What Blue Light Is

Sunlight contains, red, green, yellow, orange, and blue light rays in various shades depending on the energy and wavelength of each individual ray (a.k.a. electromagnetic radiation). This light spectrum combines to create sunlight. Blue lights are short but powerful – containing a lot of energy within their wavelengths. This is why they’re known to contribute to digital eye strain, which is something that computer glasses that block out blue light can help with.

Why you Should be Aware of Blue Light

Blue light has both benefits and dangers to it. In this regard, here are some things that you should know:

• You can’t escape blue light, it’s everywhere. This is because the main source of blue light is sunlight.
• These are what make the sky look blue. Their short wavelengths are full of energy that looks blue. Since they scatter easier than any other light rays, they’re the ones that strike the atmosphere’s air and water molecules giving the sky its color.
• Your vision doesn’t do a good job at blocking out blue light.
• When your vision is exposed to blue light, the likelihood of you developing macular degeneration increases.
• Blue light is also known to contribute to digital eye strain, which is why it isn’t good for you to spend a lot of time on your computer, smartphone, or other digital devices – especially before you go to bed at night.
• Once you’ve had cataract surgery it becomes even more important for you to protect your eyes from blue light.
• While it may seem like all blue light is bad, this isn’t true. In fact, having some blue light exposure is essential for good eye health. It’s known to make you more alert, help with your memory, improve your cognitive functioning, and elevate your moods. This is why light therapy is a beneficial way of treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Additionally, blue light helps regulate your body’s natural wakefulness and sleep cycle (a.k.a. circadian rhythm).

How to Protect Your Eyes from Blue Light

Using blue light filters will help protect your eyes. This includes things like:

• Filters for when you use your smartphone, tablet, and computer screen prevent too much blue light from reaching your vision without affecting the display’s visibility.
• Computer glasses can reduce blue light exposure. You can buy them without a vision prescription or have them included within your prescription eyeglasses themselves. This is especially important if you’ve already been diagnosed with presbyopia.
• Glare-reducing and anti-reflective coatings are also available to block blue light from both sunlight and digital devices.
• Photochromic lenses will help with both UV and blue light protection. They automatically darken in response to UV rays so you’re more comfortable and experience less glare.

Regardless of what type of optical equipment you need help with, VEI Company has you covered. We have nothing short of the best optical and ophthalmic equipment. We invite you to stop by and check out our selection to see for yourself why we have so many highly satisfied customers and why we honestly believe you should be next.

Picture Credit: Gilles Lambert

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How 3D Printing Works

Sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing, this process uses a computer to create a 3D object by depositing layer upon layer of material until you have a finished product. This is done in one of two ways:

• Extrusion: The material (usually melted plastic) is pushed out the tip of a nozzle like how a glue gun works
• Sintering: A powder or liquid is deposited one layer at a time before having a light or laser shined on it so it’ll harden

With 3D printing you can print objects in almost any material (e.g. ceramic, metal, living tissue). You can also print them as small or as large as you need.

Uses in Ophthalmology

There are several ways that 3D printing can be used in ophthalmology, including:

• Creating new surgical tools
• Replacement parts for optical and ophthalmic equipment
• Helping plan surgeries
• Creating custom implants (e.g. drug-dispensing devices, retinal prosthesis)
• Pre-operative morphing – Helping patients understand how they’ll benefit from a procedure and what the end result will look like
• Crowdsourced projects in which ophthalmologists from around the country can work together on a project using the same model
• Printing duplicates of your patient’s anatomy and skeletal structure so you can practice the surgery on the model before performing it on your patient

All these things are beneficial because they’re more cost-effective than yesteryear’s processes, especially when large numbers of items are needed in a short period of time or something must be custom-made.

Challenges yet to Overcome

There are still some challenges that we must overcome here, much as there would be with any new technology. Some of the challenges that are particularly pertinent to the field of ophthalmology include:

• New materials still need to be developed and approved for medical purposes
• Printer resolution
• Finding really useful content to create
• Continued technological progression with FDA approval
• Clearly, there’s still a lot of room for growth in this field.

How Ophthalmology can Make the Most of 3D Printing Today

Now that these printers are affordable (under $500) and you can download models online, it’s easier than ever to use this technology. You don’t even have to buy a printer if you don’t want to. There are places where you can go and use their printer instead (e.g. office supply stores, Home Depot). Some of these places even have catalogs online so you can have the item printed and shipped to you, which is great because you probably don’t need a printer in your office yet. Of course, if you’re interested in experimenting with the technology on your own, it’s a good idea to get a printer. However, if you want to create a prototype, this isn’t necessary.

Regardless of where you get a printer, this technology is being widely utilized today. Prosthetics are being widely used by volunteers (e.g. Boy Scout troops, school classrooms) for children in need. This is only the beginning of what we’ll see from this evolving field. Where we’ll go or what we’ll see is something many people are excited to think about today.

Picture Credit: Pixabay

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