Welcome to Eyecare Insights with Dr. Kyle Tate, your Sapulpa eye doctor. Today we examine part three of our discussion on blue light. So far we have explored how blue light is dangerous, as we are all exposed to it. We have learned how spending less time outdoors is causing blue light to damage our eyes more and more. In our last article we talked about the actual effects of blue light; how it can damage the eyes and the body. Today your Sapulpa eye doctor will help improve your life by talking about the different types of technologies that can prevent these blue light wavelengths from entering your eyes and causing damage. Remember, if you suffer from any symptoms from blue light, such as eyes feeling tired when on the computer, eyes that feel dry with computer use, difficulty getting to sleep after phone use, or if you just have a higher risk for macular degeneration from someone in your family – such as a grandparent that has it, then you need the help of your Sapulpa eye doctor, Dr. Kyle Tate at Insight Eyecare. Please give us a call so that we can take the opportunity to help you. Our mission at Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor, is to improve every life at every encounter.
So the question we’re answering today is the following:
“I’m concerned about blue light, but how do I stop it from affecting my life?”
Your Sapulpa eye doctor is excited to be able to offer no-glare treatments that will reduce eye fatigue and the problems that are caused by blue light. This is a very simple addition to a pair of glasses, because we already prescribe no-glare treatments for all of our patients. We do this because of the amazing benefits found from no-glare treatments. We talk about this in a different article in much greater detail, but in short, the benefits you get out of a no-glare treatment on your glasses are improved vision, glasses that stay cleaner and make cleaning easier, and lenses that are more resistant to scratches; so resistant, in fact, that we offer a warranty for any normal wear-and-tear scratches. That being said, it’s easy to see why your Sapulpa eye doctor wants to prescribe a no-glare treatment. Another wonderful benefit is that once our patients are already using these no-glare treatments, they will not have a significant increase in cost. For less than $25 extra you can upgrade to the no-glare treatment with the blue light blocker, bringing all those benefits that we’ve already talked about! Some of the vision plans that we currently accept at Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor, will actually have that upgrade option without any additional charges to the patient.
There are many other ways that you can get blue light blocking ability in your glasses. However, it’s not as common for us to use these at Insight Eyecare, simply because some of them cost more than upgrading the no-glare treatment to a blue light blocker. Also some of these other options to block blue light from your glasses cause other problems that that we will talk about. Research on blue light blocking usually looks at a percentage of how much of the blue light needs blocked. Now, upon hearing that you would think that we’re trying to block 100% right? But what we learned in our last article is that we do not want to block 100% of blue light, and we’re not trying to completely eliminate blue light from our life. We’re simply trying to balance the level of it to where it is not excessive. Many times in healthcare people get focused on completely eliminating something that’s a problem when that’s not what is absolutely best for them. As your Sapulpa eye doctor, we understand that life in the medical world is a lot more about balance and keeping everything even. You can use this concept with anything from vitamins to ultraviolet light. It is not healthy to completely take something out of your life or to overload your life with something good.
In addition to the blue light blocking lens treatment, your Sapulpa eye doctor at Insight Eyecare also offers transition lenses. These are lenses that darken when you go outside. The lenses will actually block about 50% of blue light according to studies, whereas our “Recharge” blue light blocking no-glare treatment will only block around 15%. Remember that we just discussed we’re trying to get things in balance, not completely remove blue light from our lives. We’ve never had a patient comment that transition lenses make their eyes feel better, but we do have numerous patients – nearly every single day – that notice how our blue light no-glare treatments help them out. Scientifically, as your Sapulpa eye doctor, we interpret that blocking around the 15%, like the no-glare treatments do, is the optimal level to get everything back in balance. Blocking a high amount does not actually help but could add more strain to the eyes. Another option that we have to help reduce the blue light is the type of lens material. The first one was called “Blue Tech” – a material that appeared very yellow when looking at it, but it blocked a significant amount of blue light compared to the no-glare treatments we have. We did not use that lens material based on the fact that it was yellow and caused a lot of unwanted attention to patients’ glasses; it also increased costs. We were not able to find real patients that found the benefits of “Blue Tech” technology equal to our no-glare treatment.
The mission of Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor, is to improve every life in every encounter. When you come see us for your eye exam, we will ask questions to identify if these technologies would benefit your life. If you would like your glasses to help relieve strain, make the eyes feel better, and protect from harm such as macular degeneration, these no-glare treatments that we offer would greatly benefit you. Remember that your Sapulpa eye doctor sees patients of all different ages. We do baby eye exams, children’s eye exams, kids’ eye exams, adult eye exams, senior citizen eye exams, and all ages in between. At Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor, we treat all different types of eye disease like macular degeneration, nearsightedness, diabetes, dry eyes, and even headache evaluations for eyes. Insight Eyecare is conveniently located across from the Glenpool Simple Simon’s and IHOP. Bring us your dry, sandy, and gritty-feeling eyes so we can help improve your life! God bless you guys and have a great day.
