Our Treatments
Our Treatments
What is Dry Eye Disease?
Dry eye disease is a condition where your tears cannot keep your eyes moist, and it affects 54% of South Africans. This condition can happen when issues occur in your tear film. With 3 layers (oil, aqueous fluid, and mucus), your tear film helps keep your eye’s surface clean and protected.
Problems can develop in the tear film, leading to decreased tear production or increased tear evaporation. These problems cause your eyes to dry out, leaving them at risk of infections and damage to the eye’s surface.
When issues arise in your tear film, it can lead to several irritating symptoms.
Dry Eye Symptoms
Dry eye disease can cause many symptoms to develop, including:
- Eyes that sting or burn.
- Stringy mucus around the eyes.
- Light sensitivity.
- Eye redness.
- Foreign object sensation (sandy sensation).
- Watery eyes.
- Blurry vision.
- Eye fatigue.
Working in air-conditioned environments, dry and dusty environments, contact lens wear as well as frequently staring at screens/devices may aggravate symptoms.
Symptoms can occur for various reasons, but many people with chronic dry eyes experience meibomian gland dysfunction. This condition affects the oily layer of your tear film, leading to dry eyes.
It is important to visit your Optometrist to get a diagnosis and to find out the type of dry eye disease that you may have. Various tear film tests, meibomian gland observations, and microscopic assessments are performed on the ocular surface using yellow and green dyes.
Types of Dry Eye Disease
- Aqueous deficient dry eye: This is when your eyes don't produce enough tears.
- Evaporative dry eye: This is when your tears evaporate too quickly.
- Mixed dry eye: Some people have aqueous tear deficiency and tear instability.
Once a diagnosis is made, your eyecare practitioner will discuss the various treatment plans available for you.
Depending on diagnosis, we offer various treatment options such as
- Prescribing tear supplements and lubricants.
- In office blephasteam treatment sessions.
- Collagen punctal plugs.
- In office radiofrequency treatment.
- Eyelid Meibomian Gland Expression
Yhu shame, the best optometrist service I have ever experienced, and I have visited optometrists 5 times before this one! The consultation was like a conversation with an eyesight angel -I'll tell you all about it over coffee :-) The Optical Consultants/receptionists are just as amazing. I promise I'm not exaggerating, Eyeconic Randburg are simply the best optometrist in town if not the country! I am such a happy client!
...and my glasses look so good on me and my vision is just phenomenal!
Daniella Lekgau
Myopia Control is about Protecting Eye Health
Myopia is not just about a pair of glasses. Myopia progression brings with it:
- Increasingly blurred vision.
- Increased worsening of spectacle and contact lens prescriptions.
- Increased risk of eye diseases and vision problems over a person’s lifetime.
The eye grows at an accelerated rate. The eyes are meant to grow in childhood, at a regular rate up until age 10 to 12. However, if they grow too quickly or don’t stop at age 10 to 12, then a patient becomes myopic. Once myopia in children and teenagers starts, it typically progresses or worsens every few months until the late teenage or early adulthood years.
This excessive growth of the eye stretches the retina – the light-sensitive layer lining the back of the eye – and the stretching increases the risk of eye diseases and vision impairment occurring across the patient’s lifetime.
A myopic eye is longer, or more stretched than a normally sighted eye due to excessive eye growth.
A normal eye length is 22 to 24mm. When the eye grows longer than 26mm, the risk of the patient suffering vision impairment in their lifetime is 25%. If the eye grows to more than 30mm, which can occur in very high myopia, the risk skyrockets to 90%.
Myopia control is about slowing down this excessive eye growth, ideally to the normal rate expected in childhood. Even at levels of myopia traditionally thought of as quite "low", there are increased risks of eye diseases compared to someone who is not myopic – see the table.
The table shows the increased risk of eye diseases with higher levels of myopia. The risk of these eye diseases for someone who is not myopic is "1" – these are odds ratios, indicating the multiple of increased risk for that eye disease by the level of myopia. For example, a -1.00D myope has a 2.1x increased risk of cataracts and a 3.1x increased risk of retinal detachment compared to someone who is not myopic.
Laser eye surgery doesn't "fix" myopia. It can fix the blurred vision from myopia but doesn't fix the excessive eye length which brings with it an increased risk of eye disease. Even after an adult has laser surgery for myopia, their eye health will still be at increased risk from this excessive eye length, and require ongoing monitoring.
"Myopia control" has become the increasingly adopted term to describe the use of treatments aimed to slow the progression of myopia. After a thorough case history and examining your eye health, your eyecare specialist will prescribe a suitable Myopia Control treatment for you. Sometimes a combination of these treatments may be required to control the myopia.
These treatments include:
- Orthokeratology.
- Special types of spectacle lenses (Miyosmart).
- Myopia controls soft contact lenses such as Misight.
- Atropine eye drops.
Myopia control is particularly important for children because this is the stage in life when myopia is most likely to progress or worsen quickly.
Around half of teenagers reach the stability of their myopia progression around age 16, but this means half is still progressing, so ideally myopia control treatment should continue into early adulthood.
Young adults can also suffer myopia progression, albeit at a slower rate than children and teenagers. Recent data indicates that young adults can also newly experience myopia in their 20s, even after a childhood of normal vision.
Myopia control or myopia management are terms used interchangeably to describe the extra clinical care required for children and adults with myopia. Generally, myopia control means slowing down myopia progression with spectacles, Ortho-K, contact lenses or atropine eye drop treatments. Myopia management holistically treats myopia considering visual status, eye health, lifestyle and environmental factors which can trigger myopia progression, and also managing eye health.
There are many treatment options available to slow myopia progression in children and teenagers, and some evidence for treatments in young adults.
Who is suitable for Myopia Control Treatment?
Myopia control treatments have been mostly researched in children from the age of 6 up until early adulthood.
Children aged 6-10 years tend to show the most rapid progression, or worsening, of their myopia. This means it is crucial to start a myopia control treatment as soon as possible.
What are the benefits of Myopia Control?
Lower amounts of myopia mean you can cope a little better without your glasses or contact lenses especially when you get up in the mornings, rather than being disabled without them. If young patients wish to have LASIK eye surgery later on to correct their myopia in adulthood, a lower prescription increases the chances of being a suitable candidate.
Myopia Control is about quality of life
The short-term benefits of myopia control are better vision and quality of life.
With myopia control, patients will undergo less frequent changes in their prescription. With vision being more stable and deteriorating less between eye examinations, patients will have better vision for studying, working, sports and other daily activities.
The long-term benefits of myopia control are reducing the risks of eye health problems and vision impairment across a person's lifetime.
Research has shown that higher amounts of myopia lead to higher lifelong risks of eye diseases like cataracts, retinal detachment and macular degeneration. Even low levels of myopia can increase the risk of eye diseases compared to someone who doesn't have myopia. Higher levels of myopia also increase the risk of suffering vision impairment in a person's lifetime.
Each additional diopter of myopia (-1.00D or 4 steps of power) can affect vision-related quality of life and increase the risk of eye diseases occurring across a person's lifetime.
Lifestyle adjustments in Myopia management
There is much research showing that a child or teenager's visual environment can increase their risk of myopia onset and progression. The visual environment includes considering the following factors:
- How much time does a child or young adult spend outdoors? Increasing outdoor time to around 2 hours per day on average can help delay myopia.
- How much time do they spend on screens and/or reading? Holding books or screens too close and long durations of use without breaks increases myopia risk.
Your optometrist will also talk about lifestyle adjustments to help manage myopia. These can be important factors to ensure the best possible outcomes with myopia control treatments.
Myopia Control is about Protecting Eye Health
Myopia is not just about a pair of glasses. Myopia progression brings with it:
- Increasingly blurred vision.
- Increased worsening of spectacle and contact lens prescriptions.
- Increased risk of eye diseases and vision problems over a person’s lifetime.
The eye grows at an accelerated rate. The eyes are meant to grow in childhood, at a regular rate up until age 10 to 12. However, if they grow too quickly or don’t stop at age 10 to 12, then a patient becomes myopic. Once myopia in children and teenagers starts, it typically progresses or worsens every few months until the late teenage or early adulthood years.
This excessive growth of the eye stretches the retina – the light-sensitive layer lining the back of the eye – and the stretching increases the risk of eye diseases and vision impairment occurring across the patient’s lifetime.
A myopic eye is longer, or more stretched than a normally sighted eye due to excessive eye growth.
A normal eye length is 22 to 24mm. When the eye grows longer than 26mm, the risk of the patient suffering vision impairment in their lifetime is 25%. If the eye grows to more than 30mm, which can occur in very high myopia, the risk skyrockets to 90%.
Myopia control is about slowing down this excessive eye growth, ideally to the normal rate expected in childhood. Even at levels of myopia traditionally thought of as quite "low", there are increased risks of eye diseases compared to someone who is not myopic – see the table.
The table shows the increased risk of eye diseases with higher levels of myopia. The risk of these eye diseases for someone who is not myopic is "1" – these are odds ratios, indicating the multiple of increased risk for that eye disease by the level of myopia. For example, a -1.00D myope has a 2.1x increased risk of cataracts and a 3.1x increased risk of retinal detachment compared to someone who is not myopic.
Laser eye surgery doesn't "fix" myopia. It can fix the blurred vision from myopia but doesn't fix the excessive eye length which brings with it an increased risk of eye disease. Even after an adult has laser surgery for myopia, their eye health will still be at increased risk from this excessive eye length, and require ongoing monitoring.
"Myopia control" has become the increasingly adopted term to describe the use of treatments aimed to slow the progression of myopia. After a thorough case history and examining your eye health, your eyecare specialist will prescribe a suitable Myopia Control treatment for you. Sometimes a combination of these treatments may be required to control the myopia.
These treatments include:
- Orthokeratology.
- Special types of spectacle lenses (Miyosmart).
- Myopia controls soft contact lenses such as Misight.
- Atropine eye drops.
Myopia control is particularly important for children because this is the stage in life when myopia is most likely to progress or worsen quickly.
Around half of teenagers reach the stability of their myopia progression around age 16, but this means half is still progressing, so ideally myopia control treatment should continue into early adulthood.
Young adults can also suffer myopia progression, albeit at a slower rate than children and teenagers. Recent data indicates that young adults can also newly experience myopia in their 20s, even after a childhood of normal vision.
Myopia control or myopia management are terms used interchangeably to describe the extra clinical care required for children and adults with myopia. Generally, myopia control means slowing down myopia progression with spectacles, Ortho-K, contact lenses or atropine eye drop treatments. Myopia management holistically treats myopia considering visual status, eye health, lifestyle and environmental factors which can trigger myopia progression, and also managing eye health.
There are many treatment options available to slow myopia progression in children and teenagers, and some evidence for treatments in young adults.
Who is suitable for Myopia Control Treatment?
Myopia control treatments have been mostly researched in children from the age of 6 up until early adulthood.
Children aged 6-10 years tend to show the most rapid progression, or worsening, of their myopia. This means it is crucial to start a myopia control treatment as soon as possible.
What are the benefits of Myopia Control?
Lower amounts of myopia mean you can cope a little better without your glasses or contact lenses especially when you get up in the mornings, rather than being disabled without them. If young patients wish to have LASIK eye surgery later on to correct their myopia in adulthood, a lower prescription increases the chances of being a suitable candidate.
Myopia Control is about quality of life
The short-term benefits of myopia control are better vision and quality of life.
With myopia control, patients will undergo less frequent changes in their prescription. With vision being more stable and deteriorating less between eye examinations, patients will have better vision for studying, working, sports and other daily activities.
The long-term benefits of myopia control are reducing the risks of eye health problems and vision impairment across a person's lifetime.
Research has shown that higher amounts of myopia lead to higher lifelong risks of eye diseases like cataracts, retinal detachment and macular degeneration. Even low levels of myopia can increase the risk of eye diseases compared to someone who doesn't have myopia. Higher levels of myopia also increase the risk of suffering vision impairment in a person's lifetime.
Each additional diopter of myopia (-1.00D or 4 steps of power) can affect vision-related quality of life and increase the risk of eye diseases occurring across a person's lifetime.
Lifestyle adjustments in Myopia management
There is much research showing that a child or teenager's visual environment can increase their risk of myopia onset and progression. The visual environment includes considering the following factors:
- How much time does a child or young adult spend outdoors? Increasing outdoor time to around 2 hours per day on average can help delay myopia.
- How much time do they spend on screens and/or reading? Holding books or screens too close and long durations of use without breaks increases myopia risk.
Your optometrist will also talk about lifestyle adjustments to help manage myopia. These can be important factors to ensure the best possible outcomes with myopia control treatments.
We did visit eyeconic optometrist in Houghten, we got excellent results the optometrist was friendly and humble. She was very understanding and very helpful. Both my daughter and I got excellent service from the eyeconic team in Houghten
Ntutu Mjokane
What is Radiofrequency Treatment?
Radiofrequency (RF) treatment uses energy waves to heat your eyelids and treat clogged meibomian glands. This treatment can help relieve symptoms of dry eye disease. RF waves are a form of radiation that releases electromagnetic waves. Radiofrequency can also be used in the office non-invasively to reduce the size of the chalazion/eyelid cyst if no success with warm compresses. This treatment is suitable for all skin types and usually requires 4 sessions.
Aesthetic Function
RF treatment has a cosmetic function as a nonsurgical way to tighten your skin. The treatment uses energy waves to heat the deep layer of your skin, called the dermis. Heating your skin helps produce more collagen, a substance necessary for strong and healthy skin.
Collagen production tends to slow down with age, leading to wrinkles and fine lines. RF treatment can help smooth wrinkles around the eyes while improving tear functionality.
How does treatment for Dry Eye Work?
RF treatment features heating and possible expression of your meibomian glands. RF heats your eyelids at an optimal temperature to liquefy the oils clogging your glands. After heating your eyelids, your optometrist may express these glands through massage to release additional trapped oil.
RF treatment is safe for all skin types and tones when performed by a professional.
What to expect in your treatment
You’ll receive your RF treatment in your optometrist’s office. There’s no required anaesthetic as this treatment is typically painless. Heat melts the blocked oil in your meibomian glands.
After heating the glands, your doctor may massage them to express more oil. There’s little to no aftercare required once your appointment finishes. Most patients experience no side effects besides a short-term skin reaction.
How many treatment sessions do you need?
Typically you’ll need at least 4 treatment sessions of RF, but your optometrist will determine the appropriate number. They’ll discuss your overall treatment plan with you and how it will address your dry eye needs.
Is Radiofrequency Treatment right for you?
The best way to see if RF treatment is right for you is by visiting your optometrist. If you suffer from dry eyes, they can diagnose the problem and recommend a customised treatment plan for your needs. If they don’t feel RF treatment will be helpful, there are many other treatments available.
Your optometrist can help you relieve dry eye symptoms. If you have symptoms of dry eye disease, contact your eyecare specialist.
What is Radiofrequency Treatment?
Radiofrequency (RF) treatment uses energy waves to heat your eyelids and treat clogged meibomian glands. This treatment can help relieve symptoms of dry eye disease. RF waves are a form of radiation that releases electromagnetic waves. Radiofrequency can also be used in the office non-invasively to reduce the size of the chalazion/eyelid cyst if no success with warm compresses. This treatment is suitable for all skin types and usually requires 4 sessions.
Aesthetic Function
RF treatment has a cosmetic function as a nonsurgical way to tighten your skin. The treatment uses energy waves to heat the deep layer of your skin, called the dermis. Heating your skin helps produce more collagen, a substance necessary for strong and healthy skin.
Collagen production tends to slow down with age, leading to wrinkles and fine lines. RF treatment can help smooth wrinkles around the eyes while improving tear functionality.
How does treatment for Dry Eye Work?
RF treatment features heating and possible expression of your meibomian glands. RF heats your eyelids at an optimal temperature to liquefy the oils clogging your glands. After heating your eyelids, your optometrist may express these glands through massage to release additional trapped oil.
RF treatment is safe for all skin types and tones when performed by a professional.
What to expect in your treatment
You’ll receive your RF treatment in your optometrist’s office. There’s no required anaesthetic as this treatment is typically painless. Heat melts the blocked oil in your meibomian glands.
After heating the glands, your doctor may massage them to express more oil. There’s little to no aftercare required once your appointment finishes. Most patients experience no side effects besides a short-term skin reaction.
How many treatment sessions do you need?
Typically you’ll need at least 4 treatment sessions of RF, but your optometrist will determine the appropriate number. They’ll discuss your overall treatment plan with you and how it will address your dry eye needs.
Is Radiofrequency Treatment right for you?
The best way to see if RF treatment is right for you is by visiting your optometrist. If you suffer from dry eyes, they can diagnose the problem and recommend a customised treatment plan for your needs. If they don’t feel RF treatment will be helpful, there are many other treatments available.
Your optometrist can help you relieve dry eye symptoms. If you have symptoms of dry eye disease, contact your eyecare specialist.
The receptionist and the optometrist were so friendly and very welcoming. If you want a comprehensive eye test, this is the best place to visit. Very affordable and quality services. What are you waiting for! Go see with your own eyes on how good they are☺️.