​Cold winter winds and central heating can play havoc with your eyes leaving them feeling dry, gritty, and sore - especially at the end of the day when symptoms are often at their worst. Cranking up your central heating can also trigger conjunctival hyperaemia (blood shot eyes).
Beat dry eye this winter by reducing the setting on your central heating, protecting your eyes from the wind; avoiding car heaters, particularly at face level and sitting away from direct heat such as gas or electric fires.
Cutting back on your coffee consumption and using therapeutic drops can also help reduce symptoms of dry eye.
Respiratory infections such as common colds and flu can inflame your conjunctiva (the clear membrane that covers the whites of your eyes) leaving your eyes feeling sore and irritated.
Prevent cross infection from bacteria in coughs and colds by washing your hands thoroughly before touching your eyes.
Don't put away your sunglasses just yet! Sunglasses provide valuable protection for your eyes all year-round, not just in the hot summer months.
Cumulative damage caused by unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation can increase your risk of suffering sight-threatening conditions such as age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.
Eye Health UK advises that you wear sunglasses whenever the UV Index rises above three. This can occur even on a cloudy day, so keep an eye on the Met Office's UV forecast.
Snowy conditions can also reflect more UV radiation into your eyes so sunglasses are particularly important after snow or when enjoying winter sports such as skiing or snowboarding.
Leafy greens provide vital nutrients (lutein and zeaxantin) to help keep your eyes healthy so now that salad days are over make sure you eat plenty good green winter veg like kale, chard and spinach.
Winter is also a great time to get your sight tested as poor light conditions can mean your eyes have to work harder, making them more susceptible to fatigue and eye strain.

It was a pleasure to meet all our National Eye Health Week competition winners.
Thanks once again to all the schools, teachers, parents and children who took part. 

This is a new free NHS service available at Opticare.

​If you experience an acute problem with your eyes – such as eye pain, sticky or inflamed eyes, red eyes, a foreign body in the eye, flashing lights or floaters – you can be assessed and treated via this Minor Eye Conditions Service.

Our Optometrists Michael, Jade and Patricia have recently undertaken extra training to be able to offer this great service to our patients at Opticare.

This service is only available for acute conditions, i.e sudden onset, and is different from your regular eye test.

We will set aside available emergency minor eye conditions (MECS) appointments each day.

We were delighted to pick up this award with the rest of the team from the Mill Health Clinic at the Randox Health Healthcare awards.

Clinical Excellence is one of the main aims of the practice across all of the three healthcare codes.
We were therefore delighted to have this recognised by the Randox Health judging panel.
The team all enjoyed the evening, and hopefully this can be the first award of many.

We were delighted to give a talk in St Comgall's PS last week as part of their Junior Entrepreneur Programme.
It was a pleasure to meet so many enthusiastic, interested and knowledgeable young people.... maybe with the next Steve Jobs/ Richard Branson among them.

Have a look at what happened when Adrian Logan came to visit Opticare Opticians Crumlin, Crumlin Podiatry and Joy of Hearing Ltd at the Mill Health Clinic in Crumlin.

4 top tips to keep your children's eyes healthy. Remember ALL children's eye care is free at Opticare.

We have a new revolutionary treatment for Blepharitis. A common cause for dry/gritty/uncomfortable eyes.