For the announcement you’ve all been waiting for….

Bright Eyes is Moving! (but not far!)

In January 2012, Bright Eyes will be moving around the corner to a larger office space! As many of you know, we are a tiny office with just one exam room, which means it can be difficult to get an appointment sometimes. There is so much we want to do, but just didn’t have the space to do it. We love Westchase and didn’t want to go far!  So, we are staying in West Park Village – in the same “L-shaped” building – but moving to the Linebaugh Avenue side. The new address will be 9912 West Linebaugh Avenue, Tampa, FL 33626.  We will be in between the Sylvan Learning Center and West Park Dental Associates, just around the corner from the Starbucks.  Here is the foursquare venue.

Our new office will have 2 exam rooms and a much larger Vision Therapy room. We will have a greater variety of eyeglasses and sunglasses (including some new frame lines!), and we will have more places to sit comfortably. Our goal has always been to provide quality eye care and excellent customer service, but wait time for appointments can get long, especially if we have any eye care emergencies. I think this change will help us serve more patients with less wait time!

It is not much to look at now….

But the new Bright Eyes office will be bigger, bigger, and more organized than ever before. Stay tuned for pictures of our progress, and look for our Grand Opening in 2012!!

- Cristina Bonilla-Warford, Office Manager

Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

It is not everyday that a television news crew comes to Bright Eyes, so when we were given the opportunity we were very excited. We got to the office extra early and made sure everything was ready. The subject was children’s vision and the importance of annual eye exams for kids. Children can have a variety of vision problems that interfere with learning, including difficulty seeing clearly, problems focusing and moving their eyes, and difficulty making sense of what they see. For some children, glasses are sufficient to solve their visual problem. For others, Vision Therapy,  a series of therapeutic activities, is necessary to ensure the eyes are working properly.

The video also goes into detail about the excellent program called the Eye Pledge that for every Eye Pledge taken, VSP Vision Care will donate an eye exam and a new pair of glasses to a child served by the Boys and Girls Club – up to 50,ooo children. The Eye Pledge is easy to take and doesn’t cost you a thing! Take the Eye Pledge now and help a child. One of the great things about it is that you can specify if you want the donation to go to a child from a Boys and Girls Club in your area or to an area with the greatest need.

To read more and take the Eye Pledge visit: http://www.seemuchmore.com/take-the-pledge

Has your child had an eye exam? They should be a standard part of the Back to School Checklist! If you have questions about children’s vision or children’s eye care, do not hesitate to call us at 813-792-0637.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

Although this article by the American Optometric Association was released in 2009, its message is still pertinent and important, especially during this time of the year. While parents are getting their kids prepared for a new school year by purchasing supplies and meeting new teachers, it might be easy to overlook their child’s vision. In fact, a shocking 86% of children start school without ever having an eye examination. This is an alarmingly high figure given the strong correlation between vision and learning.

At Bright Eyes, we advise the eye exam schedule that is recommended by the AOA: first eye exam at 6 months,  3 years, and right before school.  This allows your eye doctor to identify and treat any vision related problems before they start to adversely affect your child’s learning and development.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that the screenings used at school are not designed to replace a full, comprehensive eye exam. These screenings offer very little beyond determining clarity of vision. A full eye examination will further test how well the eyes work together in unison at tasks such as reading and computer work, as well as assess the health of the entire eye, inside and out.

The article also suggests signs for parents to look for in their child’s vision between eye exams. The AOA recommends that parents contact their eye doctor if their child frequently:

1. Loses place while reading
2. Avoids close work
3. Tends to rub eyes
4. Has headaches
5. Turns or tilts head
6. Makes frequent reversals when reading or writing
7. Uses finger to maintain place when reading
8. Omits or confuses small words when reading
9. Consistently performs below potential
10. Struggles to complete homework
11. Squints while reading or watching television
12. Has behavioral problems
13. Holds reading material closer than normal

So as the school year begins, if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s vision, do not hesitate to call our office and schedule an appointment.

All the best,

Justin Schoonover

Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

The American Optometric Association recently held a School Readiness Summit: Focus on Vision in which doctors, nurses, educators and advocates for children’s health gathered to examine learning-related vision issues that are keeping children from achieving in the classroom. This summit was created to address the concerns that our current system is flawed and a policy shift is needed. The problem is that currently, the U.S. educational system and some health care providers rely heavily on vision screenings to discover the kids that need comprehensive exams. These screenings do catch some types of vision problems but they can miss about 75% of those children that have learning-related vision problems. Detecting these vision problems is very important as “studies show that much of what children learn comes though vision, and undetected and untreated eye and vision disorders in children, such as amblyopia and strabismus, can result in vision loss, additional costly treatments, delayed reading and poorer outcomes in school.”

The take-home statement that the summit produced is that comprehensive eye exams must serve as the foundation to determine school readiness in school-aged children. Another important point established at this meeting is the establishment of the link between healthy vision and classroom learning.

This historic summit is an important step in ensuring that children receive the proper detection and treatment of vision problems before they become detrimental to their learning. Here at Bright Eyes Family Vision Care, we are excited to see these changes being made, since it has been our goal from the beginning to not only catch vision problems at an early stage, evidenced by the InfantSEE program that we offer that provides free eye exams to infants between the age of 6 months and 1 year of age, but to also treat certain types of problems through our extensive one-on-one vision therapy program.

If you have any questions regarding the InfantSEE program, vision therapy program, or would like to schedule a comprehensive eye exam for your child before they start school, give our office a call or come in to schedule.

All the best,

Justin Schoonover, CPO

Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

It isn’t too late to late to get the back to school exams in. If you have a family eye doctor, schedule an appointment with them. If you don’t have an eye doctor, or one that doesn’t see children, you can call 813-792-0637 and we can schedule an appointment for you at Bright Eyes or recommend a doctor in your area for the country.

Be Well!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

Welcome to the first Bright Eyes News poll! If this works, and is interesting, We’ll have more in the future.

Please take a moment to select your answer! Thanks!

[polldaddy poll=1137003]

This video is not new, but it shows some of important things that can be found during an eye exam, even if you don’t think anything is wrong.

Be Well!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

This is an absolutely must-see video for parents who have questions about why an comprehensive evaluation is important early in life. It also explains the differences between a comprehensive eye exam and vision screening.

If you want more great information about this, check out the Vision First Foundation.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.

Happy New Year!

Now that the cookies have been eaten and the champagne has been toasted, many of us now turn our attention on how to improve our health. Some people will make resolutions to lose weight, others will think about exercising more and, others will try to make time for pleasure reading.

Because your eyes and vision are vital to most, if not all, of the resolutions that people make, I have compiled a list of New Year’s Resolutions for Your Eyes and Vision:

The Top Ten 2008 Eye and Vision New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Make sure that you have your eyes examined with dilation of the pupils as recommended by your doctor.

Vision changes can be gradual and you many not realize you are having a problem. Many conditions, such as glaucoma, start with no symptoms. Also, diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure are frequently first detected with a dilated eye exam.

2. If you have children, make sure you have their eyes examined.

The recommended age for the first eye exam is 6 months. Children who are in school should have their eyes examined every year (and school and pediatrician vision screenings do not count).

3. If you should be wearing glasses for driving and you’re not, just do it.

This is especially true at night, when vision is more difficult and bright lights make it harder to see.

4. If you smoke, quit.

It has been clearly established that smoking can increase the risk of development of conditions such as cataracts and macular degeneration. Seek professional help to quit if needed.

5. Make sure your eyes have adequate UV protection.

Your regular glasses, sunglasses ,and contacts can all have UV protection. Limiting UV exposure reduces the risk of skin cancer of the eyelids, cataracts, and other conditions.

6. Wear your contact lenses no longer than recommended. If you are sleeping in your contacts and your eye doctor did not explicitly fit you in contacts for this purpose, stop.

If you abuse contact lenses, you put yourself at risk of eye infections that are not only painful but also have the potential to result in permanent vision loss.

7. Never “top off” contact lens solutions. Use only the solutions recommended for you.

Never save solution for the next day and add a little more to fill the case. Start each night with fresh solution. The majority of contact serious lens-related infections comes from not taking care of them as recommended. Contacts are medical devices that only work well if they are cleaned regularly and appropriately.

8. Change your contact lens case monthly.

Contact lens cases can contain micro-organisms that are very difficult to remove. The best remedy is to start fresh with a new case. If you need a new one, stop by our office for a free one.

9. When you work at the computer, read, or play handheld games, take visual breaks to limit eyestrain.

Remember the “20/20/20 Rule”: Look up from your work every 20 minutes to an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This is can keep you more comfortable and efficient. If you spend a significant amount of time on the computer, glasses specifically designed for the computer can reduce or eliminate eyestrain as well improve comfort of the neck.

10. Ask your eye doctor if nutritional supplements are a good idea for you and your eyes

There have been scientific studies that have shown that certain supplements can be appropriate for certain eye conditions, such as macular degeneration. They might be right for you, but they should only be of high quality and should be recommended by a doctor who knows about your overall health and the medications that you take.

After reading this list of New Years Resolutions, pass it onto a friend or family member you care about. If you need help with any of these, feel free to call 813-792-0637 or stop by the office.

Be Well in 2008!

Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD
Bright Eyes Family Vision Care
Located in the Westchase area of Tampa.