New Year, New e-Newsletter

Hello and welcome to 2023! I'm Josh Davidson, OD, FAAO, FSLS, an optometrist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a member of Modern Optometry's editorial advisory board. My days at a large multi-location OD/MD practice are packed with postoperative care, scleral lens fitting, ocular disease management, and mentoring residents. Outside of work, I am a father to the sweetest little boy, and I just got engaged to an amazing woman. My optometrist eye is always keen to relate news items and experiences back to better patient care, and with this e-newsletter, I'll share my insights and perspectives on news and stories that relate—in some way or another—to our esteemed profession. I'm open to your feedback, so if there's something you'd like to see more (or less) of, reach out and let me know!

HOT TOPIC

EYES WIDE SHUT

A study recently published in Color Research and Application measured the perception of equivalent brightness under closed-eye and open-eye conditions in binocular photopic vision in an effort to describe the lighting environment during sleep.

The Details

Using monochromatic red, yellow, green, blue, and white light sources, 33 Asian participants (avg age = 22 years) with similarly colored eyelids were recruited. Red light was perceived as brighter and blue light as darker. Additionally, the average effective transmittances of the participant's closed eyes were up to 10 times higher than previously reported, which may help explain some patients' difficulty sleeping. It also points to the fact that eyelid transmittance itself does not explain perceived closed-eye brightness. These results also have the potential to help create better sleep environments for countless patients.

My Two Cents

As a doctor who sees many patients with dry eye each day, I'm of the steadfast belief that proper sleep does improve patients' symptoms of dryness and helps to reduce visual strain by allowing the system to relax. This study reinforces my belief that many of my patients would benefit not only from sleep masks that are specialized for nocturnal lagophthalmos, but also from those simple silk masks that simply block light. (More)

Can You Relate

The past month has been a hectic one for me personally. In addition to getting engaged to my girlfriend Hallie, we also packed up and visited Disney World! This wasn't my first trip to the happiest place on Earth, but it was definitely one of the most unique. I've written about my affinity for Disney and its incredible culture, but on this particular trip, some of Disney's hidden warts showed up.

As shocking as it may be to hear, there is such a thing as being too busy! There's no arguing that the Disney team consists of some of the best trained and friendliest people in the world, but when the number of guests becomes too overwhelming, some of the magic can be lost. That happened for me one night while we were watching the nighttime firework show on Cinderella's castle. We were standing so close to other people that I could feel the heartbeat of the gentleman behind me through my back.

The success of an eye care practice is often measured by the number of patients seen each week/month/year, how streamlined its processes are, and how many staff are employed there, but this is all a delicate balance that could easily shift, having our patients go from feeling cared for like kin to little more than cattle. If someone can feel overwhelmed and unappreciated in the happiest place on Earth, they can certainly feel that way in our offices, where there is already an underlying sense of anxiety for many people. My takeaway from this disenchanting visit is that the magic is dependent on the experience of the individual.

OUTSIDE THE LANE

Don't Go Banning My Words

Each year, the faculty of Lake Superior State University in my home state of Michigan releases an annual list of words and phrases that they say deserve to be banished from our vocabularies due to “misuse, overuse, and uselessness.” On the list to be banished from 2023 are: GOAT, inflection point, quiet quitting, gaslighting, moving forward, amazing, does that make sense, irregardless, absolutely, and it is what it is.

As I pondered this list, it made me realize just how much of this vocabulary, especially the words in the middle, relate to my life in optometry. Each of those words comes out of my mouth countless times each clinical day! “Moving forward” is a typical refrain I use when I need to clarify on a follow up if my patient doesn't heed instructions and I need to remind them of the game plan. “Amazing” is something I say when a patient actually does follow their treatment protocol and we get the results that we expect! Finally, “Does that make sense” is what I say when it's clear that the patient is not following along or is having a hard time understanding my instructions. Come to think of it, this list itself should be banished based on LSSU's guidelines of being overused and useless. Pretty fitting that so many of these words and phrases have to do with making sure our patients understand and follow our instructions! Are any of these words in your everyday vocabulary?