By Staff
Monday, September 25, 2023 5:30 PM
"Whoever thought that an optometrist could be cool?” reads one of the endless positive Yelp reviews on Urban Optics’ owner Dave Schultz, OD. All it takes is a quick conversation to confirm—Dr. Dave, as he’s known around town, is very cool. Schultz has been providing the Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, Calif., (nicknamed SLO) with quality eyewear and eyecare for over 30 years. Five years ago,
20/20 first introduced our readers to Urban Optics with a Successful Retail Strategy feature, and we decided it was time to revisit the optical store to catch up with Schultz and learn what’s new.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—For sports lovers, Fall is an exciting time. Many sport seasons restart in the Fall, both professional and amateur—which also makes this season the perfect time to talk to patients about keeping their eyes safe while getting active. This Sports Eye Safety Month, Prevent Blindness shared new data that shows more than 32,000 sports-related eye injuries were treated in the U.S. last year—an
increase of nearly 20 percent from the previous year.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, September 14, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—Jennifer Tsai, OD, founder and owner of
Line of Sight in New York City, created her practice to be a unique environment with a boutique, concierge feel, blending eyecare and wellness in a holistic way. As she explained to
VM, “We have an exceptional team that works hard to keep the practice running smoothly to help patients with vision care and promote eye health. I specialize in specialty contact lens and offer an array of other services including dry eye treatments, vision therapies, ocular aesthetics and myopia control solutions.”
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, September 7, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—For many of us, the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 provided some time to slow down, to reassess and to try to get some rest—but for Idriss and Federica Nestor, the opposite was true. Instead, the married couple used that time to develop
OPR Eyewear, their home-grown, family-owned eyewear business in New York City. Idriss told
The Independent Eye, “My wife and I have always been very passionate about glasses until one day, during COVID, we decided to finally invest in our dream and create our own brand. I had a consulting company while Federica had a legal background—very different worlds that, nevertheless, prepared us for what we were about to create.”
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, August 24, 2023 8:30 AM
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—
Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee, has recognized three young alumni with the Hayes Center for Practice Excellence Award—an award which recognizes a graduate of the past 10 years who owns and operates a private optometry practice. This year’s recipients are: Autumn Adams, OD, for the Practice Acquisition Award; Derek Hennig, OD, for the Partnership Award; and Andrew Bradbury, OD, for the New Practice Award.
By Staff
Thursday, August 24, 2023 8:20 AM
NEW YORK—The back-to-school season has arrived. While some students are already in the classroom, plenty of others don’t get started again until after Labor Day. So there's no time like the present to squeeze in those back-to-school eye exams—and it’s up to ECPs to remind parents about the importance of getting their children’s eyes checked even if they've already started the school year. This week, we’re taking a look at a few inspiring social media posts that do just that.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, August 17, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—Having sustainable eyewear offerings in your practice is becoming a nonnegotiable these days—many patients are looking specifically to make purchases that are kinder to the planet, and sustainable eyewear has become just as fashionable and varied as traditional collections. But getting those sustainable collections into your practice is only half the battle—patients need to know that you have them available. One of the best ways to show off your in-office eyewear offerings is on social media—specifically apps like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, which prioritize image and video sharing.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, August 10, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—This week, the "Barbie" movie officially made over $1 billion at the box office. Director Greta Gerwig has become the first and only woman with sole director’s credit for a billion dollar movie,
NPR reported, and the film’s popularity has taken the world by storm. On social media in particular, the "Barbie" movie has generated countless trends that users are enjoying—from meme templates to full-hearted reminiscing on childhood memories with Barbie dolls.
By Staff
Monday, July 31, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—For many ECPs, joining a contact lens recycling program is a relatively easy and impactful way to make a practice more eco-friendly. But a major question always remains: how do you let patients know that this is something they can participate in? It’s easy to forget to set your blister packs and used contact lenses aside for recycling, and even easier to throw them out without looking up whether or not they are even recyclable. This, of course, is where social media comes in handy.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Wednesday, July 26, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—Earlier this month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, officially launched Threads, its brand new Twitter competitor. Threads is designed to look and operate similarly to Twitter, with a feed of mostly text posts that other users can reply to or repost. Users can also attach images and videos to their Threads posts, and the posts themselves have a 500 character limit. In its first week,
CNN reported, Threads received 100 million signups, with many celebrities and other public figures migrating over to the new platform. So what does the optical community need to know about Threads? Should ECPs be rushing to sign up?
By Staff
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 3:46 PM
Denise Balacich, OD, just celebrated the one-year anniversary of her practice, Navesink Eye. After having her third baby in November 2021, she and her husband discussed what her next big life goals were. Opening a practice was one of them. Dr. Balacich’s realtor-mom helped find a vacant space “through the first door on the first floor” of a medical building in Red Bank, New Jersey. After spending nine years at an “overly sterile” ophthalmic practice, Dr. Balacich wanted to transform the space from a “huge” surgery center into something “pretty and tranquil.”
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, July 6, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—For an independent ECP, few things are more important than standing out from the crowd. In much of the U.S., consumers are spoiled when it comes to choice—and this includes their options for eyewear and eyecare. Independent ECPs offer unique experiences and eyewear options for patients, but they also face unique challenges when it comes to creating and building their businesses and brands. There are countless creative and special ways for independent ECPs to stand out, and many have found creating private label eyewear collections to be the perfect addition to their practice.
By Staff
Thursday, July 6, 2023 8:20 AM
NEW YORK—
Prevent Blindness has declared July as Dry Eye Awareness Month in an effort to educate the public on dry eye, which the National Eye Institute
reports affects nearly 16 million Americans. To further its efforts, Prevent Blindness has put together a variety of resources including
fact sheets and shareable
social media graphics, available in English and Spanish, as well as a dedicated
web page. Independent ECPs are getting involved with Dry Eye Awareness Month, too. There’s still plenty of time to get involved so take a look at how some indies have set aside social media posts for Dry Eye Awareness Month.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Monday, June 26, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—In 2021, President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, firmly cementing the importance of this holiday that has long been celebrated in the U.S. Juneteenth, which falls on June 19 each year, commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.—it does not mark the day that President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but rather the day two years later when Union Army Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and informed enslaved people there of their freedom,
CNN reported.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Thursday, June 8, 2023 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—On June 6, members of the optical community and eyewear fans everywhere took some time to celebrate National Eyewear Day. Founded by
Zyloware in 2016, National Eyewear Day offers an opportunity to bring awareness to overall eye health and the importance of an annual comprehensive eye exam—all while showing off how fashionable, fun and full of personality our frames are. While large businesses and multinational companies celebrated National Eyewear Day with sales, free exams and more, indies and small businesses stepped up to do their part, too. We’re taking a look at how some indies celebrated National Eyewear Day 2023.