The Nielsen Eye Center Hosts Live LASIK Seminar with Special Guest Glen Ordway of WEEI Sports Radio

This October The Nielsen Eye Center held a very special Live LASIK Seminar featuring WEEI Sport’s Radio’s Glen Ordway. Interested LASIK candidates came to The Nielsen Eye Center’s office in Quincy to meet the Doctor, view a live LASIK surgery, and talk with past LASIK patient Glen Ordway. In addition to enjoy food and tours of The Nielsen Eye Center’s state of the art facilities and surgical center, attendees received free LASIK eye screenings and won a number of raffle prizes. Dr. Nielsen also gave an informational presentation on LASIK and allowed the attendees to have a Q&A session with the Live LASIK patient, Marie, before and after her surgery. After having her LASIK procedure, which took less than 10 minutes, Marie walked out of surgery and spent about 10 minutes talking with Dr. Nielsen and the attendees about her amazing new vision!

Live LASIK Seminar’s are always free and open to the public. If you or a loved one are interested in LASIK or want to find out more about our Live LASIK Seminars at The Nielsen Eye Center call 877-373-2020, or visit us at http://www.golasik.net/.

The Nielsen Eye Center Named National Center of Excellence

The Nielsen Eye Center has been named a National Center of Excellence by Bausch & Lomb and Alcon Worldwide Laboratories. Representatives from both Bausch & Lomb and Alcon have presented Dr. Steven A. Nielsen of The Nielsen Eye Center with separate National Center of Excellence Awards for his exceptional work with multifocal intraocular lens implants for cataract patients. Multifocal lenses help cataract patients to see up close, intermediate and far away without the use of glasses.

The Nielsen Eye Center is a full service ophthalmic practice serving the Greater Boston area, specializing in LASIK, Refractive & Cataract surgery. Dr. Steven A. Nielsen is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist who completed his residency at the world renowned Doheny Eye Institute. Dr. Nielsen was involved in the original FDA LASIK trials and has since performed over 20,000 refractive surgeries. Dr. Nielsen is the most experienced multi-focal lens surgeon north of New York. The Nielsen Eye Center offers the most advanced technological available and strives to provide each and every patient with compassionate, individualized care.

To learn more about obtaining freedom from glasses for both distance and reading vision through multi-focal lenses, visit http://www.golasik.net/ or call 877-373-2020.

Do you or someone you know have diabetes? November is Diabetic Eye Disease Month so now is the time to get proactive and schedule your dilated eye exam. To learn more about diabetes and eye care please visit www.golasik.net. To find out more about Diabetic Eye Disease Month visit http://www.preventblindness.org/news/observe.html#November.

What You Should Know About Dry Eyes

Overview

Dry eyes are a common problem that many people experience. Dry eyes result from insufficient amount of tears, which provide nutrients and moisture to the eyes. These tears allow a person to achieve clear vision and they also maintain the health of the front structure of the eyes. The tear film also provides nutrients to fight off infection and wash away dirt and debris that enters the eye. The tear film consists of three layers: the top lipid layer, middle aqueous layer, and bottom mucin layer. A deficiently in any or all of these layers can cause a person to have blurred vision and dry eye symptoms.


Symptoms

Some of the typical symptoms of dry eyes are redness, burning, inflammation and watering eyes. When the eyes are not moist, the body can overcompensate and produce too many tears. Another symptom that some patients may experience is having a sensation of sand within the eye. When the tear film is abnormal, the underlying epithelium can become pitted. This pitted layer does not give the eyelid a smooth layer to blink against. So a patient feel like there is something within the eye based on this irregularity.


Causes

There are multiple causes of dry eyes. The main causes are as follows:

- Age: As we get older our eyes produce fewer tears. This is more common in females secondary to fluctuations in hormone levels and menopause.

- Environment: Air conditioning, hot air heat, dust, and dry climates can cause dry eyes.

- Smoke: Specifically, cigarette smokes dries out ones eyes.

- Medications: Anti-histamines, anti-depressants, decongestants, birth control pills and some hypertension medications can cause dryness.

- Contact lens wear: contacts can dry the eyes out by decreasing the normal wetting ability of the eyes.


Treatment

The first line of treatment for dry eyes is starting a moisturizing drop. The patient will begin administering one drop of moisturizer to each eye up to six times a day. If there is a moderate level of dryness a more viscous gel or ointment may be used before bedtime.
Dryness can also be relieved when adding an omega-3 supplement or flaxseed oil. This helps in rebuilding the lipid layer of the tear film.

If a patient does not improve with the about treatment they will be started on Restasis or have punctal plugs placed within their eyelids. Restasis is a drop that is administered twice a day. It helps the patient produce more of their natural tears and decreased inflammation. Restasis can take up to sixty days to begin working effectively. Punctal plugs come in a collagen form and a permanent silicone form. These plugs block the tears from draining off the eye. The process itself takes less then a minute an eye is done within the office.

Please contact your eye care provider to find out if you have dry eyes and what treatment will work best for you. To find out more about dry eye treatment at The Nielsen Eye Center or to schedule an appointment, please call 877-373-2020 or go to www.golasik.net.