Welcome to Eyecare Insights. This is Doctor Kyle Tate at Insight Eyecare, your Jenks eye doctor. Today we’re going to talk about blue light technologies and how they can cause problems with your eyes. Blue light technologies are changing due to the amount of time we are spending on computers, cell phones, tablets, and many other devices. Blue light is simply a range of wavelengths of light close to ultraviolet light that can damage the eyes and cause many other things to the body. There is a lot of research right now about how to stop blue light from hurting your body. Today I’m going to update you on these newer technologies and how we are applying them at your Jenks eye doctor, Insight Eyecare. If you have experienced any of these symptoms or problems, please reach out to us at Insight Eyecare, your Jenks eye doctor. We have many different tools available and products that can help you out, giving you more energy, healthier eyes, and a healthier body. Please do not hesitate to call us at Insight Eyecare. Your Jenks eye doctor wants to help you get the most from life.
Let’s have a quick review what blue light is. Blue light is a wavelength of light that is especially strong from screens such as a computer or cell phone screens and is especially strong in LED screens which is the current level of technology today. LED lighting is also a concern because they put out a lot of this blue light. You have probably noticed businesses and homes installing updated lighting technologies that have more of a blue look to them. This blue light can also be found coming from newer style headlights whether they’re high intensity discharge headlights or the newest LED headlights. This blue light can contribute to three main problems: dry eyes, macular degeneration, and irregular sleep patterns. Some other ways the body is affected by blue light are stress strain and headaches, heart arrhythmias, and in some cases, insomnia. As your Jenks eye doctor we are trained to determine if these problems are affecting you, also how to treat and prevent it. It can be as simple as your glasses getting a no glare treatment that blocks blue light, a lens material that blocks blue light, or getting glasses that will transition and block blue light.
More and more patients are affected by this but do not know the cause. As your Jenks eye doctor many of our patients that invested in that blue-blocking technology a year or two ago when it had just came out are coming back in now and telling us how much of an improvement it made. Patients of Insight Eyecare, their Jenks eye doctor, are starting to ask questions about blue light and whether or not they want blue-filtering technology for their entire family. Another important aspect to know about this blue light is that it will not be completely blocked by just any type of lens material and very few glare treatments. What we have found is a reduction in the amount of blue light that gets into the eye helps the symptoms. Scientists are currently trying to prove and understand how much blue light is good to block and how much blue light is good to receive. As your Jenks eye doctor my medical opinion is we do not want to block all of the blue light from coming into the eye.
Your Jenks eye doctor wants you to think about it this way: 50 years ago we were not in front of computer screens, looking at cell phones, or any other type of technology, but we still had blue light. When you go outside the sun has light of many different wavelengths including wavelengths that you do not see, such as ultraviolet which is what can cause cancer. The sunlight also has infrared light which can cause sunburns and is the warm feeling you get from the sun. Human beings used to be outside a lot more, receiving these different types of lights, so light in proper balance is not bad. Now picture where we are in present-day, most of us are inside all day long except for traveling to and from our cars. Current day car windshields have UV blocking technologies that prevent you from ever getting any UV and sometimes even infrared if your windows are tinted to prevent heat in the summer time from getting in the car. The average American spends about 10 hours a day in front of technology. That may sound like more hours than you actually do, and as your Jenks eye doctor I thought the same way. However you have to understand and really think about how much our technology is in our lives. As your eye expert and Jenks eye doctor, lets discussed this a little more.
Many of us sleep next to our cell phones all night long. Many of us use them as an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. We may check our email before we ever get out of bed or check Facebook. We are getting text messages in the morning from family and coworkers. Many of the cars we get in have or are currently being made with screens instead of gauges. Cars have had navigation screens since 2008. We’re looking up at cell phones while we’re driving – when we shouldn’t be. We get to work and we are on and off the computer all day long. When we get to work I bet you check your cell phone all through the day. Once home, many of us watch TV that may be on a tablet, a computer, or an actual TV. It’s pretty easy to see how many little bits through the day were in front of technology and how blue light has become a problem. Now we’re spending less time outside where there is a good balance of light. Thus we are spending much more time in front of technology where we are not receiving the proper balance of light.
At Insight Eyecare we want all of our patients to live the best life possible. We believe our mission is to improve every patient’s life at every encounter. That means we have to stay on the forefront of technology as your Jenks eye doctor. It is our job to sit down with our patients and to explain to them these technologies and the different benefits and options that they have. That may entail blocking blue light or a treating an eye disease. At Insight Eyecare we perform eye exams on patients of all ages. As your Jenks eye doctor we do baby eye exams, kids’ eye exams, children’s eye exams, adult eye exams, even senior eye exams. We treat eye disease of all different types from your basic dry eyes to cataracts and glaucoma, macular degeneration, blood pressure issues, and diabetes, and even basic things such as nearsightedness and astigmatism. As your Jenks eye doctor we would like the opportunity to improve your life. God bless; everybody have a great day.
