Vision care for adults
Dr. Heddle offers a full-scope practice. This includes ocular wellness exams, routine exams for glasses and contacts, specialty contacts to eliminate the need to wear glasses, and neuro-visual care (which includes Visual Training). The practice dispenses spectacles and contact lenses but most of their prescribing is done with a neuro-visual perspective.
Dr. Heddle also refers patients for cataract and laser refractive surgery.
The future of the eyecare industry is evolving
Dr. Heddle tries to support the whole family, not just patients with visual issues.
Dr. Heddle’s philosophy is all about preventative care and discussions around nutrition, UV protection, stress reduction, and proper sleep is part of the education he provides for his patients.
Dr. Heddle routinely provides a full neuro-visual evaluation of a patient, that covers more than 25 components of the visual system, sort of like a mechanic does a checklist when evaluating a car. This allows Dr. Heddle the opportunity to look at the visual system as a whole and helps determine the type of prescription we use, that is customized to that individual. This information then gets utilized by our neuro-visual opticians to customize the lens design to the prescription.
Dr. Heddle likes to take the time to understand the visual demands of the patient and match the most appropriate lens to that demand. An example may be that measures how much support the patient has from a focussing perspective at near, coupled with how much need there is for close viewing, i.e. computer, phone, digital device, or making sure the target shooter has a bifocal lens design that doesn’t interfere with his ability to site the target.
Statistics show that 25 percent of every classroom has vision-related learning. There are also more dry eye issues due to more screen time, less sleep and more stress. I feel as an industry, there needs to be an end game. We need to work with each other, to ensure we are able to continue to thrive under today’s demands.
It's All About the Details
One of our patients suffered from significant headaches. Dr. Heddle realized that the patient was wearing UV blocking contact lenses. He switched the patient out of UV blocking contacts (blocking all UV can impact the secretion of hormones!) and her headaches decreased significantly.
Currently, many people are flocking to Yellow 'Blue Blocking' lenses for the computer. These lenses are helpful in maintaining proper Circadian Rhythms (sleep/ wake cycles), if one is looking at a computer screen AFTER 9pm. During the day, blocking the Blue wavelength can impair your visual systems focusing performance.