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Drs. Gibson, Gibson & Moore

Oct 06
Love1
laser eye surgery lubbock

Protecting Your Eyes This Allergy Season

By Uncategorized No Comments

Fall is upon us, which mean leaves will be falling and our environment will be transforming. Allergies will be blooming and the temperatures will be dropping. It is important to follow these next four steps to prevent eye irritation in the near future.

Step 1: Maintain a Consistent Healthy Diet

If you begin to include nutrients in your daily diet such as omega-3, lutein, zinc, and vitamins C and E, this can slow down developing aging vision issues. If you avoid these nutrients, you could slowly develop long-term vision problems, like macular degeneration. By applying a healthier lifestyle to your eating habits, you are also less likely to develop diabetes. Diabetes is a leading cause of later blindness in adults. Smoking can also make you susceptible to getting the previous diseases and you are more likely to develop nerve damage as well.

Step 2: Have Great Hygiene

We all know that as the seasons progress and our allergies flare-up it can have major effects on our eyes. For this reason, it is important to wash your hands throughout the day. Our eyes not only get irritated from airborne irritants like pollen, mold, dust, and pet dander, but our hands and clothing come in contact with even more dangers. If you rub your hands on your clothes, sneeze, and then rub your eyes, that allows more bacteria and germs to enter your body at a faster rate. Make sure you are keeping your environment as clean as you can and washing your hands thoroughly throughout the day.

Step 3: Protect Your Eyes

Wearing sunglasses, even when it is cloudy, will be a primary eye saver. UV Rays can penetrate through cloudy skies and can be as much exposure as on a bright day. Wearing your sunglasses will also prevent you from coming in contact with any unwanted airborne particles that are all around our environment. You can look stylish and feel good, too! Another way to keep your eyes hydrated during the fall and winter months is to use eye drops frequently. They will help keep your eyes feeling clean and lubricated. However, not all eye drops are created equal. If you wear contacts, it’s important to know which ones are safe for your lenses. Most over-the-counter eye drops are divided into three categories: drops for dry eyes, drops for eye redness, and drops for contact lens re-wetting. Doctors recommend Blink Tears lubricating eye drops if you don’t wear contacts and Blink Contacts for our contact lens patients.

Step 4: Don’t Look at a Screen for too Long

If you tend to work long hours or binge watch Netflix, make sure you are not staring directly at the screen for too long. You are more susceptible to strain your eyes, develop blurry vision, and it is a leading cause of headaches. If you position your computer so that your eyes are level with the top of the monitor, you can then look down to avoid most of the glare for too long. Make sure to give your eyes rest and look away from the screen for 30 seconds every 20 minutes.

Our Therapeutic Optometrists will provide you with the best eye care services in West Texas. Drs. Gibson, Gibson, and Moore will perform a series of vision tests and evaluate your eye health for any circumstances that come up during the unpredictable seasons of West Texas. You deserve to feel comfortable in your eyes and should consider all of these steps to protect them!

Aug 12
Love0
Lubbock Eye Doctors, Your Local Optometrists

Back to School Eye Exams

By Eye Exams No Comments

With back to school excitement right around the corner, remember how important it is to get your children’s vision checked! Detecting vision problems, mild or severe, can be difficult in children. Ensuring that their vision is checked and ready ensures that every child can enter a classroom feeling confident and ready to learn. Learning is 70 percent visual, so it important that young children don’t start off behind in school. Most states require an eye exam before school starts, but it is important to get your exam scheduled regardless of your particular state’s requirements!

Why are eye exams required?

For children to succeed in an educational environment, their vision needs to be checked and corrected if necessary. As a child grows, their vision changes along with their bodies. Within a year, and child’s vision can change immensely. Eyesight develops rapidly after birth, with focus and eye movement developing before all other aspects within in the first six months. One of the most difficult issues with children and vision is that the signs of vision impairment can be very subtle and hard to notice. What may seem like a simple headache for a child could be the result of strained vision.

Where do I take my child to have their eye exam?

Some families go to their pediatrician, but it is recommended to see an optometrist since eyes are their specialty. Although only a small percentage of children have severe eye problems, it’s nice to know what warning signs to look out for.

Warning Signs of Vision Problems in Children:

  • Headaches or cross-eyed when reading
  • Easily distracted or Restless
  • Drop in grades
  • Tilts head or squints to read
  • Close proximity to TV, reading material or computer screens
  • Covering of one eye to see or read
  • Avoids computer screens due to eye pain
  • Light sensitivity/frequent tearing of eyes
  • Constant rubbing of eyes
  • Guides their reading with finger or bookmark
  • Loses place frequently while reading

If you’ve noticed your child displaying any of these symptoms or have had a child complain about having one of these symptoms, call Drs. Gibson, Gibson & Moore at (806) 747-1635 to set up your child’s eye appointment today!

Jul 19
Love0
eye exams lubbock

Eye Exams, Are They Really That Important?

By Eye Exams No Comments

Lubbock Eye Exams

YES! Eye exams are very important. Regardless of your age or physical health, an annual comprehensive eye exam will help to detect any eye problems at their early stages when they’re most treatable.

During a comprehensive eye exam, your eye doctor will not only determine your prescription for eyeglasses or contact lenses but will also check your eyes for common eye diseases, assess how your eyes work together as a team and evaluate your eyes as an indicator of your overall health.
Eye examinations are an important part of health maintenance for everyone. Adults should have their eyes tested to keep their prescriptions current and to check for early signs of eye disease.

Choosing the Right Eye Exam for Your Symptoms

Vision screenings are general eye tests that are meant to help identify people who are at risk for vision problems. Screenings include brief vision tests performed by a school nurse, pediatrician or volunteers. The eye test you take when you get your driver’s license renewed is another example of a vision screening.

A vision screening can indicate that you need to get an eye exam, but it does not serve as a substitute for a comprehensive eye exam and screenings often miss vision issues.

A comprehensive eye examination is performed by an eye doctor and will involve careful testing of all aspects of your vision. Based upon the results of your exam, your doctor will then recommend a treatment plan for your individual needs. Remember, only an eye doctor can provide a comprehensive eye exam. Most family physicians and pediatricians are not fully trained to do this, and studies have shown that they can miss important vision problems that require treatment.

Do Children Need Eye Exams?

For children, eye exams can play an important role in normal development and learning. Vision is closely linked to the learning process. Children who have trouble seeing or interpreting what they see will often have trouble with their schoolwork. Many times, children will not complain of vision problems simply because they don’t know what “normal” vision looks like. If your child performs poorly at school or exhibits a reading or learning problem, be sure to schedule an eye examination to rule out an underlying visual cause.

Call Drs. Gibson, Gibson, and Moore for your annual eye exam today!

Jul 13
Love0
lubbock contact lens exams

Caring for your Contact Lenses – Lubbock

By Contacts No Comments

Caring for your Contact Lenses

While contact lenses are safely used by millions of people around the world every day, they do carry a risk of eye infection if not properly cared for. There are two general types of contact lenses: hard and soft. The hard lenses are rigid, gas-permeable lenses (RGP for short), that are now and days primarily used for corneal diseases, like keratoconus. The soft lenses are made of soft, flexible silicone-hydrogel that allows oxygen to pass through the eye. There are different soft lenses that are made to be worn for 1-day, 2 weeks, or as a monthly regimen.

Are Contact Lenses Worth it?

Many patients ask: are these worth the extra money? Many doctors highly recommend disposable soft lenses – they are a fantastic choice health-wise; there is less opportunity for protein and bacteria to build up on them. Also, if you invest in these 1-day disposable lenses, which are thrown away at the end of the day, you will not need to buy contact lens solution to clean them after every use! The downside to these lenses would be that they are not created for extended wear, meaning they may cause discomfort if worn during sleep.

Properly Caring for Your Contact Lenses

Regardless of the type of lens you decide on, proper care of your lenses is essential to your eye health! Check out these tips to make sure you’re taking the best possible care of your contact lenses.
• Thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water before handling contact lenses.
• Minimize contact with water – this includes removing your lenses before going swimming or in a hot tub.
• Contact lenses should not be rinsed or stored in water – your contact solution should be the only liquid that comes in contact with your lenses.
• Wear and replace contact lenses according to the schedule prescribed by your eye care professional.
• Be sure to use the “rub and rinse” method – this method is considered by some experts to be a superior method of cleaning. This entails rubbing your contact lenses with your fingers, then rinsing the lenses with solution before soaking them.
• Keep your contact lens case clean and replace it regularly – at least every 3 months. Bacteria can gather in your lens case and increase your risk of infection if not replaced in a timely manner.
Be sure to keep those lenses in tip-top shape to ensure you have the greatest summer adventures possible, eye infection free!

Schedule an eye appointment today with Doctors Gibson, Gibson, and Moore.

Jun 01
Love0
Lubbock Eye Doctors, Your Local Optometrists

Keep your eyes safe this summer!

By Eye Safety, Sunglasses No Comments

Summer Eye Safety

Here at Drs. Gibson, Gibson & Moore, we want to help you keep your eyes safe and make sure you know why it’s important to keep them safe. Summer is when most people like to spend time outdoors doing fun activities to cool off, so this season make sure to think about the protection of your eyes. The UV rays not protected by the ozone layer are called UV-A and UV-B. UV-A can affect your overall vision since it harms the macula, which is located at the back of your eye and is your central vision. UV-B affects the cornea and lens of your eye, which can in turn, be more harmful than UV-A.

In a short amount of time, if one’s eyes are exposed to too much of the sun’s UV rays, one can develop a “sunburn” on their eyes called photokeratitis. This is a temporary condition and symptoms include the feeling of something stuck in your eye, red eyes and extreme sensitivity to light. Over time, too much exposure to the sun’s UV rays can be harmful and lead to cataracts or macular degeneration. Cataracts creates cloudy vision and can continue to increase poor vision over time. Macular degeneration is a condition that can lead to blindness when you are older and affects more men than women. It’s one of the leading causes for vision loss, which is why sunglasses are so important to your eye safety.

It’s pretty easy to protect your eyes from these harmful rays. Make sure when you buy a new pair of sunglasses that they provide protection against UV-A and UV-B rays. They are usually labeled as UV400 or 100 percent UV protection. For added protection, during a long day at the beach or on a boat ride at a lake, wear a hat. Don’t forget about the kids either! If their sunglasses fall off their face constantly while playing on the beach or doing fun activities outdoors to cool off, try getting goggles. They will stay on and your kids will be protected from the sun, sand and everything else. Even if it’s cloudy out, it doesn’t protect you from UV rays.

Have a fun a safe summer from all of us here at Drs. Gibson, Gibson & Moore! Don’t forget to visit us for all your Lubbock eye care needs.

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