Good to know

• Always use both hands to put on or take off your glasses.
• When not wearing your glasses, keep them in a spectacle case. If possible, choose a hard spectacle case, which withstands lighter pressure. Make sure that the spectacle case fits the size of the frame, i.e. it is not too small, which also deforms the frames, or too large.
• Use special maintenance equipment available at the oculist's or dishwashing liquid and lukewarm water to clean your spectacles and soft kitchen paper for drying.
• Keep your spectacles away from heat (e.g. stoves, fireplaces, ovens, and boiling water). Heat damages the surface layers!
• Do not wear your spectacles in the sauna!
• Do not leave your spectacles in direct sunlight (on the dashboard in the car, on the windowsill).
• Do not use aerosols (e.g. hair spray) - they may damage the surface layers of the glasses.
• Check the screws of the frames of your spectacles every once in a while.
• Contact the oculist's if you need to have your spectacles bent or the screws tightened.
• When placing your spectacles on a hard surface, make sure the glasses are facing up.
• When cleaning your spectacles without using a liquid, use a special cleaning cloth instead of a coarse tissue, as the latter will also cause damage to the surface layer in time.
• The spectacle case must be cleaned every once in a while, the cloth used for cleaning must be washed, and both should be replaced after a while.
• It is not recommended to place your spectacles in the case with the chain attached, as this may cause scratching of the glasses. If you do place you spectacles in the case with the chain attached, make sure the chain is not in contact with the glasses.
• If the fit of the frame changes in the course of wearing, you should have the frame bent at the oculist's.
• Rimless spectacles are the thinnest by structure and need to be used with a bit more attention. Make sure you use both hands to put on and take off your glasses!

• Make sure you know how to insert and remove contact lenses.
• Do not mix up the right and left lens.
• Always wash and dry your hands before handling contact lenses.
• Insert your lenses while sitting at a desk.
• Before inserting the lenses, take a look in the mirror. If your eyes are red or stinging, wear glasses for a day. If the redness and stinging fails to pass in a few days, contact a oculist or optometrist.
• Remove the lenses if you feel friction or if your eyes are stinging, red, or tired. You should always have the container and lens liquid with you.
• Do not sleep wearing your lenses.
• Do not share your lenses with a friend.
• Put your eye make-up on after inserting the lenses and remove the lenses after removing make-up.
• Be careful with aerosols (e.g. hair spray) - they precipitate on the surface of lenses and damage the lenses.
• Do not go swimming wearing your lenses - salty and chlorous water damage lenses.
• Do not take a shower wearing your contact lenses.
• Contact lenses must feel comfortable from the first moment they are inserted. Should you feel friction or scratching, remove the lens from your eye, clean it and reinsert it.
• The working life of contact lenses begins at the moment you open the packaging.
• Contact lenses may only be cleaned with lens maintenance liquid!
• Do not reuse lens liquid, i.e. each time you take the lenses out of the container, throw away the liquid and put new liquid into the container when you put back the lenses. Make sure there is enough lens liquid in the container.
• Do not wash the container with tap water, replace the container in every 3 months instead!

• Progressive glasses take approximately 3 to 5 weeks to get used to.
• Getting used to the glasses is different for everyone, it is individual.
• Immediately after receiving the glasses, you should test, following the instructions provided by a specialist, which distances are comfortable/clear to view through each part of the glasses.
• It would be good to start wearing the glasses in a familiar environment. It would be more comfortable to start practicing wearing the new glasses in the morning, not in the middle of the day. This makes adjusting to the new and sharper vision easier.
• Your vision may be wavy at first and the floor may appear to be closer, but this is not necessarily the case.
• Progressive glasses are ideal for the people reaching the age of presbyopia.
• It is important to keep in mind that you will have to start moving your head more.
• Looking through the lower part of the glasses, you must be careful when walking on the stairs, stepping off a buss/streetcar, etc. Simply put - viewing far-away distances through the reading section.
• Far-away and reading distances are the most comfortable to view.
• The middle section of the glasses, i.e. the channel section may be too narrow for working for prolonged periods of time. For example, when working at a computer, the whole surface of the screen may not be of uniform sharpness. Interview type glasses are ideal for working at a computer.
• Separate single-vision reading glasses must be recommended to those reading lying on their back due to the uncomfortable head position.
• Peripheral areas are contortion areas, through which the vision is not clear.
• It must be kept in mind that progressive glasses allow you to see to all required distances, but not through each part of the glasses. There is a certain section for each distance.
• The strength changes from top to bottom in the glasses by small steps, which ensures correct correction for each different distance.
• It is easier to practice and more comfortable to see when the openings for the glasses is larger and rounder, but they should not be too large in order to prevent areas of the glasses where the transition of the strengths does not reach.
• Progressive glasses are ideal for those who need to use glasses of different strengths for viewing near and distant objects.
• The chosen frame must be as comfortable as possible and fit in the correct position from the very beginning.
• If progressive glasses still do not feel comfortable when you have been wearing them for a while, it may be necessary to readjust the frame.
• Progressive glasses enable you to see everything using just one pair of glasses.
• Progressive glasses are worn by millions of people all over the world who are very happy with them.
• Severe dizziness and headaches are symptoms in the case of which you should immediately contact us again.
• One of the most frequent problems is that the wearers do not want to get used to moving their heads more when wearing the glasses.

A dry eye is a set or symptoms, which arises due to insufficient moisturizing of the cornea. This is usually caused by decreased generation of tear fluid or poor quality of tears.

Most people only suffer from mild complaints. The eyes seem more tired in the evening, this is the only symptom observed. In the case of a more severe dryness, redness and tear flow may occur. In such cases, an ophthalmologist should be contacted to avoid formation of an inflammation, which may develop into damage to the cornea.

Most patients suffering from dry eye syndrome cannot be successfully cured. It is, however, possible to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling in the eyes and prevent more serious damages to the cornea. The condition is usually harmless, albeit bothersome, which must be treated for the whole lifetime.

Symptoms:

• irritation of eyes – red, dry, itchy, or watery eyes;
• tiredness of eyes;
• focusing difficulties;
• headaches.

The symptoms may be passing or chronically repetitive. If the amount of tear fluid decreases further, the dry eye may cause conjunctivitis (inflammation of the conjunctiva), corneal ulcer, or other more serious eye diseases. An ophthalmologist should be contacted if the symptoms persist for more than a week or appear as soon as you start working at a computer.

Causes:

• looking at the computer screen or TV continuously, in which case one tends to forget to blink;
• generation of tears decreases and their quality deteriorates as a person ages;
• too dry or air conditioned air in work rooms;
• using contact lenses. The feeling of dryness may increase in the case of incorrect maintenance of the lenses, using the lenses after the expiry date, etc.
• hormonal changes may cause decreased secretion of tears in the case of women;
• feeling of dryness in the eyes may occur in the case of rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, and other systemic diseases, it can also be related to other eye diseases and the condition after an eye surgery;
• dry eyes may be a side-effect of many medicinal products, such as nose unblocking medicines, painkillers, sedatives, birth control.

How to alleviate or prevent the dry eye syndrome?

• Blink your eyes regularly and as frequently as possible (those watching the computer screen or TV blink twice less frequently than other people);
• if your eyes are stinging or feel dry, use preservative-free artificial tears and lubricants (Suitable options include Aquify drops, Tears Naturale drops. Visine-type eye-drops are not suitable, as they cause addiction in the case of regular use and irreversible damage to the mucosa in the worst case.);
• place the computer screen 10-20° below the direct line of vision of your eyes – this way the eye is more covered with the eyelid and tear fluid does not evaporate from the surface of the cornea too quickly;
• use spectacle lenses with anti-reflective coating and of special colour, if necessary, even if you normally wear contact lenses;
• choose a computer screen with higher resolution – the better the resolution of the picture, the less stress on the eyes;
• use moderate lighting for working at a computer and prevent the light coming through the window reflecting back from the computer screen;
• avoid strong contrasts between the computer screen and the work room;
• make sure that the air humidity level in the work room is within normal range;

If you feel that you are suffering from the complaints described above, come to Norman-Optika – we will check the condition of your eyes and advise you what to do.

Quick tiring of eyes, stinging, and headaches accompanying continuous work at a computer are, on the one side, caused by prolonged exertion of the eyes without breaks, frequent changing of the viewing distance (viewing the screen, the keyboard, documents on the desk), excessive brightness of the screen, etc.

On the other hand, such complaints are certainly also influenced by the position of the screen with respect to person working at the computer, the locations of lights (general as well as spot lighting), the position of the workstation with respect to windows, the colour of the walls, etc.

Continuous computer work stresses the vision organ, which results in overburdening ocular muscles and consequent tiredness. Eyes do not get tired because of the electromagnetic fields or radiations of the computer, but due to overburdening. The potential reasons for this include: incorrigible vision, sitting too far away from the screen, personality traits (inability to continuously concentrate on the screen).

Advice for computer users:

• Use proper lighting.
• Overburdening of the eyes is often caused by excessive tiredness and bright indoor light. When working at a computer, the light surrounding you should be a half less bright than what is used in most offices. Remove the light from outside by using a curtain or a blind. Use a few light bulbs or tubular fluorescent lamps to illuminate the workstation or use light bulbs and lamps of lower intensity. If possible, place your monitor so that the window is located on the side, behind or in front of it.
• Minimalize blinding light.
• Light from the walls and glossy surfaces (including the light reflecting back from the screen) may put additional stress on the eyes. You can install an anti-reflective monitor and, if possible, paint white walls in a bit darker shade. Get a pair of spectacles with anti-reflective coating. They eliminate the so-called “light noise”.
• Adjust the brightness of your computer screen.
• Try to tune it so that it is similar to the surrounding light by using the buttons on the monitor. When adjusting, view a text on white background, if it seems like a bright source of light, the brightness is too high, if it appears dull and gray, the brightness is too low. Also, make sure that the text size and colour are optimal for your eyes.
• Blink more frequently.
• Blinking is very important for computer users, it moisturizes your eyes and prevents dryness and irritation of the eyes. Computer users blink about five times less than others. As a result of failure to blink, the layer of tears dries from the surface of the eyes quickly, causing dry eyes.

A suitable position for a computer user: