Our eyes are in the spotlight with Panoptic Vision involved in helping our patients improve their eye health and eye care for the whole family.
Natasha Barnard-French and Julie Currie share their experience and insights to help people gain more awareness about what it is they do.
Eye health is for the whole family. Let's look at the range of possible eye issues that affect children, adults and the elderly.
What is Vision Therapy?
Vision therapy is a special type of treatment that helps enhance how well your eyes work together. It's often used to fix problems like amblyopia (a lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), or difficulties with focusing and tracking. We are also working with clients who have suffered concussion or brain trauma, often through sports injuries, car accidents or work-place injuries. Our clients work one-on-one with our trained and experienced vision therapists, in office on a weekly basis. The activities learned are then practiced at home on a regular basis.
We like our clients to think of Vision Therapy as having a guided journey into the amazing world of vision. We use enjoyable, age-appropriate activities to improve specific aspects of how two eyes work together.
Julie Currie and Bronwyn Mison are Panoptic Vision's experienced Vision Therapists offering in-office vision therapy every day of the week. Vision therapy can assist with myopia prevention and is for any age group.
Children's Eye Health
Australia is expected to have 4.1 million people with myopia by 2050. Our children are spending more and more time on their computers or mobile devices, all of which are using their close vision. This seems to be part of the reason for them developing myopia. Children need to be monitored as to the amount of time spent on devices and encouraged to take regular breaks. Increasing their time spent outdoors in daylight is a good way to rest and nourish their eyes while having fun in the fresh air.
Panoptic Vision has various treatments available for Myopia.
Ortho-K has been successful in children and young adults. It consists of individually designed contact lenses which are worn overnight to re-shape the eye. In the morning the lenses are removed and daily activities can continue without the need for any vision support.
MiYOSMART award-winning lenses correct the visual defect on the entire surface and has a ring-shaped treatment area to slow down myopia progression. The alternation of the focus and defocus area provides clear vision and manages myopia at the same time.
MiSight® 1 day – the first soft contact lenses proven to slow the progression of short-sightedness (myopia) in children by 59%, utilising special ActivControl®Technology.
Jesse Nixon is a Behavioural Optometrist and Orthokeratologist and is the natural person to be prescribing myopia prevention as he has myopia himself which he corrects with Ortho-k. We have a range of spectacle and contact lenses option for children to keep their short-sightedness to a minimum.
🤓 Panoptic Vision Eye Health Tips
Children need regular breaks when they've been doing up close work.
Two hours of outdoor activities is the best protection against developing or progressing myopia.
Being outdoors in natural sunlight is healing for the eyes. If a child is looking at two options for a hobby or sport, try and pick the outdoor one.
Children and adults should have regular comprehensive eye exams.
Eye Issues in Adults
We cannot emphasise enough the importance of early and regular eye checks. We saw a young man in his early 40s for a vision assessment, discovering he had really advanced glaucoma. He had lost all his peripheral vision and only had tunnel vision. This means he can no longer drive or do his job. This is an irreversible condition. It really is key to get an eye health check early and regularly.
There are natural age-related changes for people in their 40s. This might be when we find ourselves having to move things further away to read, or maybe feeling strained and tired eyes due to visually-demanding tasks at work.
We offer a late evening on Thursdays and two Saturday mornings a month so that working people can make appointments for an eye exam or to collect their new glasses outside normal working hours.
Do check out our beautiful range of interesting frames, and comprehensive lens choice.
🤓 Panoptic Vision Reminder
Medicare rebates apply for all optometry appointments.
People between the ages of 20 and 40 need to be especially aware to get their eyes checked regularly, even if it feels like there is nothing wrong.
Panoptic Vision examines all areas of eye health as well as sight. A problem discovered in its early stages can be managed more successfully.
Optometry is primary care, which means you can just book an appointment for an eye check without the need for a referral.
Common eye issues in the elderly
Whether it’s due to age, stress, air conditioning, or blinking less as we work on digital devices, dry eye is becoming much more common. A variety of dry eye treatments are available including in-office heat mask and lid massage, eye drops, at home heat masks etc.
Normal, slow-growing cataracts are seen in everyone over the age of 65 and most people will find that they need their cataracts removed sometime in their 70’s. In the early stages they cause increased glare sensitivity. Vision in lower lighting can be more difficult and faint writing, like food labels, can be very hard to see. As the cataracts progress, vision is reduced and when these changes can no longer be helped with spectacles, the cataracts will need to be removed. Eye surgeons replace the cataract with a clear implant that can be adjusted to match the shape of the eye so that even people who have worn glasses since childhood can find they no longer need glasses to see into the distance, only needing glasses for reading help.
Glaucoma is caused by increased eye pressure in the eye. High pressure, which normally measures between 10-20 mmHg, will reduce the blood supply to the optic nerve at the back of the eye. This damages the nerve slowly but permanently and causes a loss of peripheral vision. Nearly always there is no pain and no way of seeing the peripheral vision loss until it is very advanced which is why glaucoma is known as the “ silent thief of vision”. Though more common as we get older, glaucoma can affect anyone at any age. Treatment is usually simply an eye drop each night and glaucoma is preventable if caught early.
An eye check is also a health check
We have advanced scans that can analyse different layers of the eyes, and this can give us information about other health issues. Diabetes and high blood pressure affect the blood vessels of the body and this can be noted in the eyes too.
💡Panoptic Vision Staff Spotlight
In celebration of World Optometry Day, we salute every one of our team at Panoptic Vision, and our peers and colleagues across the industry who are bringing their expertise to enhance eye health, solutions and wellbeing for patients in their communities!
Meet Sarah Drinkwater, our Optical Dispenser at Lake Cathie.
Sarah recently joined our Panoptic Vision team and has over 10 years experience in optical dispensing, and she loves helping people find their perfect frame!
Sarah was born in Port Macquarie and grew up in beautiful Bonny Hills. On weekends you can find Sarah camping, birdwatching or catching a good band. Sarah lives in Port Macquarie with her husband and twin stepsons. She is an animal lover and has silkie chickens and a cat.
Giving a new lease of life with Vision Therapy
Recently we have been working a lot more work with stroke and head injury patients, helping them to navigate things that may not obviously appear to be a vision problem. Some have headaches or light sensitivity. Others struggle to find their midline or walk in a straight line.
It is important for patients to know that help and support are available. They do not have to do it alone. Our experienced and friendly team at Panoptic Vision are here to improve the eye health of the whole community, so make an appointment and get started on your amazing eye health journey with us!
Contact Panoptic Vision
Panoptic Vision Lake Cathie
1459 Ocean Drive, Lake Cathie, NSW 2445
Tel: (02) 6584 8900
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday By appointment only
Email: info@panopticvision.com.au
Panoptic Vision Bellingen
2/58-60 Hyde St, Bellingen, NSW 2454
Tel: (02) 6655 2768
Opening Hours:
Monday - Thursday 9:30 am - 5:30 pm