your eyes to leak, which can lead to redness, itchiness, burning, inflammation, and watery eyes. The symptoms can range from mild to severe enough to interfere with your clear vision. Rest assured – eye allergies are not dangerous, as annoying as they can be.

However, these symptoms alone are not enough to blame seasonal allergies. All of these signs are not unique to eye allergies and could point to several different eye diseases. That’s why a precise diagnosis is imperative! Our Kincardine, Ontario eye doctor will perform a comprehensive evaluation of your eyes to identify the cause of the irritation.

Kincardine Family Eye Care Eye Clinic and seasonal allergies in Kincardine, Ontario

Many eye diseases can be quickly and easily diagnosed during a comprehensive eye exam. If you were diagnosed with an eye disease, such as Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular degeneration, Diabetic retinopathy, or Dry eye, you may be overwhelmed by the diagnosis and confused about what happens next. Will you need medications or surgery – now or in the future? Our Kincardine eye doctor has prepared the following answers to your questions about eye disease.

Avoid your trigger to get rid of eye allergies

Grass allergy and pollen in your eyes are the most typical triggers for seasonal eye allergies, often called hay fever. Since that’s the case, you’re probably wondering how you can possibly avoid these widespread allergens. Before you lock yourself in your room and wait for the seasons to change, our eye doctor recommends:

• Keep windows closed when the pollen count is high. Use a/c in your home, office, and the car in order to clean the air around you.
• Do not rub your eyes! This spreads the pollen (and irritation!) all over.
• When you are outdoors, always wear glasses and sunglasses to keep pollen out of your eyes. Don’t wear your contacts! Contact lenses can exacerbate eye allergies because they are a great surface for pollen to cling to and pile up.
• When you return indoors after being exposed to seasonal allergens, rinse your eyes with saline drops.
• Clean your floors with a damp rag, instead of sweeping with a dry broom that pushes any pollen that’s settled back into the air.

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What’s the best treatment for eye allergies?

Some of the symptoms can be managed with nonprescription drugs, especially if your eye allergies are mild. Try using artificial tears to keep your ocular surface clean. Decongestant eye drops may also help, however, it’s not a good idea to use these for more than a few days since they can worsen your condition with prolonged use.

What about antihistamines for red eyes and seasonal allergies? Antihistamine eye drops, mast cell stabilizer eye drops, corticosteroid eye drops, and NSAID eye drops are accepted short-term treatment for eye allergies. Because these are all prescription drugs, you will need to visit your eye doctor (and possibly an allergist too) to determine which medication is most suitable for you. Some non-sedating oral histamines may also be effective at relieving your symptoms, but they can dry out eyes – thereby making the irritation worse. If your seasonal allergies are extreme and get in the way of functional living, immunotherapy allergy shots or tablets may offer long-term relief.

Are seasonal allergies disrupting your life?

Visit Kincardine Family Eye Care for more tips on how to enjoy clear and comfortable vision in Kincardine, Ontario, all year-round! Call Kincardine Family Eye Care on 5193964230 to schedule an eye exam with our Kincardine optometrist. Alternatively book an appointment online here CLICK FOR AN APPOINTMENT

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