Sjögren’s syndrome is underdiagnosed and seriously impacts the ocular surface and quality of life and places the patient at risk for multisystem involvement. Optometry’s role in identification, diagnosis and collaborative long-term management is an important one. Earlier attention to symptoms leading to diagnosis and collaboration with other health professionals will ensure better quality of life for our patients.

Many in the optometric community think that the lawsuit was a long time coming, but the lawsuit does not address the community’s primary concern-patient safety.

The recent announcement that 1-800 Contacts has partnered with online eye exam provider Opternative to offer consumers eye exams online has rocked the optometry community. What can we learn from this announcement, and what should we do?

The Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society’s Meibomian Gland Workshop was tasked to sort through the literature to determine proper terminology of conditions affecting the lid margin. Review the terminology, gland anatomy, gland expression classifications, and treatment strategies.

Optometrists and optometry students are receiving unsolicited Chase Amazon credit cards in the mail. In addition, optometrists and students have been notified of fraud alerts by credit monitoring services.

1-800 Contacts will begin offering the Opternative online refraction service to its customers on its website, branding the partnership as “InstaRx powered by Opternative.”

Watch as two ODs explain their protocol for dealing with red eye in light of antibiotic resistance.

After speaking at last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, New Mexico OD Lisa Shin says more optometrists should get involved on a national level to keep optometry’s agenda at the forefront.

Orthokeratology is a specialty type of contact lens fitting in which the patient wears correction overnight and is free from wearing visual correction during the day. By fitting the patient into a reverse geometry gas permeable lens, the practitioner can make controlled but temporary refractive changes to the cornea. It is a treatment that has been proven to be safe and effective in both children and adults with promising results in the area of controlling myopia progression.

Now that we have CXL , it is imperative for clinicians to incorporate new technologies that can help us achieve disease detection at the earliest clinical stage prior to onset of visual symptoms.

Start with a thorough history, then choose the best therapy for the patient’s visual needs

Changing profession, online CE, and working with your dad

Do you have an interesting idea for an article? Feel free to contact me. I look forward to reading about your passion.

Simple Contacts allows your patients to self report and self prescribe

We had better wake up fast to address this multifactorial problem.

Did you ever consider that those tools in your dry eye arsenal are also good for acutely sick eyes? I recently had a patient who drove this point home…even to my ophthalmology partner.

Sjögren syndrome is a systemic multi-organ autoimmune disease that results in chronic inflammation. Progressive B-cell and T-cell infiltration of the exocrine organs primarily targets the lacrimal and salivary glands. This results in the classic presentation of dry eye and dry mouth symptoms. Eyecare providers and oral care providers are in a distinctive situation in which we may be the first to identify Sjögren patients.

Shire plc obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Xiidra (lifitegrast ophthalmic solution) 5%, a twice-daily eye drop indicated for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease in adult patients.

Blepharitis is an inflammatory condition of the eyelids leading to red, irritated, itchy, and dandruff-like scales that form on the eyelashes.

With news sites like NPR and The Washington Post reporting about transient smartphone blindess, be ready for questions from your patients. It is natural to laugh at this random new diagnosis for a term we want to call night blindness, but take if from me-experiencing it firsthand can be alarming. Consider asking patients presenting with monocular transient vision loss about their smartphone use and add it to your list of differentials.