What can you do? Be sure you and your family have regular eye care.  That means that every one to years they need to have a complete eye examination with dilating drops to rule-out any eye problems that can be treated.  In children this could be just the need for stronger glasses or something more serious like a wandering eye.  In adults we look for evidence of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and much more.

Another key to healthy vision is wearing sunglasses outside on sunny days.  Ultraviolet exposure promotes macular degeneration and cataracts.  So don’t stop at the sunscreen, use sunglasses and a hat this summer. Diet is also important. Leafy green vegetables contain valuable nutrients to keep the retina healthy and are especially recommended for those with macular degeneration.

Finally, if you still smoke and have not found a reason to stop yet, think of your eyes.  The more aggressive “wet” form of macular degeneration is more common in smokers as is the development of early cataracts.

Martha F. Jay, Ph.D., M.D.

So do your part: Call us today to schedule eye examinations for everyone in your family!

Dr. Martha Jay is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist specializing in blade-free iLASIK and small incision cataract surgery with premium lens implants.  For more information about Dr. Jay and Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals, visit www.LakeShoreVision.com or call 262-241-1919.

If you have reached your mid-forties you already understand that something is happening to your near vision.  You cannot see far-away and close-up with the same glasses.  If you are wearing contact lenses you may be starting to wear drug store reading glasses (“cheaters”) over the contacts to read.  This is called presbyopia and is really unavoidable.

One way around the reading glasses is to weaken the contact lens in your non-dominant eye to improve your reading vision.  This does not mean that you have to close one eye to see close and the other to see far-away.  You just look naturally with both eyes open and most people adjust quite well.  But not everyone likes monovision –  the only way to tell is to try it.

The real advantage of monovison, whether with contacts or LASIK, is the ability to read without having to hunt down your “cheaters.”  The disadvantage is some loss of depth perception.  So it is a trade-off.  Why not try it and see if it works for you and your lifestyle?

If you end up liking monovision in contacts then you might consider this for LASIK Vision Correction.  Endless possibilities!

For more information about eye care, Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals and Dr. Mark German

visit www.LakeShoreVision.com or call 262-241-1919

In the mean time, you are in good hands with my colleagues Dr. Martha Jay and Dr. Mark German.  They are even getting the new office built in Mequon so I will be coming back to a larger and more modern facility.  Also they are adding extra hours to accommodate my patients for emergency eye problems.

For routine eye care, it is not too soon to call for your appointment with me on and after July 9th.  I’ll be getting right back to treating medical and surgical eye problems such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, dry eyes, macular degeneration and much more.  I did not spend 8 years training to be an eye physician after college to give that up!

Dr. Josephine-Liezl Cueto

Being a parent is a very special privilege.  I would like to thank you, my patients, and my colleagues at Lakeshore Eye Care for providing me with the time to adjust to this monumental life change.  See you in July!

Dr. Josephine-Liezl Cueto is a physician and surgeon who treats medical and surgical eye problems.  She is accepting new patients into her practice and most insurance plans including Medicare Assignment.  She joined Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals in 2009, returning to the Milwaukee area after receiving her medical training in Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Visit www.LakeShoreVision.com for more information about Dr. Cueto and Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals.

Call 262-241-1919 for appointments or further information.

Don’t worry those of you who prefer to come to the Saukville office, that location will be unaffected by the move.  We will be sure to give all our patients plenty of advanced notice about the move and will provide updates as the constriction progresses.  It will be a new building designed just for us and Herslof Opticians will be coming along too.

Martha F. Jay, Ph.D., M.D.

Why move? The current Mequon location is in a very old building and while it has served us well for some time, we are ready for a larger and more modern facility.  Then there is the issue of parking.  Since Starbucks moved into the unit at the end of our current building it became obvious there was not room here for both of us let alone the other two tenants soon to be added to the mix.

So look forward to our new look.  Come by the Mequon office if you want to see the design plans or drive by the site.  We are all very excited about the upgrade and know it will enjoy the advantages of a newer facility.

Visit www.LakeShoreVision.com or call 262-241-1919 for more information about Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals and Dr. Martha Jay.

This may sound like macular degeneration, but the age group affected is younger and the prognosis is much better. Up to 90% of patients regain most of their vision (back to 20/30) without treatment in one to two months after the onset of symptoms. But 50% may experience a recurrence. It is caused by a small break in the pigment layer behind the retina allowing fluid to come forward.

A thorough eye examination is required to make the diagnosis then home monitoring with an Amsler grid suggested.  This is just a piece of graph paper with a dot in the center used to quantify the area of blurring.  Should there not be a spontaneous improvement in 1-2 months, a referral to a retina specialist may be indicated and laser or other treatments initiated.

Dr. Josephine-Liezl Cueto

As with other vision changes, call us for an appointment so the appropriate diagnosis can be made and a treatment plan initiated.  We are here to help.

For more information call 262-241-1919 or visit www.LakeShoreVision.com.

Vision Plans are intended for routine care that may not be covered by medical insurance.  It is for patients who have no medical or surgical eye problems and come in every couple years to get their eye glasses prescription checked.  While the exam is pretty much the same as that done for someone using their medical insurance, the reason for the visit is the key.

If a patient has diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, floaters, rapid change in vision, eye pain, red eyes or any other vision or eye problem, then this is a medical visit and should be billed to the patient’s medical insurance.

Sometimes patients are paying for a Vision Plan that they don’t need.  Let’s say they have macular degeneration and the Vision Plan costs them more than the discount on glasses it provides.  They would be better off just paying for their glasses outright as their exam will be billed to their medical insurance.

Still confused?  Our staff will be happy to help you decide which plan is the most appropriate for your visit.  But if you do have both a Vision Plan and medical insurance, be sure to bring both cards to each appointment.

Dr. Mark German is an optometrist practicing at Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals in Mequon and Saukville, Wisconsin.  He welcomes patients of all ages to his practice and accepts most insurance plans.

For more information visit www.LakeShoreVision.com or call 262-241-1919.

Why would I recommend baby shampoo?  The main reason is for blepharitis.  This is a very common chronic low-grade eyelid infection.  The symptoms include red eyes in the morning, excessive tearing early in the day, a slight discharge and/or a gravely feeling in the eyes.

The baby shampoo decreases the bacterium from around your eyes.  There are many small openings into the eyelid around the eyes that can easily become infected by common bacteria that exists elsewhere on your skin.  Baby shampoo also helps decrease eye allergy symptoms by removing pollen or other irritants from contact with your eyes.

Martha F. Jay, Ph.D., M.D.

What you do is dilute the shampoo as you would for washing your hands with liquid soap.  You can use your finger tips, a wash cloth, cotton tip or small cotton pad.  You clean around the eyes right up to the edges of the eyelids and then rinse with warm water.  Most people do this once or twice a day.

If you have the symptoms noted above, give baby shampoo eyelid scrubs a try.  You will probably be surprised at how such a simple remedy improves your eye comfort.

Dr. Martha Jay is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist specializing in medical and surgical eye care.  She welcomes patients of all ages into her practice and accepts most insurance plans including Medicare Assignment.  She received her ophthalmology training at Northwestern University in Chicago.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 262-241-1919.

Visit www.LakeShoreVision.com for more eye care related information.

As you bask in the warm sun rays, it is important to protect your eyes with good UV-protecting sunglasses.  Studies have shown that there is a direct link between UV exposure and both cataract formation and macular degeneration later in life.  Also, direct sun exposure may cause the development of pingueculas and pterygiums, which are growths on the white part of your eye that can grow over your clear cornea and distort your vision. So use sunglasses year-round!

For those wearing contact lenses, it is easy to feel carefree during vacations but remember infections can occur at any time.  Stick to the strict regimen of cleaning, handling, and disinfecting your lenses and cases.  Don’t swim in your contact lenses or wear them in hot tubs.  Those moist environments are perfect for potential corneal infections.  And lastly, don’t sleep in your contact lenses.  While sleeping in contacts, you deprive your eyes of oxygen and increase your susceptibility to severe corneal infections called ulcers.

Dr. Josephine-Liezl Cueto

So remember to protect your eyes from UV damage and potential infections year round, especially in spring.  And one final tip: Don’t forget to schedule your yearly eye examination at Lakeshore Eye Care!

Dr. Josephine-Liezl Cueto is an Ophthalmologist practicing at Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals with offices in Mequon and Saukville, Wisconsin. Call 262-241-1919 for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Visit www.LakeShoreVision.com for more eye care related topics.

By a thorough eye examination, I mean not just a quick check of your glasses prescription but an exam that includes the use of dilating drops.  While it is a bit inconvenient to have your pupils enlarged for 4-5 hours after your exam, that’s the only way we can get a good look at the back of your eye to be sure that the diabetes has not caused any harm.

What are we looking for? Diabetes can affect the small blood vessels on the back of the eye known as the retina.  This can cause swelling, small areas of bleeding or even the growth of abnormal new blood vessels.  These new vessels tend to have thin walls and bleed easily, sometimes filling the back of the eye with blood.

The goal of eye care in a diabetic is early detection.  If we wait until you notice blurred vision, we may have lost valuable time that could be important in how well you see in the future.  Treatments include lasers, steroids or even surgery in some cases.

So even if you have perfectly controlled blood sugars, we need to see you annually if you are a diabetic.  As a courtesy to all our diabetic patients, we send a report to their primary care physician after each dilated examination so all are well informed about the condition of the eyes.  See you soon!

Dr. Mark German is an optometrist at Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals with offices in Mequon and Saukville, Wisconsin.  Call 262-241-1919 for more information or to schedule appointments.

Visit www.LakeShoreVision.com for related eye topics.

The VISX Star S4 laser that we use for LASIK vision correction is a wavefront guided system.  That means that it allows us to individually measure the higher order aberrations of each and every patient and then customize their treatment to allow better vision after the procedure.  Less advanced laser systems, while cheaper, are wavefront optimized meaning that they apply the same higher order aberration correction to each treatment – not individualizing the correction to the specific patient.

Martha F. Jay, Ph.D., M.D.

Most of the attention lately has been around how we generate the flap at the beginning of the LASIK procedure, whether with a laser or a blade, but the second part of the procedure is equally important.  We provide blade-free iLASIK vision correction with wavefront guided corrections for all of our patients so they can benefit from this advanced technology. Just another reason to call for your free, no-pressure LASIK screening exam to see if iLASIK is an option for you!

Dr. Martha Jay is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist (Eye Physician and Surgeon) practicing at Lakeshore Eye Care Professionals with offices in Mequon & Saukville, Wisconsin.  She has been exclusively been offering blade-free iLASIK vision correction since 2005 so has extensive experience in this more advanced procedure.

Call 262-241-1919 for more information or visit www.LakeShoreVision.com.