Dr. Shalu Pal

  • "If you want quality and wonderful service, please go to Dr. Shalu Pal! The patience, care, and true concern that Dr. Pal has for her clients is wonderful. "

    --Seleena J
  • " I was pleasantly surprised by finding a hidden gem within Dr. Pal's office"

    --Naveed
  • "Finally a doctor who is extremely knowledgeable, patient and explains things clearly. She is a wonderful human being who really takes the time to care for your needs. The office has a wonderful atmosphere and the staff are just as helpful as Dr. Pal. "

    --Mikail
  • "I couldn't ask for a better Optometrist. She is a delight to deal with, very patient, helpful and extremely knowledgeable. She was very good with my kids who can be very fussy at times.. And who could ask for a more beautiful location. Highly Recommend! "

    --Natalie M.
  • "My wife and I, highly recommend Dr. Pal. The staff, the service, the merchandise, are all top notch. They really make you feel welcomed. It has been several years since I have been able to see this well !!! You and your staff are the best !!!! "

    --Steve and Maria L.
  • "We barely go to optometrists so when we do, we should look for the best! I am super pleased I chose Dr. Pal\'s office. They were helpful from beginning to end, from booking on the phone to my actual visit. Dr. Pal was very detailed and went in-depth about my eye health. She is very patient and made me feel calm. The optician helped me pick a great pair of glasses, they were genuinely friendly which is a huge bonus."

    --Ahmad S
  • "I have been going to Dr. Pal for several years now. My most recent visit on June 6, 2016 was the best experience there that I have ever had. Firstly, the women on the desk were friendly and efficient - a very good prelude to my examination. Dr. Pal, herself, was, as usual, very thorough and encouraging in her examination. And she puts you at ease before we get into the eyes examination by discussing other things in life. That helps to ease any stress I may have. And they now have a man in the office who does that difficult examination (name of which I do not know!). He is so patient and encouraging and made the exam not so difficult for me this time. After all that, I saw Dr. Pal again before I left and she told me my eyes were good! Even had the news been not so good, I believe that I would be able to handle it because I truly believe that Dr. Pal and her staff would have taken good care of me. I will always go back to Dr. Pal and members of her team because I truly believe"

    --A. Howlett
  • " I have been to a few appointments at Dr. Pal\'s office over the last year for dry eye issues and every time it has been a very positive experience. The 3 receptionists at the front desk are warm and friendly. They are attentive and provide a very high level of customer service. I appreciate that they call me by name and remembered conversations we had at previous visits. I find Dr. Pal to be an excellent practitioner who is very thorough with her exams, has a lovely personality and takes the time to answer any and all questions that may arise. I am happy with the computer glasses I purchased and value the honest opinions I received from the staff when selecting frames. It was refreshing to have multiple opinions on styles and I felt they truly wanted me to walk out with a frame that was best suited to me. I highly recommend Dr. Pal \'s office! As a health care practitioner myself, I think all health care experiences should be this personilzed and friendly!"

    --A. Mclean
Exercise Your Eyes for Optimum Performance


Contents

Exercise Your Eyes for Optimum Performance

Introduction

Most of us realize that exercise helps us keep our muscles flexible and efficient, but we don’t usually think about how the muscles that control the movement of the eyes or those that help us change focus from distant objects to close-up reading materials could also benefit from a short workout now and then.

While these exercises won’t allow us to get rid of our glasses (if we use them) or replace our annual vision examination, they will help to keep our eye muscles from becoming stiff and inflexible. Reading or using a computer for extended periods are two activities that may cause our eye muscle systems to mal-adapt to those stresses by becoming our “normal” ocular conditions.

Mal-adaptation to prolonged nearpoint stress has been implicated in the onset and/or progression of myopia (nearsightedness); if we keep the eye muscles moving freely and easily, we could reduce future eyestrain and improve the ability to focus and concentrate when we need to do so.

Exercises for improving visual skills are useful for three different types of tasks: convergence, rotations and accommodating (focusing skills).

Do these exercises while wearing your eyeglasses or contact lenses if you use them.

Convergence

The ability to converge our eyes, or aim them inward, is important to help us keep our eyes aimed properly at the task we are performing. Without it, we would either see double, or suppress the central vision in one eye so as to avoid it. (No, your eyes will not become stuck that way) People with poor convergence often have trouble with extended reading or other near tasks because they begin to see double as they continue; if you cannot converge your eyes closer than your normal reading distance (usually about 16 inches away from the eyes) it becomes difficult to maintain single vision.

Stand or sit in a relaxed posture. Hold a pencil at arm’s length and focus both eyes on the tip, then slowly begin to move the pencil straight in towards the eyes, keeping both eyes aimed at the pencil as it approaches the bridge of your nose. Be very aware of any tendency to see double; if the pencil begins to break into two, reverse the pencil and try to bring the two images together again. Once you have done so, bring the pencil in closer again.

If the pencil tip becomes blurry, that’s okay, but be careful that it doesn’t split into two images.

The goal here is to be able to converge your eyes without seeing double to within two or three inches of your eyes, without experiencing double vision and without strain. Repeat this at least ten times. If it is difficult to maintain single vision, practice several times a day until you get so you can follow the pencil right up to the bridge of your nose. If this exercise is difficult for you, once you build the skills to perform it well, you will probably notice that it is much easier to read for extended periods of time without strain.


Rotations

Smooth, accurate tracking skills allow us to expend less energy to keep objects in view; in other words, we should move our two-ounce eyeballs rather than our 15-pound head. People with poor tracking skills experience discomfort and eyestrain when they are required to track the words across a page of print, or follow a computer cursor across the screen.

(Right: The muscles that control eye movements can become stiff and make rotating the eyes uncomfortable.)

Sit or stand in a relaxed posture. Cover one eye with a spoon or similar object, so you cannot see around it and hold a pencil about 12 to 14 inches away with the other hand. Focus on the tip of the pencil while you move it slowly from side to side in an arc, so it stays about the same distance away. Without moving your head, follow the tip of the pencil, but be careful not to move your head. Practice following the pencil tip with your eyes as you move it in all directions of gaze, from left to right and back, up and down, and on the diagonal. After repeating ten to twenty times, switch eyes and repeat; often, people find that their tracking ability is better in one eye than the other. If you experience this, practice more with the eye that isn’t as skilled until you feel that the eyes are about equal, then, do the exercise with both eyes, again without moving your head.

As with the convergence exercises, be careful that the pencil does not split into two. It’s okay if the tip of the pencil is blurred, however. It is normal also for people with poor rotational skills to experience pulling or strain while doing these exercises, but these should disappear as you begin to build flexibility into your tracking skills.

Accommodation

Accommodation is just another word for changing your focus, from far away to close up and back again.

As we get older, it gets more difficult to change focus because the lens inside the eye is getting thicker and heavier with each passing year. This is a normal process called presbyopia, which affects almost all of us, no matter how much or how little we read.

When we are young, however, especially when still in school, being able to change focus easily from the chalk board or overhead projector to the book or computer screen is an important skill; people with poor accommodation often become “stuck” at one focal distance so as to make it easier to maintain clarity at that distance, usually our normal reading distance, about 16 inches away from our eyes.

Stand or sit in a comfortable position. Focus your eyes on a distant target, which can be a calendar page or the numbers on a clock, for example. Hold a pencil (with writing on it) or an example of small print like that found on the package inserts for medications or something of similar size. Quickly shift your focus from the calendar number to one of the letters on the pencil, trying for a fast and accurate shift of both your gaze and clarity, then switch back to the distance again.

People with poor accommodation experience difficulty in getting near reading materials into focus, and then maintaining their clarity over time. Improvement of these skills allows easier reading with less stress. Repeat these ten to twenty times, also.

These accommodation exercises will be helpful to those under the age of about 35 years.

(Above: Diagram showing muscles that control focusing at different distances.)

Good Visual Skills Essential

We can make it easier to read and maintain clear vision if we keep the muscles both inside the eye that control focusing and those outside that control eye movements in top condition. The ability to keep the reading material single, track accurately across a page and to keep it all in focus will make it easier to concentrate and comprehend what we read.

During the day, it is also very helpful to take breaks every twenty minutes or so; look up from your book or computer and re-focus your eyes outdoors. The overall goal of all these exercises is to keep our visual skills flexible and effortless, not stiff and difficult.

In some cases, these simple exercises can help us to keep our visual skills flexible and efficient; however, it is important to have regular vision exams throughout life, just as we would get a physical exam or a dental checkup on a routine basis. Vision is widely held to be our most important sense and we should not hesitate to discuss any questions or concerns with an eyecare practitioner.

 
2024 © EyeconX. All rights reserved          Home    |    About Us    |    Media    |    Lens Reorder    |    Our Practice    |    Education    |    Contact Us