Air-Drying Your Contact Lens Case Face-Down May Help Prevent Contamination

ROCKVILLE, Md., September 2010 — After inserting your contact lenses and rinsing the case with disinfectant, do you let the case air-dry face-up or face-down?

Face-down seems to be better, says a recent study that checked microbial contamination in cases placed in four different locations: toilet, bathroom, office and bedroom. The cases were rinsed with sterile saline and placed on facial tissue paper.

Cases that dried face-up were significantly more contaminated than the face-down cases (71 percent vs. 12 percent). For the face-up cases, the humid environments (toilet and bathroom) produced more contamination than the non-humid environments (office and bedroom). But for the face-down cases, the contamination amounts were similar across environments.

By the way, 33 percent of all the contact lens cases were contaminated with multiple species of bacteria and/or fungi, not just one species.

The study report appeared in the July issue of the journal Optometry and Vision Science.

When should my child have an eye exam?

According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), healthy eyes and good vision play a critical role in how infants and children learn to see. It is estimated that 80% of learning occurs through vision. The AOA recommends eye care check-ups starting at age 6 months followed by every two years - even if no eye or vision problems are apparent - and more frequently if experiencing signs that may indicate a vision problem (see signs below).

As a family practice, we are one of the few practices that serves children under age 5 in the Greater Charlottesville area. The team at Crozet Eye Care is trained to work with children of all ages to ensure that check-ups and visits are as comfortable and pleasant as possible for our little patients (our fun prizes help!).

The following signs may be indications of eye and vision problems:

For Pre-Schoolers, in which it is estimated that 10% are affected by vision problems:

Sitting close to the TV or holding a book too close

Squinting

Tilting their head

Frequently rubbing their eyes

Short attention span for the child's age

Turning of an eye in or out

Sensitivity to light

Difficulty with eye-hand-body coordination when playing ball or bike riding

Avoiding coloring activities, puzzles and other detailed activities

For School-Age Children:

Frequent eye rubbing or blinking

Short attention span

Avoiding reading and other close activities

Frequent headaches

Covering one eye

Tilting the head to one side

Holding reading materials close to the face

An eye turning in or out

Seeing double

Losing his or her place when reading

Difficulty remembering what he or she read

Contact me with any questions, drfranklin@crozeteyecare.com

No-cost Programs for Saving Vision

As a doctor, most of my time is spent educating patients on the proper treatment of eye conditions and the need for continued care. I feel there are too many groups of individuals that could avoid vision loss if they were just educated on the need for eye care. I would like to tell you about two programs our office offers that are guaranteed to help save vision. InfantSEE is a national program designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child's quality of life. Every infant 6-12 months can receive a no-cost eye exam regardless of income. My hope is that this now underutilized program becomes a driving force to eradicate amblyopia (lazy eye). Glaucoma screenings for siblings of glaucoma patients. Siblings of persons diagnosed with glaucoma have nearly a 10-fold increased risk of having glaucoma when compared to siblings of persons without glaucoma. Our office offers screenings to this high risk catagory. For more information on glaucoma, click here. Please spread the word about these vision-saving programs.

Have allergies gotten the best of you?

Spring is here and so are allergies!

So what can you do to make yourself feel better during this beautiful time of year? Here are a few pointers:
1) Rinse your face and eyes after being outside.
2) Apply cold compresses on your eyes to reduce the inflammation.
3) Wash your hair at night so you are not rolling around in pollen during the night.
4) Use Alaway eye drops (over the counter) to helping with itching.
5) Switch to daily disposable contact lenses during allergy season. If all else fails, make an appointment so I can help manage your allergies year round.

For more information about allergies, visit http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/allergies.htm

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Who knew Inflammation was so Important?

In the past it was thought that inflammation was just related to many medical conditions but more and more we are finding out that inflammation is actually the cause of them. Unchecked, the inflammatory process can result in chronic conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, and dementia. Eye disorders are no exception. Dry eye, blepharitis, iritis, and age related macular degeneration are just a few conditions where inflammation plays a powerful role.

It is becoming increasing important to learn how to control and decrease inflammation to minimize damage to the eyes and the rest of the body. We all are aware that non-prescription and prescription medications are available to decrease inflammation. Aspirin is taken to minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease. Although we thought for a long time that the blood-thinning effect was the reason for the risk reduction, we are now learning that aspirin limits the inflammatory process that precipitates plaque formation on the vessels.

For chronic inflammatory conditions such as dry eye, steroids have been proven to help, but are not ideal for long-term use. Therefore to control chronic diseases, much attention has been turned to Omega-3 free fatty acids (FFAs). Omega-3 FFAs are anti-inflammatory, while Omega-6 FFAs have both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory properties. In the typical American diet, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is excessive, thus promoting inflammation.

To increase your consumption of omega-3 FFAs, eat oily fish like salmon, sardines, trout, herring, and oysters. If you are like me, these choices are not usually on my dinner menu. Therefore, I have chosen to take a fish oil supplement instead. Not all omega-3 supplements are the same. It is important to make sure the fish oil (and fish) is not contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury. Also marine-derived omega-3 FFAs are more beneficial than plant-derived. Here is a good article I found about omega-3 FFAs.

The information I have presented here is by no means exhaustive of the methods of controlling inflammation. However, since February is American Heart Month, I thought we could all use a little more information on how to keep us and our loved ones healthier.