What are polarized sunglasses?

What exactly is polarization? Are all sunglasses polarized? Should they be?


Let's talk a little bit about what polarization is first. When light comes out of a single source, or point source, the light rays come out in an infinite number of directions. Kind of like the light coming from a star or street light. Polarized light is light that is traveling in only one direction or plane.

There are lots of times when polarized light is created naturally. Think of sunlight bouncing off of a snow-covered field or the surface of a pond. There are also lots of times when reflected light is NOT polarized, like the reflection off the chrome bumper of that car that was in front of you this morning on the highway! We can use polarized lenses in our sunglasses to choose exactly which type of light we see.

We can minimize glare while driving by wearing polarized sunglasses. Most reflected light is parallel to the ground; polarized sunglasses will block out these rays, allowing vertical rays to come through the lenses. The same thing is true on the water. When you are boating or fishing you can reduce glare by wearing polarized sunglasses.

Not all sunglasses are polarized. In fact, there times when you DON'T want to have your sunglasses polarized. On the golf course polarization will make everything seem flat. Imagine how hard it would be to putt if you couldn't see the break on the greens!

Come visit us at the sky vision sensors optical to see our polarized sunglasses from Oakley, Nike, Kaenon, and Maui Jim!

Sunglasses For Overcast Or Flat Light

Every daytime lighting condition can provide an opprotunity to enhance your vision by choosing the right kind of sunglasses. Overcast days, whether it's bright or dim, still require UV protection, especially if you are enjoying an outdoor activity like running, biking, skiing, or water sports. Since the amount of light is decreased when it is overcast or cloudy be sure to have a pair of sunglasses that allow a bit more light to come through. The Visible Light Transmission (VLT) should be anywhere from 25 to 50% under these conditions.

The classic sunglass lens color for these conditions is in the YELLOW family. True yellow, amber, orange, and yellow-green all tend to brighten objects in so-called "flat light" circumstances. These colors enhance contrast when bright sunlight is not available, increasing your perception of the environment. All of these lenses are great for Sporting Clays and hunting, and goggles with these colors work great if you are skiing or boarding in overcast conditions.

One of our favorite lenses is the Nike HD Orange. Dr. White likes to wear this one when it's raining. Since we all live in Cleveland he wears this one a lot!!

What Color Lenses For Golf?

Dr. Greg Kaye and Dr. Scott Schlegel represented SkyVision Centers yesterday at the 1st Annual Ken Lee Golf Outing. You may recall that Dr. Lee, was a very close friend of one of our founder's Dr. White and Dr. Lee passed away last year after a battle with pancreatic cancer. The outing raises money for a lecture series in Dr. Lee's honor. SkyVision was a major sponsor of this year's event and Drs. Kay and Schlegel WON! What a great way to introduce our first sunglass color for golf.

All three of our doctors have been lifelong golfers and they have tried pretty much every type of sunglass lens ever made for golf. One important thing to remember before we even start on color is that polarized lenses may NOT be best for golf. Dr. White has noted that typical polarization will make contours appear to be flatter than they really are. This is particularly of concern on the green when you are trying to read the break on a putt.

The optimal color for a golf lens is one that will make the white golf ball stand out against a green background. The lens should also enhance a golfer's ability to tell the difference between different shades of green, and most importantly the lens should increase the recogition of contour changes all over the golf course. The color that best accomplishes this is lavender or purple, a combination of red and blue nearer to blue.

NikeVision makes the golf lens that all of our doctors have been wearing for at least 7 years. The Nike golf tint is a lavender lens with 28% Visible Light Transmission (medium darkening) that can be worn on sunny and bright overcast days alike. Wearing the Nike golf tint make the white golf ball POP against the green background of the course. All of the doctors have found that it significantly enhances their ability to recognize contour while playing. And of course, the Nike lens essentially blocks all harmful UV rays in order to protect your eyes.

So congratulations to our victorious doctors and the very best of luck to the organizers of the Ken Lee Lecture Series!

Sunglasses? What Color Lens Should I Get?

It's Summer time! We are in the full swing of sunglasses season. We've talked in the past about the importance of protecting your eyes from Ultraviolet light, and we've discussed what polarization is. Let's talk a little bit in general about the color of sunglass lenses, and then over a few posts we can break down some of the specifics of lens color.

All sunglasses limit some part of the natural light that surrounds us from getting into the eye. Visible Light Transmission (VLT) is a measure of how much light gets through in general. The darker the lens the smaller the VLT, and the smaller the VLT the less light gets through. The first thing to think about when you buy sunglasses is how much dimming do you want from your lenses. The brighter your environment (beach, snowfield) the lower you want your VLT.

The next consideration is color. More specifically, what color of light do you wish to filter out with your sunglasses, or what color to you wish to let in? The color of light is determined by its wavelength. A lens can be designed to filter out all wavelengths, or you can choose specific wavelengths or colors to filter out. If you do this you will make the un-filtered colors stand out more.

Most people will do best with general purpose sunglasses that simply decrease all of the wavelenths or colors that come through. Grey or Brown lenses are suggested for this. Grey will be darker, dimming everything. Brown lenses tend to let you keep your sense of colors better than grey. If you are choosing sunglasses for very common tasks like driving you can't go wrong with either Grey or Brown lenses.

Stay tuned for discussions about special use lens colors, coming soon on the SkyVision blog!

My Child Just Failed A School Vision Test!

Uh oh...your child just failed a school vision screening test. Just what IS a vision screening test? What are they looking for? What does it mean to fail the test? Now what should I do?

First things first: take a deep breath! Take your own pulse. Relax! Vision screening tests are meant to find children who have a vision problem that might not be uncovered without testing. Like ALL screening tests for anything, the vision screening test is designed to pick up anything that MIGHT BE abnormal. These tests are meant to not miss any abnormalities, so they often will "find" something abnormal where everything is really just fine.

Your child was likely tested for near vision, far vision, color vision, and some kind of eye muscle function. Vision screening is done by volunteers who are only trained in how to administer the test itself. Very few people who are doing the screening work in eye care, so most of these volunteers will not be comfortable answering any questions you might have. Don't worry if they don't have answers!

What do you do if your child fails the screening? Easy! Bring them to Skyvision Centers! ALL of our doctors are qualified to examine and treat children and children's vision problems. Kids who fail a screening test simply need to be seen by an eye doctor. We were VERY surprised when friends were recently told to take their child to a University specialist for a simple failed school screening--totally unnecessary referral!

Most visits to the eye doctor uncover a simple vision problem that can be fixed with a pair of glasses, or a finding of nothing at all! A perfectly normal eye exam! So RELAX. Just give us at call at Skyvision Centers (440-892-3931), or contact us through our website (www.skyvisioncenters.com), or through Demand Force at http://www.demandforce.com/b/skyvisioncenters and schedule a visit.

Generic Medicine and Cataract Surgery

"These eye drops are SO expensive."

"My insurance says I have to take this generic drop."

Every day our doctors, technicians, and surgical counselors hear some version of these two sentences. We hear it from almost everyone! It's funny how viewpoints have changed over the years. The fee that your insurance company pays a doctor and his staff to do everything that is necessary for cataract surgery in about 60% LESS than it was in the year 1990, and that's WITHOUT  taking into account any inflation. That means in 1990 the co-pay for cataract surgery was greater than what it costs in 2012 to buy the very best eyedrops that protect you from infection and inflammation.

Sometimes newer medicines really are better. They might work better, or have fewer side effects, or need to be taken less frequently. All of these things are important because you will have a better outcome from your cataract surgery if you take your medicine as our doctors have prescribed. Better vision. A lower risk of infection. Dramatically lower chances of swelling and inflammation. We have chosen the best medicines, the ones with the fewest side effects that are the easiest to take.

Here are two examples. SkyVision cataract patients receive a prescription for Besivance, a 4th generation antibiotic in its class. Many insurance companies try to make a switch to generic Cipro, a 3rd generation medicine that is available for perhaps 1/4 the cost. Sounds OK, right? It's only one previous generation? Well, good studies have shown that using a 3rd generation medicine instead of a 4th can increase the risk of infection by a factor of 10. 10 times the risk! Ciprofloxin must also be used 4 times each day and Besivance only twice which makes it easier to actually use the Besivance.

The other very important example is the Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug or NSAID. If you don't take one you have a 10 times greater risk of vision threatening swelling in your retina. Both older, generic forms of NSAID's and newer branded ones reduce this risk. However, all of the older generic versions cause swelling and inflammation on the cornea, the front of the eye, in 3-4 out of 10 people. This results in pain, decreased vision, and the need to take more medicine for a longer period of time. On top of that, all of the generics HURT when you put them in, and you have to use them 4 times each day, and this makes people avoid using them at all.

You have two eyes. You will have cataract surgery on each eye once in your lifetime. Which is actually more expensive, the cost of the eyedrops your surgeon has chosen for you after careful studying of all the options, or the cost of using generic eyedrops that must be used more frequently, have more side effects, and may in some cases be less effective?

A Patient-Centered Approach to Emergency Visits

We all have an occasional medical emergency. What happens in Cleveland when you have an eye emergency? What does "same day appointments" mean, the ones that you see on the big billboards around our town? Well, here's what it means if you are a Skyvision Centers patient: you are seen by a Skyvision Centers doctor in the Skyvision Center office you know and love RIGHT AWAY!

It's very hard to know as a patient what is and what really isn't a true emergency. The staff members who answer our phones have been trained to ask you important questions to determine if you have the kind of emergency that requires you to come in on the day you have called. Curtains or shades coming over your vision? Come right in. Pain in the eye that is new and just won't go away? How fast can you get here?

How about nights and weekends? Yup...then too! If you have an eye emergency an eye doctor will see you even then.

If it seems like your problem is urgent but not an emergency our staff will discuss the timing of your visit, especially if we are very busy that day and we are trying to avoid a big wait for you. But in the end, a patient-centered approach to eye emergencies, the SKYVISION CENTERS APPROACH, is that if you are very concerned about your new eye problem we will find a way to see you that day. That's what Patient-Centered Medicine means at Skyvision.

Do you think that's what they mean on all those billboards around Cleveland?