To full the full selection, please visit the Cutler and Gross catalog online, or come in to the Eye Health Centres boutique.

The newest addition to the Transitions family of products – Transitions® Vantage™ lenses – are now available exclusively in grey, in a variety of materials and designs.

Transitions Vantage lenses are everyday photochromic lenses that start out virtually clear and non-polarized indoors; outdoors they not only adapt to changing light but also increase polarization as they darken, optimizing the angle at which light reaches the eyes to help control glare and light scatter.

Transitions Vantage lenses use technology that is different than conventional photochromic and polarization technologies. The photochromic dyes in Transitions Vantage lenses not only darken, but they also align to create polarization. This technology does not use a polarized film, and while the photochromic molecules still change shape when exposed to UV light, they also change alignment.

Once thought to be delayed, little Emmelyn Roettger just needed glasses

By Laura T. Coffey
TODAY.com contributor
5/1/2012 5:30:00 PM ET
Original Story at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47233631#.T6VdL-JDG7p

Emmelyn Roettger loves to write, spell and count. She’s so fascinated by science and space that she rattles off details about nebulas, black holes, Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s size with ease. She knows that another term for cell division is “mitosis,” and that caterpillars turn into butterflies through “metamorphosis.”

Emme just turned 3 in April. Her parents felt a rush of gratification and relief in March when she became the youngest U.S. member of the high-IQ society Mensa — and here’s why.

When Emme was an infant, doctors had diagnosed her with “unspecified delays” and cautioned that she might have autism. Her mom and dad were heartsick when they observed that, at 9 months old, Emme seemed to avoid eye contact and never reached for toys or tried to crawl.

Right around that time, Emme’s mother, Michelle Horne, was overcome by a hunch. She asked to have her daughter’s vision checked.

“It turned out that she just needed glasses!” recalled Horne, 41, a former sixth-grade science teacher who lives in the D.C. area. “It was so obvious that any delays she had were vision-related. From there on out, she just took off.”

A whole new world opened up to Emme after she got her first pair of glasses at 10 months.

…

Horne still remembers the first day she brought her 10-month-old daughter home wearing glasses.

“We walked past a foyer table with family photos in frames, and she physically pulled on me to stop,” Horne said. “She looked at those pictures as if she’d never seen them before.

“After that, she showed an obvious want for things — grabbing at things, trying to get to toys, fussing for things that she couldn’t reach — and she started crawling within a few weeks.”

Emme’s curiosity and verbal skills also began to explode. She began recognizing letters at 15 months old and writing them before she turned 2. Shortly after her second birthday, she could write her name, count to 100, count by 2s, 5s and 10s, and do simple math. She’d ask her parents to spend hours reading books to her, and she’d beg them to flip through her space flash cards one more time.

Read the full story at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47233631#.T6VdL-JDG7p

“Cutler and Gross is a worldwide leader in the luxury eyewear field thanks to its expression of tradition and quality. They will be able to translate in the best way the elegant and sensual style that has always characterised the world of Alberta Ferretti” declares Massimo Ferretti, president of Aeffe S.P.A. The collection is comprised of seven sunglass models which reflect the contemporary femininity and elegance that characterise the Alberta Ferretti world.

The collection will be available to buy from Alberta Ferretti and selected retail stores from June 2012.

For the 150th anniversary of the cuckoo clock we created a limited edition made by frost.

Interested in getting your own Black Forest-souvenir?

Send us an e-mail

Wayfarer Collection

The Eye Health Centres is proud to introduce the iconic Wayfarer collection from the Ray-Ban family to our extensive product line.

Leaders in fashion and attitude, Ray-Ban has a prestigious reputation for flare when it comes to eyewear.
The Wayfarer sunglasses have been a hit since 1956 and has been deemed one of the most enduring fashion icons of the 20th century.

This timeless design can be seen on almost any famous actor or musician and ranges in both frame and lens color.

How regular eye exams can save vision and lives

By Christina Kuntz, Calgary Herald April 12, 2012
Original article from http://www.calgaryherald.com/Keep/6446581/story.html

When it comes to our eyes, many of us follow the adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The problem is, our eyes may need fixing and we just don’t know it.

Dr. Diana Monea, an optometrist at Eye Health Centres in Kensington and Shawnee, says she’s seen her share of patients with serious eye conditions who didn’t realize just how serious they were.

“Over the Christmas holidays, for example, there was this young man who was playing hockey, and his girl-friend e-mails me and says he’s been noticing blurry vision in one eye over the past week, but he’s not in any pain. And he thinks, oh well, maybe his contact lens is blurry,” she says.

“It turns out that the central area of vision, the macula, had lifted off and there was a huge pile of fluid in there.

“We had to then reattach the macula and have surgery done, so that was an ocular emergency, and yet there was no pain associated with that.”

Without that pain, she says, most of us tend to ignore eye problems, which is one of the worst things we can do.

Monea says with many eye conditions or diseases, early detection is the only way to prevent further damage or loss of vision. Yet a lot of these do not have severe symptoms, so we often don’t even know there’s a problem until it’s too late.

“People have to under-stand that when you lose vision, you cannot get it back,” Monea says. “It isn’t like a tooth where you can get it pulled out and maybe get a better one than the one you started with.”

That’s why the Alberta Association of Optometrists recommends regular eye examinations, even if you’re not having any problems with your vision.

Association president and Signal Hill Eye Care optometrist Dr. Jason Pearce says we should think of it as we would a dental checkup or a physical with our family doctor.

General guidelines for eye exams are every two years for healthy adults and annually for children or adults over the age of 65. And for Albertans under the age of 19 and over the age of 65, those routine eye exams are covered under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan.

“The value of preventive care is really worth it,” Pearce says. “It’s a half-hour of your life that can prevent vision problems.”

And that’s not all it can prevent.

Pearce says the eye is a unique organ in that “it really exemplifies how everything in our body is tied together.”

So optometrists (who provide vision care such as eye exams and treatment) and ophthalmologists (who perform eye surgeries and deal with more complicated eye issues) can learn a lot about our overall health from our eyes.

“It’s not uncommon that something is picked up and sent off to ophthalmologists, and they take a look and a diagnosis for some-thing life-threatening is made, whether it be discovering a tumour or a systemic autoimmune disorder or uncovering multiple sclerosis,” says Dr. Ryan Yau, a comprehensive ophthalmologist at the Mitchell Eye Centre.

“Through the eyes, we can actually save lives indirectly through diagnosing things people have and they don’t know about.”

Monea says there are plenty of simple steps that you can take to preserve your eye health, such as wearing sun-glasses to protect your eyes from UV exposure and eating a healthy diet so they get the nutrition they need.

“Vision is one thing that’s so critical to everything you do in life, and yet so little thought about until something goes wrong,” she says.

“We only get one set of eyes that has to last us a lifetime.”

————

A deeper look

Our delicate eyes can be affected by a number of conditions, some of them serious. Here are a few of the more common ones.

Floaters

Most people will see these small floating specks at some time. According to Dr. Jason Pearce, when light hits a density in the jellylike fluid inside the eye, it casts a shadow on your retina, and you see a floating spot. “The thing with floaters is that they can be very benign and harmless, but they can also be the sign of a problem with your retina, like a retinal detachment,” he says.

So we treat floaters quite seriously until we know they’re not.”

Dry eyes

Calgary’s low humidity can result in stinging, burning or itching eyes. “For some, it’s just a minor irritation,” Pearce says, “but for others, it can be really debilitating and lead to significant pain in the eyes and even a change in vision when the dryness starts to affect the health at the front of the eye.”

Macular degeneration

An increasingly common disease among people over 50, with two different major types, it generally refers to the breakdown of the macula and affects your central vision. The result is difficulty seeing objects and colours clearly, but the change can be quite gradual, making it hard to detect. A healthy diet and lifestyle can help slow the progression of macular degeneration – if caught early.

Glaucoma

An eye disease that affects the optic nerve, glaucoma results from a buildup of pressure inside the eye, affecting peripheral vision. Like macular degeneration, it’s common in older adults and is very difficult to notice on your own until the advanced stages.

“With glaucoma, often you have no pain at all,” says Dr. Diana Monea. But if detected early, she says, further vision loss can be prevented.

Sudden changes

Seek care right away for any sudden, dramatic vision changes, such as a black curtain over part of your vision, sudden double vision or a change in one of your pupil sizes.

“Things like that can be a sign of a stroke,” says Pearce.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original Story at: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Keep/6446581/story.html

Children’s vision problems can often be treated if caught in time

By Christina Kuntz, Calgary Herald April 12, 2012
Original article at http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Getting+early+start+care+worth+look/6446588/story.html

It’s never too early to start thinking about eye health.

Dr. Diana Monea says she recommends a child’s first eye examination take place at six months of age.

“The reason why we want to see a child at six months is we want to rule out any eye disease and, though it’s rare, retinoblastoma, which is a tumour in the retina, and it can be life-threatening if it’s not picked up early enough,” says the optometrist.

After that, Monea suggests a checkup at least every two years until the age of five. And for school-age children, she says annual exams are a good idea, as a child’s vision can change as he or she grows.

“Children may have learning disabilities and yet we never consider vision because it isn’t something you can see the child has a problem with,” Monea says. “And until it’s corrected, the child himself might not know.”

Ophthalmologist Dr. Ryan Yau says the early detection of eye problems is even more critical for children than adults, as their visual system is still forming. He says the condition commonly known as “lazy eye” is just one ex-ample of how permanent damage can be prevented if the condition is caught at a young age.

“Children can have two types of lazy eyes,” Yau says. “One type is very easy to see: the eye that wanders in or the eye that wanders out. However, there’s a more dangerous type of lazy eye where one eye is out of focus.

“You can’t really identify it because the child has one good eye and can function completely fine with that one good eye. . . .

But, if under the age of six that child has been going about out of focus, there’s a neural component that happens. That brain starts to ignore that eye, so no matter what you do after the age of six, it’s too late. The neural pathways have formed. You can put all the glasses and surgery you want on that eye and it won’t help it.”

With early detection, ophthalmologists can take steps to help the brain re-establish connections to the “bad eye,” but he stresses that “the window of opportunity is before the age of six.”

That’s why parents are encouraged to take their children in for annual eye exams, which are covered by Alberta Health Care insurance plan up to the age of 19. They can also take advantage of a program called Eye See, Eye Learn, in which Alberta Education works closely with the Alberta Association of Optometrists to ensure that children starting school receive proper eye care.

“It’s a program that targets kindergarten students, and the goal there is to have every student have an eye exam as part of their formal learning process,” explains association president Dr. Jason Pearce. “We know there are children who have vision issues who go undiagnosed and, as a result, may have learning issues, and so it’s a great program in that it gets children in to have their eyes checked.

“And if they do need help in terms of glasses, the program provides glasses for those children at no cost as well, so there are no barriers to accessing the care.”

To find out more about the Eye See, Eye Learn program in Alberta, as well as get plenty of information on children’s eye health, visit the Alberta Association of Optometrists’ website at optometrists.ab.ca.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original article at http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Getting+early+start+care+worth+look/6446588/story.html

Coach Eyewear

Coach Eyewear

Under collaboration with Coach, the American company known for its bags and lifestyle accessories, Marchon Eyewear launches Coach Eyewear and Sunwear. The new line offers clean, modern shapes, classic styling and distinctive Coach treatments inspired by modern American design and the fundamental principles of sophistication, elegance and enduring quality.

The ophthalmic line, which consists of 16 styles in zyl and metal, including titanium, features technically advanced mounting systems. The Coach Sunwear collection contains 24 styles in a variety of shapes, ranging from the popular aviator to a glamorous shield.

The sunglasses incorporate elements reflected in Coach’s seasonal collections and proprietary Coach hardware, including signature grommets, logo treatments and custom zyls.

“Coach is synonymous with clarity of design and detailed, quality craftsmanship. Signature is now bringing that same

long-standing reputation for craftsmanship, quality and fashion into the eyewear market,” says Bernie Weiss, Signature’s CEO.

Frames are constructed of pure titanium and Italian zyl. Each style has a signature stainless-steel rivet embedded into the temple tip. The sunwear collection offers modern renditions of classic ovals and aviators. Lenses are made of glass, feature backside AR coatings and are available in bottle green, khaki, slate and tobacco. The khaki and slate lenses have photochromic tints.

good day
SUNSHINE

by Giselle Wedemire, Lifestyle Editor | April 5, 2012
Original story at: http://www.theweal.com/2012/04/05/hipster-glasses-here-to-stay/

The old adage of wearing your heart on your sleeve has given way to wearing your personality on the bridge of your nose with the immensely popular ‘hipster glasses’.

Iconic and easily identifiable, hipster specs are the eyewear trend du jour, and are generally characterized by over-sized, thick black-rimmed frames. Originally popular in the 1960s, the bold eyewear look was famously popularized by artistic types such as Buddy Holly and Woody Allen, but fell to the wayside during the 1990s when sleeker designs were coveted.

According to Dr. Diana Monea of Kensington’s Eye Health Centre, the reason the geek chic trend has seen its ups and downs is because framewear trends cycle every five years or so. Now that the bold and artsy look of the hipster glasses is back and receiving high demand, Monea said that more and more design houses are happily obliging by producing fabulously modified versions of classic, retro looks.

“We’re all going back to that retro look because it’s exciting, and people are looking for something different,” Monea said.

With the rise in popularity of retro fashions, new life has been breathed into the statement-making spectacles. For ACAD student Adam Ross, his bold frames help to visually communicate a bit of his personality because they are, “Strong, bold and confident— and a little bit aggressive.”

This non-verbal communication of his personality, he said, is crucial when attending an art school where everybody is constantly trying to differentiate and express themselves in various ways.

The apparent ubiquity of the style makes it hard to believe that this style conveys individuality and elements of one’s personality, especially when a pair of retro glasses can be spotted virtually anywhere you look nowadays. The style’s widespread popularity is an irksome feature for ACAD student TJ Heaton, who hopes that this trend dies down sometime soon.

“Hopefully this trend won’t last much longer so I can be cool again,” Heaton said. “Right now, when I’m with a big group of friends, I feel like I’m on a fucking football team or something because we all look alike.”

While this trend may cycle every five years, Monea speculated that the style could very well be here to stay as it has combined a strong, classic style with modified and modern embellishments.

The “nerd” glasses of today are not identical to their originals because design houses have readapted to the current market by, “Adding some flavour and vivacity” to the iconic frames.

For 2012, anticipated updates for the retro eyeglass look include bright pops of tangerine and embellishments made of wood and buffalo horn.

These are intended to extend the trend’s shelf life.

The booming market for these distinctive frames shows it is unlikely the demand will subside any time soon.

Original story at: http://www.theweal.com/2012/04/05/hipster-glasses-here-to-stay/