When was the last time you
had your eyes checked?
If it's been several years,
you might want to make that appointment soon.
Experts say I health can impact
many aspects of your life.
Doctor Rachel Ruble is the president of
the North Carolina Optometric Society.
She's here to answer your questions,
and we know that you have questions,
so just text them to us,
the number is 336-379-5775.
Dr wrubel.
Thank you so much for being here today.
We've got a couple of questions
ready to go as we.
Await more questions.
The first one,
my child's prescription changes every year.
Is there any way to slow it down?
Ah, good question.
We're seeing more and more of
children in the office with changing
prescriptions more rapidly.
We're seeing more screen time,
especially with COVID.
This here and I would get a lot by parents.
You know, how do we slow this down while
there are now FDA approved treatments
for near sightedness to slow down
that near sightedness over the years?
There's different things like contact
lenses that can be worn during the
day or during the night time to
slow down near sightedness, so.
Something I always recommend to my patients,
especially if we're seeing
changing prescriptions year after
year. Has that been around for awhile? I
hadn't heard of it.
Yeah, I had actually been wearing
the lenses at night time since 2005.
I take him out in the morning and
I can see perfect all day long
without any contact lenses or
glasses and my prescription has not
changed since 2005.
Wow, that's incredible.
It sounds expensive.
It can be. I mean,
it's a little bit more,
but when you think about it,
these lenses can last one to two years.
So if you're looking at the cost
of glasses every single year versus
you know having your annual exam,
these lenses may last a little
bit longer and slow down that
change. So a lot of people might
be wondering this question.
Why have I gradually found it
harder to read without glasses?
Ah yes, we see that a lot in our
clinic and overtime as we age or I
like to say as we have birthdays,
the elastic city of the lens in
our eye changes in our muscles
aren't as strong so are near.
Vision may start to maybe not be
as clear overtime patients are
holding their arms out a little
bit longer making that thought on
their phone a little bit bigger
and typically can occur around
the age is 38 to 44 years old,
so there's many treatments.
Or that so definitely see your eye
doctor and talk about all the options.
I know that you're
going to judge me for what I'm about to say,
but just know that I think a lot
of people are in this situation.
I haven't been to an eye doctor in
probably 20 years because I think that
I have good vision and I think that
there's no reason to see an eye doctor.
Please tell me why I'm wrong.
Oh, you are so so, so wrong.
Going to an eye doctor
is not just about going.
Hey, you have 2020 vision.
It's about looking at the
entire health of the eye.
We can see things in the eye.
You may not know be occurring in your body.
Things like diabetes,
high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, cancer, strokes.
I mean we can see all of
this inside of the eyeball.
So really important to have the
health of your I checked every year.
So
just once a year it's basic is that.
Once a year, I recommend an eye
exam unless you're high risk,
your eye doctor will tell you
you know the frequency of the
exams during that year, and I know you know,
so I just started on a vision plan
through my insurance company this last
year and it's actually very cheap.
I mean, for someone who doesn't wear glasses,
doesn't wear contacts,
or has had any issues in the past.
I mean just a couple of dollars a
month can pay for that eye exam.
You're spot on, we see it everyday.
People going to have these benefits.
I've never even use and
they come and see us and go.
Wow, I didn't realize I could
have computer glasses just to
decrease my eye strain because I'm
on the computer 16 hours a day.
So a lot of benefits of senior eye
doctor and making sure the health
and vision is working properly.
So I just need
to listen to my own advice and
schedule that appointment.
You got it, you're spot on right there.
Wondered whether you can get
coronavirus in your eyes. Yes,
that has been a big question.
A lot of research has been done
on it and you know it is a virus.
Virus can spread very easily from
respiratory droplets to touching
surfaces and then you touch your eye.
So we have seen conjunctivitis
in the eyes or I like to call it
COVID conjunctivitis you may have.
Like Pink, I think of it where
you can have a virus in your eye
causing light sensitivity, watery,
blurred vision, redness of the eyes.
So yes, we have seen that.
Some people might be wondering,
especially with young children,
when should my child eyes be examined?
Ah yes, so I recommended parents.
The child had their first examination
between 6 and 12 months old and
then just make sure that the
eyes are developing properly.
The health of the eyes look great
and we can do so much on a child's
eyes without them even saying a word.
We get asked like, well,
they can't read the chart.
How do you do this?
And we have a lot of equipment
to tell us you know what their
vision is and how the health looks.
So 6 to 12 months to start out
and then again around three to
five years old especially.
Before they enter kindergarten,
someone is asking where can
someone get low income assistance
for glasses? Good question.
In North Carolina we started a
program through our state society
called Vision and see and it's a
program that is used in every county.
We have over 200 doctors in this state
that volunteer time to provide an eye exam.
I care and I wear so you can go on
ncis.org and there's an application on
there to see if you would qualify for.
This program all right,
Dr Wrubel one segment down one to go.
Thank you for your time.
Keep testing texting us your questions.
We have another segment coming up next.