Fitting specialty contact lenses on a unique, fragile or complicated eye takes time, skill, continuous education and PASSION!

We can proudly say we have fit hundreds of patients with Specialty Lenses and have spent thousands of hours researching and educating ourselves on the fitting of complicated, hard to fit corneas. We are here to improve your eyesight and well-being, along with our dedication to promote long-term corneal health.

Scleral Lenses

  • Have you been told you can’t wear contacts?     
  • Less than optimum results from LASIK, Post-RK, Post-Penetrating Keratoplasty (PK), X-linking, Intacts?     
  • Do you have Keratoconas, Pellucid Marginal Degeneration or a Corneal Dystrophy?    
  • Astigmatism (toric), Sjogren’s Syndrome, Chronic Dry Eye, Exposure Keratopathy, Neuropathic Keratopathy, Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, or suffer from Chemical or Thermal injuries? 

Revolutionary changes in these new contact lens designs, materials and fitting skill have made endless opportunities to help enhance vision while creating a healthy environment for your eye.

Specialty lenses are customized to each individual eye.

  • Color Therapy (IrlenĀ® Method-Spectral Filters)
Eye Glasses Winnipeg

Irlen Spectral Filters or Irlen Lenses, are colored tinted lenses crafted specifically for the wearer and worn as glasses or contact lenses. They are intended to help people with the perceptual processing difficulty known as Irlen Syndrome, also known as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome or visual stress.

With a filtered lens, the page will still look white; but the print will be clear, stable and comfortable. Irlen lenses will not change the color of what you are looking at or make things darker.

“Your Irlen Spectral Filter color is the exact color your brain requires to normalize brain function. That’s right, not just improve, but normalize your brain function. In other words, with your Irlen Spectral Filters, your brain can now function the way it would if you didn’t have Irlen Syndrome at all.” Irlen

The Irlen Method is scientifically proven to correct the issues related to Irlen Syndrome and is supported by experts in the fields of education, psychology, medicine, ophthalmology, and neuroscience around the world

Helping individuals who have perceptual problems, light sensitivity, and sensory overload.

  • Color intervention is filtering the frequencies of light to which you are sensitive to.
  • Light-based sensitivities can result in physical discomfort, and perceptual difficulties in the environment.
  • Seventy percent of the information an individual receives enters through the eyes and must be correctly interpreted by the brain.
  • Any problem in the way the brain processes visual information can cause difficulties in the general ability to function.
  • Sensory overload causes problems processing, interpreting, and interacting with the environment.

What is Irlen Syndrome?

Irlen syndrome is a neurologically-based visual perceptual dysfunction. It affects the processing of visual information from the eye to the visual cortex and results in cortical hyperactivation.

Sounds complicated…
Let’s break it down.

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Correcting Irlen Syndrome can result in the following improvements:

  • Better comprehension
  • Read faster and longer
  • Improved accuracy
  • Reduced strain and fatigue
  • Reduced headaches and migraines
  • Improved flow and fluency
  • Improved motivation
  • Improved academic performance
  • Better attention and comprehension
  • Better self-esteem

Symptoms related to perceptual stress are associated with several difficulties:

  • Reading
  • Language
  • Sensory integration
  • Speech
  • motor coordination
  • Body tremors
  • Headaches
  • Seizure activity
  • Word retrieval
  • Communication ability
  • Anxiety
  • Irritability.

Irlen filters can be effective for those who experience stress on the system regardless of whether the cause of this stress is inherited or acquired.

This service is currently available for patients that have been assessed and prescribed Color Therapy Lenses by a Certified Irlen Diagnostician.

Where you prescribed an overlay and ready for the next step?

“The good news is, if you like your overlay, you’ll LOVE your glasses or contacts. That relaxed, soothing feeling you have when you look down at a page covered with your preferred overlay… imagine that feeling all the time, not just when you’re reading. And that clarity of words on the page…guess what, your environment should look like that too! We like to say that Irlen Spectral Filters will introduce you to a whole new world, and we think you’ll like it. (Source Irlen blog)

“Disclaimer- Information pulled from the Official Irlen International Website”

 

Is the Irlen Method the missing piece to your puzzle?

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The Irlen Method is in fact a piece of the puzzle for some individuals. Typical problems that can be helped by the Irlen Method are:

  • Sensory Overload caused by bright lights, fluorescent lights, and sunlight. Lighting is stressful; and this results in behaviors to filter out the light, poor eye contact, and physical symptoms such as anxiety or headaches.
  • Environmental Distortions where the individual sees the world in a distorted fashion. Objects are blurry, moving, changing, and can disappear.
  • Print Distortions make learning or reading difficult. The individual may have good or even advanced reading skills but has trouble with reading comprehension or experiences strain and fatigue when reading or doing other activities.

Sunlight, fluorescent light, bright light and headlights…

Photophobia, or light sensitivity, is an intolerance of light. Sunlight, fluorescent lights, bright light, glare, and even headlights and lights at night can be bothersome; and discomfort may be reduced with Irlen Spectral Filters.Irlen Syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder caused by the brain's inability to process specific wavelengths of light.

 

How is the Irlen Method tested?

The patented Irlen Method uses unique colors to filter out the wave lengths of light to which the individual is sensitive to, allowing the brain to process visual information normally.

The ability to determine and filter just those wave lengths of light which are creating the problem is the key to the success of the Irlen Method.

Each person needs a different color, and this can only be determined on an individual basis. Choosing the right color is critical and needs to be tested by a Certified Irlen Diagnostician.

Once you’ve been prescribed the appropriate filter to be worn, our eyecare professionals will help you with the next step…

Glasses or contacts lenses!

The science behind the Irlen Method:

The Irlen Method and the efficacy of colored overlays and colored lenses has been the subject of over 200 research studies encompassing the disciplines of education, psychology, and medicine.

To date, more than 100 of these studies supporting the use of colored overlays and lenses to treat the perceptual processing difficulties associated with Irlen Syndrome are published in peer-reviewed academic and scientific journals.

(The Journal of Learning Disabilities, Australian Journal of Special Education, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, Journal of Research in Reading, and Behavioral Optometry among others.)

Incidence of Irlen Syndrome in the Population:

Studies suggest that 46% of those identified with reading problems, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, or learning difficulties suffer from Irlen Syndrome and can be helped by the Irlen Method.

Sometimes the Irlen Method is the only solution needed, but more often, the Irlen Syndrome is just one layer of the individual’s problems, and the Irlen Method can be one piece of the solution puzzle. This method does not replace the need for instruction, remediation, or medical intervention.

Headaches and Migraine Research:

For individuals whose headaches or migraines are caused by light sensitivity, the Irlen Method can make a big difference.

More information on migraine research >>

 

 

Traumatic Head Injuries

What if there was a solution?

  • Color appears to protect the brain from further stress and allow healing to take place.
  • Filtering specific wavelengths of light appears to not only let the brain function more normally, but it also appears to let the brain heal.
  • The longer that head injury clients wear their Irlen Spectral Filters, the greater their ability to function normally cognitively, behaviorally and academically, indicating that color may, in fact, allow healing to take place.
  • Colored filters can calm down the brain by reducing stress on the central nervous system.
  • Those individuals with TBI suffer with extreme symptoms of stress, showing how stress can affect many different areas of functioning.
  • When under stress, the brain, perhaps caused by the damaged brain’s inability to cope, affects not just reading, but also many of the physical, cognitive, and emotional areas where functioning is typically affected by a traumatic head injury.

 

 More information on Irlen and Traumatic Head Injuries

“The problem seems to be an inability for the brain to adjust to various levels of brightness. It is as if the brain was a radio and the volume control was broken so that it could not make adjustments to control loudness.”  Irlen.com

Attention Deficit Disorder ADD/HD

The Irlen Method is noninvasive and does not require the use of medication. In some cases, individuals wear Irlen Spectral Filters in addition to taking medication but may need less medication to stay focused and attentive.

Often, children cannot report how they feel or what they see. More information on behavioral problems that can be helped by Irlen Spectral Filters.

Children as young as 5 can be tested using the Irlen Method.

Irlen’s list of behavioral Indicators in Children:

  • Looking away from visual targets
  • Squinting
  • Finger flicking
  • Sideway glances
  • Poor eye contact
  • Rubbing or pushing on eyes
  • Mesmerized by colors, patterns, or light
  • Behavior changes in bright lights or sunlight
  • Poor spatial or body awareness
  • Light sensitivity
  • Difficulties with stairs, escalators, or catching balls
  • Poor small or gross motor coordination

“Behavioral Indicators in Children that may alert you that they are having problems according to the Official Irlen International Website”

This service is currently available for patients that have been assessed and prescribed Color Therapy Lenses by a Certified Irlen Diagnostician.

Click Here for more information on Irlen and Attention Deficit Disorder ADD/HD

 

Looking for a Irlen Specialist?

Eye Glasses Winnipeg
If you would like more information on Irlen testing, would like to contact an Irlen Screener or to make an appointment with a registered diagnostician, please send us an email or give us a call.
 
     

Information for other professionals

 

 

Attention Deficit Disorder ADD/HD

The Irlen Method is noninvasive and does not require the use of medication. In some cases, individuals wear Irlen Spectral Filters in addition to taking medication but may need less medication to stay focused and attentive.

Often, children cannot report how they feel or what they see. More information on behavioral problems that can be helped by Irlen Spectral Filters.

Children as young as 5 can be tested using the Irlen Method.

Irlen’s list of behavioral Indicators in Children:

  • Looking away from visual targets
  • Squinting
  • Finger flicking
  • Sideway glances
  • Poor eye contact
  • Rubbing or pushing on eyes
  • Mesmerized by colors, patterns, or light
  • Behavior changes in bright lights or sunlight
  • Poor spatial or body awareness
  • Light sensitivity
  • Difficulties with stairs, escalators, or catching balls
  • Poor small or gross motor coordination

"Behavioral Indicators in Children that may alert you that they are having problems according to the Official Irlen International Website"

This service is currently available for patients that have been assessed and prescribed Color Therapy Lenses by a Certified Irlen Diagnostician.

More information on Irlen and Attention Deficit Disorder ADD/HD 

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