Join Us THIS WEEKEND – Fri, Sat and Sun – Nov 13th, 14th and 15th for our Patient Appreication Event and the Lenscrafters Customer Appreciation Event.
We will be giving raffle tickets to EVERYONE who comes in for an eye examination during the event. One lucky person who gets an eye exam with the lucky raffle ticket will win a FREE IPod!!!
If it has been more than 12 months since you have seen an Eye Doctor….then NOW is the time to get your eyes examined!! Many eye diseases – like glaucoma, retinal detachments, retinal tears, eye tumors etc - do not cause symptoms so, it is very important to get your eyes examined yearly. Come in to see an Optometrist here at Visionary Eyecare this weekend – and you may win a FREE IPod!To schedule an eye exam online – CLICK HERE !! Or call us at 954-851-9949 to schedule your eye exam at our Sunrise / Sawgrass Mills Mall location for this special event.
LensCrafters will be giving away FREE Designer Eyeglasses and FREE Designer Sunglasses all weekend. They will also be offering 60% OFF of their lenses with the purchase of a frame. And right now – they are also running a GREAT clearance event – with 50% OFF select complete pairs of frames and lenses – see store for details.
EVERYONE who comes into the Sawgrass Mills LensCrafters during the event will also be given a FREE GIFT – just for stopping by! There will also be FREE food, FREE refreshments and also FREE vision screenings during the Patient and Customer Appreication event – THIS WEEKEND – Nov 13, 14, 15 2009.
We are located INSIDE the Sawgrass Mills Mall – in between JCPenny and BrandSmart.
Susan Scott is a local artist and patient of Dr Dawn Bearden at Visionary Eyecare(The Indepenedent Doctor of Optometry Next to Lenscrafters) in Pembroke Pines. She had previously always had a problem finding an eye doctor who could address all of her creative and artistic visual needs.
One day she was having problems doing an art project and her friend, Evelyn (who is an artist and a patient of Dr Bearden) recommended that Susan go to see Dr Dawn Bearden.
This is Susan’s story…
While Susan and Evelyn were doing an art project together - Susan had THREE pairs of glasses in front of her and still seemed to be having difficulty seeing what she was doing. None of the glasses seemed to meet her artistic visual needs. She felt that she just could not find an Eye Doctor that could give her a prescription that would allow her to see clearly enough to create her art.
After Susan was recommended to Optometrist, Dr Dawn Bearden, from her friend, Evelyn, she realized that Dr Bearden is ALSO an artist. Evelyn originally met Dr Bearden Evelyn because Evelyn was teaching Dr Bearden how to make stained glass art at her store – Glass By Design. Dr Bearden is also passionate about photography. Dr Bearden started taking pictures around age 12 when she was in middle school, she had minored in Photography in College and also had recently attended the Ft Lauderdale Art Institute for Photography. For as long as she can remember – Dr Bearden has ALWAYS had a camera in her hand. Susan felt a connection with Dr Bearden because she felt that they were both artistic and creative individuals. She felt at ease because she knew that THIS particular Doctor would understand her specific visual needs.
After the eye exam, Susan was very happy with the thoroughness of the eye examination. She FINALLY received a glasses prescription that met ALL of her artistic visual needs and she was impressed that the Doctor answered all of her questions in a very clear manner in which Susan could completely understand.
Susan recently moved to Washington, DC – BUT, she still plans yearly trips to South Florida so she can come to Visionary Eyecare and see Dr Dawn Bearden for her annual eye exam.
Josephine is a 42 year old, 160 pound gorilla that lives in Miami at the MetroZoo. She had severe cataracts that made her vision so blurry – they only allowed her to see shadows. The cataracts were impairing her vision to the point where her quality of life was becoming severely diminished.
Recently, Josephine underwent cataract surgery – which is a very common surgery for humans (especially here in South Florida) but, is extremely rare in gorillas (it has only been performed a handful of times). The surgery was very risky due to Josephine’s advanced age of 42 (gorillas usually live to around age 50) and the necessity to administer general anesthesia.
Josephine had top ranking human and veterinary Eye Doctors attending to her pre-op and her surgery. They were able to remove her cloudy lenses (cataracts) inside of her eyes and replace the old lenses with new, clear synthetic ones to hopefully restore the clarity of her vision once again.
Around 10 million school children in America have vision conditionsthat can negatively affect learning. This can be prevented by taking kids to get their first formal eye exam with an Eye Dr in an Eye Clinic BEFORE they enter school. A child’s first eye test with an Eye Doctor should be done between ages 3 and 4. At Visionary Eyecare in Pembroke Pines, Sunrise (Next to Lenscrafters) and Davie (Next to Pearle Vision) - our Optometrists, Dr Bearden, Dr Tenn and Dr McCulloh, begin to see children at age 4.
Allen Picture Cards
A child does NOT need to be able to verbalize or know their alphabetfor the examinerto perform a comprehensive eye examination.
There are numerous eye charts for children!!
Lea Flip Chart
Allen and Lea charts have pictures or shapes on them that youngsters can identify. The Broken wheel chartallows the child to tell the examiner which wheel on the car is “broken” . The Tumbling E chart (also known as the illiterate chart) allows a child to just POINT in the direction that the “legs of the E” are pointing in.
Allen Picture Eye Chart
Often our children can not express to us when they are having problems with their vision. They may not even realize that they are experiencing vision problems. Sometimes children will try to compensate for vision issues by closing one eye, rubbing their eyes excessively, squinting, skipping over words or loose their place when they are reading.
Kids may start having difficulty in school due to an “unknown” reason. A recent study indicated that up to 60 percent of youngsters that have been identified as “problem learners” or “learning disorder” actually suffer from an undetected visual condition.
Tumbling E Eye Chart
A vision problem is not suspected in many children because they were able to pass the school vision screening or the pediatrician vision screening. These children may still have visual issues but, they were not detected on the screening. Only a comprehensive eye exam, done by an Eye Doctor (Optometrist or Ophthalmologist) will be able to detect subtle vision problems.
Broken Wheel Eye Test
Vision issues need to be detected and corrected before age 7 to prevent lifelong problems such as lazy eye (amblyopia), eye turn (strabismus), learning disabilities and behavior problems.
Do you need help remembering when to discard your disposable contact lenses or when to see your eye doctor for your yearly eye exam? Well you can go to www.AcuMinder.comand register for this FREE service to get reminders sent to you via Email, text message or a computer desktop widget to help you remember. They even have a new Facebook application that will help you remember!
Getting an annual eye exam is very important in maintaining the health of your eyes as well as keeping your vision as clear and crisp as possible. Also it is vital to discard your contact lenses every 2 weeks or when your doctor recommends the lenses to be discarded.
Often contact lenses can feel “fine” and many patients come in and tell Dr Dawn Bearden or the other Visionary Eyecare Doctors that they don’t throw away their contacts until their vision gets blurry and/or their contact lenses start to bother them. This can be very dangerous.
Contact lenses act like little sponges that can soak up bacteria, fungus, viral particles, mucus, debris, smoke and other environmental agents. Even if you clean your contacts every night – these agents do build up on your contact lenses each and every day. Cleaning them nightly often does not get rid of 100% of these irritants. These irritants build up – day in and day out….so its important to discard the lenses and put in a new pair – even if your eyes feel “fine”.
When contact lenses are not discarded on schedule – patients can come in with distortions on the front of their eye (on their cornea) or develop allergies to the contacts. Most of the time, patients are not yet aware that these issues are even happening until its too late. Some of these issues can lead to lifelong problems with wearing contacts.
Ask Dr Bearden, Dr Tenn or Dr McCulloh in our Pembroke Pines or Sunrise (Sawgrass Mall) office for a free Acuminder.com information card. We will fill it in with your most recent exam date, the brand of contacts that you are currently using, your correct discard schedule, your eye doctor’s name and telephone number. You will need this information when you register at www.Acuminder.com
This is a story of how an eye exam can actually change the course of a child’s life.
Jennifer is a loving mother of an 5 year old little boy. Her son is absolutely adorable and a really good child yet, in school he was being labeled a “difficult / problem child” and a “disturbance in the classroom”. He often did not want to pay attention in school, frequently “acted out” and even threw his books. He just did not seem to be interested in reading or learning – at ALL.
As a mother, she knew that this behavior in school seemed a bit odd and out of character for the sweet, loving boy that she knew her son to be at home. The comments from the school really alarmed Jennifer that something was definitely wrong.
Her young son had passed his Pediatrician’s vision screening, AS WELL AS the school vision screening but, acting on motherly instinct – she ignored the comments that “his vision is fine” and took him to see the Optometrist, Dr Dawn Bearden, for a routine eye exam. Eye Doctor, Dr Bearden, manages the Visionary Eyecare (Independent Doctor of Optometry) offices next to Lenscrafters in Pembroke Pinesand Sunrise and also next to Pearle Vision in Davie.
During the routine eye examination – Dr Bearden discovered that Jennifer’s son was able to read the eye chart with just a little bit of blur but, he needed eyeglasses to correct the strain that he was feeling while reading. Once the strain was relieved from wearing the glasses full time…the child suddenly became more attentive in school and began reading ALL THE TIME.
Actually, he loved reading SO MUCH that he won an award from his kindergarten teacher for reading!! He even received an award from the school’s Principal for “Most Improved Reader”…he actually read 26 books within 30 days. WOW!!
Jennifer is now a HUGE advocate to have children get eye exams from an eye doctor and for parents NOT to be lulled into complacency by their child passing a vision screening. Her child could have gone through life in the classroom being labeled a “problem” and a “disturbance” simply because he could not see well and his eyes were being strained in school.
Jennifer states the following in her video:
No matter how well a parent THINKS their child sees well or if a child is labeled a “problem” in the classroom because he does not pay attention…it may just be because he can’t see well.
The eye exam has made a HUGE difference and my son has excelled, he is doing wonderful and his behavior is like “night and day”!
“I’m a big ADVOCATE…get your child checked by a (eye care) professional!!”
A Visual Representation of the Visionary Eyecare Blog
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words!!
And sometimes that picture is made from a thousand words…..
Here are some visual representations of the Visionary Eyecare Blog from Wordle.
It visibly shows that our blog talks about the Eye, an Optometrist, an Eye Exam, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Eye Dr, Contacts, Dr Dawn Bearden, Dr Emily McCulluh, Dr Anna-Kay Tenn, Lenscrafters, an Eye Doctor, Vision, Eye Care, Eye Health and more….
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Just by scanning one of these images – a reader can immediately get a feel for what the Visionary Eyecare Blog is all about!!
This incredible technology allows your Eye Doctor to scan the internal lining of your eye called the retina and save this image on the computer for year to year comparisons. The retina has about 1 million nerve fibers in it and is an extension of your brain. The retina is also the ONLY place in the human body where a doctor can observe working nerve fibers and blood vessels WITHOUT cutting into the body. Subtle eye health changes can be documented, monitored and compared each year.
Your retina can show early signs of systemic problems that can cause damage to nerves and blood vessels such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol and more. Your retina can also demonstrate eye health issues such as Glaucoma, Retinal Detachment, Macular Degeneration and Eye Tumors and/or Eye Cancer.
Most of the time the patient does not need to have their eyes dilated in order for the Optometrist to obtain a good Optomap retinal scan – so this is a big benefit.
The TV show called “The Doctors” aired a segment discussing theOptomap Retinal Scan and the benefits of this technology during your yearly eye examination to preserve BOTH your eye health and your systemic health.
Judy McNabnever really felt the need for yearly eye examinations until shestarted to need glasses in her 40’s and 50’s. Like most people, she thought she did not need to see an eye doctor if she did not need to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses.
One day she came intoVisionary Eyecare in Pembroke Pines for an eye exam because she lost her glasses. She was not having any problems with her eyes, no eye pain or pressure, no headaches, no vision problems….nothing. She just wanted to quickly get an eye examination so she could get a new prescription to buy a new pair of glasses at Lenscrafters.
During the eye exam at Visionary Eyecare (the Independent Doctors of Optometry next to Lenscrafters in Pembroke Pines), Judy was able to see 20/20 in the examination room, her eyes looked perfectly healthy during the dilated retinal examination and also on the digital photographs taken of the inside of Judy’s eyes. During the examination, Eye Doctor - Dr Dawn Beardenrecommended that Judy get a visual field (peripheral vision) test as a baseline – because Judy was over the age of 40 (much like a baseline mammogram is done at age 40) . This test is an advanced test that is not part of the routine eye examination and would take extra time and cost Judy extra money (unfortunately – unlike a baseline mammogram- most medical insurances and vision plans and will NOT pay for this preventative testing as a baseline). At first, Judy did not want to take the time to do the additional test butDr Bearden explained that visual field testing could uncover early and subtle eye health issues that sometimes a routine eye exam could not. Judy was convinced and did the additional visual field test… and the results came back positive – TWICE.
Dr Bearden immediately referred Judy to an ophthalmologist for a secondary evaluation. At first, Judy did not really want to see the ophthalmologist…..she kept telling Doctor Bearden that her vision was fine and she was not having any problems or symptoms….but, Dr Bearden INSISTED that she go for the secondary evaluation. Judy did see the ophthalmologist, who then referred her to Bascom Palmer in Miami to see an eye doctor that specializes in eye tumors and eye cancer.
Judy was diagnosed with a tumor in her left eye and had laser treatment to help destroy the tumor in her left eye. This was in 2005. Now in 2009 Judy still has good vision in her left eye (she is able to see 20/25 in that eye). Luckily, the tumor did not spread to anywhere else in her body and the surgeon was able to treat the tumor without having to remove Judy’s eye.
Judy shares her experience in the above and below videos. She reminds us all that YEARLY eye exams are very important to help detect eye health issues that you may be unaware of… since many eye health issues DO NOT CAUSE SYMPTOMS and can only be detected by a COMPREHENSIVE eye exam.
According to a study published in “Diabetes Care” – almost 13 percent of all adults aged 20 or older have Diabetes and 40 percent of these people have NOT been diagnosed with either diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Non-Hispanic Blacks and Mexican Americans had TWICE the rate of Diabetes than Non-Hispanic Whites.
So this demonstrates that you may have diabetes and you may not even know it - often there are no symptoms until the diabetic disease had progressed.
Yearly Eye Examinations with your eye doctor (Optometrist or Ophthalmologist) can often help detect early diabetic signs – even when you are not yet having any symptoms. When an eye doctor examines the inside of your eyes during a dilated retinal exam or through the use of retinal photography he or she can see signs of diabetes which include bleeding and swelling of the retina (the nerve layer that lines the inside of your eyes).
Bleeding And Leaking In Diabetic Eye Disease
Common signs of diabetes include increase in hunger, thirst and an increase in urination frequency. If your blood sugar is very high – you can even see a sudden increase in blurry vision.
Diabetes can damage the eyes and cause a permanent decrease in vision… and also increase the risk for stroke, heart attack, kidney damage, impotence and numbness in your fingers and toes.
If you are over 20 and have not had a physical recently – now may be a good time to call your Primary Care Doctor and schedule one…especially if you have been very hungry, thirsty or going to the bathroom a lot!
If it has been more than 12 months since your last visit to your Eye Doctor – pick up the phone and schedule an appointment….for yourself….. and your family members!
Do your eyes feel like there is something in them – like an eyelash or hair – even when there is not?
Do your eyes feel sandy or gritty?
Does your vision intermittently blur and when you blink it clears up?
Do you do a lot of work at a computer?
Do you do a lot of reading?
Do you do a lot of work outdoors?
If you answered YES to any of the questions above – then you may have Dry Eye.
Click on the “DRY EYE TEST”at the top of this post to help to determine if you do have dry eye.
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If you DO have dry eye or answered YES to any of the questions in the above list – schedule an appointment to see your eye doctor. Your eye doctor can help determine what treatment, if any, is best for you.
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Common treatmentscan include using artificial tears in your eyes frequently throughout the day, fish oil capsules or eye vitamins or capsules to be taken orally, punctal plugsto be inserted or a prescription for a medication like Restasis that can help you produce more tears.
Parents: Don’t depend on a school vision screening or a Pediatrician vision screening as the only method of assessing your child’s vision. While screenings do help to pick up SOME vision issues – they do not pick up ALL of them. Your child may pass a screen and still have a significant vision problem.
Vision is the MOST important sense for learning. Unfortunately, if a child has a vision problem, has passed the screening and has not had a comprehensive eye exam with an eye doctor…there could be some problems in school . Often a child in this situation is labeled with a “Learning Disorder”. Another common issue is children that have Convergence Insufficiency (which is when the eyes can see clearly but, do not work well together to see near objects for reading) – they are often labeled “ADD”.
Parents be on the lookout for these issues in your child:
Trouble Reading
Complaints of Fatigue While Reading
Tilt of the Head to See or Read
Losing Their Place While Reading
Sitting Too Close To The TV or Computer
Be aware that vision problems can not only cause problems with learning…..they can also impact a child’s social, emotional and physical development.
This video has a great recommendation:
Get your child to take a 20 second visual break for every 20 minutes they spend on the computer or watching TV. A visual break means to look away – to a far away object. This can sometimes help to combat the rapid progression of nearsightedness (mypoia) in many children.
Here is a great video from Cooper Vision that is an in-depth tutorial for inserting and removing your contact lenses.
Some other helpful tips for successful contact lens wear include:
Always wash and dry your hands before touching your contacts
Always rub your lenses to clean them well after you wear them
Remove your contact lenses immediately if they become uncomfortable
Never insert a contact lens into an eye that is red, irritated or painful
ALWAYS have a pair of back up spectacle eyeglasses and its a good idea to wear them in the beginning and the end of the day to give your eyes some “Open eye time” with no contact lenses on. Also its another good idea to wear your glasses 1-2 days a week to give your eyes a break from your contact lenses.
Consult with your eye doctor before wearing your lenses overnight. The eye doctors at Visionary Eyecare in Pembroke Pines, Davie and Sunrise always recommend to NOT sleep in your contact lenses due to the increased risk of infection and other eye health issues associated with sleeping in contact lenses.
Replace your contacts with a new pair as often as recommended by your eye doctor. If the doctor says its a 2 week lens….then it gets tossed 2 weeks after you open the lens.
Do not skip your follow up visits or your annual contact lens exam - there may be problems with your contacts that you are unaware of and your eye doctor will be able to determine this before you can see or feel that there may be something wrong.
The FDA has recently approved Latisse – which is a new ophthalmic medication that is available only by prescription. The medication is used only once daily and applied to the base of the lashes to make your eyelashes longer, darker and thicker. Most patients see a marked improvement in the appearance of their eyelashes in about 2 months time. If you are interested, when you go in for your yearly eye examination – just ask your eye doctor about Latisse and they can write you a prescription for it.
Latisse is used to aesthetically enhance the eyelash prominance and can used by people who have inadequate or not enough lash growth or thin/short lashes.
Before and After Latisse
You must continue to use Latisse to maintain the effect of long, dark, thick eyelashes. If you discontinue the medication, in a few months the lashes will return to the state that they were in prior to treatment due to the average eyelash hair growth cycle.
Some possible side effects include darkening of the skin where the medication is applied, eye redness and eye itching and also a darkening of the colored part of your eye (the iris). These side effects occur in about 3-5% of the patients treated with Latisse.
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