It’s Diabetes Awareness Week, and we want to share some useful information with you all about how diabetes can affect the eyes. Diabetes is a serious chronic health condition which occurs when there is too much glucose in the blood. Over time high glucose levels can damage the body’s blood vessels and nerves, leading to long term health complications such ...
I have previously discussed the macula and its critical role in us achieving clear, sharp vision. Today I want to fill you in on a critical area of the macula that is essential for good macular health. Macular pigment is a protective layer, which acts as a filter for light before it reaches ...
The recent changes to our social habits with the COVID pandemic has meant we are spending more time than ever reading and doing more detailed near work while cooped up inside.
What you don’t realise is that all the fine details you see are the work of an amazing part of our ...
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting in perspective many aspects of our lives, like work balance, time spent with our family, unnecessary consumerism, and a critical part of our lives: our health.
More than ever, it is essential to stay healthy, eat whole foods, fresh fruits, vegetables and supplement focusing on boosting our immune system.
It is true that given COVID-19 is a ...
As an optometrist, I’m trained to detect and treat vision and eye health problems daily. When someone asks about which eye problems are the most common I instantly start talking about glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts and have previously often not really given the 'basic' problems of myopia, hyperopia and ...
At Envision Optical, we have been offering orthokeratology or Ortho-K vision correction therapy for over 15 years.
Hundreds of Gold Coast residents have benefited from the freedom of seeing clearly all day without glasses or contact lenses. When optometrist Andrew Bowden started the treatment, it was only available for low to moderate degrees ...
World Glaucoma Awareness Week runs this month from March 10-16 so at Envision Optical this month we are concentrating our eye health awareness message on the very common eye sight threatening disease: glaucoma. Glaucoma is the leading cause of avoidable blindness in Australia, affecting over 300 000 people, and it its estimated that 50% of sufferers are yet to be ...
My kids love reading and they are developing a mild addiction to iPad time even though it is carefully managed. I am really conscious of reducing this close work exposure because we have a strong family history of myopia, which means they are more at risk.
Myopia or short sightedness is one of the most common vision disorders with approximately 30% ...
Envision Optical is excited to have renowned local Gold Coast Behavioural Optometrist, Alice Forsyth join the team on 4th December. Having worked with Andrew at the old Brian Job Optical group in the late 1990’s, it is great to have Alice join our Gold Coast optometry group where she will bring over 20 years of experience in behavioural optometry care ...
Envision Optical is excited to now have access to the newly launched MiSight Myopia Control Soft Daily Disposable Contact Lens. This technology was featured in our July 5 blog where we discussed the newly published results showing a 59% reduction in the progression rate of myopia in wearers over 3 years.
The lenses are daily disposables offering the lowest safety risks ...
Keratoconus is a condition affecting the cornea, the front clear part of the eye, in which the cornea weakens and becomes distorted into a cone shape. This affects the focussing ability of the cornea and leads to visual distortion and blur. Patients will commonly notice ”ghosting” blur around objects and have particular trouble focussing at night. Keratoconus is typically a ...
July 9-16 is National Diabetes Awareness Week 2017, and in our Gold Coast and Tweed Heads optometry practices we see many patients each week with diabetes. It is very important that patients are aware of the potential sight threatening changes that occur with diabetes and the importance of eye exams to prevent complications from diabetes.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common ...
This week is Macular Degeneration Awareness Week 2017. This month I have focused all of our blogs on this condition which is the leading cause of blindness in Australia in over 50’s. I am really passionate about macular health because my Nana suffered from severe wet macular degeneration in the mid 1990’s, right when ...
We are excited to share with you the updated look we have created recently for our Nerang branch. The practice has been in that location for 10 years and was looking a bit tired, so we have given it a modern facelift and think it looks great! As part of the refurbishment we have also updated the brands on offer ...
Could performing a particular breathing technique help dry eye sufferers produce more tears? New research published in Ocular Surface suggests that reduced tear secretion may be partly caused by an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system (made up of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems). The sympathetic system is responsible for regulating cardiovascular functions while the parasympathetic system controls the relaxation process.
Twenty Japanese ...
One of the biggest eye health concerns I observed during 2016 was the increasing incidence of complaints from patients regarding Dry Eyes. I was frustrated that for many patients, their experience of dry eye care was “here, try these eye drops, and if they don’t seem to work we’ll try some others”. The reality is far ...
Welcome to 2017! I cannot believe another year has just come and gone.
I am not much for new years resolutions however I do believe that the beginning of every year is an opportune time to contemplate what could be done better in 2017.
As an Optometrist I often hear that from a general health perspective our eyes are something that get ...
We know what happens to our skin, teeth, and our joints as we age, but have you ever wondered what happens to our eyes?
Today when talking about ageing, I am going to specifically talk about the 60 plus age group. There are 4 prevalent eye conditions to look out for from the age of 60 onwards – Glaucoma, age-related macular ...
Mark began his Optical Career in 1994, initially as an Optical Mechanic. In 2000 Mark qualified as a Dispensing Optician(Optical Dispenser), in the UK, and was made a ‘Fellow of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians’, and registered with The general Optical Council, Harley Street, London.
Following further qualification in Contact lens fitting, Mark opened his own Optical practice, which he successfully ran, ...
This weekend just past over 250 optometrists flocked to the Gold Coast, from countries including England, Spain, China, USA, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Dubai, India, and of course Australia, to attend the Orthokeratology Society of Oceania and International Academy of Orthokeratology joint conference on the latest science in ortho-k and myopia control. Envision Optical optometrists Andrew Bowden, Madeleine Thompson and ...
Salma has worked for a public health eye care organisation for 8 years where her main role was providing eye care services within Aboriginal community controlled settings. She also has experience in the development and implementation of eye care education within various international projects.
Her work began with the Brian Holden Vision Institute, in 2008, in the public health division ...
The Gold Coast is a great place to live with amazing weather and a beautiful coastline. Whilst reading an article recently specifically talking about Surfers Eye or pterygium as they are more commonly known, I thought it was a good time with summer just around the corner to remind everyone (especially surfers) the importance of UV protection.
An outdoor lifestyle exposes ...
With increasing use of tablets, phones and digital devices on the Gold Coast much like the rest of the world, the incidence of treating children for vision problems has been noticeably increasing at Envision Optical over the last 5 years. There have been many recent articles published about the rising incidence of Myopia in children world wide, in most western ...
This week is Macular Degeneration Awareness Week (24-30 May) with the key message, “How’s Your Macula?“. Macular degeneration is Australia’s leading cause of severe vision loss and blindness. There is no cure. Did you know that over 1.5 million Australians over 50 are living with some evidence of macular degeneration? That’s a lot of people. One in ...
Myopia is growing rapidly amongst children. Exacerbating the problem is the amount of time that kids are spending in front of small screens such as mobile devices and tablets, a lifestyle situation that is only predicted to grow.
According to Good Vision for Life: “the prevalence among ...
Despite all the evidence of harm over the last 30 years, smoking is still quite prevalent on the Gold Coast. We have educated our Gold Coast patients at Envision Optical for many years on the increased risk of cataracts and macular degeneration with smoking. Obviously smoking is not good for your baby if you are pregnant.
Need another reason to avoid ...
The surface of the eye, and tear film, naturally maintains a delicate balance to ensure good eye health and vision. The tear film also protects the surface of the eye from damage, which in modern society includes environmental toxins, air-conditioning, prolonged computer use, a poor diet, and systemic diseases and medications.
Being constantly exposed to these threats, ...
At Envision Optical we are committed to enhancing the lives of patients on the Gold Coast by providing individual vision and eye health solutions. We want every person to experience clear vision, and many of our Gold Coast patients have complex vision and eye problems that they have not been able to have resolved in the mass produced chain store ...
The macular pigment layer is a critical layer in the retina at the back of our eyes, that plays a key role in protecting the light sensitive cells as well as regulating quality of vision. It is essential for long term healthy eyes and clear vision. You can ensure you have healthy macular pigment ...
It is with great sadness we learned of the passing of Professor Brien Holden on Monday night, a highly-respected leader for research and the development of new and improving vision care technology and products, and a leader in developing humanitarian eye programmes around the world. His dedication and contributions to improving the quality of life for people across the world was well recognised, ...
Plenty of Gold Coast folk are wearing contact lenses to ensure clear vision to enjoy our outdoor lifestyle. Looking after your contact lenses is important for your eye health and best possible vision. We’ve put together 5 tips for soft contact lens wearers.
See our youTube video on “How to Put in Soft ...
The 2015 International Cornea and Contact Lens Congress was held on the Gold Coast from May 22-24. Envision Optical were well represented, with Andrew, Celia and Shonit there to learn all the latest in contact lenses and corneal related topics. They have shared with us a little of their experience from the event.
“The Contact Lens and Corneal Society ...
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and its progression as an eye disease can be significantly impacted upon by the diet and nutrients a person ingests every day. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), found that a specific formulation of antioxidants and zinc showed up to 30% reduction in the rate of progression to advanced AMD and its ...
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the 2015 Australian Vision Convention at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was a postcard perfect sunny Gold Coast weekend, so fortunately there were some great lectures to compensate for spending the weekend in a windowless room. It was also great to catch up with optometry ...
As an optometrist, I’m trained to detect and treat vision and eye health problems on a daily basis. When someone asks about which eye problems are the most common I instantly start talking about glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts, and often don’t really give the “basic” problems of myopia, hyperopia and presbyopia much thought, because these are “just” ...
Melissa Mudge started with us as an Optical Dispensing Branch Manager back in 2005 and celebrates 10 years this April, a milestone we are proud to share with you all.
Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Health Science from Griffith University in 1997, beginning her career in optics in 1998 with a large national chain. She completed her Optical Dispensing ...
At Envision Optical we believe in helping those members of our local and global community who are genuinely disadvantaged, and aim to positively impact on their lives through our commitment to clear vision for all.
As a result of this, Envision Optical has three preferred charity groups that it supports. All are sight orientated, and have alternately a local, ...
With all the conversations we have had with patients recently around glaucoma, one question comes up many times for those not familiar with the tests we do to detect and monitor this condition. That question is related to the types of tests we undertake. A visual field test is carried out by our optometrists ...
All of us here at Envision Optical would like to wish our Optometrist and Orthokeratologist, Shonit, a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Tomorrow (Saturday) is Shonit’s birthday, so if you are visiting our practice at the Tweed Health for Everyone Superclinic today, Shonit will be there, so please be sure to wish him a wonderful day for tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Shonit!
Kieran Knight started with us as an Optical Assistant back in March 2010 straight out of high school. Now he is celebrating 5 years with us! Kieran has recently finished his studies and is a Licensed Optical Dispenser. This means that he has specialised training and all the technical knowledge involved in lenses, frames and detailed optical problem solving. ...
It is with pleasure we have Rebecca Neale of Food Fitness Wellness joining us again in March to share her experience with Envision Optical and how it relates to her journey. Today, Rebecca talks about the MPOD test she had with us and how she connected this experience to a fantastic recipe of hers for a Green ...
March 8-15 is World Glaucoma Week and in the lead up we would like to share with you how glaucoma and its progression as an eye disease can be significantly impacted upon by your diet. Multiple studies have found several vitamins and minerals seem to have a protective role in aiding the prevention of significant ...
This February we welcomed Optometrist/Orthokeratologist, Shonit Jagmohan to the Envision Optical team.
Shonit is one of the leading Orthokeratologists in Australia, fitting a wide scope of Orthokeratology including short-sighted, long-sighted, astigmatism and vision for over 40 years old. He is passionate about Orthokeratology and contact lens fitting, with his specialty in myopia control which slows children and young adults ...
Melissa Forbes is the newest addition to our team at Envision Optical, joining us as an Optical Assistant. Melissa comes from a strong background in luxury and jewellery retail, including as a trainer in diamond and gemstone knowledge. She has a love of animals which led her to gain qualifications in Animals Studies and she is a supporter ...
Our practice at Treetops Plaza in Burleigh Waters recently welcomed Jennifer Bryant to the Envision Optical team as an Optical Dispenser. Jenni comes from a strong background in management and optical dispensing, both here on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne.
Outside of work, Jenni is a lover of fashion, travel and spending time with her family. Jenni has travelled extensively ...
At Envision Optical we are all about prevention and the best way to look after your eyes so you reduce the likelihood of deterioration in your vision and eye health. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the areas we focus on and aim to educate our patients here on the Gold Coast how they can ...
As an independent, locally owned business we like to support other local small businesses and those in the community. As part of our ongoing commitment to provide quality service and educate our patients about how to live a healthy lifestyle to promote the best possible vision and eye care, we have partnered with Rebecca Neale of Food Fitness ...
Here on the Gold Coast, we have many patients asking about using e-readers and digital tablets, and how they may affect their eyes. We are also asked whether they should be used at night before going to sleep. To explain this, we need to understand the devices. E-readers and digital tablets have an elevated intensity of blue light emissions. A while ...
This January, we welcomed Glen McCallum to the Envision Optical team as an Optical Assistant. Glen has moved back to the Gold Coast after 14 years living in Adelaide. His background is in hotel management, as Gaming Manager and Coordinator, for a group of hotels for the time he was in Adelaide. This experience enabled him to develop ...
A Big Milestone with Envision Optical
A big milestone snuck by us in December, with our Optical Assistant at Tweed Heads and Treetop, Ann Tree, celebrating 10 years with the company. Ann joined the Tweed Heads practice in 2004 after many years working within the field of dentistry. She has been a fantastic part of our team and has an excellent ...
Tomorrow one of our Optometrists, Paul who works from our Tweed Heads South practice, is celebrating his birthday. We wish him a fantastic day and all our best wishes for the day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL!
All of us here at Envision Optical would like to wish our wonderful Optical Assistant, Ruby, a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Today is Ruby’s birthday, so if you are visiting our practice at the Tweed Health for Everyone Superclinic today, Ruby will be there, so please be sure to wish her a wonderful day. Happy Birthday Ruby!
The New Year often brings great change and this is certainly the case for us here at Envision Optical with recent news that Katrina will be leaving our team at the end of January. While the news was a bit of a shock and was certainly not what I was hoping to hear, I was happy that she has ...
The end of 2014 is this Wednesday, so if you have not claimed on glasses from your health fund already this year, you will lose part or all of your yearly entitlement at the end of the year.
Remember, most funds operate on a calendar year, so you have one day left to act to replace ...
Are you stuck for a gift idea this Christmas? Or simply want to give a gift that will make a big difference in someone’s life. At Envision Optical we are passionate about supporting Optometry Giving Sight, and helping to make a difference to people with preventative blindness all around the world.
In El Salvador, there ...
What an exciting time it was for October and our participation in the yearly World Sight Day Challenge. For the month of October we had a combination of raffles for designer sunglasses and a lolly guessing competition at each practice.
Congratulations to Trudi Henson, Monique McKenna, Sheba Ghaznavi and Bree Newton-Comerford who each guessed the ...
What fun it is to see all the Halloween decorations and costumes in Gold Coast shops these past few weeks. Halloween is this Friday and we’ve got some Eye Safety Tips for you to keep in mind.
When people think of Bono from U2, they are likely to have an image of a man wearing sunglasses in their head. While musicians are known to wear sunglasses all the time, they usually do it for the ‘rock star’ look!
Last week, Bono disclosed on The Graham Norton Show there was a medical reason he always wore ...
Envision Optical is taking part in the World Sight Day Challenge during October to help give the gift of vision to people in areas of need.
Now in its 7th year, the World Sight Day Challenge is the largest annual global fundraising campaign to address avoidable blindness caused by uncorrected refractive error – simply the need for an ...
A long weekend is almost upon us here on the Gold Coast! All of our practices will be closed on Monday, and it got us thinking of what events on the Gold Coast there are this weekend we might want to go to. There are so many exciting events on with the Gold Coast Pet & Animal Expo one of two we wanted to ...
The global population is ageing and is due to accelerate in the coming decades. Did you know by 2050, of all the people living in Australia 50% will be over 45 years old?
As we talked about in our digital lifestyle post last week, there has been a substantial increase in the usage ...
In the past you would use your far distance (over 5m) for driving and things such as projector screens. Your digital distance (40cm-3m) for watching TV and your near distance (30-40cm) for writing and reading. In the modern digital era, we have dramatically increased the use of the digital distance. We now use this intermediate ...
Did you know the leading cause of blindness and severe vision loss in Australia is macular disease? This includes diabetic eye disease and macular degeneration. For both young and old Australians, these diseases take away the sight of those affected.
For the past four years, the Macular Disease Foundation Australia has held the annual mEYE World Photographic Competition. The ...
Have a think about how much time you spend indoors. We spend time indoors at home, as well as so many of us are inside for work. Did you know that people spend up to 90% of their time indoors? That’s a lot of hours. With all this time inside with living and ...
Did you know you can book your appointment online with Envision Optical? It’s as simple as clicking on the Book Online icon and choosing an Optometrist and the time and day to suit.
Our patients here on the Gold Coast were telling us they were finding their schedules were quite busy and sometimes they wanted to make an ...
This week we’re celebrating Seniors week on the Gold Coast. We see plenty of Gold Coast Seniors at Envision Optical with a wide variety of eye problems, so I thought I’d highlight some of the most common eye diseases we see in our optometry clinics across the Gold Coast at Nerang, Burleigh Heads, Burleigh Waters ...
Envision Optical has four locations: James St Burleigh Heads, MyCentre Nerang, Tweed Health for Everyone Superclinic in Tweed Heads and Treetops Plaza in Burleigh Waters.
Our Burleigh Waters location at Treetops Plaza is at Shop 19 and we have been there for many years. If you are a patient at this practice, it is likely are you seeing ...
Eye health changes are common complications of diabetes. These changes can include cataracts and bleeding in the back of the eye, diabetic retinopathy, as well as secondary glaucoma. Diabetic retinopathy is a series of changes in the blood vessels of the retina at the back of the eye that can cause bleeding and fluid leakage/swelling. This can cause sight threatening ...
Today I will discuss the detection and common treatments for diabetic eye disease. Apart from some of the vision symptoms, which I listed in last weeks post, diabetic retinopathy is usually asymptomatic and will only be detected by a thorough eye examination. We carefully examine the retina through dilated pupils to check for any blood ...
Sjogren’s syndrome (pronounced SHOW-grins), is an autoimmune disease that attacks and atrophies glands responsible for keeping the eyes, mouth and other parts of the body moist and lubricated. The most common patient group to suffer from the disease is women >60.
There is a primary form of Sjogren’s where the condition exists on its own, and there is ...
Eye health changes are common complications of diabetes. These changes can include cataracts and bleeding in the back of the eye, diabetic retinopathy, as well as secondary glaucoma. Diabetic retinopathy is a series of changes in the blood vessels of the retina at the back of the eye that can cause bleeding and fluid leakage/swelling. This can cause sight threatening ...
We are a little sad to be saying goodbye for now to the wonderful Sally Stevens. Sally has recently returned from maternity leave for her son, seeing patients every second Saturday at Nerang. She was very excited to learn that baby number 2 is on the way, and with some other changes in her life will be moving away from ...
As Gold Coast Optometrists, we at Envision Optical often come across some very strange ideas and activities when it comes to eyes and vision. I was blown away recently to hear about the growing craze of eye tattooing. It was even featured recently on ABC and resulted in a strong response against the procedure from the The Royal Australian and ...
A question we get asked all the time in our consulting room is “Why are you asking me about family history during my eye test?” The answer is simple: family history is very important in determining your risk for a number of different eye diseases. Relatively common eye conditions that we see every week at Envision Optical include myopia (short ...
Yes! This is a question we get asked every day and there is a very good option that has been available for many years and only keeps improving, covering a wider range of prescriptions. It’s called Ortho-keratology or Refractive Therapy. This is a technique using specially designed rigid contact lenses that act as corneal moulds and change the shape of your ...
Dry eyes can be an irritating occurring problem for many people. Symptoms can include blurred vision, burning or stinging, eyes feeling scratchy or gritty, watery eyes, redness and even decreased comfort with contact lens wear.
Dry eyes are effectively a tear film deficiency – the tears consist of three layers, each produced by a different set of glands located on the ...
Myopia is generally a progressive condition that sees the eye growing and changing in shape and the distance vision becoming increasingly out of focus. Glasses and contact lenses will correct for any prescription level at that point in time and sharpen the vision up. If the prescription further increases, then the vision will blur again and a stronger prescription will ...
We often get asked if sunglasses are good or bad for the eyes. Some people seem to think that it’s better for the resilience of the eye tissue to not wear sunglasses and “build up” some sort of resistance to UV light rays. The truth is that UV rays cause significant damage to the eye tissues over the many years ...
Easy answer! Come and have your eyes examined at Envision Optical and we’ll tell you! On a more serious note, the “best solution” depends on many factors including your prescription type and level, your age and of course very importantly your lifestyle needs for vision. I have always believed strongly in carefully asking my patients about what they get up to during ...
The pupil is the black hole in the middle of the coloured part of the eye, the iris. The pupil’s function is to allow the correct amount of light into the eye to facilitate image formation and vision. The size of the pupil will vary depending on the levels of light we are seeing in. Small for bright light and large in ...
Envision Optical shares your love of sight, so help us celebrate it!
Did you know that of all the senses, sight is often ranked as the most important?
So why is it that we take it for granted? To maintain good eye health you need to be visiting your optometrist at least once a year, so to remind you, we want you to ...
Good question! As always, it depends… There are multiple types of problems affecting the eyes. The true most common problems are refractive errors or blurred vision. These types of problems require prescription glasses, contacts or Ortho-k therapy to correct. Of these hyperopia is the most common, then myopia with blurred distance vision.
Presbyopia or poor near focus is the most common in the over-40’s category. Whilst ...
If everything seems normal and healthy you should have your eyes tested every two years. Often changes can be quite subtle, and particularly in the case of common eye diseases like glaucoma and macular degeneration, they can be present for years before symptoms become significant. The best prevention then is detection through routine eye exams.
Frame selection is really crucial to express your individual style, as well as select the best option to partner with your unique prescription. Frame selection matters, thats why our licenced staff are experts in helping select the best frame for you. Your face shape will really determine what looks best;
Heart shaped face: thin rimmed, cat eye, round frames, avoid
Oval: rectangular, ...
Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the name given to a group of degenerative diseases of the retina that cause progressive, painless loss of central vision. If you consider how much this would impact your life, think about how slow vision loss would affect your ability to see fine ...
One of our core principles of clinical care at Envision Optical is to take a holistic approach to vision and eye health where evidence exists it is of benefit to our patients. Over the last few years I have become increasingly interested in the effects of nutrition on vision and eye health. In 2010, I joined the Ocular Nutrition Society, ...
Well we’ve always prided ourselves on embracing the latest technology both in eye care and in communicating with our patients, and after web-siting, facebooking, blogging and twittering the last few years , we’re excited to say our own Youtube channel has been up and running for a couple of months now. Video is a great way to learn about your eyes, and ...
You can read the article below or click here to view it online
MD is primarily age-related and most frequently affects people over the age of 50.
The major risk factors are age, smoking, poor diet and a family history ...
As a result of this, Envision Optical has three preferred charity groups that it supports. All are sight orientated, and have alternately a local, national ...
Envision Optical is proud to announce Sally Stevens has joined our optometry team bringing her expertise in childrens vision and disorders of visual perception and function.
Sally is available for consulting on any specialty vision problems including:
Sally has extensive experience in specialty private practice having worked at Roberts Alexander Optometrists, the largest behavioural optometry practice in ...
Welcome to our new blog! I’m very excited to launch the Envision Optical brand today. We are transforming our 4 practices to ensure we become the choice for eyecare and eyewear for Gold Coasters who love to be treated differently.
Envision Optical fuses comprehensive eyecare with a memorable retail experience.
We spoil our patients with great service, beautiful design, and leading technology.
The Envision ...
Which location?