As of the writing of this post, there is a widespread understanding that, across many industries in the U.S., there is a labor shortage. Everyone needs more help! Sometimes it doesn’t seem apparent, but an ophthalmology office is also subject to these same factors, since we have staff who answer the phones and staff that…

There is a condition of the cornea, the part of the eye nearest and dearest to my heart, that has a peculiar and interesting name: crocodile shagreen. Crocodile shagreen is an appearance of the cornea that we see when examining eyes under the microscope. It is not something that typically elicits a visit on the…

I recently read an article by Rui Fan and colleagues about the detection of glaucoma by a computer in patients with high eye pressures. By way of background, the internal pressure of the eyeball is typically somewhere in the range of 10-20 mmHg above atmospheric pressure. When the pressure in the eye goes up, we…

Today, I saw an entry in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. This is a report published by Dr. Hasenin Al-khersan and colleagues. The article describes two patients who had retinal detachments after use of pilocarpine 1.25% eye drops, which were started for presbyopia. Presbyopia, in basic terms, is the medical term for “needing reading glasses.”…

I’ve recently seen a number of patients who have had foreign bodies in their eyes. A foreign body is exactly what it sounds like–any object that is not really supposed to be in one’s eye that ends up there. Even the smallest of foreign bodies can cause a lot of irritation, and often they are…

Though I’ve covered this topic before, it is certainly an important one in ophthalmology. Most of the time, a feeling of “scratchy eyes” is caused by an inadequate tear film. The principal reason that one may have an inadequate tear film is due to improper tear film composition. In other words, it is more common…

You may be familiar with a particular type of contact lens that is smaller and more rigid than “typical” contact lenses. Those “typical” contact lenses that are the current market leaders are generally referred to as soft contact lenses. I, preferring simple nomenclature, call the other lenses hard contact lenses, though they can also be…

When we are awake, the natural function of blinking moves the elements of the tear film, including mucus and debris, over the eye and into the punctum. Through the punctum, the tear film drains, and there is turnover of the liquid (and its contents) on the surface of the eye. When we are asleep, the…

Occasionally, I notice a misunderstanding on the part of some members of the public. It is certainly not ubiquitous or even that common, but I hear about it frequently enough that I thought I would comment on it. Wearing glasses does NOT typically change a person’s eyes. Some people believe that the purpose of glasses…

On Fridays, my current surgery day, a fly on the wall would hear me say “don’t squeeze!” over and over again. Sometimes it seems as though I’ve forgotten how to say anything else! Most of my surgeries are cataract surgeries, and I typically do not use any stitches during surgery. The incisions are “self-sealing,” but…