Vision Care

Vision Blurry? Will Progressive Lenses help? Dr. Michelle Provides the Answer in this Month’s VSP Envision Newsletter “Ask the Eye Doc” Column 

Read all of this month’s VSP EnVision Newsletter. To subscribe to the monthly newsletter, go here.

Having problems seeing at night? Dr. Michelle of Urban Optiques discusses how to improve your night vision in this month’s VSP EnVision Newsletter.

Read all of this month’s VSP EnVision Newsletter. To subscribe to the monthly newsletter, go here.

Should You Be Worried About Seeing Dark Spots or “Floaters” in Your Vision? Dr. Michelle Answers the Question in this Month’s VSP EnVision Newsletter “Ask the Eye Doc” Feature.

What does it mean if you are experiencing dark spots or “floaters” in your vision?

That was the question posed in this month’s “Ask The Eye Doctor” column in the VSP EnVision Newsletter:

Q:  What Are Those Dark Spots I’m Seeing in My Eyes?

While “floaters” are actually quite common, you’ll want to read Dr. Michelle’s entire explanation in the VSP EnVision Newsletter to understand why spots or floaters develop, the current treatments available for them, and when a visual disturbance warrants a trip to the optometrist.

You can view the complete response here.

Enter To Win One of Ten $2,500 “Gear Up Grants” from Urban Optiques Contact Lens Partner CooperVision!

As any parent knows, equipment — whether for team athletics, individual sports or even music — is expensive.  And in tougher economic times, it can be harder than ever to outfit a team or child with the necessary gear to participate.

So when our contact lens rep from CooperVision stopped by this week and told us about a new grant program CooperVision is sponsoring as part of their “Life is a Contact Sport” initiative, we were instantly on-board with promoting it — especially since we know that so many of our clients have children who participate in athletics, group sports and band.

How It Works

Here’s how it works:  CooperVision’s “Life is a Contact Sport” program will award ten $2,500 dollar “Gear Up Grants” to help winning teams, individual athletes/performers or communities “gear up” this season. The winners decide what gear they need.

To enter, all you have to do is have your teen register and submit their story in video or a series of photos on the CooperVision “Life is a Contact Sport” Gear Up Grant website. The subject of the story should be why your teen, their team, or the community should win a Gear Up Grant and what they would do with the money if they win.

Entries have to be submitted by September 30, 2010 and judging to choose the top 30 finalists takes place in early October.  The finalists will then be posted to the “Life is A Contact Sport” website on October 18th, and visitors to the site will then get to vote on who they think should win the 10 grants.

Winners will be announced in early December.

What’s especially cool about this promotion is that CooperVision made it very inclusive: The Gear Up Grants don’t just apply to athletics — but other activities such as music or dance. So if you need to outfit your child or community band with instruments, you can apply for the grant as well.

Bonus! Prescription Sports Eyewear

Plus, any team member or performer who wears contact lenses or glasses will also be outfitted with CooperVision contact lenses for a full year. Submitting your story is a snap – just visit the CooperVision website to enter.

We’d love to see one of our patients win one of these 10 grants. Time is running on out this grant cycle so if you’re ready to Gear Up, get moving with your story!

Grab the Kids and Join Urban Optiques Sunday September 26 at the DIA for a day of Education and Fun at the 15th Annual Metro Parent Education Expo. It’s FREE!

Looking for something fun, educational and best of all — FREE — to do with the family and kids on Sunday afternoon?

How about joining Urban Optiques and more than sixty of the area’s top educational leaders at the Detroit Institute of Arts for the 15th Annual Metro Parent “Education Expo?”

The event, which runs from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday, September 26,  not only provides you with free access to dozens of interactive exhibits,  but also let’s you DISCOVER the best opportunities for your children’s academic success from metro Detroit’s educational leaders! Even better, you can EXPLORE the exciting galleries at the Detroit Institute of Arts all for FREE.

The Urban Optiques Team will be on hand at booth #23 during the Metro Parent Education Expo with a cool, interactive display on optical illusions that is guaranteed to not only amaze, but also educate kids, moms and dads on how optical illusions work, and what they can tell us about our vision.

We’ll also be performing free vision screenings for the whole family, since studies show that vision problems are one of the leading reasons for poor academic performance among children and teens.

Finally, we’ll also be giving away lots of  fun door prizes for attendees who enter our special drawing.

For more information and to pre-register for this always-well-attended event, visit Metro Parent Magazine online.

Hope to see all of you there!

VSP Taps Dr. Michelle to Answer Member and Reader Vision Care Questions in New Monthly National e-Mail Newsletter

This month, VSP, the largest not-for-profit vision benefits and services company in the U.S. with more than 55 million members, debuted its newly redesigned EnVision e-mail newsletter.

Aside from an entirely new look and feel, the newsletter also features a new monthly “Ask the Eye Doc” column written by Urban Optique’s own Dr. Michelle Calder Cardwell.

Dr. Michelle will be a regular, ongoing monthly contributor to EnVision — which goes out to nearly 5 million subscribers nationally — answering questions from members and the general public around vision care.  Not only are we honored and thrilled that VSP chose Dr. Michelle as its resident vision expert, but we also love the new newsletter format and design.

To sign-up for the VSP EnVision e-mail newsletter which features articles on vision care and eyewear fashion and trends, visit the VSP website.  If you want to ask Dr. Michelle a question, you can submit your questions for the “Ask The Eye Doc” monthly feature here.

continue

A New Study Says Contact Lenses Account for More Pediatric Injuries Than Any Other Medical Device.  Find Out How To Help Your Kids Benefit from Contact Lenses without the Injury Risks.

In late July, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report that found over a two year period, emergency rooms treated more than 33,000 injuries due to contact lenses — making the eye the most frequently injured body part among children due to medical device complications.

When we saw the report and the headlines, we weren’t entirely surprised.  Children are one of the fastest growing segments of new contact lens wearers, representing more than 10% of the total population of contact lens wearers.  The growing popularity of contacts among children makes sense: Today’s new breed of soft contact lenses are more comfortable than ever and contacts are often an attractive alternative to glasses, especially for active children, ‘tweens and teens.

On the other hand, as the report from The American Academy of Pediatric’s demonstrates, contact lenses and children can also be a recipe for injury, and possibly permanent eye damage or vision loss, if parents aren’t monitoring and supervising the wear, care and replacement of lenses in their children.

According to the data, the most-frequently reported injury diagnoses due to contact lenses were corneal contusions/abrasions, conjunctivitis and hemorrhage.  The study also showed that most contact lens complications were the result of non-compliance with the  recommended wear and care regimens, as well as replacement schedules.

Misuse of contact lenses in both adults and children can lead to problems such as eye pain, bacterial infections, corneal ulcers, and even permanent vision loss or blindness.

Are Contacts and Kids a Good Mix?

Why so many problems?

continue

Little Four Eyes Offers Families with Kids in Glasses a Community for Sharing Tips, Tricks, Stories and Pictures

Children and eyeglasses can either be a match made in heaven, or pure hell, depending on your child’s attitude toward his or her eyeglasses.

Some kids love glasses.  For example, we’ve had plenty of kids come into the boutique that put the same amount of attention into choosing their eyewear that they would place on picking out a new pair of basketball shoes or their back-to-school wardrobe. One of them even knew his brands, and had a Prada frame all picked out until mom reminded him that his active lifestyle probably wasn’t the best fit for a fashion frame.

On the other hand, there are those children who despise their glasses and would rather never see the chalk board or TV than wear them. Often, it’s just a matter of finding the right frames for them, but if they’ve had a bad experience with eyeglasses in the past, you’ll have a bit of work to do convincing them to give it another shot.

Regardless of which group your child in glasses falls into, we recently came across a fantastic website for the families and friends of toddlers and children in glasses: www.LittleFourEyes.com

continue

Vision Care, Style and Made-In-Michigan Products, Business and Services Come Together at Festival in Downtown Northville

It’s official (even if it’s a little last minute): Urban Optiques has signed on as an event sponsor for the 2nd Annual “Buy Michigan Now” Festival in Downtown Northville August 6th – 8th.

The three day festival will feature sidewalk sales, live music, children’s activities, a health fair, fashion shows and plenty of Michigan-based businesses and Michigan-made products.

Urban Optiques will be actively participating during two of the three days of the festival:  On Friday August 6th we’ll be providing free vision screenings from 10 am to 5 pm to festival attendees as part of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s day-long Health Fair.

Then on Sunday we’ll be sponsoring and participating in “Style Sunday” which showcases made-in-Michigan fashion, jewelry and accessories. The day includes fashion shows from renowned Michigan designers Katerina Bocci, Project Runway finalist and co-creator of Fashion in Detroit Joe Faris, and designer Cynthia LaMaide.  We’ll be on hand at the events showing the latest in trends and styles in eyewear and sunwear.

We’re particularly excited about this sponsorship because it lets us emphasize two different parts of Urban Optiques that we think make us unique: Our focus on full scope vision care for life (helping you see) as well as stocking the area’s largest collection of premium-quality boutique and couture eyewear that get you seen.

Why “Buy Michigan Now?”

The “Buy Michigan Now” movement, spearheaded by Lisa Diggs, challenges Michigan residents and supporters of the state to factor Michigan into their daily buying decisions.  In other words, whenever possible, buy locally. Whether that’s products manufactured, grown or distributed by Michigan companies, or services provided by Michigan businesses (like Urban Optiques, for instance), the idea here is to jump start and grow the local economy by supporting businesses that keep the dollars in the state.

continue

One in Four School-Age Children Have Some Form of Vision Problems: The First Test Your Kids Take This Year Should Be Their Eye Exam.

We’re less than a month away from the beginning of the school year for most children, and while that means shopping for school supplies and back-to-school clothes (as well as maybe fitting in one last family vacation), one area that you’ll want to make sure you don’t neglect is your child’s vision.

Healthy vision and the ability to effectively learn go hand-in-hand.  If fact, when a child is experiencing difficulty in school, exhibits signs of a learning disorder or suddenly (or sometimes gradually) experiences a decline in grades, the first stop should be the eye doctor.

Since 80 percent of a child’s learning is visual, a child’s ability to clearly see the blackboard and the words on a page is critical.  Prevent Blindness America, the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization, has declared August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Awareness month in an effort to encourage parents to learn about ways they can help protect their child’s vision.

One in four school-age children and one in 20 pre-schoolers have some form of a vision problem. Sometimes the signs are immediately apparent, for example squinting, eyes crossing, holding objects near the face or sitting closer to the television than normal.  In other instances, the problems may be less recognizable and require a thorough pediatric eye exam or at least a vision screening to identify.

The Importance of Early Detection of Eye Disorders & Vision Problems

Early detection and prompt treatment of ocular disorders in children is important to avoid lifelong visual impairment. It also can improve performance in school and reduce behavioral and learning problems.

continue