It’s a pleasure to welcome Deborah Kotob to Jobson as Director, Education and Training! Deborah was formerly the ECP Education Facilitator for Vision-Ease, and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, not only in education, but in optics and the optical business as well. I have had the pleasure of working with Deborah at seminars for several years and on the Advisory Board for the Goodwin College Vision Care Technology program, and I’m excited to be working with her on Pro to Pro. Under Deborah’s leadership, you can count on Pro to Pro to continue to be your go-to for education resources.With January ending, we’re off the block, sprinting into 2018, and February is National Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Month. AMD is a thinning of the macula that results in blurred or reduced central vision. Risk factors include hypertension, smoking and long term exposure to UV light, and it’s a leading cause of blindness in people over age 60. Recent studies indicate that exposure to high-energy visible blue light (HEV), like that emitted from tablets and smartphones, is also a risk factor. Like UV exposure, the effects of HEV exposure are cumulative, so protection begins with the young. We know the chances of success are nil in advising patients to limit use of their devices to protect their eyes. A better option is to be knowledgeable about lens treatments that filter blue-violet light.
Current lens treatments include yellow or amber lenses, blue filtering AR and lenses that are a combination of both. Yellow lenses are usually considered to be cosmetically unacceptable, although they are used by shooters, skiers and snowboarders or worn by older adults to enhance contrast. In fact, most lens manufacturers work hard to reduce the yellowness of their lenses. An AR coating specifically designed to reduce the blue-violet wavelengths is effective and cosmetically acceptable. These new AR coatings have a blue to blue-violet reflex color. There are also lenses that are a combination of both, that is, they have only a slightly yellow or noticeable color with AR. These lenses provide an opportunity for ECPs to protect all patients with HEV attenuating products.
For great information on blue light and protective lenses, see our CE “Blue Light Radiation, a Material Solution” at www.2020mag.com/ce.
