Itching, burning, watering, red, irritated, tired eyes... what is a person to do? These symptoms are classic signs of Dry Eye Syndrome (DES), which affects millions of adults and children.

What causes this?  Dry eye syndrome can be brought on by many factors: aging, geographical location, lid hygiene, contact lens wear, medications, dehydration, etc. The lacrimal gland in the eye that produces tears, in a person over forty years old, starts slowly losing function. Females with hormonal changes have a higher incidence of DES (dry eye syndrome). Dry, arid climates or areas with high allergy rates tend to have higher incidences of DES as well. Another major cause is increased screentime--when we stare at a computer screen or phone, our blink reflex slows way down. A normal eye blinks 17,000 times per day, usually producing enough tears to be symptom free, if not contenting with other factors.  But blink rates go way down while using screens.

Blepharities, a condition of the...

What Is Intraoperative Aberrometry?

Yes, that is a mouthful, but the concept isn’t quite as hard as the name.

An Intraoperative Aberrometer is an instrument we can use in the operating room to help us determine the correct power of the implant we put in your eye during cataract surgery.

Cataract surgery is the removal of the cloudy natural lens of your eye and the insertion of a new artificial lens inside your eye called an intraocular lens (IOL).

The cloudy cataract that we are removing has focusing power (think of a lens in a camera) and when that lens is removed, we need to insert an artificial lens in its place to replace that focusing power. The amount of focusing power the new IOL needs has to match the shape and curvature of your eye.

To determine what power of lens we select to put in your eye, we need to measure the shape and curvature of your eye prior to surgery.  Once we get those measurements, we can plug those numbers into several different formulas to...