Yesterday I was reading a listserv for ophthalmologists. In one thread, there were 30+ posts regarding the cataract surgery incision. This is obviously the tiniest step in the overall process, but many posters had different suggestions about the incision. I won’t get into all of the details, but one topic was how to make sure…

I recently read a review article about management of dry eye-related pain. Some people have pain that is very similar to dry eye pain, but their eyes don’t appear to be that dry and they don’t respond well to conventional treatment for dry eye. Sometimes, this has to do with “over sensitive” nerves. It is…

The varicella zoster virus causes chickenpox and shingles. Most of us know shingles as a painful rash somewhere on the body, such as on the back. Those “somewheres” on the body can include the face, including the upper area of the face. Shingles occurs because the virus exists in the nerve roots in a dormant…

What does air conditioning have to do with eyeballs? Conventionally, the summer months with warmer temperatures and higher humidity are a good time for the surface of eyeballs. The eye surface can dry out less in humid weather. However, if the eyeballs spend a lot of time in air conditioned environments, they don’t get the…

During cataract surgery, we remove the natural lens of the eye. The lens of the eye is a part of the eye that focuses light and is located inside the eyeball (“behind” the colored part of the eye, the iris). The natural lens is replaced by an intraocular lens implant during the surgery. Recently, I’ve…

I am often asked in clinic about what causes the need for glasses. The basic answer is that light entering the eye does not get focused appropriately on the retina in the back of the eye. This is why adding a lens (like glasses or a contact lens) can help to appropriately focus that light.…

I previously posted about the New York Times article discussing LASIK. Since that time, the President of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons has submitted a letter to the editor that has been published. In order to follow up to the New York Times article, I think it is important that anyone who…

There was recently a New York Times article that discussed the risks of LASIK. As a community, ophthalmologists feel that the article did not provide a balanced assessment of LASIK. Certainly, LASIK is not without risks, and there are definitely patients who have long term eye surface problems (often lumped together as “dry eye”) following…

Over the years, we have seen many advertisements for eye jewelry. Sometimes this is placed inside the eyeball itself, and sometimes it is fixated to the outside of the eyeball. All of these types of procedures have a high risk for causing eye irritation. They might even cause infections, some of which can be vision-threatening.…

During cataract surgery, we have to create an entry point into the eyeball to do surgery inside the eye. There are different ways to make that entry, and there are different sizes that people use also! In modern cataract surgery, the size of this entry point is almost always smaller than 3mm. Sometimes it is…