Clear vision starts with a good look at the details.

Hours in front of screens reduce how often we blink, which dries out the eyes and can cause burning, blurred vision, and headaches by the end of the day. This is sometimes called digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome.

A simple habit helps: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This gives the focusing muscles inside the eye a break and encourages a full, natural blink. Screen height, glare, and text size also matter — screens set slightly below eye level and away from direct light are easier on the eyes over a full day.

If strain, dryness, or headaches persist despite these adjustments, it's worth having your prescription and eye surface checked, since uncorrected focusing issues are a common hidden cause.

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is becoming more common in children and tends to progress year over year during school age. Beyond needing stronger glasses, higher levels of myopia later in life are linked to greater risk of certain eye conditions.

Myopia control aims to slow that progression rather than just correcting it. Options can include specially designed contact lenses or glasses lenses, low-dose atropine eye drops, and encouraging more time outdoors, which research links to slower myopia progression in children.

Dr. Q offers Stellest lenses from Essilor, a glasses lens purpose-built for myopia control in children, and has seen good success with them in practice — many young patients show a real slowdown in progression while wearing a normal-looking pair of glasses day to day.

Not every child is a candidate for every option, and the right approach depends on age, prescription, and how quickly vision has been changing. An annual exam is the best way to track this over time and decide if control measures make sense.

Diabetes can affect the small blood vessels at the back of the eye, a condition called diabetic retinopathy. In its early stages, it typically causes no symptoms at all, which is why screening can't wait for vision to change.

A dilated eye exam allows a clear view of the retina, where early signs like small areas of bleeding or swelling can be spotted well before they affect sight. Caught early, many changes can be monitored or treated to prevent vision loss.

Anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes should plan on a dilated eye exam at least once a year, even with well-controlled blood sugar and no noticeable vision problems.

Glaucoma is a group of conditions that gradually damage the optic nerve, often linked to pressure inside the eye. It's sometimes called the "silent thief of sight" because it usually causes no pain and no noticeable symptoms until peripheral vision has already been lost — vision loss from glaucoma cannot be reversed, only slowed.

Detection combines several tools in one visit: measuring eye pressure, examining the optic nerve directly, and imaging technology like OCT to check the thickness of the nerve fibre layer for changes years before they'd show up on a standard vision test. Visual field testing maps out peripheral vision to catch early blind spots.

Treatment usually starts with daily prescription eye drops to lower eye pressure, which is effective for most patients when used consistently. When drops aren't enough, options like laser treatment or surgery can help — Dr. Q monitors glaucoma risk and manages drop therapy at both locations, with OCT imaging available at Ritson Optical, and refers to an ophthalmologist for laser or surgical treatment when it's needed.

Dry eye happens when the eyes don't produce enough tears, or when tears evaporate too quickly because of a poor-quality tear film. Common triggers include screen use, dry indoor air, certain medications, and age-related changes to the oil glands along the eyelid.

Symptoms can be surprising: stinging, grittiness, and even watery eyes, which happens when the eye overproduces watery tears to compensate for a lack of the oily layer that keeps tears from evaporating.

Relief often starts with preservative-free artificial tears, a humidifier, and warm compresses to support the eyelid glands. Persistent or worsening symptoms deserve an exam, since dry eye has several distinct causes that each respond to different treatment.

Dark lenses alone don't guarantee UV protection — a very dark lens without proper filtering can actually be worse, since it causes the pupil to widen while still letting UV light through. Look for a label confirming 100% UVA/UVB protection, sometimes marked as UV400.

Wraparound or close-fitting styles offer extra protection from light entering around the edges. Polarized lenses cut glare from flat surfaces like water, snow, and roads, which is a comfort feature rather than a UV protection feature.

UV exposure is cumulative, contributing over time to conditions like cataracts and growths on the eye's surface, so daily sunglasses use is worth the habit, not just on obviously bright days.

A cataract is a clouding of the eye's natural lens, usually developing slowly with age. Early on it can blur or dim vision, wash out colours, and make night driving or glare from headlights noticeably harder — often before it shows up as a change on a vision chart.

Cataracts are picked up during a comprehensive eye exam, typically through a dilated look at the lens along with vision testing. Once found, most cataracts are simply monitored on a regular schedule until they start meaningfully affecting daily activities like reading, driving, or working — not every cataract needs immediate action.

When a cataract does interfere enough with daily life, the treatment is a short outpatient surgery that removes the clouded lens and replaces it with a clear artificial one — one of the most common and successful procedures in medicine. Dr. Q monitors cataracts at both Garden Optical and Ritson Optical and, when the time is right, refers patients to a trusted ophthalmology surgeon for the procedure itself, then provides pre- and post-operative care close to home.

General guidance calls for a baby's first eye exam around 6 months old, another around age 3, and one before starting school — vision problems at these ages often have no obvious signs, since young children assume however they see is normal.

School-age children and adults with no known issues are generally advised to have an eye exam every one to two years, while adults over 65, contact lens wearers, and anyone with diabetes or a family history of eye disease usually benefit from annual exams.

Sudden changes — flashes of light, a shower of new floaters, a curtain-like shadow in your vision, or sudden pain and redness — are never a "wait and see" situation and warrant a same-week visit.