Many of my patients struggle with wearing I make up all day. They put on make up in the morning,  but it starts to run down their faces by afternoon. The problem is redness, irritation, and watering.  It's the ingredients in the eye makeup: mascara, eye shadow, and eyeliner that are irritating to the eyes. 

Did you know that women use an average of nine personal care products every day?  And, the beauty industry in the United States is highly unregulated. There has not been a new law past in the United States since 1938. As of today, there are only 11 ingredients banned from beauty products made in the United States. Whereas in Europe, there are over 1100 ingredients banned from their ingredient lists.

When I discuss changing makeup products with my patients, I am often met with resist...

I am often asked whether or not a patient's eyes are too dry for contact lens wear.  Sometimes the answer is yes, but this is rarer than you might think.

There have been so many advancements in contact lens technology in the past decade that lenses have become more and more comfortable.  And, more powers of prescriptions are available in contact lens form.  Often, I can fit most patients (even those with dry eyes) in a contact lens for part-time wear.

Contact lenses offer a great way to correct vision.  In some cases, people see better with their contact lenses than they do their glasses.  This is often the case in people with high prescriptions.  Glasses will often restrict a patient's peripheral vision when the lenses are very thick or have a lot of astigmatism.  

 Daily Disposa...

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Whether you are a fan of this holiday or not, chances are that you are going to be going out in some capacity or another.  

I'd like to show you a few tips on how to make your eyes look bold and beautiful.  The thing about your eyes is: THEY ARE THE WINDOW TO YOUR SOUL.

We all know this.  Big, bright eyes are a sign of beauty. 

Unfortunately, in our society right now, the trend in beauty is to cover up your lids with lots of black eyeliner as close to the eye itself as possible and glue on long, long false lashes.  These two trends are detrimental to the overall health of your eyes in the long run.

For the past two weeks, we have talked about self-care routines to help you take the best care of your eyes.  I advocate for doing a routine tw...

It's the Christmas season as I write this.  We are all running around trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on our list.  We want to make sure the gift is personal and not gonna end up in the re-gifting bin. 

I have a friend that loves candles.  She has them lit all over her house.  It always smells like a bakery at her house.  When you go from room to room there is a different cookie or food scented candle in each one.  There is usually apple, sugar cookie, and gingerbread.  No wonder, I'm always hungry when I'm over there. 

The week of Thanksgiving, I made a list of the ultimate gift-giving guide for 2019.  I put on it some of the best eye care products I've come across.  I feel like I have tried them all of the eye treatment products at this point.  I have listed over a half do...

This past weekend, I was able to attend a great event for dry eye practitioners in Central California. Some of the industry's greatest thought leaders were there including Scott Schachter, OD, Peter Pham, MD, Tim Trinh, OD, and Lisa Wahl, OD.

It was really great to reconnect with some of my colleagues and people who have influenced my career greatly.  I was re-introduced to a product that I have been using in my office for about a year now. It is called Zocular.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I often recommend using a lid and lash cleanser.  Lid and lash cleanser is an important step in my 4 step process to alleviate your dry eye symptoms. Please check out my book, Alleviate Dry Eye, to learn more about this process.

Zocular is a gentle but powerful lid ...

My patients will sometimes tell me that they can’t wear contact lenses because their eyes are too dry.  There have been tons of innovations in both contact lenses and contact lens care in recent years.  For the most part, the idea that you can't wear contact lenses when you have dry eyes is a myth.  

Sometimes, not being able to wear contact lenses will be a short period of time while you are undergoing dry eye treatment is true for a short while.  But, my goal is always to find a way to get my patients back into contact lenses or have some kind of refractive surgery, if they are a good candidate - read this blog here.  Some patients do need to take breaks from their contact lenses because of years of abuse they have put their eyes through.  These are the three worst things patients can d...

Tip 1: Revitalize your Eyes

Tip 1: Dry Eye Treatment should include  Eye Lid Treatment

If you have seen an eye doctor for your dry eye complaints in the last 3 years, then probably your doctor has explained to you the benefits of using a prescription dry eye medication.  In my book, Alleviate Dry Eye, I advocate a 4 step treatment process.  All four arms of the treatment need to be addressed for your personalized treatment plant to be successful.

The four parts of a complete dry eye treatment plan are to tackle: inflammation, biofilm, obstruction, and tear film.  Prescription dry eye medications reduce the inflammation component of your dry eye symptoms.  To see the chart of all 4 parts of the In-office and Prescription Treatment options, please look at Table 2.1 in the book, or download the workbook that accompanies the book for free here.  You will find the table on page ...