My vision is excellent...was that a STOP sign?

Hello everyone,

You may have read the recent New York Times article about how the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles considered dropping the eye exam requirement for driver's license renewals. Well, it only took a week for the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles to reinstate that briefly dropped requirement. Evidently, vision is important while driving. Who knew?

(Ah...the DMV!)

Well, in Pennsylvania, if a person can see at least 20/40 vision combined with both eyes together without glasses, that person is legal to drive without any optical correction. If the vision is worse than 20/40, then it must be corrected by glasses and/or contacts to the best vision possible. If a person has an eye condition that limits the best corrected vision to only 20/40 or 20/70, restrictions are imposed on the driver (ie. driving only during the day and more timely vision evaluations). If a person cannot see better than 20/100 with both eyes, it is illegal for them to drive, for their own safety and the safety of other drivers and pedestrians.

In addition, a person's horizontal peripheral vision must be intact, at least 120 degrees. Someone with sight in only one eye may still meet the vision requirements, having a restriction that requires additional mirrors while driving.

The vision can change from one year to the next. With conditions such as cataracts and macular degeneration, sometimes the vision change is so gradual, that no decrease in visual acuity is perceived by the patient until they get their eyes examined. I have personally had patients that claim to see just fine, and then when it's time to read the vision chart, they struggle to see the "Big E." The "Big E" is 20/400 vision...not legal to drive in any state.

This is why the vision requirement for driver's licenses is important: it keeps the drivers honest about their vision. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation randomly sends out a vision examination form to be filled out by an eye doctor to ensure the driver's vision is where it should be. Some people don't get their eyes examined every 1-2 years like they should; to check for vision changes and ocular diseases such as glaucoma.

I also have patients that have a complaint of glare and light sensitivity when driving at night or when it is raining. Many times, it is because they are "only" seeing 20/40. Even though they are legal to drive without glasses, and 20/40 is decent vision, getting a mild eyeglasses prescription to clear the vision to 20/20 or better eliminates that glare and light sensitivity complaint. Seeing more clearly would also allow that person to see signs further down the road than what they are used to, and possibly improve their reaction time as well.

(The above is NOT likely to occur with excellent vision and improved reaction time)

I'm due for my driver's license renewal this November, and just checked each eye on the vision chart (20/15 in each eye with glasses...excellent). I know that I need glasses or contact in order to see when I drive, and I don't try to "just get by." If you think you should be seeing better when you drive, get your eyes checked out. You may be surprised to see what you've been missing.

Sincerely,
Dr. Weaver

Health Fair Updates!

Hello everyone,

Weaver Eye Care Associates is on a health fair kick! We wrapped up the CEFC 2nd Annual Health Fair on September 24th in Strausstown with great reception! Now, this Saturday, October 8th from 10am-4pm, Dr. Weaver will be at the Renew, Transform, Take Charge! Health Fair at Glad Tidings Church at 1110 Snyder Road, West Lawn.

Dr. Weaver will be having a drawing at the Weaver Eye Care Associates booth for a Complimentary Free Eye Exam plus $100 credit towards new glasses (frames and lenses). A similar door prize will also be donated.

The winner of the Complimentary Eye Exam and $100 credit towards new glasses from the CEFC Health Fair was Nancy M. Congratulations, Nancy!

For directions to the event, please click on the Google Maps link => http://g.co/maps/jxdh5

For more information about the event, please visit the church website => http://www.gtaog.org/ministries/support-ministries/gt-health-ministry/

The event is free to attend! So, if you're not doing anything this Saturday, please come on out and join the fun.


Sincerely,
Dr. Weaver

"I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a BIG DEAL."

The Reading Eagle Big Deal sneak peak from Weaver Eye Care Associates, for all of you loyal blog, Facebook and Twitter followers:

Weaver Eye Care Associates -- $30 for an eye exam, an $85 value, plus $100 towards glasses for a total $185 value, 65% off eye exam and 84% off overall.

Link is now live!!!

Once you buy the deal, if you refer 3 friends that also buy the deal, you end up getting yours for FREE! For more information and sign up, go to www.readingeagle.com/bigdeals

Those eyelids have a lot of work to do...

Hello everyone,

I just posted a fun fact on the WECA Facebook page about Pharaohs and ancient Egyptians. In summary, ancient Egyptians wore black eye makeup, not only to look good, but to also help fight ocular infection. The black makeup contained two non-natural lead chlorides--laurionite and phosgenite--that boosted levels of nitric oxide in the skin. Nitric oxide is a key signaling agent to stimulate the immune system to fight infection. If you're really curious about this, check out the Review of Optometry excerpt as well.

I also had a recent WECA Facebook post in early August about how hard the eyelids work for you. Basically, the eyelids of each eye covers the distance of a marathon from blinking in one year's time.

Well...these recent posts got me thinking about how important the eyelids are, what can happen when eyelid hygiene suffers and how you can keep your eyelids (and your eyes) happy all day long.

When reading, using a computer, playing video games, or anything else that requires reading and/or concentration
Everyone has a normal blinking rate that's involuntary. This is done to coat the surface of the eye with your natural tears so that your eyes do not become dry. When you concentrate or perform extensive reading tasks, you tend to blink less than normal, which then causes dryness symptoms such as irritation, excessive reflex tearing (to combat the dryness), redness and blurred/fluctuating vision.

Lots of bad things can happen to those eyelids and eyelashes
A stye can develop due to a clogged oil gland at the base of an eyelash. This creates a hardened bump that's cosmetically unappealing that can eventually become infected, causing redness, pain and swelling of the eyelid.

Those eyelashes should always turn outwards. However, sometimes an eyelash may decide to become a non-conformist and turn inwards and poke you in the eye instead, causing irritation and discomfort every time you blink (and you blink many, many times a day).

A piece of debris (dirt, a small fuzzy, mascara) may get trapped underneath the eyelid (usually the upper eyelid). Similarly to the inward-pointing eyelash, an eyelid foreign body may cause irritation and discomfort eye time you blink, as well.

During allergy season, or from an allergy reaction, the eyelids may become red, puffy and itchy.

Eyelashes can become crusty with yellow matter, due to the presence of normal bacteria around the eyelash/eyelid region. This, in turn, can cause inflammation of the eyelids to create problems with redness, dryness and itchiness as well.


What you can do to help your eyelids
I have to be honest...when I wash my face in the morning and at night, I typically don't like to wash my eyes too well because if I got soap in there, it would sting like crazy. And I'm sure many other people wash their faces and ears and necks...but forget about the eyes.

It's very important to maintain excellent eyelid hygiene. The easiest way to do this is to make sure to use hot compresses (not so hot to burn the skin), and to feel that heat on the upper and lower eyelids. This heat stimulates tear production, and with styes, it melts the hardened material stuck in the gland...like melting butter. If you're afraid to get soap in your eyes, a gentle over-the-counter eyelid scrub in a pad or foam format will clean your eyelids and eyelashes well. Also, a less costlier way would be to use Johnson's Baby Shampoo by applying the shampoo to the hot washcloth, getting it nice and soapy/sudsy, and massage the eyelids while your eyes are closed to clean them...and then just rinse them. Doing this morning and night (just like brushing your teeth) will minimize the chances of blepharitis and styes.

When it comes to allergies, the main symptom is the itching. In this case, cold compresses are what works best. Sometimes an eyelid allergy (dermatitis) can be so bad that cold compresses may not be enough, and getting professional help from your eye doctor would be the way to go. Also, any symptoms of redness, decreased vision or pain that doesn't go away or worsens, should be checked out immediately by an eye doctor to figure out exactly what's wrong.


So, don't take your eyelids for granted. They do a lot of work. Keep them healthy and they'll treat you good.

Sincerely,
Dr. Weaver

Ps. This is the photo from the Reading Eagle article written about the practice in January. If you're nostalgic, you can check out the original article here.

Teacher, teacher! I'm squinting and I still can't see the blackboard...

Dear students (and their parents),

Where, oh where, did the summertime go?

As the summer comes to an end, it approaches the time of year where kids are both nervous and excited to head back to school. Children reconnect with classmates they may not have seen over the summer, as well as meet new teachers and other new students. Parents are busy making sure their kids are well-prepared, having the clothes, backpack, rulers, pencils, calculators and packed lunches all lined up and ready to go.

August is typically a busy month at an eye doctor's office. Teenagers and young adults make sure they get their eyes checked out to get their updated contact lens supply before heading off to college. Kids get new frames to replace the ones battered over the summer during soccer games, or to replace the ones lost during the family vacation.

The first couple of weeks in September is typically slow at an eye doctor's office. Parent's are so relieved that they survived the summer, they just need to chill for a bit. Students are still re-learning how an alarm clock works and trying to get to their bus stop on time, as well as adjusting to their school environment. Getting the eyes checked are the last thing on the list, especially since those two weeks include the Labor Day weekend--a last chance at a mini-vacation before things really start picking up.

However, when the kids finally start getting over the lazy hangover of summer and make an attempt to read the blackboard (or the whiteboard), some children realize that it's a little more difficulty to read what the teacher is writing...and it's not the messy handwriting, either.

A child's vision is dynamic. As a child grows, the vision usually changes as well. There is a time, usually in the late teens, when the vision changes tend to stabilize somewhat. However, until that point in time, the vision can worsen with in a year, in as little as 6 months...and maybe even 3 months, the length of a summer vacation.

It's important for parents, teachers and the student themselves to recognize when the vision begins to get worse. Squinting, frontal headaches and eyestrain are signs that the vision may not be optimal, and that a visit to the eye doctor may be what's needed to get back to seeing 20/20.

Even if these changes aren't noticed immediately, school vision screenings usually administered by school nurses can help identify students who may not "pass" the Snellen eye chart at distance or near. If a student's vision is suspect, that child is usually given a form from the school nurse to give to the student's parents to have the child's eyes checked by an eye doctor sooner than later.

Having a child see perfectly at distance and near allows for better school performance. If a student can't see what's written on the board or in a book, learning and comprehension can be compromised. Also, homework may take longer than it's supposed to if a child can't see the problems they're supposed to solve. Seeing more clearly also helps with sports vision performance as well.

So students (and their parents), make sure to get your vision and your ocular health checked out at the start of the school year, to make sure that your eyes aren't straining more than they should (they shouldn't strain at all) and that you're eyes are in tip-top shape. If you wait, that's okay too. But make sure you can tell a "T" from an "F" on those True-False tests...

Sincerely,
Dr. Weaver

Announcing New Hours and Additional Practice Locations!

The following is Weaver Eye Care Associates new office hours in Bernville:

Monday 9:00am-7:00pm
Tuesday 8:00am-12:00pm
Wednesday 9:00am-7:00pm
Thursday 9:00am-7:00pm
Friday CLOSED
Saturday 8:00am-12:00pm (1st & 3rd Saturday of the month)

If you need to reach Dr. Weaver on Fridays or Saturdays when he is not in his Bernville office, please contact him at the following locations:

Fridays
Eye Consultants of Pennsylvania (Pottsville Office)
100 Schuylkill Medical Plaza
Suite 100
Pottsville, PA 17901
(570) 621-5690


Saturdays
Pearle Vision
Coventry Mall
351 W Schuylkill Rd Suite H-1
Pottstown, PA 
(610) 327-2620

Thank you,
Dr. Weaver

Your time is important...what is your longest wait time at a doctor's office?

Hello,

Many, many times have I visited a doctor or specialist and many, many times have I waited at each office of varying times. A busy office can lead to longer wait times if the check-in process and flow of examinations don't run smoothly. This can also hold true with larger practices for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, at many offices, you spend minutes (and maybe hours!) waiting to be called.

When you hear your name, you feel relieved. "Whew! I made it!" you may say. You finally make it back to the examination room, and then...you're left waiting, again! Then you may say, "At least they had magazines out in the waiting room. Can I wait back out there? Darn!"

Well, a new article by The New York Times talks about waiting times at offices. They find that Optometrists (yup, that's me) have the shortest wait times, 17 minutes on average. The average wait time to see a doctor is 23 minutes. Are you spending more than 23 minutes waiting for the doctor? Is he/she worth your valuable time? Hmmmm...

I bring this up because many people don't enjoy going to the doctor. Add this to long wait times to see that doctor and that equals some unhappy patients.

As a new practice, one thing that I can offer my patients is minimal to NO wait times. I'm the only doctor in the office, I set aside an hour for each comprehensive patient exam and I make an effort to NOT double book examination times. The amount of time that I set aside gives me enough time to perform a thorough eye examination, as well as some time to get to know the patient, which is how I enjoy practicing optometry and why I opened up my own business.

So, I hope that your eyes are getting the care and attention that you need, without having to wait to long. If not, I know of a good place that you may want to check out.

Sincerely,
Dr. Weaver