Erie Optical Guide For Mentor, OH Residents About Blue Light Blocking Lenses

Here at Erie Optical, we are here to help guide you through the ins & outs of blue light blocking lenses. These have received a lot of recent media attention as we've been learning more about the effects of specific types of light on our bodies, and as our daily life becomes full of objects emitting blue light—such as our smartphones and laptops.

What is Blue Light?

Without getting too into physics, light has some properties of waves such as wavelength (similar to wave size) and frequency (how often they occur), which are inversely related to each other. This intuitively makes sense, right - a relatively large elephant will not run as fast as a relatively smaller mouse. Well, blue light has a short wavelength, meaning it has a high frequency—and so it carries a lot of energy with it.

Why Is Blue Light Bad For You?

Blue light is not always bad for you, and some blue light can be used in things like light therapy to treat seasonal affective disorder.

Excessive blue light is where the problems arise, including extended exposure to some types of blue light. Our eyes—specifically the cornea and lens—are not good at filtering out this high energy blue light, and so it can freely hit the retina. This can damage the cells there that detect light, leading to conditions like macular degeneration.

Also, this short-wavelength, high-energy light is sort of "rambunctious" in that it is difficult to focus on. Viewing blue light for extended amounts of time therefore causes eye strain, which can result in vision problems over time.

How Do Blue Light Blocking Lenses Help?

Blue light blocking lenses have filters applied directly onto their surface. This filter excludes some of the riskier blue light—the most harmful, highest energy wavelengths—while allowing the safer ones through so you can still see. 

The result is less eye strain, less eye fatigue, and less damage to the retina—damage that can take a long time to detect, but once it is detected, it is too late to fix. If you work with computers extensively, you might want to consider discussing blue light filters with us here at Erie Optical, so we can help protect your vision.

Interested In Blue Light Blocking Lenses? Contact Erie Optical Today!

Erie Optical is open daily - except for Wednesdays and Sundays - with a range of hours to meet all of your needs, and make sure Mentor, OH sees clearly.