Fancy new technology updates happen all the time – occasionally they can improve our every day lives. and this is one of these times..
If you wear spherical monthly disposable contact lenses this is for you! Air Optix contact lenses by Alcon have realeased Air Optix plus Hydraglyde.
Hydraglyde is a smart-shield technology which provides a protective layer of moisture to the contact lens to help prevent deposits, giving consistent comfort all month long, as well as giving you a lens that keeps its moisture for continual hydration through the day. 
So if you feel like your lenses aren’t performing as well as you would like, or if you simply want the best lens available, call our customer care team to make the switch.
The good news for our valued Central Vision patients is that we will upgrade you FOR FREE. A seamless transition for current Air Optix wearers with a current prescription, or a short refit appointment with free trial lenses for those wanting to change from a different lens.
To make an appointment or to discuss your options please call the customer care team on 034430736 or follow the link to book an appointment with Katie or Tui
The new range of Bolle sports eyewear have hit the store!!!!
At Central Vision we have always taken pride in helping people find good sports eyewear.
Wanaka is such an active place and people have a need for good everyday specs and also a lot of people have a need for good quality, good looking sports eyewear.
ACTIVE WEAR FOR YOUR EYES
The bolle sports range are in general categories of golf, cycling/running and marine eyewear, based on the fit of the frames and the technology of the lenses.
Golf is a visual game – to play at all, let alone well, a golfer must be able to judge distance, and have good colour discrimination as well as vision to see where that tiny ball went!
The colour of the lenses in the Bolle golf range are designed to help read the green, and photochromic technology automatically adjusts the tint to the light levels on the green.
The cycling range have been designed around lightness and giving an exceptional field of view for the likes of cycling and running.
The aerodynamic shape channels the airflow for condensation management which is just a fancy way of saying they fog up less when you’re all sweaty and gross.
And they have a wraparound profile and something called an Air Intake Foil System!
They also have a thermogrip brow bar, nosepads and temple tips, designed to absorb that sweat and help the frames stay in place as you’re hurtling through sticky forest or deans bank.
The Lake/Marine range also come with the thermogrip temple tips and nose pads, AND also come with a floating retainer cord.
The frames are ultra durable and lightweight. Technology in the lenses include two options – offshore and inland. Both of these lens options are polarised to cut out that pesky glare you get from the surface of the lake.
The inland lens is a high contrast amber lens with a metallic gold flash mirror as well as being polarised, for mid to low light conditions.
For those who like a darker lens the offshore lens is a neutral grey with a blue mirror and, of course the polarisation to help keep your mind off the conditions and focussed on the task at hand.
There are some super sporty looking and some super trendy casual looking frames and well as some in between, so there really is a style for everybody.
So pop in and ask our customer care team about the new Bolle range . We even have a bike helmet there so you can see how they feel in action.
Hi everyone! I’ve recently returned from my volunteering in Africa and I’m back at work at Central Vision. It was a great experience, but very hard work at the same time. Ghana was very hot (33-36 degrees) and humid (up to 86% humidity), and we were working mainly in open air churches and halls. I was working alongside a Ghanaian optometrist, two ophthalmic nurses, two other staff members, and one American volunteer. We saw up to 400 people a day, and each day went to a different village. I saw some very dense cataracts, macular degeneration, corneal scarring from infections or injuries, and end stage glaucoma where the person was completely blind. That was very sad because glaucoma is a treatable condition, and in New Zealand we are able to pick it up early (if the person comes in for an eye exam!) and get the person on treatment before it causes blindness. Unfortunately in Africa this is not always possible. Next I went to Bamenda in Cameroon which was fortunately much cooler and a more comfortable temperature to be working in. There we had a team of 12 optometrists: two of us from NZ, two from the USA, one from Canada, and seven recently graduated optometrists from Nigeria. We worked from 8am-7pm every day with a 20 minute break for lunch, and on our busiest day saw 820 people. It was exhausting, but the patients were all lovely and very appreciative, even the ones at the end of the day who had been waiting for 10 hours! Some people started lining up at 5am to get in, which goes to show how badly health care is needed there. Some of the patient highlights for me was a three year old girl who was a -14.00D myope, so she could literally see nothing clearly unless it was less than 10cm from her face. It was really sad to see that, but it made me so pleased to be able to help her. We saw several patients with albinism, so it was really great to be able to provide them with sunglasses, which would make a huge difference to their quality of life. Other people just wanted to be able to read their bible, and were so happy with their reading glasses we provided. The 600 pairs of reading glasses kindly donated by my patients in Wanaka, Queenstown and Alexandra were given to the patients in Ghana, as the progamme I went through in Cameroon supplied all the glasses themselves from the USA with our volunteering fee. I also fundraised money, which provided 17 people in Ghana with cataract surgery, and I was lucky enough to be able to witness all 17 surgeries on one of the days I was there. The surgeon and nurses were very, very busy! One thing about traveling, particularly to developing countries, is that it makes you realize and appreciate how lucky we are here in New Zealand. We have clean drinking water, proper rubbish disposal and recycling, fresh and healthy food to eat, and good health care. At work here in New Zealand I have at my disposal all the latest equipment and technology to ensure
my patients are getting the highest level of care. This means we can detect and manage eye conditions as soon as possible, which results in the best possible prognosis for the patient. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who helped out either by making a financial donation, or donating glasses: my wonderful patients, Victoriya and her lovely customers at OCD Cafe, the Lions Club of Wanaka, the Rotary Club of Wanaka, and the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce for your support. And finally, a huge thanks goes out to Tui Homer for your financial contribution for getting the glasses over to Ghana with me, and of course allowing me the time off to go and volunteer, and hold the fort while I was away
It’s been a while since the last blog but we are back! Watch this space for some photos of Katie’s trip to Africa doing volunteer optometry…
At Central Vision Optometry we follow the New Zealand Association of Optometrists guidelines and recommendations for comprehensive eye testing, for your peace of mind. Follow the link below for more information on Save Our Sight month and why you should have regular eye exams from a qualified optometrist
Save Our Sight health message 2015
Thank you all for your concern about Tui’s pending arrival – Elijah Mark Homer arrived on 13th August and is happy, healthy, and as per the photo – thoughtful!
Tui and Jonathan wanted to pass on their heartfelt thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and well wishes.
From the CVO Team of Aunties, have a great week!
Tui explaining OCT results
At Central Vision we are proud to announce the arrival of our Maestro OCT scanning machine!
Technology changes come fast and furious for most businesses these days, and there’s always a fine line between waiting for the next progressive advancement and getting an amazingly useful piece of equipment to add value to that already used in a business. For us and the people of Wanaka, now is the time to act!
The OCT machine is a device designed to take a three dimensional scan of different parts of the eye, it is based on low-coherence interferometry – but basically can be thought of as an optical ultrasound. We can now get 3D scans of different parts of the eye, down to details of sub-micrometers.
With this OCT, we have the ability to see through the layers of retina and determine if there is any damage, and if so, what extent of damage there is. This is vitally important to the early management of macular disease if treatment is indicated, we can see this, and action it right away instead of waiting and watching to see if someones vision worsens.
The other cool thing about this type of scanning is it gives us an insight into what’s happening in the layers under the ones we can see with the naked eye.
Often things look okay on the surface of someone’s macular, but we can’t get that person seeing as well as we’d like with glasses. Now we can do an OCT on this person and see if there is healthy macular tissue under the surface of what we can see with the microscope. If we detect something we aren’t happy with, we export the file directly to the ophthalmologists for assessment and action. It’s pretty amazing how quickly we can get things done for a patient when the doctor can see in real time what he or she is dealing with.
And macular degeneration is not the only thing we find this machine useful for. The 3D scan of the optic nerve can show us any thinned, damaged areas, and also is becoming part of the standard for monitoring optic nerve head changes over time. This makes glaucoma co-management with ophthalmologists that much more thorough and consistent.
Now this Maestro OCT is also designed to be used on the front of the eye. This gives us a lot of brilliant information about corneal thicknesses for keratoconic patients, it allows us to assess trauma more accurately, and it also lets us look at the drainage structures at the front of the eye in a 3D manner and assess risk factors for glaucoma.
For the remainder of 2015, if a patient requests, we will donate a portion of the OCT fee to the Vanuatu Cyclone Pam relief fund. Having returned from a volunteer medical trip in Vanuatu late last year, the place is dear to Tui’s heart and we know Wanaka people love to get behind helping out our neighbours, so we will support them on Wanaka’s behalf.
Ni-vanuatu children posing outside their home pre-cyclone
As the due date draws a lot nearer, we wanted to let everyone know that the excellent patient care will continue as usual at CVO while Tui is away on maternity leave.
As she said on Radio Wanaka last week.. “I would never do something as selfish as having a baby without making sure my patients were well taken care of!!”
For a start, we have our wonderful permanent part-time optometrist Katie. She has been working with us for almost a year now and people are getting to know Katie as being very friendly, and very thorough. She has her own loyal patients now, and people love seeing her.
To cover the extra days we have scoured the country for the best optometrists we could find and we actually have a couple of very skilled, very lovely people coming in to take care of my patients. One of them is actually more qualified than us regular optometrists in that he has glaucoma co-management rights, so people would be wise to come in while i’m away and take advantage of his (and his prodigy)’s wealth of knowledge and experience.
According to Tui, “I can honestly say that our patient’s are going to be so well looked after while I’m away that I fear no one will even notice I’m gone! ”
And of course everyone knows our Jan and Lisa, who will keep everyone in line and very well looked after.
Tui also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has popped in to see how she’s going – we will keep you posted on the arrival of the newest Homer to the clan!
Until then, have a wonderful week!
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