While the shapes and sizes of eye glasses vary with the prevailing fashions, the real innovations in vision correction can currently be found with contact lenses and laser surgery.

“The newest thing in contacts is silicone hydrogel,” says Oakville, Ontario optometrist Dr. Jeffrey Mungar. “This material allows a lot more oxygen through to the eye while you’re wearing the contact lens.”

The eye must be able to absorb oxygen in order to remain healthy and comfortable. Lenses made from silicon hydrogel allow so much oxygen through the lens that it’s almost as if you’re not wearing one says Dr. Mungar.

New developments
One is a contact lens designed specifically to be worn for outdoor sports. Special tints filter light to enhance depth perception. These soft contacts come in a green/gray tint for golf, running and cycling and an amber tint for fast-moving sports such as football, baseball, tennis, soccer, or lacrosse.

“They give you enhanced contrast so it makes the ball really pop out against the background,” Dr. Mungar says. “Increased contrast has been shown to improve reaction time and therefore achieve better performance.

”This is not a lens you’d wear all the time,” he says. “It’s like having a sunglass right on your eye.”

A look at laser surgery
Those who want to do away with any ‘add-on’ form of vision correction are choosing laser surgery. Various methods have been developed over the years, but two of the current procedures are Lasik and Lasek.

“The easiest way to understand Lasek is to understand how it differs from Lasik,” says ophthalmologist, Dr. Chaim Goldberg, who has been practicing in Scarborough, Ontario for over 25 years.

“When we do Lasik surgery we’re always making a cut in the cornea. We’re creating a flap and moving the flap back; we do the laser and we replace the flap. With Lasek surgery we’re not making any cuts in the cornea. We’re just removing the surface cells, we do that using a chemical solution. Then we do the laser on the surface of the cornea and then the cells grow back.”

“Initial recovery is four days,” he says. “The vision may be a bit blurry; however most people are able to go back to work at this time. Vision improves over the next week, with further improvement over the next three months.

”Dr. Goldberg says that Lasik clients are able to see much better within a week. “We tell people having Lasek that it’s a week to two weeks. The visual results six months down the road are identical for both.

”According to the University of Ottawa Eye Institute, the reported advantages to Lasik are reduced post-operative discomfort in the first 24 hours, a faster return to vision in the first few days, and less chance of corneal haze.

The Institute’s website (eyeinstitute.net) also cites complications related to the creation of the corneal flap as among the disadvantages of Lasik.

Some people are not candidates for Lasik notes Dr. Goldberg, “Such as those with corneas that are too thin.

”He points out that with Lasek healing is a little slower and there may be a little discomfort compared to Lasik. “But I strongly feel it’s a safer procedure,” he says.

A Lasek experience
A Lasek experienceToronto resident Michael Crawford, 47, is a patient of Dr. Goldberg’s and a communications consultant. When he went for his eye checkup this past February, he discovered his prescription hadn’t changed, yet he knew that he was not functioning well. “My contacts didn’t last long in my eyes. They got sore in a couple of hours.

”He seriously investigated current laser surgery options and decided to “find out everything I could to determine what questions I needed to have answered.”

“I needed to know worst case scenarios and what you do about them,” says Crawford. “I was comfortable through my reading and conversations with Dr. Goldberg that worst case scenarios are rare, but sometimes some people need an enhancement or there’s an infection. In that event there are very clear paths to follow to correct it.”

“Going to see someone whom they [the patients] trust is a major factor,” says Dr. Goldberg. “It is a medical procedure that has to be done properly and responsibly; all the possible risks should be reviewed.

”The general criteria for a Lasek candidate: the patient must be healthy, their eyes must be healthy and their prescription must be stable.

“The success rate for Lasek depends on the prescription,” says Dr. Goldberg, “but generally speaking there is a 96% success rate, meaning that the person is able to function in their daily lives without glasses.”

Health Canada (hc-sc.gc.ca) advises that successful outcomes are more likely with laser eye surgery if you:

• Choose your eye surgeon carefully
• Discuss the risks, benefits and your expectations with your surgeon to make sure you’re a suitable candidate
• Participate fully in all of the follow-up care recommended by your eye doctor.

6 professional recommendations

Dr. Chaim Goldberg, Ophthalmologist:

• Be sure to get your children’s eyes examined between four and six. Lazy eye is real and can be treated with an early examination. After age eight someone with lazy eye may never recover
• A family history of vision correction or eye problems – get your eyes checked yearly
• After age 35, anyone with a family history of glaucoma, definitely have your eyes checked yearly. Glaucoma can be treated but not reversed. It’s a problem that rarely has symptoms
• Good news for people with chronic conditions that affect eye health such as diabetes and macular degeneration – there’s a ton of new research, so keep your hopes high
• Evidence shows that supplements may prevent macular degeneration from occurring or progressing.

Dr. Jeffrey Mungar, Optometrist:

• Test your children’s eyes yearly right through their teens. Their eyes are still developing. “As they grow their eyes can change. We know that most of what we learn comes through our eyes – some studies show 80% of what we learn in our lifetime is through vision.”