Some ophthalmologists are recommending that patients with full thickness corneal transplants take special precautions around the time of getting vaccines in their arms. I may have covered this before, but there is a lot of attention on vaccines these days. The recommendation is taking additional steroid eye drops in the days before and after the…

The colored part of the eye is called the iris, and it is covered in front by a clear “windshield,” which is the cornea. Sometimes, if the iris is damaged or irregular, extra light passes into the eye that can be bothersome for patients. It is indeed one of the functions of the iris to…

A lot of patients worry about how having cataract surgery will affect their golfing. Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered with a one-size-fits-all response. Everyone is a little different, and the different lens options have a lot of nuances to them. However, if a golfer has cataracts that are blurring vision, cataract surgery is almost…

Sometimes patients come to me and state that they have too high a prescription for LASIK. What they usually mean is that they are near-sighted, with “minus” glasses prescription. They have been told that the “minus number” is too high for LASIK. Basically, this is TRUE. I think that there have been successful cases of…

Traditionally, we in the ophthalmology community have started our newly diagnosed glaucoma patients on eye drops. Eye drops are usually acceptable to patients as a first line treatment during discussions, at least moreso than surgery. However, the breadth of options for treating glacuoma using procedures is expanding more and more. At this point, I still…

There is a condition in which calcium and fat get together in center of the eyeball to cause visible “globules” in the eye. When I look into eyes like that, sometimes it almost seems like a snow globe filled with these “globules.” Some have said that they resemble stars in the sky, and that is…

The cornea, which is the very front surface of the eye, can develop swelling. Many times this swelling has to do with a problem with the inside most part, which is responsible for pumping water out of the cornea. If that pump malfunctions, water builds up in the cornea, swelling it. Over the last couple…

Starting around age 40, everybody with good distance vision needs reading glasses. One of the solutions that has been used are “pinholes” that can be implanted in the cornea (as “inlays”), which can help focus light so that reading is easier without reading glasses. Pinholes in general serve the function of focusing light, so even…

The year of the eyeball, 20/20, is over. It certainly did not go as expected, obviously, within the eye care world or anywhere else. However, we do see hope and optimism for the future. I personally am looking forward to getting back to practice as I used to know it sometime before this year is…

Soon we will be receiving vaccines as part of the healthcare workforce. However, this should not change anything in ophthalmology offices. In ophthalmology offices, all entrants must wear masks at all times. This will still be a requirement going forward, for several reasons. One reason is that we cannot know which of our patients will…