ST. LOUIS, Mo. (April 2, 2012) – Even though spring weather brings warmer, humid air, millions of Americans still experience discomfort associated with dry eye syndrome.  Dry eye is a condition where the tears produced by the eyes lack sufficient moisture and lubrication, which is necessary to maintain good eye health and clear vision.  Tears not only wash away dust from the eyes, but also soothe the eyes, provide oxygen and nutrients to the cornea, as well as help defend against eye infections by removing bacteria.

“People with dry eye can experience a variety of symptoms,” said Paul Karpecki, O.D.  “The frequency and severity varies but may include irritated or gritty eyes, redness, burning, a feeling that something is in your eyes, blurred vision and even excessive watering.”

Dry eye syndrome can result when one or more of the eye’s layers fail to produce the right quantity or balance of tears.  This condition has a multitude of causes but generally can stem from the following factors:

• Age: As Americans age, eyes naturally become drier. Consequently, the majority of people older than 65 experience some symptoms of dry eye.
• Gender: Women are more likely to develop dry eye with hormonal changes during pregnancy, while using oral contraceptives and following menopause.
• Medications: Decongestants, antihistamines and antidepressants are among numerous medications that can reduce tear production.
• Medical Conditions: Health issues associated with arthritis, diabetes, Sjögren’s syndrome and thyroid problems can produce dry eye symptoms.
• Environment: Dry climates and exposure to wind and smoke may trigger dry eye. It’s also important to blink regularly, especially if you work at a computer for long periods of time.
• Eyewear/Surgery: In some cases, long-term wearing of contact lenses may cause dry eye (or make eyes less comfortable if they are dry), and previous eye surgery, such as LASIK, may lead to a temporary decrease in tear production.
• Cosmetics: When the lid margin is coated with heavy makeup, it can block the openings of the oily glands, which help lubricate the eye.

Treatment for dry eye syndrome varies depending on the severity.  Some people can use artificial tears or similar eye drops or ointments that simulate the action of tears, but most will require therapeutic agents prescribed by their optometrist. There are also oral capsules that can help the eyes maintain tear production and guard against future tear loss.  The American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends consulting an eye doctor to diagnose the condition and discuss the proper treatment to help ease the discomfort. According to eye doctors, some over-the-counter eye drops will actually have an adverse effect on dry eye symptoms.

Additionally, consumers can help alleviate symptoms of dry eye by following a more holistic approach, such as:

• Eating fish or taking a nutritional supplement that contains polyunsaturated fatty acids.
• Increasing humidity in your home and/or office.
• Blinking more frequently, especially when reading or staring at a computer screen, as well as lowering the screen to at or below eye level.
• Wearing sunglasses with wraparound frames to reduce exposure to wind and sun.
• Drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

“Nutrition plays a big role in a person’s overall health, including their vision,” said Dr. Karpecki.  ”Eating healthy by adding the benefits of essential fatty acids found in fish and nutritional supplements can play a role in preventing or easing the discomfort of dry eye.”

Several new studies have confirmed the correlation between fatty acids and an improvement in dry eye syndrome.  Salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel and other cold-water fish are rich in essential fatty acids and can help reduce inflammation, enhance tear production and support the eye’s oily outer layer as well as provide health benefits for your cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems.

Beyond discussing symptoms and treatments of dry eye syndrome with your optometrist, the AOA also recommends adults have yearly eye exams. Based on an individual’s eye health, an eye doctor may recommend more frequent visits.

Drs. Elliott and Mallard are members of the AOA.

About the American Optometric Association (AOA):

The American Optometric Association represents approximately 36,000 doctors of optometry, optometry students and paraoptometric assistants and technicians. Optometrists serve patients in nearly 6,500 communities across the country, and in 3,500 of those communities are the only eye doctors. Doctors of optometry provide two-thirds of all primary eye care in the United States.

American Optometric Association doctors of optometry are highly qualified, trained doctors on the frontline of eye and vision care who examine, diagnose, treat and manage diseases and disorders of the eye. In addition to providing eye and vision care, optometrists play a major role in a patient’s overall health and well-being by detecting systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Prior to optometry school, optometrists typically complete four years of undergraduate study, culminating in a bachelor’s degree. Required undergraduate coursework for pre-optometry students is extensive and covers a wide variety of advanced health, science and mathematics. Optometry school consists of four years of post-graduate, doctoral study concentrating on both the eye and systemic health. In addition to their formal training, doctors of optometry must undergo annual continuing education to stay current on the latest standards of care. For more information, visit www.aoa.org.

Duette™ Multifocal is a new state-of-the-art contact lens that is available exclusively in a select group of practices in 2011 and Drs. Elliott and Mallard have been selected to fit this lens. This contact lens is specially designed for people over 40 who are having difficulty focusing up close.  This new lens offers benefits that haven’t been available before all in one contact lens; true binocular vision that allows you to see comfortably at all distances.
Until this year, people have had to choose between monovision and modified monovision where t

he contact lenses are fit to allow one eye to see distance and the other eye to see up close. With Duette™ Multifocal, both eyes focus on the same object together no matter if the object is near, intermediate or far. The eyes work together, like they are supposed to and achieve clear, binocular vision with the added benefit of improved depth perception.

Clear, Crisp Vision at All Distances

Duette Multifocal contact lenses are like progressive glasses, where the lenses allow you to see up close, far away and everywhere in between.

The proprietary MultiPro² technology delivers “simultaneous vision” which allows the eye to easily focus back and forth between distances.

Easy Comfort and Crisp Vision

Duette Multifocal combines two types of contact lens materials – a rigid gas permeable center and a soft skirt – into one unique Duette lens. The rigid center delivers clear, high-definition vision.

The soft skirt provides the all-daycomfort of a soft lens.

Who benefits from Duette Multifocal?

Eventually, everyone over the age of 40 develops presbyopia, an age-related eye condition where the eye loses its elasticity making it more difficult to focus up close. The result is blurred near vision.  It even affects those who have never needed vision correction before.  If you are having difficulty seeing up close and at multiple distances, then Duette Multifocal may be right for you.

For those that have astigmatism, Duette Multifocal has the added benefit that it corrects corneal astigmatism without needing a “balanced rotation system”.  The unique design works no matter how the lens is positioned in the eye eliminating “toric lens rotation” issues and delivering consistently clear vision – blink after blink.

Are you currently wearing soft multifocalor monovisin contact lenses?

Duette Multifocal lenses will allow you to upgrade from fuzzy, soft vision to crisp, clear vision. You will experience unmatched clarity when viewing objects at near, intermediate and far in both eyes, while still enjoying the comfort and convenience of a soft lens.

Do you wear reading glasses or bifocal/progressive glasses?

Eyeglasses can be cumbersome, and sometimes hard to find when you need them the most. The new Duette Multifocal offers an attractive alternative to see clearly at all distances without glasses.

Do you have an active lifestyle?

Do you play tennis or golf, do yoga, watch sports or referee? Duette Multifocal lens wearers benefit from the lifestyle flexibility that the lens brings. Gain both superior vision and all-day comfort in one state-of-the-art contact lens.

Call us now to schedule a fitting with Dr. Elliott or Dr. Mallard!

“Hemingway was a true American original, with a signature style all his own,” said Arthur Jankolovits, president of New York Eye. “We’ll be establishing the brand with a cool retro look to appeal to both men and women who identify with the multi-faceted aspects of this iconic celebrity’s legendary lifestyle.”
The initial product launch features about a dozen vintage-inspired zyl styles in black and tortoise combinations including vertically demarcated crystal colors, crafted to appeal to the style-minded, 20-and-up male and female. Classic designed metal styles are also now available. Many of the styles feature temple and front hinge plaques and/or rivets.

A companion hard metal case with faux distressed leather and signature plaque will round out the classic look of this American icon’s branding. Please visit our office anytime to try on this classic collection.

The new Titan Elements is the perfect combination of modern design, fresh colours and innovative technology. With a sporty look, it is both dynamic and perfect for everyday wear.

SEEING WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

Titan Elements takes the basic use of eyewear another step further – to improve sight – by providing the joy of unlimited openness and lightness. Its rimless aesthetics brings perfect harmony to every face.

UNIQUE, INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

The comfortable combination of High-Tech Titanium and SPX is particularly soft to the touch, flexible, elastic and antiallergenic and also holds its shape well. The foldable, screwless temples with their virtually imperceptible 3-component ends ensure greater comfort and an optimal fit.

ESSENTIAL LIFESTYLE WORLD

The minimalised design makes it the discreet basic accessory for sporty ladies and gents on the go. The wide range of colours and lens shapes reflect timeless elegance, ambitious drive and colourful sportiness.

THE SILHOUETTE ORIGINAL

The new Titan Elements collection is mostly hand produced. Tradition and quality “Made in Austria”!

Remember when you had only two technology choices in contact lenses? “Hard” lenses (rigid gas permeable) were best for sharp, clear vision, but were often irritating and uncomfortable.  Soft lenses were the most comfortable but often provided less-than-optimal vision, especially if you have astigmatism.

Now, new breakthrough technology offers the preferred choice – hybrid contact lenses – that make having to choose between vision and comfort a thing of the past.

Duette™ Hybrid Contact Lenses – The New way to see™ 
The Duette™ hybrid contact lens is the ideal choice if you want both clear vision and comfortable lenses.  Duette™ combines two types of contact lens materials –  a rigid gas permeable center and a soft lens skirt – into one unique “hybrid” lens.  The rigid center corrects farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism and delivers clear, high definition vision…even at night. And the soft skirt surrounding the center provides the all-day comfort of a soft lens. Drs. Elliott and Mallard are excited about these new contacts and will be offering these to all patients with astigmatism.

Are you compromising your active lifestyle because of your current contact lenses or glasses?

Soft contact lenses:
• Are not designed to correct astigmatism and result in blurry, inconsistent vision that can be frustrating during daily activities.

Soft toric lenses:
• Are designed to correct astigmatism but can rotate on your eye, causing blurry vision that goes in-and-out of focus; especially at night.
• Are meant to stay aligned when you’re head is in a vertical position – like when you’re standing.  But if you lie down or tilt your head, your vision can blur.

Hard (RGP) contact lenses:
• Can be uncomfortable because dirt can easily become trapped under the lenses
• Can “pop out” during physical activity.

Glasses:
• Can be cumbersome and even impossible to wear during many physical activities
• You may have had a disappointing experience with contact lenses in the past or been told you cannot wear them to correct your vision.

Duette™ provides  dependable, crisp, high-definition vision and all-day comfort no matter what life demands and eliminates many problems people have had with previous contact lenses.

Made at the lab, Freeform® lenses start from a single vision blank and are ground with precision using special machines. The design and the patient’s Rx are on the back of the lens.

Yes! Semi-finished lenses are all created from a mold. While the first lens cast from the mold is “perfect,” through time the mold slowly suffers from slight degradations and ultimately the design isn’t as “perfect” as it was in the first batch.

This loss of optical design does not occur in Freeform® lenses, such as Autograph II®, because each one is created from a Freeform® machine, right on the spot and not from a 20th century mold. The lens is also personalized to fit the patient’s needs and both the patient’s Rx and the optical design are on the back of the lens which opens up the fields of vision for the patient.

Want more benefits? Autograph II® virtually eliminates unwanted astigmatism, swim and peripheral distortions providing maximized fields of vision. If you ask us, there’s no competition here.

Contact Elliott Eyecare today for more information.

Chemistrie is a patented magnetic lens system that allows a wearer of prescription eyewear to attach a variety of lenses including sun, reader, and 3-D to their prescription frame utilizing magnets imbedded near the edge of the lens.  The Chemistrie technology has rendered clip-on sunglasses obsolete. Chemistrie is available in 24 different Polarized sun lens colors including 8 solids, 8 mirrors and 8 gradients.  Additionally, Eyenavision offers Chemistrie+ reader lenses in powers of +.50, +.75, +1.00, +1.25, and plus 1.5.  And now, you can purchase Chemistrie to view passive 3-D video utilizing the new Chemistrie C-3D.

With 3 different magnet colors, 5 different bridge colors, and 12 different Swarovski Crystals to choose from you can customize Chemistrie Lenses to match any look. Magnets and bridges must be chosen, Swarovski Crystals are optional.

Chemistrie Sunlenses
With 24 Polarized, 100% UV Protection lens colors, 5 Titanium Nose Bridge tones, 6 Magnet styles, and a dozen Swarovski jewels to choose from, any pair of Chemistrie Sunlenses can be customized to fit your exact needs.

Give your eyes the protection they need from the sun’s harmful rays with any of our 8 sunlens shade colors. All of which are polarized and block %100 of the sun’s UV rays. See the Difference.

Our new gradient lenses are darker on the top half of the lens and fade into a lighter shade on the bottom half, making them perfect for any activity that requires more visibility when looking down.

All of our mirrored sunlenses are polarized with a back anti-reflective coating and block 100% of the sun’s UV rays. Due to the mirrored effect of these lenses, all 8 colors are excellent for outdoor activities, especially those involving highly reflective surfaces (water sports, etc.) and with such vibrant colors to choose from, these lenses make the perfect fashion statement.

Chemistrie+ Lenses
Our brand new Chemistrie+ reader lenses are made from a premium HiVex material with a 46 ABBE value and are available in 0.25 increments from +0.50 to +1.50. The lenses have double-sided anti-reflective coating and are surfaced to a 0.8mm edge thickness to ensure that sleek, Chemistrie look.

Shamir C3-D Lenses
Our Brand New circular polarized Chemistrie 3D lenses are fully compatible with 3D television using passive lens technology and RealD Cinema productions.