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Buzz Feed
5 days ago
- Health
- Buzz Feed
9 Things Eye Doctors Say You Should Never, Ever Do
Eye health is an easy area to overlook for many people ― that is, until a problem arises. Visual decline, infection, injury and other ocular issues are fairly common, especially as we age. And although there are many treatments and even surgeries to fix our eye health woes, it would be nice to avoid reaching this point. The good news is there are many ways to help prevent infection and damage to keep our eyes healthy as we age. HuffPost asked eye doctors to share the things they never do in the interest of their ocular health. Read on for the behaviors they avoid. They don't sleep in contact lenses. 'I never sleep in my contact lenses unless the contact lenses have FDA approval for extended wear because of the risk of painful eye infections and cornea damage,' said Dr. William McLaughlin, an optometrist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Occasionally, people who wear contacts might get exhausted or have a few too many drinks and pass out before they've had a chance to remove their lenses, or they might need to take a midday nap or find themselves dozing on a plane. But it's really important to try to remember to take out your contacts in these situations. 'Sleeping in contacts allows for microbes and bacteria from the contact lens to multiply overnight,' said Dr. Ella Faktorovich, an eye doctor and founder of Pacific Vision Institute. 'This can lead to further complications, such as a corneal ulcer, which can be vision-threatening and lead to the need for a corneal transplant.' They don't stare closely at a screen for too long without breaks. 'When people look at a phone, laptop, or book too closely for an extended period, it can increase the risk of myopia in young people and cause eyestrain for people of all ages,' Faktorovich said. 'Myopia typically develops in childhood and then deteriorates until the late teenage years.' She recommended following the '20-20-20 Rule' for preventing and relieving digital eye strain. The method involves taking a 20-second break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away. Easing your eye strain can improve your overall eye health as you age. 'As people age, they will experience presbyopia, leading to the potential need for procedures like Monovision LASIK or PRK, where one eye is corrected for distance vision while the other is left mildly nearsighted or uncorrected,' Faktorovich added. 'Other procedures to help presbyopia may be lens replacement surgery.' They don't put off eye exams. 'I never forget to have my eyes examined at least every year to year and a half,' McLaughlin said. It's particularly important to keep up with your regular appointments, including dilated eye exams, if you have a condition that puts your eye health at risk. 'Those diagnosed with diabetes are at increased risk of developing retinopathy,' noted Dr. Barbara Mihalik, an optometrist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. 'This starts as bleeding within the retina and can progress to swelling within the retina, cataracts, glaucoma, and development of new leaky blood vessels that can cause sudden loss of vision and lead to retinal detachment which can cause permanent vision loss. Often those affected do not have any visual problems so it's important to get dilated at least once a year to monitor for this since there are treatments to prevent this vision loss.' They don't ignore a sudden vision change. 'I would never ignore a sudden onset of a shower of floaters ― spots in the vision ― and flashing lights, especially if accompanied by a curtain crossing the vision,' Mihalik said. 'All of these can be a warning sign of a retinal tear, break or hole that can lead to a retinal detachment.' If caught early, this problem can be treated before the retina detaches, she added. 'If the retina does detach, it then requires surgical treatment and the level of vision that can be restored depends on how much and for how long the retina was detached,' Mihalik explained. 'If you ever do develop new onset floaters and flashing lights, call your eye care provider right away.' They don't leave makeup on overnight. 'Under-lubricating the eyes is an often overlooked part of symptomatic eye issues, especially in people who use contact lenses or makeup,' said Dr. Avnish Deobhakta, an ophthalmologist at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. 'A major change that occurs as we age is that we do not make adequate quality tears ― this is particularly problematic for people who use contact lenses, which are placed directly on the surface of cornea, or certain forms of makeup on the eyelids, which often disrupt tear production.' He noted that the cornea requires constant lubrication to function effectively, and both the aging process and use of contact lenses and makeup can reduce the body's natural lubrication ability. In addition to avoiding sleeping in contacts, he urged makeup-wearers to thoroughly wash it off before going to bed. Failing to remove your makeup can lead to eye infections and adversely impact your eye lubrication. 'One way to help deal with [under-lubrication] is to use preservative free artificial tears as a matter of routine,' Avnish added. 'These artificial tears are made with substances that help lubricate the surface of the eye. However, importantly, they do not have preservatives, which can sometimes cause side effects. We often advocate using them three to four times a day.' They don't stare at the sun. 'People should never look directly at the sun,' Faktorovich said. 'Earlier this year, we witnessed a solar eclipse where many people were tempted to look at the sun through regular sunglasses or homemade sunglasses, which can be extremely detrimental to the eye. Staring directly at the sun without the right eye protection for even a short time can permanently damage your retina, the layer of tissue in the back of your eye that converts light to electrical signals for the brain.' In the event of a solar eclipse, she recommended using the proper protection to avoid retinal burn and other serious eye damage. They don't smoke or vape. 'Smoking and vaping are some of the worst activities that one can do for both one's general health, especially for the eyes,' Deobhakta said. 'There are very severe diseases that destroy the parts of the eye that are irreplaceable, such as the retina, which occur much more often in people who smoke.' He noted that smoking is also associated with increased rates of cataract formation, which leads to a clouding of the lens and often requires surgery to remove. 'In addition, the fumes themselves can cause damage to the surface of the eye, causing corneal abrasions and extremely painful dry eye, often requiring lifelong treatment to address,' Deobhakta said. 'In other words, avoid smoking and vaping if you want a lifetime of healthy eyes.' They don't rinse contact lenses in tap water. Mihalik noted that she would never use tap water to rinse contact lenses. 'There is a high risk of developing microbial keratitis, otherwise known as a corneal ulcer, that can lead to permanent blindness and in some cases corneal transplant,' she noted. 'Instead, always rinse and store in contact lens solution, replace your case regularly, and replace lenses as directed by your eye care provider.' In addition to storing and lubricating your contact lenses improperly, using the same pair for longer than recommended can lead to eye health issues. 'I never forget to discard my contact lenses in the prescribed time period,' McLaughlin said. They don't eat an unbalanced diet. 'Eating a diet high in sugar and fat may go without saying as being bad for one's health, but it also has a disproportionately negative effect on the eyes,' Deobhakta said. 'Certain diseases like diabetes are responsible for the most common forms of irreversible blindness that we see in our clinics, and that is often linked to eating an unbalanced diet high in carbohydrates and fat.' He noted that the risk of experiencing a stroke in the eye is higher for those with uncontrolled high blood pressure. 'Some good news however ― eating a balanced diet (with exercise) not only helps other parts of the body, but drastically reduces the chances of these kinds of diseases occurring,' Deobhakta said. 'So our advice is to eat a Mediterranean Diet, low in sugar and fat, and do something physical you enjoy, like running or biking or taking a walk.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Are Daily Contacts Actually Better Than Monthlies?
Credit - Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Images: clsgraphics/Getty Images, Evgeniya Pavlova—Getty Images, Daryna Pyrig—Getty Images) You don't need 20/20 vision to clearly see the benefits of daily contacts, eye doctors agree. Compared to monthlies, daily lenses 'have a pretty big advantage,' says Dr. William McLaughlin, an optometrist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. 'They're more comfortable, more convenient, and you'll have better eye health if you're using a fresh lens every day. They're absolutely the way to go.' Here's a look at why daily lenses beat out monthlies—plus how to put the higher price tag into perspective. They counteract bad habits Daily lenses are an 'easy yes' for people whose contact hygiene could use a tune-up, says Dr. Neal Guymon, an optometrist in Idaho known as Dr. EyeGuy online. That includes those who sleep in their lenses (which deprives oxygen from the eyes, just like 'sleeping with a paper bag over your head,' he says), don't clean their cases regularly, slack on subbing in new contact solution, and forget to switch into a new pair every month. Contact overuse—wearing lenses for more days than you should—can lead to inflammation on the eyeballs or eyelids, including giant papillary conjunctivitis, which is essentially an allergic reaction to wearing contacts for too long. 'It can be super irritating and hard to get rid of,' Guymon says. Sometimes, overuse can cause lenses to be 'clogged up with debris, so they lose the ability to transfer oxygen through the contact,' he adds, which leads to corneal neovascularization, or blood vessels that burrow into the cornea. Read More: Battling Dry Eyes? Here's What Actually Helps How you take care of your monthly lenses when they're not in your eyes matters, too. Contact cases harbor bacteria and biofilm (the sticky, slimy film that accumulates on your eyelids), so you should wash them every day, after you pop your lenses in. It's also a good idea to replace the case once a month, Guymon says, perhaps getting into the habit of doing so when you switch into a new pair of lenses. You should also replace the disinfectant solution in your case every day. 'When people come into my practice because they have an eye infection or an eye problem that's related to contact lenses, 99 times out of 100, it's someone who's either been sleeping in contacts or wearing the same lenses for three months,' Guymon says. 'Dailies are better, but they're not necessarily better because they're the better contact (which they are). It's more because people treat them the way they should be treated.' They have superior construction When daily lenses were introduced in the 1990s, ophthalmologists worried that people would wear them for more than just one day—that they'd buy a 90-pack and then never see their eye doctor again, stretching the lenses out far longer than they should. But those concerns didn't come to fruition. Daily lenses are so comfortable that people tend to quickly adapt to their new routine: Wake up, pop in a fresh set, go about the day, and then take them out and toss them in the trash, no solution or contact case required. 'It's a mindset,' says Dr. Christine Sindt, a clinical professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine. 'If you try to wear a daily disposable the second day, you will physically go, 'Oh, I don't feel as good.' People notice it, because it feels so good that first day. It turns out that when people wear dailies, it becomes who they are—it's their pattern of behavior.' Read More: 10 Symptoms ER Doctors Say to Never Ignore In part, that's because daily lenses are constructed differently than monthlies. They're thinner, which means they're less likely to create small corneal abrasions, or scratches on the surface of the eye. Plus, they're made out of different plastics and have different surface coatings that allow them to be more biocompatible, which means they don't harm any living tissue. (Monthlies, on the other hand, can, especially if you wear them for longer than their intended lifespan.) Some dailies, for example, are coated with phospholipid, which is what cell membranes are made of. 'For patients who have dry eyes, I'll put this lens on them, and it'll feel like a cozy blanket on the surface of their eye,' Sindt says. 'These lenses aren't only more comfortable [than monthlies]—in many cases, they're more comfortable than the bare eye.' They prevent grimy buildup When you wear the same contacts every day, they attract all kinds of proteins, lipids, and enzymes that are found in the tear film that keeps your eyes lubricated. 'When you have a foreign body in the eye, every time you blink, the body's mechanism is to try to protect itself,' which means it will secrete tears, says Dr. Shahzad Mian, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at University of Michigan. 'The more irritated the eyes are, the more proteins there are in your tear film—and those deposits then stick to the contact lens and cause even further irritation. It's a bad cycle some patients get stuck in.' If you're wearing daily lenses, on the other hand, you'll be tossing any buildup out at the end of the day—which means it won't have the chance to accumulate. They protect against infection Sindt is a 'huge fan of daily disposable contact lenses,' she says. 'And the reason is, I've been doing this a very long time, and I've seen a lot of eye infections. Wearing contact lenses is not benign.' When people land in her exam room, they've often developed a painful bacterial, parasitic, or fungal eye infection stemming from poor contact hygiene or overuse. While some infections cause little more than irritation, others could lead to vision loss or require a corneal transplant. 'I see the patients who have had adverse events,' Sindt says. 'I hear the stories, and it's an everyday thing. It's kind of like playing Russian Roulette, people who don't take care of their contact lenses.' You can generally get away with poor contact hygiene for a while, especially when you're young. Youth is an 'amazing protectant," Sindt says—young people have thicker tear films, as well as eyes that are less likely to become inflamed. But that doesn't last forever. 'If somebody goes along with their bad habits, at some point, they're going to get older, and they're going to end up with an infection,' she says. 'It catches up to everybody.' Read More: What to Do About Your Red, Itchy Eyes That's why even though dailies generally cost more than monthlies, eye experts say they're worth it. You'll save on contact solution and new cases, for one thing. Plus, 'what's the cost of an eye infection?' Sindt says. 'If you have a red eye and you have to take time off work—or if you hurt—what's the cost of pain? What's the cost of being annoyed? Those are all costs that people don't think of up front.' Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Does Medicare cover glasses and contact lenses?
The answer to the question "Does Medicare cover glasses?" is usually a big ol' "No." But before you shell out money for your new specs — or your new contact lenses, for that matter — there are some exceptions to be aware of. Here's what Medicare experts and eye doctors want you to know about getting coverage for your eyewear. Many people believe eye care is covered by Medicare, but unfortunately, basics, like routine eye exams, are excluded from coverage. "Medicare doesn't even cover the refraction fee, which is a test for glasses," says William McLaughlin, an optometrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Fortunately, you may not be left entirely in the dark. Through approved providers, Medicare does step up to cover some vision needs, including: Eye exams when vision symptoms could signal a medical condition Annual glaucoma tests for high-risk individuals, including those with diabetes or a family history Yearly retinopathy screening for people with diabetes Testing and treatment for macular degeneration Basic cataract surgery (matching vision in both eyes) and post-surgery corrective lenses Of course, there may be exceptions. "If vision problems or blindness are a side effect or result of an underlying medical condition, then vision care may be covered by traditional Medicare," says Sandy Kemp, a registered Social Security analyst in Las Vegas. Additionally, Medicare would likely cover an eye exam if you had a specific medical complaint, says McLaughlin, noting that it's always wise to check your coverage first. "Medicare usually does not cover the cost of glasses," says ophthalmologist Ravi Goel, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The main exception is if you have Medicare Part B and need glasses after traditional or laser cataract surgery using basic intraocular lens implants. Here's what you need to know when using Medicare to cover glasses after cataract surgery: Choose matching vision correction for both eyes: "20/20 vision, where one eye is nearsighted and the other is farsighted, is not covered by Medicare, as this procedure includes adding an extra lens to your eye," says Kemp. Most people choose farsightedness and get nonprescription readers to help make up the difference. Meet your Part B deductible: You'll still need to meet your Part B deductible, which is currently $257 a year. Select the right eyeglass provider: Medicare will only pay for glasses from a supplier enrolled in Medicare. Pay your share: You're responsible for 20% of the Medicare-approved amount for corrective lenses after each approved cataract surgery with an intraocular lens. But there is a loophole of sorts: If you're having cataract surgery on both eyes, you can get two separate pairs of glasses covered through Medicare. However, timing is key. "You need to order — and receive — your first pair of glasses after your first eye surgery but before your second surgery," says Goel. If you wait until after both surgeries are done to order glasses, you'll be eligible for only one pair instead of two. Keep in mind that Medicare covers only standard lenses and UV protection. "That means one pair of single-vision or bifocal. Any extras such as transitional lenses, non-scratch coatings, ultra-lightweight lenses and no-line bifocals are not covered," says Kemp. However, if deemed "medically necessary," there's a chance Medicare may cover certain customized eyeglasses. Medicare will also cover glasses if you're aphakic, which means you were born without a lens or had a cataract removed without getting an artificial lens implanted. "These days, however, most people who have cataract surgery get an artificial lens," says McLaughlin. If you're aphakic, you can receive either bifocal lenses, separate glasses for far and near vision, or glasses for near vision paired with contact lenses for far vision. The same Medicare coverage rules for glasses apply to contact lenses, meaning they're typically not covered unless needed after cataract surgery with an intraocular lens. Post-surgery, Medicare will cover one set of contact lenses. "That means a one-year supply. That's it," says Kemp. Aphakic? Medicare offers more extensive coverage: Contact lenses for far vision (plus frames for near vision) and replacement lenses when medically necessary. Good news: Medicare Advantage has the same cataract surgery/corrective lenses benefit as Medicare, plus additional vision coverage, depending on eligibility. In fact, nearly 99% of Medicare Advantage (Part C) members have their eye exams and/or eyewear covered — no cataract surgery required. "Historically, all Medicare Advantage plans are very similar, but you should still make sure there's an allowance for the cost of glasses or contacts in the plan documents," says Kemp. And while you're digging through the nitty-gritty, take a closer look at eye exam coverage too. "Many people assume their Medicare Advantage plan covers everything during an eye exam, but that's a common misunderstanding," says Kemp. "Dilation isn't covered, nor is any special testing. Basic testing only." It's important to do your homework and be aware of your coverage before heading to the eye doctor. Contacting a Medicare representative directly will help you better understand your benefits. "Many patients don't realize they're being upsold on extra features," says Kemp. "The basics often work just fine." Those enticing lens add-ons can quickly drive up your bill, so consider carefully what you actually need. If you're eligible for Medicaid or VA benefits, check your vision coverage eligibility. If you have questions about your benefits, contact your state Medicaid office or Veterans Affairs medical center to walk you through your options. Yes. Medicare Part B covers one pair of glasses with standard frames — or one set of contact lenses — after each cataract surgery with an artificial lens. Yes, but only after cataract surgery with an artificial lens — and only when you get them from a Medicare-enrolled supplier. Before Medicare pays its share, you'll need to meet your Part B deductible. After that, you'll pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount for your corrective lenses, and Medicare will cover the remaining 80%. You shouldn't have to. The law requires your doctor, provider or supplier to file Medicare claims on your behalf for covered services and supplies, including post-cataract surgery corrective glasses or contacts. However, if you paid out of pocket for your specs because your provider refused to submit a claim, you'll have to submit a claim on your own. Make sure to do so no later than 12 months after the date you received your lenses. To file a claim, first download and fill out a CMS-1490S form. Next, gather three things: An itemized bill from your doctor, supplier or other health care provider; a letter explaining why you're submitting the claim instead of your provider; and any supporting documents you might need. If you need help, visit to be connected to the State Health Insurance Assistance Program in your area. Beyond original Medicare, several paths can help with vision care costs. Veterans with service-connected disabilities, Purple Heart recipients or those meeting other service criteria may qualify for VA coverage. Vision benefits are also often available through Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans. While stand-alone vision insurance is available, Kemp notes it "usually isn't worthwhile if you already have Medicare Advantage." William McLaughlin, OD, an optometrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Sandy Kemp, RSS, a registered Social Security analyst in Las Vegas Dr. Ravi Goel, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and an ophthalmologist at Regional Eye Associates in New Jersey Our health content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as professional medical advice. Consult a medical professional on questions about your health.
