Mothers are such an important figure in our lives.  I am so glad we have a whole day once a year to celebrate them.  Traditionally, this is a time to pamper your mother and show her your love and appreciation.

As you know, I advocate pampering your eyes and showing them love and appreciation every day.  So, I have put together a couple of gift sets that your mom could use to show her eyes some love and appreciation as well.  

They each make great gifts, and you can decide which set is right for your kind of mom.  And, don't forget, you can always give yourself a gift as well.

SET #1) Clean Mom

This is the perfect gift for a Mom who suffers from dry eyes and doesn't know where to start.  The products we put in and around our eyes contribute to the comfort of them.

The Clean Makeup Manu...

I have something special to announce.  One of my favorite Clean beauty brands, Twenty/Twenty Beauty has just released their first CLEAN mascara. It is called Clean Sweep Mascara. 

Why do you need a CLEAN Mascara?

Mascara is one of women's favorite beauty products.  It is reported that the average American woman applies mascara 9 times a week.  That's more than once a day.  And, once it is on the lashes, generally, women leave it on all day long.  

Women love for mascara to make their lashes look darker, longer, and for the look to last all day.  When you have something so close to your eyes all day long, you need to make sure it's healthy for your eyes.  You don't want the ingredients to be toxic. And, you don't want the mascara to flake off into your eyes.

What is CLEAN Beauty?

In ...

Dry eye disease is multifactorial. This means that it comes from many areas in our body and in your environment. There are several factors that worsen dry eye disease that we cannot change. These are gender and age. Females over the age of 40 are more susceptible to having dry eye disease than others. Unfortunately, we cannot change these factors. 

What's the best approach to dry eye treatment? 

There are many other dry eye risk factors that can be changed. The best plan to treating dry eye disease is taking a multifactorial approach. In my own patients, I recommend taking 3 three pillar approach to treating dry eye disease. These pillars are: 

E: Eyes – customizing the 4-simple steps of daily eye care for the patients lifestyle. This daily regimen of eye care brings down the overall in...

One of the biggest complaints my dry eye patients talk to me about is redness.  Across the board, no matter their age or gender, patients hate having red eyes.  It's just embarrassing.  And, in truth, other people do notice when your eyes are red.  

Let's face it, the eyes are the windows to your soul.  And although rose colored glasses may give you a sunnier disposition, rose colored eyes do not.  There is no beauty in red eyes.  And, we don't like the story that red eyes tend to relate about activities we may have engaged in the night before.

Instead let's concentrate on how to make your dry eyes white again. This week especially, only a few days before Easter, you don't want to be mistaken for an Easter bunny.

Why are your eyes red when they're dry?

Well, dry eye is driven by inf...

The cause of Dry Eye Disease is multifactorial.  This means that the factors that make it worse come from all around us.  It is our lifestyle, or the things you're, or are not, doing on a daily basis that can either improve or hinder your dry eye symptoms. 

Last month, I did a webinar with Scope Eyecare to explore how to deal with Dry Eye Disease while you're working.  Your computer and other digital devices can play a big role in how dry your eyes feel. Download the guide to Digital Eye Strain Relief here.

In this webinar, we took a deep dive into:

• How to know if you have dry eyes. Yes, there are tons of tests your doctor can do, but you can do this quick test to find out for yourself.
• Blink regularly and intentionally.  Close your eyes and intentionally squeeze the lids closed for
...

A lot of patients come to my office because their dry eyes are affecting their ability to work.  Some days your eyes may be bothering you so much that you just can't continue to work for another minute. What are you going to do now?

 I don't know if you know this, but I spend a lot of time on the computer myself.  I wrote a book a few years ago.  I write articles for Optometric journals and prepare lectures to present to colleagues.  I also have a blog and a website. All of these things can cause me to be on the computer into the wee hours. Often my eyes own eyes are tired, and I feel like I just can't keep going.

I've found some things that really help.  I have done a number of blogs to help you adjust your workstation and help you keep working.  And, I've prepared a Guide to help you...

Next week is the official start of Spring. Woohoo!

I couldn't wait for this day to get here.  As a dry eye sufferer myself, I have a harder time dealing with artificial heat and that lack of moisture in the air than I do with pollen.

However, if you're an allergy sufferer, you may be hiding inside today. I want to go over three ways to help you wear your contact lenses during the spring season. The three ways to continue wearing contact lenses even though it's allergy season are: prevent, cleanse and dispose.

No. 1) Prevent

Prevent the pollen from getting in your eyes. You could do this as simply as wearing sunglasses.  This would mean that any time you're outdoors, you wear sunglasses.  Utilizing a style with side shields would prevent wind, pollen, and dust from getting into your eye...

Happy Mari Gras!

It's Mardi Gras season here in Louisiana.  And, Mardi Gras season gives the folks here in Louisiana one more thing to celebrate.  There are parties, parades, masquerade balls, and lots of fun to be had.  Everyone likes to get dressed up for it and wear beaded necklaces and fun masks. 

Since there is a lot of masquerading going on, it's the perfect time to talk about an eye condition that often masquerades as dry eyes - seasonal allergies. Or, I should say that allergies sometimes aren't the cause of your symptoms and it's really dry eye that's the underlying problem.

My patients often come in to see me and talk to me about symptoms of redness and watering. Then, they down play the symptoms by stating, "It's just my allergies". That's how it masquerades. A symptom that...

This week, I'm going to talk to you about something that probably, you never thought someone from Louisiana would teach you about.  It's something called snow blindness.  It can occur when you go outdoors and you enjoy yourself for the day when there's snow on the ground and you didn't protect your eyes properly.

When we go outdoors on a cold day I'm sure you've put on your long Johns, so  your legs will be nice and warm. You put on your winter boots, you put on your coat, you put on your hood, you put on your gloves, and finally you go outside and you enjoy yourself all day. You've protected your body, but you forgot one crucial thing because maybe it was also cloudy.  You didn't wear eye protection with an Ultra Violet (UV) blocker. 

 And the next day, when you wake up, your eyes are r...

February is the coldest month of the year in most parts of the US. It's colder than January or December, so it's important to talk about how to protect your eyes from the cold winter air.

Dry eyes are already sensitive to temperature changes and wind.  The cold air really irritates dry eyes, and it usually makes them water. That's your body's protective mechanism to defend against the irritant of the cold.  The best way to protect your eyes while outdoors during the winter months is to wear sunglasses or goggle that will cover your eyes from cold or wind.

Once you're back indoors, you can also rinse them with preservative-free artificial tears to clear the irritants.  I previously covered everything your need to know about the best sunglasses when you have dry eyes here.  Let's discuss...