May has been designated National Healthy Vision Month as an important reminder that millions of people living in the United States have undetected vision problems, eye diseases, and serious conditions that could have been prevented—especially if precautions had been taken at a young age. When it comes to dangerous UV rays, it’s important to know that children often don’t have as much protection for their eyes as adults; therefore, many children suffer from UV damage, because they don’t really wear sunglasses or change from their regular glasses to sunglasses. 

Dr. Steven Klein, OD., one of the nation’s top therapeutic optometrists, shares necessary information about the importance of protecting the eyes of children, and adults, ahead of the sunny summer months. 
 
UV radiation is always present. Year-round, all day, in winter and summer, in sunny and even overcast conditions: prolonged UV exposure poses some serious health risks.
 
Most of us know that UV rays can damage the skin, but many are unaware that UV exposure can also be harmful to the eyes and surrounding tissue.
 
To protect our skin, we typically wear sunscreen, but we don’t have a lot of options when it comes to protecting our eyes against harmful UV rays. While sunglasses provide excellent protection, studies show that only one person in four consistently wears sunglasses when outdoors, and most clear lenses only offer partial UV protection.
 
Today, we are elevating the standard of care by offering sunglass-level UV protection in all clear ZEISS lenses. That’s full UV protection up to 400nm, the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and provided in premium sunglasses.
  
ZEISS UVProtect Technology
 
All clear ZEISS lenses now provide full protection against UV rays up to 400nm, going well beyond the current industry standard of 380nm. And while the “gap” between 380 and 400 nanometers may not sound like much, it does in fact account for 40% of total solar UV radiation that reaches our eyes and eyelids. 

Eye health is too important to risk. – Prolonged exposure to UV rays is not just harmful to the skin, but also to the eyes.

While a UV AR coating provides slight protection from UV, it is only from reflections off the back surface of the lens. In fact, up to 95% of UV radiation comes directly through the front of the lens. This means so-called back UV coatings block only a very small portion of UV rays. While a UV AR coating may be helpful to address back-side reflections, it does nothing to block the biggest source of UV rays that come directly through the lens.

As a recognized leader in the field of optics for over 170 years, ZEISS is committed to delivering the highest level of precision in everything we do. ZEISS designs and produces lenses, instruments and measurement systems, as well as retail concepts and technology services that consistently raise the bar in vision care. Now, more than ever, trust your patients’ eyes to ZEISS. 

https://www.zeiss.com/vision-care/en_us/better-vision/search/find-an-eye-doctor.html 
www.zeiss.com/UVProtect 
 
Steven Klein, O.D.
 
Dr. Klein received his Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA and his Doctor of Optometry degree from Southern California College of Optometry. He is a therapeutic optometrist licensed to treat eye diseases such as conjunctivitis, dry eye, pink eye, styes, glaucoma, as well as other conditions causing ocular pain or vision reduction. He fits Low Vision Devices for individuals with very poor correctable vision, and has extensive knowledge and experience in co managing refractive surgery. In addition Dr. Klein excels at specialty fit contact lenses for bifocal and multifocal wearers, keratoconus, dry eyes, hybrid contact lenses, corneal refractive therapy, and lens fitting after ocular and refractive surgery. Dr. Klein is the secretary-treasurer on the State Board of the California Vision Foundation and past president of the Lions Optometric Vision Clinic.

SEGMENT IS SPONSORED BY ZEISS