Now that you have picked up your new pair of prescription eyeglasses, your focus becomes taking care of them. This is a task many disregard, but it is absolutely imperative that you make sure you are following a couple simple steps to keep the quality of your vision with your new spectacles.

We are all guilty of using a garment when in a rush to wipe away a pesky smudge on our glasses. This act is unfortunately the worst thing you can do for your lenses.

No matter how clean your clothes are, dust particles and even small bits of sand and debris cling to them. Since eyeglass lenses are not made of diamonds, these tiny little particles can do tremendous amounts of damage to your new lenses. The smallest little crumb can grind a scratch directly in your line of vision, which in turn can render your glasses almost useless.

Most of us know what it feels like trying to concentrate on the world in front of you when there is a little scratch distorting and distracting your vision....

As an eye doctor, diagnosing a red eye can be challenging. Are we dealing with an infection, allergy, inflammation, or dryness?

A common question we get is, “Doc, my eyes are red, burning, itchy, and tearing. Is this dry eye or from allergies?” The short answer is it could be one, both, or neither. We'll outline various ways these conditions present clinically and the treatments for them.

The hallmark symptom of allergy – meaning if you have this symptom you almost definitely have the condition – is itching. Red, watery, ITCHY eyes are almost invariably due to an allergen, whether environmental or medicinal. It is one of the most common ocular conditions that we, as eye doctors, treat -- especially when plants are filling the air with pollen as they bloom in the Spring and then die off in the Fall.

The itching occurs because an immune cell called a mast cell releases histamine, causing the itching sensation. It can be quite unbearable for the sufferer, causing them to rub...