Active Seniors Vision
In Victoria & Nanaimo
You have worked hard and earned the right to enjoy your free time. We want to make sure your vision isn’t holding you back.
You’re used to having the health of your eyes checked, but when was the last time someone looked at how your eyes and brain work together? These are the things that are important for depth perception when walking/hiking, quickly re-focusing and scanning when driving, driving at night, or focusing on hobbies and reading. If it’s a problem, we can help. Even if it’s not a problem, we may be able to enhance your performance. If you’re having difficulty with any of the following areas. Please book an assessment to see if treatment is available.
Depth Perception
Your depth perception plays an important role in your activities and safety. Problems with depth perception can cause difficulty on stairs and uneven ground, creating a greater risk of falls. Certain glasses and cataract lenses can play a role in depth perception problems. This is especially common with progressive lenses, multifocal contacts, or monovision. Depth perception issues can also be caused by problems with how the brain processes vision and uses the eyes together. This can happen after a concussion, vestibular problem, or sometimes just slowly worsen over time.
Difficulty Driving, Especially at Night?
Scanning While Driving
Have you ever had to quickly look left and right to enter an intersection when driving? This requires quick and accurate eye movement and the ability for your eyes to work together quickly. If this is compromised, it will take you longer to change where you are looking. It can also impact how quickly you can refocus on the cars ahead of you after shoulder checking. Difficulties in this area can cause you to miss things or lose confidence.
Driving at Night
You may have been told your trouble with night driving (especially with the bright oncoming headlights nowadays) is just a part of age. While some people have untreatable conditions that cause trouble driving at night, we find it’s often an issue with how the eyes work together. This happens because your eyes have a harder time working together at night, so any issues become much more amplified and apparent.
Sports, Hobbies, Activities and Your Vision
Cycling
Cycling involves depth perception, balance, scanning for cars, and the ability to quickly refocus your eyes after shoulder checking. Problems with how your eyes work together, or with how your eyes and inner-ear integrate can hold back your cycling performance or put you at higher risk of injury.
Tennis/Pickleball
The speed and accuracy of your return, or your ability to read the spin of the ball, all depend on how your eyes and brain work together. Pros have known this for years and spend lots of time working on their depth perception and tracking. Vision therapy can take your tennis or pickleball to the next level.
Golf
Do you putt too short or too long? You’re using your depth perception to gauge how far the hole is and how hard to hit the ball. Many people have to routinely ‘look past the hole’ or aim for the front of the cup in order to be more accurate. This is usually because they are not judging the distance accurately to begin with. Another common pain point in golf is not being able to see your ball after you’ve hit it. Problems with how the eyes track and work together can create problems tracking your golf ball, but fortunately, these are easily remedied.
Reading and Hobbies
Getting tired when you read? Not able to read for as long or as quickly as you used to? It’s common for eye tracking or eye teaming (binocular problems) to cause problems with reading. This can show up as fatigue, falling asleep, headaches, strain, and reduced comprehension. Many people end up slowly avoiding reading, knitting, woodworking, or other hobbies that require sustained focus.
Computer Screens
Computers can be a really helpful tool for emails, research, and all sorts of amazing things. However, problems with how the eyes work together, or how glasses are set up, can create headaches, light sensitivity, difficulty focusing, and more with prolonged screen time.
Related Conditions
If you have been diagnosed with any of the following conditions, it may increase your likelihood of having problems with how your eyes work together:
- Vestibular neuritis
- Meniere’s
- Stroke
- Concussion
- Headaches
Our Approach
We go beyond the routine eye health testing to investigate how your eyes and brain work together. This includes eye tracking, binocular function (eye-teaming), visual-vestibular integration (eye and inner-ear), and more. We have a variety of tools we can use to get the improvement you’re looking for:
Specialized Glasses
We are able to design specialized prescriptions (Ergoptics™) that do more than allow you to see clearly. Ergoptics™ prescriptions can improve how efficiently your eyes and brain work together. This can significantly improve driving, balance, reading, and more.
Vision Therapy (Opto-mization Training)
You may also be a candidate for vision therapy. Our Opto-mization Training Vision Therapy recalibrates how your eyes and brain work together and enhances your performance.
If you’re struggling with driving at night, balance, dizziness, depth perception, reading, or just feel like your vision is affecting your daily life, please book an assessment.