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Dr. Perry, for his part, has been impressed by the coverage that the once-a-day drops afford. "I was sur- p rised to find that there was no dif- ference in my patients when they switched from a twice-a-day to a once-a-day medication in terms of their symptoms." The use of preservatives in al- lergy medication is taken in stride by many. Dr. Epstein doesn't view these as any big deal for most pa- t ients. "The only place where preser- vatives are a big deal is in patients with severe dry eye who are using drops every hour," he said. "But be- yond that, I think the preservative issue has been overblown." Likewise, Dr. Starr pointed out that while preservatives in high vol- ume can always be problematic, for t he most part this is not an issue for seasonal allergy patients, who are treated when symptomatic, during spring and summer. "The total volume of drops, especially if it's a once-a-day drop, is not all that high," he said. While there's a possible role for adjunctive measures such as cold compresses and avoidance, Dr. Starr feels very strongly that these cannot replace drops. Such adjunctive meas- ures, he emphasized, do nothing to control inflammation, but can pro- vide palliative relief. In symptomatic patients he also uses a mild topical steroid such as loteprednol in con- junction with antihistamine drops to reduce the inflammatory load on the ocular surface. Dr. Epstein, an allergy sufferer himself, also thinks that the mast cell stabilizing drops are important. " If you suffer from this you can defi- nitely benefit." He also touts allergy shots, which he notes have made a big difference. Dr. Blaiss said the FDA is currently considering some sublin- gual immunotherapy for allergic rhinoconjunctivitis for the northern grasses and ragweed, which might h elp to modify patients' immune system so they didn't react to these pollens. Overall, Dr. Epstein thinks that practitioners must take ocular al- lergy seriously and listen to patients' complaints. "I see many patients re- ferred to me [who] have been treated for years and years with artificial t ears as if they have dry eyes," he said. "No one bothered to take an allergy history and find out that they completely missed the diagnosis of ocular allergy." EW Editors' note: Dr. Blaiss has financial interests with Alcon, Merck, and Allergan. Dr. Epstein has financial interests with Alcon. Dr. Perry has financial interests with Alcon and Allergan. Dr. Starr has financial interests with Alcon, Allergan, Bausch + Lomb, Rapid Pathogen Screening (Sarasota, Fla.), and TearLab (San Diego). Contact information Blaiss: michael.blaiss@gmail.com Epstein: repstein@chicagocornea.com Perry: Hankcornea@gmail.com Starr: cestarr@med.cornell.edu BABD 1347 Rev.A 3360 Scherer Drive, Suite B, St. Petersburg FL 33716 s4ELs&AX %MAIL)NFO 2HEIN-EDICALCOMs7EBSITEWWW2HEIN-EDICALCOM 1 $EVELOPED)N#OORDINATION7ITH*UAN&"ATLLE-$ $EVELOPED)N#OORDINATION7ITH3TEVEN,-ASKIN-$0ATENT0ENDING 3 $EVELOPED)N#OORDINATION7ITH$AVID2(ARDTEN-$ Background, Stylized Eye 0 8 - 0 1 7 1 8 B a t l l e 1 E y e l i d C o m p r e s s i o n F o r c e p s 0 8 - 0 1 7 1 6 M a s k i n 2 M e i b u m E x p r e s s o r 0 8 - 0 1 7 1 7 H a r d t e n 3 E y e l i d C o m p r e s s i o n F o r c e p s -EIBUM %XPRESSORS Prevent Blindness offers special resources for AMD and Low Vision Awareness Month T he month of February has been declared Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Low Vision Awareness Month by Prevent Blindness, the nation's oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization. Prevent Blindness is offering educational materi- als at no cost through its website and toll-free number. A number of online resources are part of this campaign. Living Well with Low Vision (lowvision.preventblindness.org) includes searchable, local low vision resource directories and a blog featuring people who are living with AMD and other vision prob- lems. The Prevent Blindness AMD Learning Center (preventblind- ness.org/amd) has educational tools including an Adult Vision Risk Assessment tool, fact sheets, and treatment options. Prevent Blindness also created See Jane See (SeeJaneSee.org), which has eye health information that is specifically geared toward women. Physicians can help by encouraging their patients to make a commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle in an attempt to save sight. Some ways to do this include visiting an eye doctor regularly, stopping smoking, eating healthy foods, staying active, controlling blood pressure, avoiding eye injuries that may cause permanent damage by wearing eye protection during physical activities, and always wearing UV-blocking wraparound sunglasses and a brimmed hat no matter what time of year it is. 13-25 News_EW February 2014-DL2-ALT-OIS-ad_Layout 1 1/30/14 10:07 AM Page 17