Eye Health: Q+A With Our New York Optometrist
We caught up with Dr Irene Byun, the optometrist at our New York store, who shared her tips for maintaining (and improving) eye health and explained why regular eye exams are a necessity.
Why is good eye health important?
Our eyes are at the core of almost everything we do. Whether that’s safely crossing 5th Avenue or seeing a concert at Madison Square Garden, we rely on our vision. That is why an annual Cutler and Gross eye exam is one of the best things you can do. It can help eliminate common visual symptoms, such as eye strain and blur, as well as diagnose more severe problems. Our eyes are central to prolonging our health and happiness, so we need to look after them.
What can we do to keep our eye health at its best?
1. Keep it clean - to avoid eye infections, make sure anything that comes into contact with your eyes is clean. This means:
- Wash your hands with soap and water before handling contact lenses or touching your eyes.
- Give your eyelids and lashes a gentle yet effective wash morning and/or night with a cleanser (the fewer chemicals the better).
- Change your pillowcases every one to two weeks.
2. The 20-20-20 rule
- Our eyes have to work hard all day long to maintain clear vision. The ciliary muscle contracts when concentrating on something up close, such as reading or responding to a message. To look in the distance, that same muscle has to relax. This process is called accommodation.
- Eye strain can result from your accommodation system being overworked. To prevent this, try the 20-20-20 rule: for every 20 minutes spent looking at something close, take a 20-second break by looking at something 20 feet away. Learn more about how to prevent eye strain here.
3. Blue-light filter glasses
- Most of our days begin and end with a bright, blue light-emitting screen, be that a phone, tablet or laptop.
- Excessive exposure to blue light can interfere with sleep patterns and cause eye strain. Blue light glasses can help tackle the problem by limiting the number of rays that enter the eye.
- Read the journal ‘Blue Light Glasses: What To Know’ to find out more, and explore the collection of Cutler and Gross blue light glasses and computer glasses here.
I have good vision; do I really need to have an eye exam?
In short – yes! Annual eye exams are important not just from a prescription perspective, but to monitor your eye health too. A thorough eye exam can identify early signs of complications or conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. On top of that, ocular diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, have a predominant genetic component which should be monitored annually.
Prescriptions develop over time, so it is important to keep your eyesight in check. A Cutler and Gross eye exam is a simple way to avoid common symptoms such as digital eye strain, headaches, and eye fatigue.
Book a Cutler and Gross eye exam, available at Cutler and Gross Knightsbridge, Cutler and Gross Spitalfields, Cutler and Gross Bath and Cutler and Gross New York stores.
