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OptiLight: New Dry Eye Treatment

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What Is the OptiLight by Lumenis & How Can It Manage Your Dry Eye?

Dry eye disease is a widespread and common issue for up to 49 million Americans. This chronic condition can have a significant impact on your quality of life, causing a foreign body sensation in your eyes, pain, blurry vision, and dry or watery eyes. Untreated, it can even lead to further eye health complications. 

Despite these constant detrimental effects on quality of life, many dry eye sufferers are not aware that they’re suffering from dry eye disease or that real treatments exist. Instead, they just live with the discomfort.

At Bender Eye, we take the time to understand your individual dry eye condition and offer comprehensive, personalized solutions to bring you the relief you need.

We’re proud to offer OptiLight by Lumenis to our patients, specially designed for dry eye management.

What Is OptiLight by Lumenis?

OptiLight by Lumenis is a light-based, non-invasive treatment done in the area below the eyes to manage dry eye. The first and only IPL FDA-approved for dry eye management.

The treatment is safe, gentle, and is backed by more than 20 clinical studies.

How Does It Work?

OptiLight uses precise pulses of light to reduce the inflammation that is typically associated with dry eye disease, improve tear break-up time, and increase meibomian gland functionality. 

This application can significantly relieve dry eye indicators and has a multi-factorial effect, including:

  • Increasing tear break-up time
  • Reducing the amount of Demodex mites and bacteria living around your eyes
  • Eliminating blood vessels that contribute to inflammation
  • Improving meibomian gland functionality

What to Expect 

Before Your Treatment

Before your OptiLight IPL treatment, you should avoid wearing any makeup or skin lotion. You should also protect your face with sunscreen to avoid any skin irritation prior to treatment. 

When you arrive, you’ll fill out a skin type quiz so your doctor can set the OptiLight machine to the right setting to avoid burning or skin damage.

During Your Treatment

This treatment is fast and simple. During the treatment your doctor will apply a coupling gel on the treatment area and cover your eyes with shields.

As light is applied to the skin, you may experience a warm sensation. The treatment is gentle with minimum discomfort. The treatment itself will only take 10–15 minutes.

OptiLight is often followed by meibomian gland expression.

After Your Treatment

Post-treatment you should avoid direct sunlight on your face for 24-48 hours. You can expect some mild redness and a sense of tightness; however, you can also look forward to near-immediate results and a sensation that your skin is glowing.

Part of Your Custom Treatment Plan

A course of treatment typically includes 4 sessions spaced 2–4 weeks apart. 

OptiLight by Lumenis is just one of the many treatment solutions we have available to help you overcome dry eye. From eye drops to eyelid hygiene, we’ll work with you to reveal the exact cause of your dry eye to treat it correctly and bring you relief.

Will the OptiLight by Lumenis Work for Me?    

While OptiLight by Lumenis is an effective dry eye management solution, we want to make sure it’s right for you. We do not recommend this treatment if you:

  • Suffer from aqueous deficiency dry eye (rather than evaporative dry eye or meibomian gland dysfunction)
  • Have a history of keloid scarring
  • Have severe scarring around your eyes

Ultimately, your doctor is the only person who can determine whether this option is right for you. During your next appointment, ask us if you are a good candidate for OptiLight by Lumenis.

You Don’t Have to Live With Dry Eye Anymore

Dry, irritated eyes can be managed with a new treatment that brings comfort and can restore quality of life. Visit your eye doctor to get an accurate diagnosis and a treatment plan tailored to your needs.

Yoga and Glaucoma (Say that 5 times fast)

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Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness because of damage to the optic nerve when fluid pressure increases in the eye. Doctors advise patients to live healthy and active lifestyles, but there are certain activities that should be avoided by glaucoma patients like pushups and lifting heavy weights due to elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). A new study has shown the potential risk associated with various yoga positions and exercises that involve inverted poses. In this research, both normal and glaucoma patients did four yoga positions. The greatest increase in pressure was found with the downward facing dog position where you place both feet and hands on the floor while looking at the ground. “The measurements were taken after the participants retuned to a seated position and again after waiting ten minutes, the pressure in most cases remained slightly elevated from the baseline.” In previous studies, participants in the headstand position showed almost two-fold rise in IOP. It is now advised to inform and educate glaucoma patients about the risks of physical exercises like yoga, so progression of glaucoma doesn’t get worse. Many times we consider a point or two of pressure increase to be a reason to prescribe additional eye drops or to recommend a glaucoma surgery. When patients go to yoga, patients should tell their instructors their disease to modify their yoga practice.

Mount Sinai Health System. (2016, January 7). Certain yoga positions may impact eye pressure in glaucoma patients. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160107105234.htm

Feeling Blue?

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We all know how reliant we’ve become on our technology. We’re addicted to our cell phones, we can’t make a living without our computers, and we all want to have the most modern and up-to-date equipment. But how does this affect our health?

When I was busy playing Oregon Trail sometime in the 5th grade on my first computer, I never thought that something as seemingly harmless as the light from the screen could have such a ripple effect on our overall health. And yet according to the American Optometric Association it can not only affect our vision, but also our overall systemic health.

We spend increasingly more time glued to some sort of blue light producing technology. In fact, more than half of us in the modern world are spending more than 5 hours a day staring at a screen. With that comes an increase in eye strain. It also allows more of the free radicals associated with retinal injury to enter the eye (think about what tanning beds do to the skin). This can age our eye more quickly and may account for many of the age-related vision problems in younger patient groups. Blue light has also been associated with issues sleeping, from decreased sleep to less affective rest while sleeping. And while blue light might not have direct systemic influence, the dysfunctional sleep cycle can be linked to other issues, such as diabetes and some forms of cancer.

As health care professionals, it is important for us to be aware of the things that can not only affect the health of our patient’s eyes, but also their health overall. With that, it is important for us to do what we can to alleviate the issues as necessary, such as provide the various lenses and filters available to filter out blue light. The iPhone will even allow you set times where it will reduce the amount of blue light coming from the screen before you go to bed!

Blog contribution by Amy Pham, Optometry Intern, College of Optometry, Western University of Health Sciences.

Makeup, Keep it Clean!

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A light application of makeup can often help you to look and feel your best. Without proper care, however, it may impair your capacity to see your best.  Whether you are going for a natural look or something more dramatic, it is important to use discretion when applying around your eyes.

Keep it clean:                                   

Make sure your hands are washed before you begin.  Use only your own makeup and brushes.  It may seem fine to borrow a swipe of mascara, but even your BFF may have germs that are harmful to you.  Infections from poor hygiene or contamination may lead to itchy, swollen eyes and light sensitivity.

Do not disturb:                                   

Only apply eye makeup in a setting where you can be relaxed and focused.  Putting on makeup in a vehicle risks injury at every stop and bump during your commute.  Take your time and don’t rush; not only will you get better results, but you’ll do better to avoid poking yourself in the eye or scratching your cornea.

Contact lens wearers:                 

It is better to put in your soft contact lenses before your makeup routine.  When choosing a mascara, avoid mascara with lengthening fibers, which can scratch, and waterproof mascara, which may stain your lenses.  At the end of the day, remove your contacts, clean them, and place in fresh solution before you wash off your makeup.

It can be rewarding to use cosmetics, but safety should always be top priority.  If your makeup causes you to experience irritation or injury, discontinue use and contact your optometrist.

 

Blog contribution by Kaitlyn Sanchez, Optometry Intern, College of Optometry, Western University of Health Sciences.

 

http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/conjunctivitis?sso=y

http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/caring-for-your-vision/contact-lenses/contact-lenses-and-cosmetics?sso=y

http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductsIngredients/Products/ucm137241.htm

Healing the Eye

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Our eyes are exposed to a wide variety of environmental conditions such as extreme weather, work environment and wearing contact lenses.  Sometimes these conditions may be so harsh that they stress the cornea, the outermost eye structure. Occasionally a patient will present in my office with an extremely compromised cornea. Such cases sometimes need a form of an eye band-aide to properly heal.

Enter the Amniotic Membrane

Such a bandage is an amniotic membrane which is derived from the placenta of an elective c-section. Human amniotic membrane is a unique collagenous membrane derived from the innermost submucosa of the placenta. Harvested under sterile conditions from the placenta of elective C-section after a full term pregnancy in medically cleared donors. This type of tissue has been used widely in the treatment of surface ocular diseases as it aids epitheliazation, reduces inflammation and fibrosis, prevents structural damage, and is also known to have some antimicrobial properties. It is used for a wide variety of ocular surface disorders such as: corneal ulcers, chemical or thermal burns of the cornea, and persistent epithelial defects.

An example used in our office is the ProKera Ring. It is a cryopreserved, sutureless amniotic membrane clipped to a plastic ring. ProKera is placed on the eye in a similar fashion as a large contact lens. ProKera does not require an operating room and can be performed in the office. Most importantly, it is reasonably well tolerated by patients.

Blog contribution by Lilia Babakhan, Optometry Intern, College of Optometry, Western University of Health Sciences.

 

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