Views On Vision - Glasses Can Be Cool

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Do you recall the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie needed glasses? Suddenly wearing glasses was elevated from something you did only out of extreme need (for fear of a solid pounding), to something that was most definitely cool.

People have a very strong reaction to getting a newly fit, custom pair of lenses. Like a great new pair of shoes, you don't really appreciate what you were missing until you try a new pair on. For their part, glasses provide many great benefits, sometimes subtle, sometimes extreme, but always worthwhile. Here are just a few examples.

The most obvious benefit is to clear vision and make the world easier to deal with and navigate through. Glasses and other corrective lenses like contact lenses and safety equipment, make our world more accessible and allow us to derive more information from it. Glasses can also be customized and applied to many different therapeutic situations, from fixing eye-turns, to protecting the eyes from the environment, to improving efficiency of vision for particular tasks.

With the right prescription for lenses, you can also make a great improvement in different areas of your general health. Dry eye, for example, is a very common complaint among my patients and frequently they will have 'farmer's eyes', that is, dry yellowed bumps on the sides of the iris, or coloured ring of the eyes. These bumps are largely a result of extended exposure to the elements. Nowadays, not only farmers have this problem as more and more 'cubicle' workers and small business owners spend hours in front of computers, maintaining a stare and not blinking nearly enough. With appropriate prescription lenses, near vision becomes effortless and one no longer has to stare to see things clearly and quickly. With this, the eyes blink more frequently and hydrate the sensitive tissues more effectively. It's just common sense.

Another common example is that of people with chronic neck, upper back and shoulder pain. Again, for those who work at near distance with books, paper, keyboards and screens, progressive addition lenses (progressives or no-line bifocals) can be a life saver as they allow for clear and effortless vision at all distances, near, computer distance and far.

When the eyes squint, they recruit several other muscles in the face and head. The resulting constant muscle tension, sometimes severe, can work strongly against you as you manage through your day. Some people also have eyes that are mis-aligned (at least one in 200) vertically, horizontally or a combination of both. This leads to odd postures and more muscle tension with the potential for spinal involvement. Again, appropriate correction of vision and alignment is frequently an elegant and lasting solution to many common ailments that pain medication cannot budge.

One last example, and perhaps my favourite. A survey of studies will reveal a range of numbers, but generally about 25-30% of children in average classrooms have some sort of addressable visual dysfunction that is holding them back. Very frequently, these issues go unnoticed because the children are not properly assessed. They then spend many years performing at less than their full potential for lack of appropriate management of vision. Glasses and visual training offer real benefits to these children, sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes in life-altering ways.

Whether glasses are cool or not is not really the question. Of course, they should meet the wearer's style needs, but they should also be durable, functional and provide some real benefit. You don't need to use a hammer all the time, but when you need to pound nails, it's better than an old shoe. Glasses, like a hammer, a pencil or a computer, are tools and should be used as required to make your life easier, more comfortable and to promote good health. They can also definitely be very cool.


Dr. Boulet is a former teacher and now operates Diamond Valley Vision Care in Black Diamond where he continues to work with children with learning difficulties.
Call 403-933-5552.
www.dvvc.ca and www.LearningManagement.ca.