Don’t you just hate it when your eyes are dry and itchy? It is definitely one of the worst feelings for such a sensitive area. Your instincts tell you that you should rub your eyes when they are dry. However, this only leads to a drier more irritated eye. If you are tired of dealing with dry eyes, here are a few tips that will help clear up the problem for you.

First, understand what is causing your eye to become dry and then eliminate the triggering factor. One of the most common causes of dry eyes, believe it or not, is simply not blinking enough. Often when we sit in front of the TV or the computer, we are not blinking our eyes as often as we should. When we blink, we are actually coating our eyes with tears. These tears help maintain the health of the eye.

Contact lenses may also be causing your eyes to become dry. Instead of allowing tears to moisturize the eye, often soft contacts soak up the tears. Again, this results in dry irritated eyes.

Another cause of eye irritation and dryness is prescription medicine. There are certain prescriptions whose side effects include “dryness” which encompasses the tear ducts. If this is causing your eyes to be dry, talk with your medical doctor and see what options are available to counteract this side effect.

Outside of prescription medicine side effects, treatment for most cases of dry eyes consists of purchasing an over-the-counter eye lubricant (artificial tears). These lubricants can be used as many times as needed until the problem dissipates. However, if the dryness stays for an extended period of time, you may need to be tested by your optometrist to ensure that there is not a more serious underlying problem.

It is important to note that for contact wearers, it is better to try a rewetting drop specially formulated for contact lenses before trying any artificial tear solution. Again, talk to your optometrist if you are unsure about which solution will work best for your specific brand of contact lenses.

By understanding what is triggering the dryness in your eyes, you can stop it with the use of over-the-counter eye drops or the appropriate contact lens rewetting solution in most cases. As always, talk with your optician if the problem persists.

Mike Schwartz is the owner of the popular web site Best Contact Lenses Online His site provides useful tips, resources, and reviews to help you make the best decision when purchasing contact lenses on the Internet.

As far as the cost of LASIK eye surgery is concerned, the only worldwide standard is that prices are quoted per eye. However, the cost depends on several factors and varies from one provider to another. A strong reason behind such a variation is that different providers perform different levels of pre-operative testing. A thorough pre-operative examination can avoid LASIK complications, and hence it’s imperative to determine if appropriate pre-operative testing is included in the quoted price.

The cost of equipment used for pre-operative testing and surgery also varies, and this reflects in the overall procedure fee. Computer-controlled scanners to determine the exact shape of the cornea, eye tracking device, tear film analysis, the laser used to make incisions, and all other pertinent equipment vary in cost from one medical center to another.

A few unscrupulous practitioners may advertise their services at a discounted price. Don’t be fooled if an ad says, “LASIK for $500 per eye”. The truth is that not all patients are eligible for a discounted price. A particular patient may require an extensive refractive surgery in the first place, or frequent follow ups after the surgery. Furthermore, it is typically the case that a discounted price does not include the essential pre-operative testing. Hence, make sure what features are being offered for the quoted price. Cases have been reported where medical institutes have been found guilty of misrepresenting the actual cost of LASIK eye surgery.

As the popularity for LASIK eye surgery rises, so does the incurred cost. A leading refractive industry newsletter reported that the average cost for LASIK eye surgery in the second quarter of 2005 was 1,965 USD. The study was based on a comprehensive research of various medical facilities, ranging from regional practitioners to nationwide networks. Most insurance companies do not cover LASIK eye surgery, since they consider it as a cosmetic procedure.

People are tempted to choose a surgeon that offers a discounted price. But that may be an act of foolishness. The smarter thing is to choose the best surgeon available who has experience of this procedure. There is no point risking your vision for the sake of a petty few dollars.

If in doubt you should seek further information.

Nicola Kennedy publishes articles and reports and provides news, information and views about the Cost of Lasik Eye Surgery at Your Lasik Information. The LASIK Surgeons Directory will help you find a LASIK doctor.

Copyright Your-LASIK.info All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact.

Searching for the perfect look for any season? Sun glasses make the perfect accessory to most ensembles. Any outfit gets an extra touch of style when you pay attention to decorating the parts of your body from the neck up. Why deny yourself the opportunity to look extra hot in the cold season, and extra cool during the heat wave?

It must be the mysterious look. Sun glasses provide the “it” factor that many of us seek from our accessories, and this is why the trendier of us invest in genuine upscale brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley - you pay for the long-term “it” thing that goes well with anything you wear. In fact, sunglasses even look cool at night! But to keep from suffering the embarrassment of bumping into telephone poles and the like, there are also glasses that offer flexible visual opacity; in short, not all sunglasses obscure sight even in places that have no sun.

For practical purposes, you should choose sunglasses that block out at least 90% of the sun’s UV rays. This would ensure that your pretty eyes are kept safe, which is the primary purpose of sunglasses.

Next, you should choose a make and design that fits your activities and your lifestyle. If you’re an active, sporty person you’ll want the extra wind and dust protection afforded by wraparound shades, many of which are nowadays designed to look cool with sports wear! You’ll also need sunglasses that are anti-corrosive, meaning the acidity of your skin won’t harm the material the frames are made of. This is important because when you engage in sporty activities, you sweat a lot, and sweat comes with acid that may damage the frame of your sunglasses. Some people’s skin is more acidic than others’, but good sports sunglasses will take different skin and sweat types into consideration.

Should you need sunglasses mainly to look chic, you don’t need to worry so much about wind and dust protection. Fashion sunglasses that focus more on the look than on the make have been manufactured since Hollywood stars of the 50s made them famous in their films. Choosing the right shape and color of the frame would help you pick out sunglasses that are just as trendy as fashion jewelry. Buy more than one pair so you can mix and match your sun glasses with your wardrobe!

Sun glasses have always lent a little extra “cool” to any ensemble. If you’re looking to stand out in a crowd, invest in shades!

Sunglassology.com provides you with information on all kinds of Sun glasses. Where to buy them and what to look out for.

Would we really know it if we saw it. Does it exist in life or only in our minds. As humans we place labels on so many things. Maybe that’s why living together is so tough. We are so accustomed to putting people into groups, that we hardly get to know each other as individuals. How are we to judge anything, when so much of who and what we are is clouded in our own particular shade of life. To accurately judge something, we’d have to be of open mind and soul, but we’re humans.

I guess that’s why they say “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. We look at the same object, yet see it so differently. Are our lives, our experiences, so frozen within our being, that it affects the way we see color, light or grey. Have we forsaken so much of what we could’ve become and settled for a body that uses less then 10% of its brain. Do we deserve to have any say on any object that isn’t immediately relevant to us. Who are we to hand out praise or rejection, as if our observation is some how the gospel.

So what is beauty? Can you see it? Can you touch it? Is it something that we know or something that we feel. There are so many things we call beautiful, but why? There aren’t any concrete facts to go by that show us what is and isn’t beauty. Maybe beauty isn’t real, but abstract. Like when you want someone to like you; you’ll take whatever they say, even a simple hello and project it to mean more than it really does. Maybe beauty is nothing more than a projection of our desires. We want things to be as we perceive them and it doesn’t matter if that’s the way they really are.

If you found beauty, what would you do with it? Would you put it on display for all the world to see and admire and envy. Or would you lock it in a room, suffocate it and only bring it out to suit your needs. Could you handle having beauty or would it change you. Would you be able to accept the responsibility of knowing the whole world wanted what you had. As humans, are we mature enough to add beauty to our life, or would it become our life?

We only seem sure of what we want, when we don’t have it, but once we have it, we have no clue about what to do with it. Yes, beauty is a nice concept, but we have to know that since we see it in so many things, that it really only exist in our minds. All those objects that we see beauty in, is nothing more than projections of a preconceived mind. Beauty isn’t beauty unless we say it’s so, it doesn’t have the ability to become beauty on its own. We think beauty is a part of reality, but in reality, beauty is only a part of what we think.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Beauty

Corneal ring vision correction is a procedure where corneal ring segments or intacs are placed into the cornea to help correct vision anomalies. A small cut is made in the top of the cornea so that the intacs ring segment can be put into position. Two of the implants are used per eye. When this is completed the slits in the eye created by the surgeon are closed by using a stitch that is removed in a few weeks or sometimes sooner. It is a very straightforward and well-established procedure and is not likely to create any harmful side effects or complications.

Although the procedure involves a minimum of surgical intervention it can create a small amount of discomfort in some patients. If you experience any discomfort as a result of corneal ring vision correction you should ask your doctor whether it is appropriate to take any antibiotic or steroid drops. This will usually alleviate the problem but if you suffer any further difficulties or setbacks you should always contact your doctor or the surgeon who performed the operation to seek additional medical guidance. There are not usually many problems with this treatment, and any difficulties are usually minor but it is always worth contacting your doctor or surgeon if you are worried.

After you have had your corneal ring vision correction surgery your vision may not initially seem to be much better or improved over your eyesight prior to surgery. In fact, it can seem to be slightly blurred. This condition will usually improve within a few days and then you will see the vast improvement in your vision due to the surgery. However in a majority of all cases most people do find that their vision is improved immediately and notice it getting even better in the ensuing few days following the operation. In fact, some people find that their vision is good enough to drive on the day after the operation. Even if you can see clearly in a short amount of time you should always be cautious and it is better to wait to start driving until you are satisfied that you can truly see clearly and have tested that your vision is good enough.

When deciding whether to have corneal ring vision correction it is better, rather than just reading about it, to go and see your doctor and ask him or her to recommend a good eye specialist or ophthalmic surgeon that you can talk to and discuss the options and whether it is useful treatment for you and appropriate for your visual impairment. You can also discuss the cost implications of the various treatments available, and whether this is the best type of surgery to correct your vision.