HEALTH
Common conditions and treatments
From top: Chanel frames, $389, Visions; Dita frames, $600, Black Optical; Barton Perreira frames, $495, Black Optical
After you choose an eye doctor, prepare for your first appointment by jotting down any issues or discomfort you want to discuss. Allergies can make the eyes dry, but dry eye also can be an age-related condition, according to Harrel. Both cause stinging, burning and physical pain. They also can cause discomfort for individuals who wear contact lenses. Harrel says dry eye is possibly the No. 1 issue he talks about with patients. “Now we’re able to diagnose which type of issue they’re having and be more specific in treatment rather than just using an artificial tear off the shelf,” Harrel says. “We can be more targeted with different minor procedures and special drops, so we can help people a lot more than we used to.” Another common complaint, headaches, can be vision related or a neurological issue. If a patient has double vision, blurred vision or vision loss, an eye doctor will first search for ocular causes or may refer them to a neurologist, says Harrel. Other age-related issues include presbyopia, a condition that surfaces after age 40, in which the eyes can no longer focus on near objects as well as they once did. Translation: it’s time for reading glasses or bifocals. Glaucoma, cataracts, diabetes and macular degeneration are other conditions a doctor will want to monitor in older patients, says Dr. Brian F. Williams, a residency-trained optometrist and co-owner of EyeCare Associates of South Tulsa-Owasso. “Once a patient hits the age of 45, we definitely recommend coming in once a year for an eye exam,” he says. (Continued on p. 100)
Other evolving eye technology:
From top: Chanel frames, $429, Visions; Salt frames, $340, Black Optical; Robert Marc frames, $449, Visions; Oliver Peoples frames, $389, Visions
98
TulsaPeople JUNE 2014