Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 31, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Call for details downtown 788404 vital 255067 North kill dons 925742 Winnipeg free press Tempo Section Maureen Houston 6977373 c1 july 1995 is believing by Paul Mckie staff reporter All i could see through the window were blurred images of Trees and a mall at the end of the then the optometrist slipped a pair of kids test glasses on my suddenly the world came into a Sharp focus i had never seen before in my 12 Trees had distinctive branches and they had leaves i could actually read the signs at that mall at the end of the for those of us who Wear corrective Lens glasses or contacts vision is never taken we do dream of the holy grail life without corrective thanks to advanced technology that holy grail is within plus we have breathable Silicon nonslip Bridge the world can be a glorious and beyond or is the ultimate solution for people who never want to Wear glasses again and dont want to risk the theory is simple you Wear special Contact lenses that alter the shape of your Cornea and enable you to see without George woo is a researcher at the University of Hes interested in path of because its a noninvasive method of correcting vision prob he says the technique of Ortho k int much different than 30 years ago when it first but he says the Way of gathering information about the Eye and producing the Lens has improved so that a better orthos Lens can be in woo says of he says in his lab he uses a Cornea Topography analysis sys the computer maps the Eye woo says this enables doctors to follow orthos any detrimental change in the Eye while the patient undergoes orthos is spotted says and the procedure can be woo is applying some of that technology to another project of of vision without Eye glasses he has patented a device that he claims will prevent nearsightedness from developing use this instrument five to 10 minutes a Day and your myopia wont he Cardinal Contact Lens in Cam produces the special Lens needed for Nigel a partner at says it takes on average three sets of lenses to Correct the he says the majority of their business is making other Contact orthos lenses constitutes Only a Small fraction of cardinals Seddon says he believes it will get bigger As optometrists look for alternatives to the laser surgery they cant perform Only ophthalmologists Are currently licensed to use lasers in i dont think orthos will be the Beall and comments James a Winnipeg says the shortcomings of path of for him Are that Only a tiny portion of his patients would be eligible since its Only successful when the curvature of the Eye fits within a certain plus the special lenses have to be worn eight to 12 hours a laser therapy for Many glasses wearers laser or photo refractive Kera is the holy grail that exists right an exciter laser reshapes the Cornea by vaporizing microns of tissue until Normal vision is this is used on patients with theres also a holmium laser to Correct the vision of people with or although Only one Winnipeg clinic currently offers that journalist Gilbert Legras had the laser surgery performed on him last year and wrote a first person account of the operation for the free its a big says be now the Winnipeg correspondent for Reuters information one possible Side effect is a Little bit of clouding Over the he be says he notices the clouding or halting More often at night Over his left even with that Side effect Hes Happy with the which improved his sight to i dont expect my vision to be 2025 for the rest of my but it used to be Legras Toby coordinator of patient services at the Eye tech laser clinic at Portage says that about 92 per cent of their patients achieve she says about four per cent of patients still need either Reading glasses or glasses for night driving because of a Halo ing but woo says laser operations have been going for Only five no one knows the Long term effect of removing that Mem he health Canada has been Moni Toring the procedure for five there has been no unexpected serious Side effects from using this says William chief of device evaluation for the medical device Divi Sion of health Freeland says laser surgery seems to be a pretty Safe Freeland notes that not nearly As Many procedures have been done in the where he says device regulations Are far More woo figures the has done Only about he says he knows of clinics in Toronto that have done More than 20 off selected footwear 50 off optometrist James Reeves says Contact lenses Are still Mccrae says the Eye tech clinic does about 20 to 25 a month at per she says since the clinic opened in the clinic has performed 450 opera Contact Lens rep that the buzzword in the Eye Wear Industry these it stands for rigid Gas permeable and describes the new generation of hard Lens that Reeves believes will become the Reeves says contacts Are still the Best and most popular alter native to people who Are tired of wearing glasses or dont want to Wear them because of an Active he believes soft the dominant Force in contacts these have gone about As far As they can we Are now witnessing the death of soft Lens says he says the big push in soft Lens now is disposable which he labels a marketing change not a technology Reeves argues that the push for disposable is because All that cleaning of soft lenses Doest really the Industry Solu Tion Wear your contacts for two weeks to 30 Days and then there Are even daily Wear but Reeves Calls them a Market ing Reeves says it costs about a year to Wear but he calculates that the regular soft lenses require in cleaning solutions per year on top of a Cost Between and for the enter rep or hard lenses were the but now there Back and there breath allowing oxygen to the eyes so they dont dry we now have Access to Lens that allow 20 times the oxygen of Lens we have says the reps can be worn longer than soft without irritation and they Are rinsed clean with tap the Downside is they take a Little More time to adjust to than soft though Reeves says there better than old style hard Lens and they Cost More than soft europeans have gone for reps in a big Way to the Point where 40 to 50 per cent of the Contact Lens wearers use that figure is Only about seven to 14 per cent according to Reeves says soft still have a Strong hold on the Market soft Lens Are still they Are easy for easy he glasses people still Wear them despite All the for one As you age the likelihood to Wear glasses at least part of the time increases the huge Ameri can Chain that has two stores in Sells about 250 pairs of glasses a the Assis Tant manager at the Kildonan place says glasses today Are lighter and More there Are also All sorts of Glare and ant scratch coatings to make life easier for glasses Reeves says changes in glasses Are nothing More than the reinvention of the wheel As features Are he did say that Frame technology is starting to fall behind in Canada As we import More frames from the Orient at discount Reeves says the results Are glasses that dont last very Reeves says what could be easier in correcting vision than placing a pair of lightweight spectacles on a persons wearing glasses int a Dis its a he com Hunting und outdoor gear up to 75 off Mushi Noriar up to clothing off Vrr i selected camping gear 10 off i selected firearms 30 off selected Archery pick up a free copy of our new annual catalogue ;