We are "kind of" open again

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strange, unprecedented time for all of us. We have certainly missed having our amazing patients in the office and having the opportunity to help them with their eye care needs. Now that the Boulder County is beginning to open up its doors again to some businesses and medical practices like ours, we wanted to discuss some of the health precautions we will be taking here at Sight Eyecare now that we plan on a partial reopening on May 5th. In accordance with safety measures recommended by the CDC and the American Optometric Association, here’s what we will be doing:

1. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

Our doors will still be locked and only unlocked for those with a reserved exam appointment time (no guests) Tuesday through Friday. This means you should be the ONLY person in the office when you come in for your exam (other than 1-2 staff members). We will be spacing out our schedule to ensure that there is plenty of time for sanitizing between patients (see 4). Since our doors will be locked, walk in frame browsing will not be permitted at this time and will need to be done at the time of your appointment.

2. Wearing Masks

All patients will be required to wear a mask in our office. Let us know if you do not have a mask, and we can help you locate one.  Everyone on our team will be wearing masks.

3. Illness

An “illness screening” questionnaire will be required before anyone is admitted into our office for an examination. We will take each patient’s temperature prior to the exam and will be turning away anybody with a fever.  Our staff will be required to stay home if ill.

4. In-depth office disinfection

 All areas of our office will be heavily cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. All equipment, touched surfaces, pens, and eyewear will be sterilized between each patient.

5. Curbside Pickup/free CL shipping

We will be doing curbside pickup of eyeglasses whenever possible and will continue doing FREE shipping on contact lens boxes to your home!  

We appreciate your patience and understanding at this time and look forward to seeing you again soon! If you have any questions or concerns at all, please do no hesitate to reach out to us.

Sight Eyecare's COVID pandemic plan

The health and safety of our patients, community, and staff is our top priority. We have been monitoring the evolution of COVID-19 and are taking precautionary measures to help protect our people. Starting Tuesday, March 17, we will be closing for routine eye care. We are happy to add you to our routine eye exam “waitlist” and will contact you once we know when our doors will be open for routine care again. Here is what we will be doing for you during this time:

  1. EYE EMERGENCIES: If you are having an eye emergency (sudden floaters/flashes, pain, sudden vision loss, etc) and you are an established patient at our office, please leave us a voicemail and Dr. Neka will get back to you soon to determine if it’d be best for you to be seen at her office or elsewhere.

  2. PICK-UPS: For those of you with eyeglass/contact lens orders that still need to be picked up and are paid for, we will be shipping them to your home at no charge.

  3. CONTACT LENS ORDERS: If you need contact lenses during these next few weeks, please reach out to us. We will provide FREE shipping to your home, with hope of keeping your business local and keeping our doors open.

  4. EYEGLASS ORDERS: We are putting a hold on trying on frames in our office at this time unless absolutely necessary, for the safety of our community. If you have ordered eyeglasses from our office in the past, we can order a new pair for you and will provide FREE SHIPPING on these orders.

We understand it may be an inconvenience to delay your routine eye examination, but we have decided to prioritize the well-being of our community in order to try to prevent the spread of this virus so we don’t overwhelm our hospitals all at once. We hope the best for your family’s health and safety at this time.

Again, please contact us during this time via phone at 720-204-6891 or email at info@sighteyecare.com

 
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Presenting our BRAND NEW retinal camera!

We have a BRAND NEW retinal camera at our office that allows us to get a baseline photograph of the inside of your eyes and also allows us to monitor changes over time. Because the retina is the only place in the body where we can see the blood vessels, these photos can occasionally shed light on certain possible systemic conditions. These photos are done at no charge for those without insurance and those with CO Medicaid, and are recommended for all new patients. They are STRONGLY recommended for those with a family history of eye disease (especially glaucoma and macular degeneration), diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol.

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For eye emergencies: Urgent care? Or Eye Doctor?

The instrument below is called a slit lamp. It is a necessary piece of equipment to determine what is wrong if there is any sort of eye irritation, pain, or redness. So if you have these symptoms and go to your PCP or urgent care and they do not look at your eyes with this instrument and instead just call it "pink eye" and Rx antibiotic eyedrops with no follow-up, I'd recommend a second opinion. Without this instrument, there is actually no way to tell if your eye pain/redness is due to an acute angle closure glaucoma attack (rare, but can cause permanent vision loss rapidly) versus a corneal ulcer (which also can cause vision loss and is fairly common in contact lens wearers especially if the contacts are being slept in/overworn) versus iritis (which sometimes may be the first sign of more serious systemic disease) versus a tiny piece of maybe wood or metal lodged in the cornea. Or something else. Without looking with this instrument, there's really no way to know.

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Buying glasses = help a child + plant a tree! :)

HUGE NEWS! Sight Eyecare just got 2 brand new independent frame lines in that we’re super excited about…Modo and Eco! Modo frames are stunningly gorgeous…AND for each pair purchased, the company donates a pair to a child in need! Eco frames are made from recycled materials and most come with a sun clip….AND for each pair purchased, the company plants a tree! How cool is that?! They have both been flying off our shelves over the past few weeks, so we’re going to put another order in soon!

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NEW STUDY RESULTS RELEASED: The effect of excess screen time on a young child's brain

Over the past several years, the average amount of screen time use for children has obviously gone way up. A brand new study, which scanned the brains of 47 children between the ages of 3 and 5, found that the brain’s white matter is less developed in those who used screens (phones, tablets, etc) more than 1 hour a day. The white matter is the area of the brain responsible for development of language as well as development of cognitive skills. "This is the first study to document associations between higher screen use and lower measures of brain structure and skills in preschool-aged kids," said lead author Dr. John Hutton, a pediatrician and clinical researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "This is important because the brain is developing the most rapidly in the first five years," Hutton said. "That's when brains are very plastic and soaking up everything, forming these strong connections that last for life."

Another pediatrician (Dr. Jenny Radesky) notes that "these findings are fascinating but very, very preliminary…we know that early experiences shape brain growth, and media is one of these experiences. But it's important for parents to know that these results don't show that heavy media use causes brain damage.”

Hutton agrees. "It's not that the screen time damaged the white matter," he said, adding that what could be occurring is that screen time is too passive for brain development.”

It will be interesting to see what future studies shows regarding the effects of screen time and the development of young children. For now, it seems that it is best to limit screen time as much as possible, instead focusing on social interaction, problem solving, and imaginative play time whenever possible.