Can Eye Exercises Improve Your Vision?

If you have to wear corrective lenses to see clearly, you may be tempted to purchase eye exercise kits or start on an eye exercise regimen in order to reduce your need for glasses or contacts. The truth is that there has been no scientific evidence that eye exercises can improve your vision if you have:

• Nearsightedness: good close-up vision but poor distance vision due to the shape of the cornea
• Farsightedness: good distance vision but poor close-up vision due to the shape of the cornea
• Astigmatism: blurry distance and close-up vision due to the shape of the cornea or lens
• Presbyopia (the need for reading glasses): blurry close-up vision due to the loss of elasticity in the eye lens

There is no scientific research that clearly proves that eye exercises will change the shape of your cornea, the shape of your eye or restore flexibility to the eye lens.

Nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism are caused by a refractive error that can be corrected through laser procedures such as LASIK in Charleston. This process uses a laser to alter the cornea’s shape so light is focused correctly on the back of the retina. Many patients can achieve 20/20 vision with this procedure.

LASIK, however, cannot fully correct presbyopia. Monovision LASIK is one alternative for presbyopia, which corrects one eye for distance vision and one eye for close-up vision.

Before you start an eye exercise program, consult with your eye doctor to make sure this is a safe alternative for vision improvement. If you are looking for a quicker and more effective method of vision correction, contact Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery to schedule a free LASIK Consultation in Charleston to find out if your eyes are right for the procedure. Call 843-856-5275 or visit charlestoncornea.com to schedule an appointment online and take a free online LASIK Self-Evaluation. 

Celebrate Comic Book Day with Superhero Vision

September 25 is National Comic Book Day. There are many genres of comic books from which to choose, such as superhero, manga, humor, science fiction/fantasy, horror, comics and more. People of all ages love comics because they have interesting characters, exciting story lines and detailed graphics.

Today comics are available electronically on tablets, websites and smart phones. But if you prefer the “old school” way of reading printed comics, and you are farsighted (meaning you see distant objects clearly but close-up objects are blurry), you probably have to wear glasses or contacts to read their fine print.

If you’re a comic book fan over age 21, wouldn’t it be great to pick up any comic, any time, day or night, and be able to read it? LASIK vision correction in Charleston can correct farsightedness, allowing many patients to achieve 20/20 vision after the quick procedure. The LASIK process uses a laser to slightly alter the shape of the cornea with superb precision, allowing light to properly focus on the back of the eye (the retina). The actual procedure takes just a few minutes per eye, is virtually painless and most patients are back to work within a day or two.

The procedure is so effective that some of Dr. O'Day's happy LASIK patients at Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery consider him a superhero! Find out if your eyes are ready for an “Adventure in Charleston LASIK.” Youwon’t have X-ray, night or freeze vision after LASIK, but you may still feel like you have super strength vision when you can wake up in the morning and see without glasses.

Visit charlestoncornea.com or call 843-856-5275 to schedule your free LASIK Consultation or take the free online LASIK Self-Evaluation as a first step.  

Pirates Don’t Wear Glasses

Blackbeard…Captain Kidd…Black Bart…Redbeard…even Jack Sparrow…

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a pirate who wore glasses (there were plenty of eye patches, though). Does that mean that all pirates had 20/20 vision? Probably not; but it’s safe to assume that pirates didn’t have access to good eye care.

Even if a pirate did manage to visit an eye doctor and find out his vision was less-than-perfect, the idea of wearing eye glasses wasn’t too appealing. (After all, a pirate had a reputation to uphold!) And LASIK vision correction wasn’t FDA-approved before the late 1990s, so all the gleamin’ booty in the world wouldn’t make that an option.  

Why are we talking about pirates? September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It’s a day for you to connect with your inner pirate and toss about a few “Aarrs” and “Blimeys” with friends, family and co-workers. You may even want to don an eye patch for the occasion. But if you have to wear glasses to correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism, it will be almost impossible to look authentic with an eye patch over your glasses. 

Avast! If you want to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day by looking like a pirate (meaning, no glasses), find out if LASIK vision correction in Charleston is right for you. Call 843-856-5275 or visit charlestoncornea.com to schedule your free LASIK Consultation at Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery.

Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery won’t hornswaggle you with the cost of LASIK and they will even provide LASIK financing optionsto make better vision more affordable. 

Get LASIK Before Fall Allergy Season

Fall is a beautiful time of year. The temperatures get cooler, colors begin to change and football season gets into full swing. But it’s hard to enjoy fall when you have seasonal allergies caused by ragweed, dust mites, molds and other airborne irritants…especially if those allergens tend to attack your eyes.  

Annoyances and Dangers of Wearing Contacts with Allergies

Wearing contact lenses during allergy season can cause eye pain or irritation, and if your eyes become watery or itchy with allergies, contacts are almost impossible to keep in your eyes. Rubbing your eyes while wearing contacts can cause the lens to tear and scratch your eye or lead to an infection if a foreign object gets under the lens. Allergen particles also tend to stick to soft contacts, requiring you to clean them more often, use eye drops frequently or switch to daily-wear contacts.

Hate Your Glasses? Consider LASIK!

If you don’t like the idea of wearing your glasses to root on your favorite team, go on hayrides or even just for work every day, consider getting LASIK vision correction in Charleston before allergy season strikes. LASIK won’t prevent your seasonal allergies, but the procedure may help you achieve 20/20 vision so you can say goodbye to glasses and contacts and hello to clear vision.

The good news is that LASIK at Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery takes only minutes per eye, and most patients are seeing with improved vision the day after the procedure. But, you have to be approved for Charleston LASIK before you can schedule the procedure, and that requires you have a free LASIK Consultation where Dr. O'Day will assess your eye health. Call 843-856-5275 or visit charlestoncornea.com today to schedule your free LASIK Consultation and get some allergy relief with LASIK. 

Sport Eye Injuries and Cataracts

At Charleston Cornea and Refractive Surgery, we encourage our patients to maintain an active lifestyle, and participation in sports is a great way to do that. However, it is also extremely important that people of all ages protect their eyes while playing sports in order to minimize the chance of a sports-related eye injury in Charleston. It is estimated that 90% of sports-related eye injuries can be prevented by wearing protective eyewear. 

According to past statistics from the Coalition to Prevent Sports Eye Injuries, there have been as many as 600,000 eye injuries each year related to sports and recreation. The group considers the following sports to be high-to-moderate risk of eye injury (some may surprise you):

• Fishing
• Golf
• Basketball
• Baseball
• Softball
• Lacrosse
• Hockey
• Tennis
• Soccer
• Volleyball
• Water Polo
• Football
• Air Rifle
• BB Gun
• Paintball
• Boxing
• Martial Arts
• Cricket
• Squash
• Racquetball
• Fencing
• Badminton

It is estimated that 90% of sports-related eye injuries, such as blunt trauma, penetration injuries and more, can be prevented by wearing protective eyewear. If you wear prescription glasses to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism, your regular glasses will not provide adequate protection. Polycarbonate lenses can provide the right protection during sports, which means that you will have to wear contact lenses in order to see well. 

If you cannot wear contact lenses, or if you simply don’t like wearing them, you may be risking your eyesight by not having the ability to wear the right polycarbonate lenses. LASIK vision correction is one option to help improve your natural vision and give you the visual freedom to participate in sports more safely.

So, whether you play leisurely rounds of golf, fast-action basketball or any type of sport, protect your eyes. And if you are interested in learning more about LASIK in Charleston, contact Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery at 843-856-5275 or charlestoncornea.com to schedule a free LASIK Consultation.