Avulux® Migraine & Light Sensitivity lenses now available at Eyetech!

Avulux Precisely Filters Painful Light

Migraine is a genetic neurological disease affecting over 1 billion people globally and is a leading cause of disability worldwide.

While there is no cure for migraine, only methods to manage symptoms and triggers, Avulux lenses have been designed to help prevent light-triggered pain making daily life more manageable.

These lenses, developed by a neuro-ophthalmologist and an optical engineer, selectively filter the wavelengths of light in the blue, amber, and red spectrum that can trigger migraines in some migraine sufferers, while allowing in soothing green light.

Avulux lenses might be the key to stop living in fear of migraines triggered by light sensitivity and enjoy a brighter, pain-free future!

We are an authorized Avulux provider and can offer advice on Avulux lenses and facilitate prescription and non-prescription Avulux lens orders tailored to your needs.

For more information on migraine and Avulux lenses, kindly click on the links below

Migraine Australia

Avulux Lens CR Labs

Disclaimer: Avulux lenses claims to provide relief for migraine attacks caused or triggered by light only. Avulux lenses are not certified for driving due to their filtration properties (this has nothing to do with any vision correction properties).

NEWS! We HAVE MOVED to Lygon Street, Carlton!

We are excited to announce that on October 15 we have moved our practice to a new location on the iconic Lygon Street, at 338 Lygon Street, only 200 metres from our original space on Grattan Street. Our fabulous new space is larger, light filled and more contemporary, and will have two consulting rooms as well as extra purpose built space so that we may serve you even better.

For thirty years, Eyetech Optometrists has serviced the community of Carlton and beyond, providing comprehensive eye care as well as the prescription and management of spectacles and contact lenses for many patients. Eyetech has been dedicated to providing the best care for your eyes which is exemplified by our heavy investment in the latest technology in optical equipment so that we can care for your eyes in the greatest detail. We have a strong focus on specialty contact lens fitting for all ocular condition, as well as managing myopia and dry eye. This year we have sadly farewelled our founder Russell Lowe as he enters retirement, and we also welcome on our new optometrist Dr Victor Liu who will work alongside Jessica Chi.

It has been a true pleasure taking care of your eyes, and we look forward to welcoming you at our new location. If you have any questions or concerns, please free to drop in or contact us via telephone on 9349 3919 or email vision@eyetech.net.au.

Optometry Virtually Connected: A Virtual Learning Experience

Our optometrist Jess was involved in the inaugural Optometry Australia national virtual conference, held at the end of June and attended by over 2,200 optometrists Australia-wide. She spoke about one of her passions - fitting kids with contact lenses.

Optometrist and mivision contributor Jessica Chi successfully and humorously busted six myths surrounding the prescribing of contact lenses for children.

Find out more on mivision’s website.

The Little Aussie Eyes Report 2020

 The Little Aussie Eyes Report 2020 was compiled by Nicola Rivett, who is a senior research analyst, but more importantly, the mother of a child that required patching. It is a wonderful resource for parents who face the daily struggle of patching. You can read it here.

Tips for minimising eye strain when using digital devices

While so many of us are working from home, we are probably relying on the screens of our digital devices for longer unbroken periods. Optometry Australia’s Good Vision For Life initiative has some great tips on how we can reduce eye strain.

• Sit at least an arm’s length from the computer screen, and try not to hold your tablet or smartphone too close to your eyes.

• Take regular breaks using the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes, shift your eyes to look at an object at least 20 feet away (six metres), for at least 20 seconds.

• Use lubricant eye-drops or artificial tears to refresh your eyes when they feel dry. Consider using a humidifier if working in an air-conditioned or heated environment.

• Avoid using screens in an otherwise dark room and set up computer screens so there are not reflections from windows on the screen.

• Apps and programs like F.Lux and Apple Night Shift can help reduce blue light from LED screens, particularly helpful for those using devices late at night.

• Common conditions such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism or presbyopia can exacerbate eye strain so ensure you have regular eye examinations with your optometrist to maintain good vision, for life.

You can read more on their website.

If you’re having any issues with eye strain, don’t hesitate to get in touch - 9349 3919 or vision@eyetech.net.au

How to entertain your kids (with their eyes in mind!) during self-isolation

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced school, shopping centres, zoos, playgrounds, libraries and other activities to close. This has forced children to "shelter in their homes".

So what do a lot of kids do at home? They spend large amounts of time on devices - iPad, computer, phones. Lack of outdoor time and extensive near work are both serious risk factors for increasing myopia (shortsightedness) in children, a condition that increases the risk of permanent sight-threatening disease later in life. Will we see a large increase in children developing short-sightedness in the next year? Will myopic children find that their prescription increases in strength at a faster rate in the coming year due to the COVID-19 lifestyle restrictions. It is very possible?

So what can you as a parent do to lessen these serious challenges posed by the government's "shelter in home" instructions?

• 1. Ensure that your child goes outdoors for at least 1 hour every day. Perhaps aim for a long walk in the park each day.

• 2. Ensure that they take a 10-minute break for every 30 minutes of screen time and try and limit it to only 1-2 hours per day during these periods when they are at home.

• 3. Ensure that they maintain a longer working distance - i.e. don't let your child hold their books/devices too close to their face.

• 4. Find outdoor activities for your kids to play together, or for you to play with your kids! e.g. a ball game, or an Easter Egg hunt!

• 5. Have them read or work on their devices outdoors. High light levels are thought to be a key protective factor of outdoor time in regards to myopia. Even under shade, umbrella, or with a hat and sunglasses, the light levels typically reaching a child’s eye will exceed that of indoors. However, extended periods of near work, even outdoors may increase their risk of developing myopia, so get them doing other things also.

• 6. Being in Melbourne, being outdoors is not always feasible, so find fun activities to do with them indoors, e.g. hide and seek, or Lego, or get them involved in the kitchen! Have a look at this website for some inspiration! https://cookingwithkids.org/recipes/

Good luck and stay safe and sane! Our practice is open at the moment, so if you are concerned about your child’s eyesight or want to learn more about how we can limit their myopia progression, feel free to get in touch with us via 03 9349 3919, or vision@eyetch.net.au

For more information about myopia check out www.mykidsvision.org

There are plenty of great non-screentime activities on this list, such as indoor picnics, learning TikTok dances and filming them, playing charades and building box forts.

Cataract Kids end-of-year picnic

Over the weekend Jo and Jess attended the Cataract Kids end of year meet up. The event was well attended by kids born with cataracts and their families.

Cataract Kids Australia is a wonderful initiative started to provide support for children born with cataracts and their families.

Helping kids see after they have their Cataracts removed is one of the favourite things we do at Eyetech. Watching these kids grow up living normal lives is most rewarding.

Jessica Chi on Managing Infantile Aphakia

Our optometrist Jessica Chi has written for mivision's mipatient about managing aphakia in infants. Jessica says, "Managing babies with aphakia could be the most challenging yet rewarding task you take on."
Read more on mivision's website.

J&J’s Plans for Smart & 3D Printable Contact Lenses

Personalized contact lenses that can relieve eye allergies, reduce glare and eyestrain, and treat presbyopia are all concepts moving through the pipeline at Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, analysts were told during the company’s business review meeting.

Some of those efforts could be getting a boost from a collaboration between J&J and a subsidiary of HP Inc. to develop 3D printable medical devices. The collaboration will focus on personalization of instrumentation and software for patient-specific health care devices, the companies said in a statement. Eye health is one of three areas specifically mentioned for this collaboration.

At the company-wide analysts’ meeting a day after announcing the HP collaboration, Peter Shen, PhD, worldwide vice present for R&D of J&J Vision Care, provided insight into the company’s near-term plans for utilizing smart and 3D printable technology in the contact lens space. The light-enabled 3D printing technology he spoke about was outside the HP collaboration.

“Our team is working on the active contact lens, meaning combining contact lenses with the benefit of pharmaceutical medicines,” Dr. Shen said. “Our first lens will be an anti-allergy contact lens for which we will file an NDA next year.”

J&J researchers are also working on a contact lens that will adapt to the environment to reduce glare and eyestrain indoors and out, he added. “Our team is also working on a personalized contact lens using our light-enabled 3D printing technology,” Dr. Shen said.

Presbyopia is the third area in which J&J aims to apply the technology. “Our smart lens technology platform will enable us to explore opportunities to embed sensors and microprocessors into the contact lens,” he said. “Our first indication will be for the treatment of presbyopia.”

Meanwhile, the collaboration with HP opens other opportunities for using 3D printing in J&J’s businesses, Sandra Peterson, J&J group worldwide chairman, said in announcing the HP collaboration. “Combined with advances in data mining and software, 3D printing could enable distributed manufacturing models and patient-specific products, therapies, and solutions that deliver better outcomes, better economics, and improved global accessibility,” she said.

Added Stephen Nigro, president of HP’s 3D printing business: “Advances in 3D printing technology have the potential to break historical paradigms of health care delivery in ways that are not feasible in traditional manufacturing processes.”

When the collaboration was announced, the companies said teams from both organizations had already begun working together.

Glasses Benefit From New Look

Optometrist Jessica Chi says wearing glasses was a fashion faux pas during her bespectacled teenage years.

But then hipsters happened.

It might have been thorny for some but it amounts to a blessing of sorts for optometrists, says Chi.

"I think people are more keen to wear glasses," she adds. "Not just more keen to wear them but also more keen to update their look more frequently.

"The benefit of that is they come into the practice more frequently, which means they get their eyes tested more frequently." Chi, owner of Melbourne-based Eyetech Optometrists, works in a business known for addressing challenging eye care issues associated with post-trauma, post-graft and post-surgical contact lens fitting.

Chi says she performs a lot of specialty contact lens fits for patients who have eye conditions that preclude them from obtaining good vision through glasses – due to irregularly shaped eyes.

She enjoys the patient interaction, building relationships and seeing her clients experience positive results.

"Having patients that depend on you, trust you and rely on you is immensely rewarding personally, but I guess I never realised how much I would enjoy it and how much I would value it and what a difference it's made to me in my self-perception and general happiness," she says.

Chi completed a bachelor of optometry at the University of Melbourne in 2007.

She is also the current Victorian and national president of the Cornea & Contact Lens Society of Australia, part of the therapeutic advisory board for Optometry Australia and a clinical supervisor at the University of Melbourne.

She says the mix of roles she's involved in are all complementary to her career trajectory.

"A lot of people say I do too much," she says.

"I'm aware I do a lot of things but it doesn't feel like too much.

"It all helps and it's all complementary but for me, I do it because I enjoy it and the enjoyment builds my enthusiasm for the profession." In 2015, Chi was awarded a fellowship at the Australian College of Optometry in recognition of her contribution to the profession.

Another career highlight, she says, was the week she spent volunteering at the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthamology, where she spent the time teaching a small team how to fit speciality contact lenses.

"I'm really happy where I'm at right now," Chi says. "I do enough of the professional development and I really enjoy my practice. My main focus for me, I think, is to keep working on my practice and try to give back to the optometry community as much as I can."

- Article written by Josh Jennings -

Read more:

http://www.theage.com.au/business/workplace-relations/health-head-20160409-go2kk8

http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/health-head-20160409-go2kk8#ixzz46EBw2Zs0