Over the past year or so we have done a lot of talking about VIVA Drops on this blog.  We have outlined the factors that contribute to dry eye, announced new additions to the VIVA Drop line and explained studies demonstrating the effectiveness of VIVA Drops. Last week we launched the VIVA Drops Facebook page and stood by, excitedly watching our “likes” increase.  Then we noticed another statistic that counted how many people are talking about VIVA Drops… which really piqued our interest.  What the heck are they saying??? Here is what we found.

 

Amcon has introduced several new products to coincide with our January/February sales flyer. One of these new items is the Patient Allergy Warning Label (OS-1650).   The labels, which are 3” x 2” and sold in packs of 250 are intended to be put on the outside of the patient’s folder or other patient information sheets. The red color of the label allows it to stand out among other patient literature.

So – why the heck would an optometrist or an ophthalmologist need to be aware of a patient’s allergies?  This was the question I posed to my ER physician husband.  He explained that many of the ophthalmic drugs contain ingredients that are known to cause allergic reactions to some segments of the population.

One example he cited was an allergy to sulfa drugs which afflicts approximately 3% of the population.  (In fact he saw someone last night with a sulfa allergy). There are many medications in the broad category of sulfa drugs including the opthalmic drugs sulfacetamide and those with sulfate as part of their ingredients.   A typical allergic reaction to sulfa drugs around the eye would be itching and swelling of the eyelids or even the conjunctiva.

Another allergy that would concern an optometrist or and ophthalmologist is an allergy to the extremely common antibiotic, erythromycin.  An allergic reaction to this drug would also involve itching and swelling.

Any extra reminder about a patient’s allergies will help reduce the likelihood of a practitioner prescribing a medication that would trigger an allergic reaction. We hope you find these allergy warning labels to be useful and effective.

http://allergies.about.com/od/medicationallergies/a/sulfa.htm

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2000/04/01/erythromycin-1/

My dad fell, right on his face. He was in the house going from one room to another and his cane went out from under him. When he got up he had cuts on his forehead and it looked like someone had punched him.

The skin around his right eye started swelling. At first it was just pink then it turned a horrid shade of dark red. Thirty-six hours later a fat ridge of purple protruded beneath his eye. When dad was able to open his eye, he said his vision seemed blurred.

Since dad’s swelling looked so severe, I decided to check into the stages of black eyes. Here’s what I found.

Black eyes are bruises that often occur due to an injury or a hit on your nose. Immediately after the injury, nominal swelling and reddness appears. As the hours pass, fluid created by the bruise begins to settle in the skin beneath the eyes. This skin is able to hold the fluid produced, because the tissues there are mostly loose and fatty.  As the bruise progresses, the reddness can turn yellow, green, black, burgandy, or a deep purple.

www.emedicinehealth.com

So, if you are like my dad, a whole rainbow may appear on your face before everything heals.

Luckily, serious vision problems don’t usually present themselves with most black eyes. Blurry vision or the inability to open the eye properly is common during the throes of the condition, but should subside as the bruise drifts away. Naturally if it doesn’t, a check-up is in order, but at least knowing blurriness is customary eases the worry.

I let my dad know that he should be okay within several days or a week. He acted like he wasn’t worried but I noticed he spoke about it frequently, and rightly so. When your eyeball seems to disappear within a balloon of raised and vividly colored skin, it’s disconcerting.

He joked that he would need a facelift next, and I told him that wouldn’t be such a good idea. Facelifts are another cause of black eyes, and we don’t want any more of those.

Over the holidays I spent a lot of time with my husband’s family. At one point I overhead my husband (an ER physician) relaying a tale of a nasty eye infection to his brother (an ophthalmologist).  This is the kind of exciting things they talk about…. But because I work in the optical industry, of course my ears perked up.

My husband saw a patient recently who had been grinding metal and in doing so, got a small metal particle stuck in his eye.  This patient had the metal in his eye 3-4 days before it irritated him enough to show up in the ER to see what was going on.  At this point the eye had gotten infected and his vision was impaired.  Fortunately, my husband was able to remove the particle and prescribe an antibiotic to eliminate the infection.

My husband found it odd that the patient reported he was wearing glasses when the particle flew into his eye.  He initially suspected that the patient was lying. However, the patient explained that even when he wears his glasses when grinding metal particles often get stuck in his eyes and usually he just plucks them out.  Apparently, the rotating motion of the grinder flicks the particles in a trajectory that can get behind a pair of glasses.  My husband’s brother (Dr. Paul, the ophthalmologist) concurred.

Many safety glasses could keep metal particles out of the eyes of a metal grinder as safety glasses cover the space between the face and the front of the lens.  I’m sure there other professions where particles fly in an unpredictable fashion and practitioners assume that their regular glasses provide adequate eye protection. In these cases a pair of safety glasses would offer much better protection than standard eyeglasses.

Are your eyes on your 2012 resolution list?

We all make resolutions even if we never share them with others. Secretly we may vow to lose those extra pounds, or to exercise more. We may promise to spend more time with friends. We say we will take better care of our health and eat less processed foods. We start off the year with high expectations and usually find within a month’s time our resolutions are slipping fast.

But eye care doesn’t have to be one of those promises you break. There are simple things you can do to keep your eyes healthy, like making sure your eyes have proper lubrication. If you do a lot of computer and detailed work, or have dry eye syndrome, you know the value of hydration. Using products like Viva Drops, a Similasan or Thera Tears eye drop can help ease your eyes from pesky irritants and discomfort.

If you wear glasses, keeping them clean also alleviates the strain of trying to look through the muck and streaks of daily living. Vista Wipes make keeping lenses clean a quick task. Since they come in foiled packages they are easy to tote around in a pocket or purse. I have a stack of them always at the ready, and love how they clean without the need for drying.

Keeping fingers clean is important for healthful eyes if you wear contacts. Making sure you properly wash your hands with a product like Vista Prep, helps prevent any contaminates from getting between contacts and your delicate eye surface. An antimicrobial towelette like Vista-Naps is another convenient way to get residue off your fingers when you are in a hurry. They cleanse the hands without the need of soap or water. How great is that!

Exercising, eating more fruits and vegetables and relaxing can be a challenge for many of us as the year progresses. But eye health can be easy. Just start with an annual eye exam, get plenty of sleep, and do what you can to protect your eyes from sun, pollution and those un-kept promises to yourself.

Customers sometimes ask me which kid’s sunglasses are the cutest. They also ask which ones they should buy. Obviously I can’t choose for them, but one of my favorites for girls is the “Jackie O”. If you want style and fashion, you can’t go wrong with these snappy little frames. Honestly I wish they came in adult sizes because I would purchase them immediately.

 

The “Polka Dot” is another one I like. What little girl doesn’t look adorable in red and white?

 

The “Pink Frame with Flower Temples” is a popular choice for many offices. Since pink is a go-to color for girls, this frame has it all. Pretty pink hue with multi-colored flowers sprinkled along the temples. It’s a win-win.

 

Boy styles can sometimes be a bit challenging when deciding which ones may sell the best. The “Camo Kid” seems to be a mainstay for many offices. Usually if someone purchases kid’s sunglasses, a camouflage frame is in the mix. Next would be the “Grey Frame with Soccer Ball Temples”. A fiery soccer ball rips across the temples scoring that elusive goal. It’s every sports enthusiast’s dream! Yes, this frame is definitely a hit, and I’ve had many orders for this style.

 

Protecting children’s eyes from the sun’s harsh rays is becoming a more standard practice and winter time does not diminish our need for eye protection. Just think of snow and all the bright light that generates. You squint in winter as well as summer, and our eyes are reactive no matter the weather. In fact health care professionals advise protecting eyes in all seasons due to reflective sunlight and those harmful UV rays.

 

So children need sunglasses too. If you’re still undecided as to which ones to buy, you can view all of our styles online, then you can see if my opinion matches yours.

Can your eyeballs freeze? This is the kind of question that might cross your mind when you are traveling up to the Vermont tundra (which I was last week).  It is so stinkin’ cold!  When my nose hairs began to freeze, I wondered, what’s next… my eyeballs?

Well, it turns out, not so much.  It takes pretty extreme temperatures to freeze your eyeballs. There is a large amount of muscle surrounding your eye and blood constantly circulating around your eye which helps your eye maintain a constant warm temperature of 98.6 degreed Fahrenheit.  So, unless your body temperature drops drastically, such as if you were severely frostbitten, your eyes will stay warm.

While freezing your eyeballs is an unlikely scenario, damage to your eyes in cold weather is still highly possible.  Cold, dry weather can exacerbate dry eye.  Also, in cold weather people may be less likely to wear sunglasses, and in not doing so, your eyes are more susceptible to UV damage.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_eyeballs_freeze

Hello!  I am Cindy, a sales representative at Amcon Labs and the newest contributor to the Amcon GAZEtte Blog.

Sometimes, as a sales representative, you get unusual questions. Other times unusual suggestions. When one customer recently called from her office in Tennessee, she told me she wanted to order exam gloves.

“I don’t know which kind,” she said. “All of the boxes are gone and I don’t have the number, but I can tell you they are clear and powder free.”

“Do you normally get them from us?” I asked.

“Yes we do. I can’t believe we are out of them,” she exclaimed. “We always have some.”

I pulled up her history and found that her office buys the Synthetic Vinyl Exam Gloves that come in three different sizes. She choose the sizes she needed and then she chuckled.

“You know why we don’t have any gloves in the office?” she asked as the doctor laughed in the background.

“No,” I replied. “What happened?”

“The doctor used them to make his Thanksgiving turkies. I told him it might be a good idea to keep a few boxes in the office for the patients.” She paused and I vaguely heard the doctor tell her something. “The doctor said he also finds the gloves work great during deer season. Keeps the hands clean during the messy parts.”

I asked if she wanted to add another box of gloves to her order just in case something else came up. She said she thought they had it covered, but she whispered that she would hide a box just in case this ever happened again.

I told her that sounded like a good idea. Also told her the gloves were on sale through December in the event the doctor decided to secure a wild boar for the holidays. “You never know,” she giggled.

My junior year of high school was the year I got my first pair of contact lenses. At the appointment, the ophthalmologist showed me how to put the lenses in my eyes and how to clean them. He also warned me that before I put my contacts in my eyes – I should make sure that they were not inside out.

How do you tell if your contacts are inside out? My doctor explained that the way you tell is if you pinch your contact – it should curl up like a taco and not be flared out around the edges. I still do the “taco test,” but I’m never exactly confident of the results. To me, especially with the lenses I wear now, the difference is too subtle.

It’s been a while since my junior year in high school and soft contact lens technology has evolved significantly so I am wondering if this advice is still relevant? Can your contacts still get turned inside out?

Recent on comments on the web suggest that – yes – there is an inside and an outside to your contact lenses. Some ways you can tell are:

1) If they are colored, the darker side should be on the outside.
2) When you look at your contact on your finger, it should not flare out on the edges.
3) If you put the contact lenses in your eye and
a. They are uncomfortable
b. They fall right out
c. Your vision does not seem to be corrected properly
d. You experience burning, stinging, tearing
You are probably wearing your contacts inside out.

So my next question is, if you do wear your contact lenses inside out, does it really make a difference? Some people say that when wearing your contacts inside out, your vision is not corrected properly. And, when wearing them inside-out, you can also potentially scratch your lid and cornea.

In an effort to get to the bottom of this, I contacted my go-to expert, my father-in-law, Dr. Tom.  He confirmed that if you wear your contact lenses inside out, you will not harm your eyes, but your vision will be a little blurry and you may experience some discomfort.

Bath time at our house is usually about the only time my husband and I share a meal in peace. We feed the kids, throw all three of them in the bath and then we eat.  There is just one problem: there is a time limit for how long they will stay happy in the bath together. Without fail, every nightly bath ends with one of them in tears. When this happens, frequently one of us will go running upstairs, only to find the tears were simply a cry for attention.

“Those are crocodile tears,” I remarked the other night, while pulling my five-year-old out of the tub, my mouth full of couscous.

“What’s that?”

“It’s when you’re fake crying,” I explained. This sent her into a whole line of questioning.

“Why’s it called that? Do crocodiles cry? Do they just cry when they are happy?  Have you ever seen a crocodile cry? Can we go to the zoo?”

(See why we throw them in the bath before we eat?)

Anyway – for the benefit of all you readers who have little inquisitive kids, I’ve actually found the answer.  Crocodiles actually do shed tears.  But they do it to get salt water out of their eyes – not because they are feeling sad – or because they want their parents to get them out of the bathtub.   This is why crocodile tears are fake tears.

However what you may not know is that the term has a different meaning to ophthalmologists.  They use  the term “crocodile tears” to refer to an actual condition.  Patients can get an injury to the eye where the nerves that cause salivation get re-routed to the lacrimal gland.  The result is that a patient starts crying at the sight of food.  Why they call these tears “crocodile tears” is beyond me…. I’m definitely not telling my five-year-old about that – I can already hear the questions…