Dr Richard Christoph & Associates

Specsavers is a British company, with locations in Europe and New Zealand. This ad campaign they ran is pretty powerful. https://www.youtube.com/embed/OoBeg5rI08U

With many kids doing more of their school work at home on computers this year a fellow optometris, Dr Bahareh Golbahar, put together this excellent summary of tips for computer users. The screen should be as far away as possible. Arm's length or beyond is a good general rule. The height of the screen should be at or slightly below eye level (not above). Illumination of the screen should match that of the room. Meaning, they should not be sitting in a dark room with a bright... screen or vice versa. Don't have a lamp shining on the screen as it will glare back into the eyes. The 20/20/20 rule: At least every 20 minutes, have your child look 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. Our eyes need breaks and don't do well with very extended periods of near viewing without a break. This is the most important tip. Blink rate: our blink rate goes down automatically about 60% every time we are on a device. This wreaks havoc on our tears leading to burning, redness, etc. You have to remind your children to blink! If your child wears glasses, they should have what is called an anti-glare or anti-reflective coat on the lenses. This cuts down on glare from the screen and provides considerable relief from eyestrain. Newer generation anti-glare coats also offer a small amount of blue light protection. If the device your child is on has an option to lower the blue light, I would do this. We know that too much blue light disrupts our sleep cycle. It is also a good idea to stop using all electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime. Lastly, make sure your child has their annual eye exam (all of your children have mandatory vision insurance through their medical insurance whether you know it or not and the copay is minimal). If they are farsighted or have astigmatism and are not corrected for this, it will just add additional strain. For those of you who worry about your kids becoming nearsighted from all the screen time, make sure your child gets adequate outdoor time once school is done each day. Studies show that outdoor time is protective against a child becoming nearsighted. Good luck. I hope they can safely return to school soon. See more

As of Thursday morning, Aug 13, there is a network problem with Verizon which is affecting our office phones. If you don't get an answer when you call, please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible.

We have updated the office hours to reflect our current hours during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are currently longer than normal waiting times for appointments. As we are able to streamline our processes and adjust staffing we hope to gradually increase the number of patients we can schedule within these hours, and eventually increase hours of operation. We appreciate your understanding as we try to keep our staff and patients safe.