The Blog

World Sight day Challenge Silver award 2012

Posted on by

Cameron Optometry is delighted to announce that this year, we were given Optometry Giving Sight’s Silver Award for charitable fundraising. This was achieved by way of the kind donations of our patients.

b- wsd

Optometry Giving Sight is a British charity that currently supports 42 sustainable eye care projects across the developing world. The purpose of their work is to improve the quality of life for people who are needlessly blind, or vision impaired simply because they do not have access to an eye exam or a pair of spectacles. This is estimated to be 670 million people worldwide. World Sight Day 2012 was the culmination of a massive fundraising effort by optometry practices across the UK. It was marked in Malawi by the official hand over of a new Optometry teaching centre to the Malawi school of Optometry.

We would continue to encourage patients, particularly in lieu of payment for any minor spectacle repairs to pop a donation in the collection tin at the reception desk. A small way to continue to make a big difference to those less fortunate than ourselves. Thank you and well done!

Eye scan can monitor the extent of MS

Posted on by

As you may have noticed at your eye appointments over the last couple of years, in addition to taking a retinal photograph of your eyes we offer a scan of the deeper retinal layers, using our Optical Coherence Tomographer (OCT) scanner.

Being one of the first practices or hospitals to have this equipment in Edinburgh we have been learning more and more of the value of these scans as our experience grows and research continues. The most recent neurological research suggests that OCT measurement of the retinal thickness may offer a fast and effective way to monitor progression of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) The research suggests that patients with relapsing MS had rates of retinal thinning up to 42% quicker than those without replases. Perhaps as more therapies are developed to slow MS progression testing retinal thickness will be a useful tool in monitoring how effective these treatments are.

As ever, the eye provides a window to the health of the rest of the body. While we use the OCT more commonly to detect and monitor early signs of eye disease, particularly glaucoma and all types of macular degeneration , we also see the value in having these scans done in your healthy eye to establish baseline data that could be invaluable in the future.

2nd Edinburgh Keratoconus Group meeting

Posted on by

The Keratoconus Group is resourcing and self help group for people with keratoconus. Cameron Optometry has long been a supporter and we have often travelled to Glasgow to attend and speak at meetings.

With Ian’s help an Edinburgh based group was set up and has just had it’s second meeting here at the practice. Ian spoke about the latest advances in contact lenses and answered all sorts of questions about keratoconus.

They hope to run another meeting on another topic in Spring and we’ll keep you updated here. If you are interested in keratoconus or have the condition, you should join the group online at www.keratoconus-group.org.uk

Another UK contact lens first

Posted on by

Cameron Optometry is one of the leading contact lens practices in the UK and as a result, we’re often among the first to get to try new lenses. Yesterday we became the first Private practice in the UK to be given access to the new ICD 16.5 lens.

This lens is really designed for people with unusual eyes and it quite cleverly vaults right over the top of all the central irregularities that normally cause difficulty in contact lens fitting and comes to rest gently on the least sensitive and most regular portion of the eye – the sclera.

I heard about these lenses at the recent AAO Meeting in Phoenix so it’s really exciting to get hold of this lens. It is mainly for specialist purposes like keratoconus, but they are suitable for people with regular shaped eyes too. This promises to be a fantastic addition to the range of lenses we can offer people especially people who have never been able to get contacts to fit previously.

Heather has already had a shot with one patient the day we got it, but Ian and Gillian are still waiting for a go!

AAO Phoenix 2012 – Day 3: A tale of 2 weather systems

Posted on by

I kid you not, this is the weather in Phoenix. It’s hard to beleive it is almost November – I dread to think what it’s like here in summer. In fact it’s hard to believe it’s on the same planet heated by the same sun. Fortunately for my patients (unfortunately for my tan), I’ve been inside all day in darkened rooms listening to eye lectures.

More retinal stuff this morning, but at a much more civilised 10am (I managed to sleep until 7.30 today which means I’m finally getting into Phoenix time with only 2 days left). It was titled ‘Things you don’t want to miss’ and included some quite scary case histories – always good to stop you being complacent. That was 2 hours long so a break for lunch before more on optic nerves where the focus was on differentiating between glaucoma and other types of optic nerve disease. Interesting and useful but 2 hours felt like 4.

To round out the day I spent some time looking at epiretinal membranes (ERM) which are areas of thickening on the retina that can impair vision (kind of like hard skin on the back of the eye). They are quite common and we use the OCT to find see them and monitor them. Many of you will have these in your eyes that we may have told you about. I’m not quite sure we got the whole story about them, the lecturer seemed to miss out some things that I think are quite important when talking about ERM and said some things that I’m not sure are quite 100% correct. Nonetheless, some useful points to bring back.

I went to the supermarket for a few bits and bobs and ‘went native’ by buying some Twinkies. If you don’t know what they are, they are one of the least natural food products you can possibly imagine – however I quite like them and it made me feel very American to buy them. I blended right in with my pasty skin and funny accent…

PS. My wife tells me it’s snowing in parts of Edinburgh which is frankly impossible to comprehend in this heat.

AAO 2012 Phoenix – Day 1: A nerd’s paradise

Posted on by

If you love eyes, AAO is like Nirvana. Is your chance to be as nerdy as you like about eyes and no one thinks you’re weird or boring!

I only made it to 4am before I was wide awake but fortunately had a 7.15am start with a breakfast meeting about contact lenses and happy patients. It was OK but I wasn’t inspired to be honest.

Things improved as the day took a decidedly geek turn with a whole hour devoted to the the vitreous humour (of course the Yanks spell it incorrectly). For those of you casting your mind back to A-Level biology the vitreous is clear the jelly like substance that fills most of the eye ball and is 99% water. How can you talk for an hour about a transparent bag of gel that’s 99% water I hear you ask? Well you can and it’s fascinating.

If any of you have experienced flashes and floaters then you may have had a PVD which we talked about in some detail. There is even hope for a new treatment for problems associated with PVD and a possible cure for floaters. This new wonder drug comes out in the US in 2013, so we’ll have to see how long it takes to come to the UK.

Then I had an excellent summary of the latest lenses for keratoconus. We’re pretty much at the leading edge of keratoconus in the UK and so there wasn’t too much new here but there are a couple of new designs coming out this year which sound quite exciting and now I know how to fit them, it should give us a running start when the arrive in the UK.

The afternoon was a bit of binocular vision (how the eyes work together as a pair) and a very interesting discussion of the value of OCT in Glaucoma and other optic nerve analysis. The OCT is scanner that we will have used on you if you’ve come in for an eye exam in the last year or 2.

I’m such a party animal I stayed up until 8pm before crashing out!

American Academy of Optometry 2012 – Phoenix, AZ

Posted on by

1 hour to London and then 10 hours to Phoenix. It’s a long way to travel but if you are serious about getting access to the best optometry education in the world, it’s got to be America and it’s got to be the AAO, which this year comes to Phoenix.

It’s my first time in Phoenix and actually my first time at the AAO. I’ve been to other American optometry meetings which have been fantastic but already I think the AAO is the best one yet.

There are about 5000 optometrists here from all over the world (there are only about 1000 optometrists in the whole of Scotland) and there are 10 streams of lectures every day given you a massive choice of things to listen to. The scale of place is big even by American standards and because of its size, it attracts some real experts in very detailed sub specialities we just don’t have in the UK.

As you can imagine it is a big investment for a small business when you include time away, travel and accommodation but at CamOpt we are dedicated to being the highest qualified and most experienced optometrists in the UK and that means this is the place we need to come to hear what’s new.

As always in America early starts are the order of the day so it’s 7.15am for a breakfast meeting on contact lenses to get me up and away. No big deal as Phoenix is 8 hours ahead I expect I’ll be up at 5am twiddling my thumbs anyway.

Waterford round table meeting

Posted on by

A couple of weeks ago Ian took part in a round table discussion with industry leaders regarding a new lens from Bausch + Lomb in Waterford, Ireland – BioTrue.

Taking the same name as the popular solution, B+L have tried to a produce a lens that is built around the natural properties of the eye. For example the lens has the same amount of water in it as the cornea (the front of the eye, where the lens rests), 78%. The surface of the lens also mimics your eye’s own healthy tears to retain moisture and shape giving great comfort and long wearing times.

The lens proved quite popular with those who had tried it at the meeting and some of our patients have already moved on to it after liking the benefits.

If you wear daily disposables and aren’t get the comfort you need, we can send you a sample of this new lens to try. If you don’t wear daily lenses but fancy the convenience, then give us a call. At the moment the lenses are only available in minus powers (up to -8.00) but more will be coming next year.

Waterford was a interesting place to visit and we stayed in Waterford Castle situated on its own private island which is only accessible by ferry. Great fun but a bit of a hassle if this was your daily commute…

 

AAO 2012 Phoenix – Day 2: A view into the future

Posted on by

Well day 2 has been even better than day 1 although it was another 4am start. I’m like a kid in a sweet shop, there are so many interesting lectures I’m having a hard time choosing.

I opted for “What’s new in retina” which was a good choice. The chap (a retinal surgeon) was giving us a sneak peak at some brand new (not even released or published) information about some very exciting new drugs available to treat macular degeneration. You may have heard of Lucentis which is widely used but this next generation drug is used in combination and looks to have incredible results. This kind of research just isn’t accessible in the UK which makes the effort of coming out here feel very worthwhile and exciting to see what’s coming round the corner.

A bit more stuff on injections for macular degeneration rounded out the morning and has given me some rather exciting ideas for where we could go in the future with optometry in Scotland.

The afternoon was a workshop on “Advanced Retinal Examination – 3 mirror and scleral indentation” which is not as bad as it sounds. This was a great chance to practically brush up on some skills to examine the peripheral retina to check more thoroughly for problems like retinal detachment. It was so useful I went an bought a new lens to put my new skills into practice in Scotland and take advantage of the great exchange rate.

Tonight I ‘partied’ until 8pm again but stayed up catching up on emails until 9pm!

Contact Us

What's on your mind?

*
*
*
*

Please enter the characters below
captcha

5 St. Vincent Street, Edinburgh EH3 6SW
0131 225 2235