First, though, a bit about why you should always wear sunglasses.

Just as the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can damage your skin, they can also harm the lens and cornea of your eye. Long term (as in years — the sun’s damage is cumulative) exposure to UV radiation increases your odds of getting cataracts and has been linked to macular degeneration, a degenerative (though treatable) disease of the macula that is essential for sharp vision.

And while you mainly think of sunlight as it travels from the sun, through the air and into your eyes, just as important to guard against is sunlight that bounces off of highly-reflective surfaces such as water, sand and pavement.

Sunglasses play a pivotal role in shielding the eye’s fragile tissue from UV radiation. Like sunscreen, sunglasses should be worn whenever you’re outdoors, year round.

Look for sunglasses with complete UVA/UVB protection
Choose sunglasses that provide full protection from UV light. Ask one of our opticians or make sure that the sunglasses clearly state one or more of the following:

• Lenses block 99% or 100% of UVB and UVA rays
• Lenses meet ANSI Z80.3 blocking requirements
• Lenses feature UV 400 protection

Choosing the right hue
The coating that blocks UV protection is clear, so a darker lens doesn’t always indicate better protection than a lighter one. Hue does play an important role, however, in color perception. Gray, green or brown lenses minimize color distortion, while lenses that are yellow or rose in color may make it difficult to detect changes in traffic light colors.

Polarized lenses for added clarity
While polarized lenses have nothing to do with UB protection, lenses with this feature can reduce glare by filtering out the reflected sunlight that bounces off of surfaces like pavement and water. The downside is these lenses can make it hard to read your cell phone, GPS device or liquid crystal displays like on dashboards and ATM machines.

Quality is key
You’ll notice that we only carry brand-name sunglasses at Spex Expressions. While you may experience some protection with discount brands, consistency is a concern with lower-priced glasses. Your best bet is to buy a trusted brand from a certified eye care practice, like Spex Expressions.

If you have any other questions about sunglasses, be sure to give the eye health experts at Spex Expressions a call at (815) 758-1039 or visit us at www.SpexExpressions.com. Our trained opticians would be happy to answer any of your questions.

One of the most common conditions affecting older Americans is age-related macular degeneration or AMD. It’s the leading cause of blindness in adults over age 55. AMD results from the breakdown of the macula or small area in the retina at the back of the eye. Contributing factors to AMD include exposure to sunlight, smoking and even everyday contaminants in your environment.

One preventative solution to AMD are antioxidants. Research over the past decades has shown that eye health is linked closely to diet and lifestyle. Being overweight, diabetic, smoking, eating a high-fat diet and consuming alcohol excessively can all contribute to poor eye health. Eating a diet low in fruits and vegetables is also shown to be detrimental.

So, what should you eat?
We all grew up hearing that carrots were important for eye health, but there’s actually more evidence that other color foods may have an even bigger impact on our eyes. Specifically, foods that are naturally green and yellow in color have been shown as more effective at reducing the risk for AMD and cataracts than orange-colored foods.

Why does color matter?
Green and yellow fruits and vegetables are packed with two chemicals — lutein and zeaxanthin, nutrients that seem to protect the retina against oxidative damage and decrease the risk for AMD.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in foods containing natural fats, such as egg yolks, pistachios and avocados. Corn, spinach, squash, collard greens, kale, tomatoes and lettuce are all also good natural sources of these two nutrients.

While there is no current recommended amount of lutein and zeaxanthin to ingest to help protect your eye’s health, eating the recommended five to eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day will help to ensure that you get enough. If you have a family history of eye diseases or have any questions, please be sure to give Dr. Frank or Dr. Marczewski at call at (815) 758-1039. They would be happy to answer any of your questions.

They’re a clouding of the lens inside the eye. They’re detected during a normal eye exam and are somewhat common with adults over the age of 40 (and increasing as we age). As they are so common and tend to progress slowly, your eyecare physician should monitor their progression as you grow older.

One of the first symptoms of a cataract can be glare, especially when looking into lights at night. They may appear as haze, but actually they represent a loss of clarity of vision or loss of sharp perception of images. It’s hard to remember what good vision is like compared with gradual acuity loss that occurs with a cataract. This is especially true when cataracts develop in both eyes at the same rate — there’s no good standard of comparison in this case.

Cataracts can be successfully treated in about 98% of cases. In fact, cataract surgery is the most commonly-performed surgery in the United States with an average age for cataract surgery of 73 to 75 years old. During surgery, a small incision is made, a tiny instrument is inserted to break up and remove the lens, then a intraocular lens is replaced in the eye.

There is now the technology to even insert a lens that has progressive properties. When this type of lens is used, the patient often does not have to wear corrective eyeglasses — the bifocal corrective lenses are actually integrated into the prosthetic lens in your eye!

The surgery is normally not painful and takes 20 minutes or less to perform. Recovery begins immediately, but you must have someone to drive you home from the surgical center. You’ll be given a pair of sunglasses to wear when you leave — wear them even if it is not sunny out.

You’ll also have a protective shield placed over your eye after the procedure. Your physician will give you instructions on the recovery process and answer any questions you may have.

Interested in learning more about cataracts and corrective surgery? Contact Dr. Frank or Dr. Marczewski at Spex Expressions at (81) 758-1039 or by visiting www.SpexExpressions.com/cataracts.

Extended exposure to UV rays has been linked to eye damage, including these conditions:

Cataracts: Lab studies have implicated UV radiation as a cause of cataracts. It has also been shown that certain types of cataracts are associated with a history of higher ocular exposure to UV — and especially UV-B — radiation.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD): Exposure to UV and other types of intense visible radiation is damaging to retinal tissue. It has been speculated that chronic UV exposure may contribute to degenerative processes in the retina.

Pterygium: This is a non-cancerous growth of clear, thin tissue that lays over the white of the eye and can extend onto the clear cornea where it can block your vision. While the cause is unknown, it is more common in people with excess outdoor exposure to sunlight.

Photokeratitis: This is a reversible sunburn of the cornea, resulting from excessive UV-B exposure. It can be extremely painful for one to two days and result in a temporary loss of vision.

Fortunately, adequate eye protection is an effective preventative for eye damage caused by the sun’s rays. Quality sunglasses should block out 99% of both UV-A and UV-B radiation. There are other options for everyday eyewear, including UV-blocking lens materials, coatings and photochromatic lenses.

For more information and resources about safeguarding your vision from UV rays, please visit our web site at www.SpexExpressions.com/uv or call Dr. Frank or Dr. Marczewski at (815) 758-1039.

You may have seen Blinky wandering around at the recent Sycamore-DeKalb Community Expo held at the Sycamore High School Fieldhouse. He also made an appearance this past winter at the Ben Gordon Center’s Walleyball Tournament. He’s been countless other places too and you’re going to be seeing a lot of him in the upcoming months.

Make plans to attend Spex Expressions’ Trunk Show on Friday, May 20th and Saturday, May 21st. We’re celebrating Binky’s birthday and we’ll have food, refreshments, a birthday cake and prizes, not to mention fantastic deals on designer frames and other eyewear.

So, the next time you see the giant eyeball at an event in Sycamore or DeKalb, come up and say “hi!” to Blinky!

Spex Expressions is located at 2570 DeKalb Avenue in Sycamore. For more information, visit our web site at www.SpexExpressions.com. Call 815-758-1039 to schedule an appointment.

But how do iZon High Definition Lenses differ from other types of lenses? What’s the process which makes these lenses better than traditional ones? What will you experience with this new technology?

First, let’s talk about your eyes. Here are some facts you might find interesting, if almost unbelievable:

• Your eyes deliver 36,000 bits of information per hour to your brain
• They have more than 2 million working parts
• They process over 24 million images over the course of a typical lifetime
• Your vision accounts for up to 85% of the knowledge you will ever learn

Your eyes are like fingerprints — no two are alike — and even your two eyes differ from each other. They have tiny microscopic irregularities. These imperfections can affect things like depth perception, crispness, contrast, color perception and even nighttime vision.

Older measurement technology gave prescriptions that were alike for potentially thousands of people. Using iZon® eye exam technology, your eye’s unique ocular fingerprint — or iPrint™ — is created delivering a diagnosis with a level of data never available before.

Using the unique iPrint of each of your eyes, custom-created iZon High Definition Lenses are produced. Since these lenses take into consideration both traditional measurements and the unique aberrations of your eyes, your vision is truly optimized.

iZon High Resolution Lenses provide solutions for nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), mild astigmatism and prebyopia (the inability to focus on objects at all ranges of vision — near, intermediate and distant — that many people over the age of 40 suffer from).

These High Definition Lenses not only address acuity of vision (which line you can read on an eye chart), they also improve the quality of your vision. In fact, they are clinically proven to address the following common vision challenges:

• daytime glare (driving on wet pavement towards the rising or setting sun)
• nighttime glare (driving at night where glare, halos and starbursts may be a problem)
• low light (seeing dark objects such as a deer at dusk)
• low contrast (seeing a white golf ball against a light sky)
• medium contrast (reading a street sign in a shadow)
• varying distance (reading directional signage while walking through an airport)
• varying print sizes (reading type of varying sizes, colors and fonts on sign)
• nighttime driving difficulties (safety while driving at night)

Most eyeglasses are made for looking. iZon lenses are made for seeing.

Here are some common questions and answers about iZon High Definition Lenses, the examination procedure and other concerns about this new technology:

Q. Will I have to adjust to iZon Lenses and seeing things in high-definition?
A. Objects will appear clearer, sharper and with greater depth and dimension than before. As with other types of lenses, some patients may require a short adaption period.

Q. Are iZon High Definition Lenses available for contact lenses?
A. Currently, iZon Lenses are available for single vision spectacle lenses for the correction of myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and mild astigmatism, and in progressive addition spectacle lenses (multi-focal, such as bi- and tri-focal prescriptions).

Q. Do iZon High Definition Lenses look different than regular eyeglass lenses? Are they thicker?
A. No, iZon Lenses are thin and lightweight, just like other top selling brands. You won’t be able to tell the difference between iZon High Definition Lenses and traditional lenses just by looking at them. They are also UV-blocking and include premium scratch-resistant, anti-reflective and super-hydrophobic coatings.

Q. I have had LASIK or PRK surgery in the past, and I notice that my vision is not as sharp or as clear as I would like. Can iZon Lenses help me?
A. iZon Lenses do improve the overall quality of vision because wearers will see objects more clearly, sharper and with greater depth and dimension.

Q. Does the examination for customizes iZon Lenses take longer?
A. No, the exam only takes about one minute. Using the special, Z-View® Aberrometer, we use the latest wavefront technology to measure the microscopic irregularities in your eyes. The process is fully automated and a highly precise measurement — your eyes’ iPrint — is completed in approximately one minute.

Q. What is wavefront technology?
A. Wavefront technology was originally utilized in the field of astronomy to aid in reducing aberrations or imperfections in the multiple lenses of telescopes, including the Hubble Telescope. The Z-View Aberrometer provides an accurate assessment of the optical imperfections found in the entire eye’s optical system.

Q. How does the Z-View Aberrometer map my eye? Will I feel anything during the exam?
A. The procedure sends a safe, painless, invisible, low-power light into the retina of your eye. The beam is reflected back out of the eye and is analyzed. Your custom iPrint is created from this analysis, showing the unique aberrations of the eye that can have an impact on the quality of your vision.

Still have questions about iZon High Definition Lenses or being able to see better than you have ever been able to before? Call Spex Expressions at 815-758-1039 or visit our web site at www.SpexExpressions.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter, where we share eye care news, discuss new technologies and our patients even share their experiences. We hope to see you soon.