FAQ

Imagine not being able to recognise the faces of your loved ones……. What about not being able to read your watch, enjoy reading that great book or being able to drive… Degeneration of the macular, which is the part of the retina is responsible for the sharp, central vision needed to read or drive. Because the macula primarily is affected in Maculae Degeneration, central vision loss may occur. Wet and Dry Forms of Macular Degeneration Macular degeneration is diagnosed as either dry (non-neovascular) or wet (neovascular). Neovascular refers to growth of new blood vessels in an area, such as the macular, where they are not supposed to be. The dry form is more common than the wet, with about 85-90 percent of Macular Degeneration patients diagnosed with dry AMD. The wet form of the disease usually leads to more serious vision loss.

We often here our new patients say how thorough our eye examination is compared to their previous experiences. If you have had your ocular pressures measured in the past, you will be pleased to know that we have got a new piece of equipment that does not involve putting eye drops or using the "puff" of air. A new CT (Eye) Scan is also available for early detection of glaucoma.

We test sight like a normal optometrist does - with normal optometric tests (health of the eyes, sight and optical error), but we also look into vision skills which is different to sight. These skills affect how we learn at school and perform with studying or on the computer or bookwork. The vision of what you see is the interpretation that goes back to the brain. Behavioural Optometry gets its name from kids in particular who get frustrated with learning, likely because of undetected vision skills problem, and end up acting up in class or at home.

Glasses that are prescribed for corrective measures - like optical errors such as short sightedness, long sightedness and astigmatism can make you more dependant on them. But glasses that we're prescribing for training purposes recalibrate your eyes and train your eyes so that eventually you won't need them. You'll most likely get worse if your eyes are under strain without your reading glasses which often happens when kids get lazy with wearing them because the initial problems seem to be gone.

No. Even though a majority of our patients are referred in, a referral is not required. Any member of the family is able to see us "off the street''.

Most of the children who come here are referred here from someone who's already picked up some sort of problem, so a lot of the kids who come here will go away with some sort of enhancement reading glasses - training or otherwise. Additionally to that because we're looking at overall visual efficiency and performance and not just clarity of sight, we're going to pick up a lot more things that can be helped along the way. We prescribe training lenses, preventative lenses; performance enhancement lenses not just the traditional optical compensatory lenses. In fact we will prescribe training lenses at a rate greater than 10 times optical compensation lenses. We will also prescribe a lot more glasses than anyone else for the purpose of preventing eyestrain adaptations getting any worse.

Remember you are trying to change pre learned habits or skills never learnt. Just like if you want to get good at soccer you should expose your brain to the learning of those skills with a soccer ball daily and if you really want to improve enormously than it should be twice a day. Same with vision training. Generally if doing once per day expect to spend 20 minutes. But it is best to spend 2-3 minutes per activity several times a day if you can.

We treat adult's visual systems the same as kids'. That is, with a great emphasis on visual efficiency, comfort and performance as specified with our guarantee for adults. Traditionally what happens is after we fix the kids problems the parents usually realise they have components of those same difficulties or want the most efficient lens design choice for their performance needs. In the same way that we set a standard for ourselves in diagnosing and solving at the highest levels we also set the same standard with the products we source for your spectacles.

There is a plethora of choices out there in both frame and lens design choices. The quality (optical distortions, clarity, durability, strength) is greatly variable. We apply our strict quality control to all products and if a particular product does not meet those specifications we stop supplying it. We never source our products on price and profit margins. We have been known to send back whole ranges of frames and refuse to stock them ever again. We guarantee you the finest quality spectacles on the market today.

Your health fund will allow you to claim a proportion of the glasses or contact lenses. Medicare will rebate you for part of the consultations (up to 85%).

Once diligent vision training is commenced improvements are usually noticed within the first two to three weeks gradually increasing until the end of the block of training. If several blocks of training are required then of course the specific areas which that block are addressing are the ones which improve with the remaining difficulties continuing to present until they are trained.

Generally it is the parent who will observe the improvements. You'll see increased attention span, ability to self correct, fewer mistakes, just generally more attention to detail and recognition of that detail. The child will simply notice it is "easier". Only about 25% of the kids will be already suffering with difficulty seeing the words on the board or in the book or having eyestrain headaches/sore eyes. Now these children will notice specifically all those symptoms disappeared. Can you imagine how this makes them feel? It's like a whole new world is opened to them.

The visual system needs to be maintained as the child is developing because as stresses get put onto the eyes they can get worse again and they might need help again. If we can maintain an efficient system without strain then they won't need them when they're older - until they reach 45 and then join every other human being who loses their focus with age.

Yes. Assuming everything is under control all children need to be reviewed yearly as their visual systems are very fragile and vulnerable to breakdown. Also of course the demand on their eyes for near concentration is increasing day by day until they finish studying. Adult visual systems are more set in their ways so two to three yearly reviews are required there.

We certainly carry a suitable range of sunglasses that are " Prescription- Ready. " If you select a sunglass frame that has a steep curve and is the very "wrapped", we can offer you some specific type of lenses that will reduce associated optical distortions. When it comes to over-sized sunglasses, we often offer you to try contact lenses in conjunction with your sunnies.

At GlamourEyes, we carefully choose the selection of frames that we carry depending on the workmanship and material used to make the frames. We prefer to stock frames that has a story behind it. This could be because of the way its made or the inspiration in its design. We believe that this results in our patients wearing a more durable, comfortable and stylish eyepiece.