Healthy visual hygiene habits will help to reduce near visual stress on the eyes. Excess near stress can lead to refractive maladaptation’s like myopia (nearsightedness) and astigmatism, as well as eye strain and fatigue. These recommendations are especially important with children and adolescents as the eyes continue to grow until our early 20’s. Here are our top six visual hygiene recommendations for all patients.
The Harmon Distance
Use the “Harmon Distance” when reading, writing and doing other near work. This is especially important with the use of phones and tablets. Near work should be no closer than the distance between the elbow and the end of your fist. When held correctly, the elbow will make a 90-degree angle.
Time Outdoors
The recommendation for children is to spend 2 hours per day outdoors. Time outdoors has been shown to be protective against the presentation and progress of nearsightedness, and is linked to better general health and wellness.
Good Lighting
Use good illumination on any near work as well as have good room lighting. Dim lighting, such as reading or using a phone in a dark room, blunts accommodation (eye focusing) and leads to a decreased ability to handle near stress.
Look Straight
As much as possible, strive to point your nose at your material as well as place the material on your midline. There are six muscles around each eye, and if your eyes are chronically in an asymmetric posture, such as reading on the same side in bed or always tilting your head to one side when writing, then a structural change can develop. The most common asymmetries that can develop are astigmatism and anisometropia (a difference in refractive power between the two eyes).
Follow the Canadian Association of Optometrists recommendations for screen time for children:
Age 0-2 - no screen time, with the possible exception of live video chatting - due to its potential for social development.
Age 2-5 - no more than one hour per day of age appropriate, and supervised - viewing.
Age 5-9 - no more than one hour per day of handheld screen devices, and no more than two hours of total screen use per day.
Age 5-18 - Ideally, no more than two hours per day of recreational screen time. Individual screen time plans should be based on development and needs.
The 20/20/20 Rule
When reading, writing, crafting, or using a screen (phone, tablet, computer, etc), take a break every 20 minutes, for 20 seconds, and look out more than 20 feet away. It is most ideal to look out a window at a distance and let your eyes fully relax. This helps give your eye muscles a break as well as your postural muscles.
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Legal Notice
The information below applies to all the information contained on the truenorthoptometry.com Website.
The users of this Website agree to comply with the terms set out below.
TERMS OF USE
True North Optometry owns and operates a Website at truenorthoptometry.com (hereinafter referred to as the “site” or
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RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH INFORMATION
Information on this Website is intended for informational purposes only and has no contractual value.
True North Optometry reserves the right to modify the content of this site. At any time, without prior notice.
True North Optometry assumes no liability for errors or omissions in the content of this Website or for
information reliability or completeness of said information.
Information published on this Website is based on marketing, statistical or commercial services or other sources
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no circumstance should this information be regarded as such. Opinions and information as presented on this site
reflect our position as of the date of publication and are subject to change without notice.
UPDATING OF THE WEBSITE UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY OF True North Optometry
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information published on this site, for the views and advice published, expressed or implied regardless of its
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based on said information.
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User may solely use the information contained on this site for personal use. Reproduction in whole or in part of
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HYPERTEXT LINKS
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held responsible for any direct or indirect prejudice that may result from gaining access to and usage of said
sites.
CONFIDENTIALITY
True North Optometry draws the attention of the user to the fact that all communication transmitted through this
Website remains in the public domain and not the private domain. OSI cannot accept responsibility for the
security of the transmission of information.
The confidentiality and integrity of the information circulating over the internet cannot be ensured.
True North Optometry cannot accept responsibility in the case that data contained on this site is intercepted.
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number of visitors, path taken to access the site and length of each visit are measured. The cookies cannot, in
any way, identify the user. All data is completely anonymous and compiled solely for the purpose of improving
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The person responsible for the protection of personal information is the owner of : True North Optometry
VIRUSES AND TECHNICAL GLITCHES
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True North Optometry DECLINES ALL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE EVENT OF ANY INTERRUPTION OR NON-AVAILABILITY OF THE
SERVICE
Under no circumstances shall True North Optometry be held responsible for transmission errors of any sort, such as
loss of or damage to data, or changes of any type whatsoever, including direct or indirect damage resulting from
the use of the services provided on this site.
JURISDICTION
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of British Columbia.
Any dispute arising of this Agreement shall be brought before the court in the judicial district of
True North Optometry's head office. Address: 1272 5th Ave
Prince George, BC
V2L 3L2; Tel: 250 640-6370.
PUBLISHING FIRM
True North Optometry
1272 5th Ave
Prince George, BC
V2L 3L2 Tel: 250 640-6370
Acceptance of the Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting truenorthoptometry.com (the “Website”), provided to you by True North Optometry (“We”). We
respect the privacy of every individual who visits the Website and are sensitive to privacy
issues on the Internet. We believe it is important that you know how we deal with information
received about you.
This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect
the personal information of our customers and Website users ("you"), describes the types of
information we may collect from you or that you may provide to us, and our practices for
collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. The Website is for
general audiences and is not specifically targeted to or intended for use by children.
We will only use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy unless
otherwise required by applicable law. We take steps to ensure that the personal information that
we collect about you is adequate, relevant, not excessive, and used for limited purposes.
Privacy laws in Canada generally define "Personal Information" as any information about an
identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other
information to identify, contact, or locate a single person.
By accessing or using the Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy
Policy, and you are consenting to our processing of your information as set out in this Privacy
Policy. We may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time; if we change this Privacy
Policy in a manner that materially impacts your privacy rights, we will provide a notice to you.
Your continued use of the Website or our services after any modification to this Privacy Policy
will constitute your acceptance of such modification. However, when required by law, we will
confirm your consent to the revised Privacy Policy terms. This Privacy Policy is incorporated
into and considered a part of the Website Terms and Conditions of Use, located here
What information we collect
We collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:
Personal Information, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly
identify you, such as your full name, email address, telephone number and any other
identifier we may use to contact you online or offline.
Non-personal information is information that does not directly or
indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identified individual, such as
demographic information, or statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated
data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal
statistical or aggregated data from Personal Information. For example, we may aggregate
Personal Information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website
feature.
How we collect the information
Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect directly from you may include:
Communicating with us: When you contact us about a customer service issue,
Vision Entrepreneur services or to make other inquiries, we collect the content of those
communications, as well as your full name, clinic name, email, phone number, city, province,
and any additional information that allows us to answer your request.
Information We Collect While You Interact With Us Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data
Collection Technologies
We use your information, including your Personal Information, to manage our business and to
maintain and develop commercial relationships with you. We will collect, use, and disclose such
information only to the extent that is necessary for those purposes.
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal
Information:
To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when
it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it.
To improve the Website, products or services, marketing, or customer relationships and
experiences.
To allow you to participate in interactive features, social media, or similar features on
the Website.
To measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you and others,
and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
For any other purpose with your consent.
How we share your information
We will not rent or sell your information to third parties without your consent. We only share
your data as specifically provided in this Privacy Policy.
Other Disclosures
In addition to any disclosure you may have consented to or permitted under the terms of this
Privacy Policy, we may transfer your data, including Personal Information to third parties in
the following limited circumstances:
information you expressly consent to be shared;
when relating to anonymized information (individuals cannot be identified by it);
when you decide to make the information indexable by search engines, to share or to
distribute the information to people or otherwise to make it available to the public;
to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request
within or outside your country of residence when we have a good faith belief that the law
requires it;
to enforce this Privacy Policy, the Terms, or an agreement, including investigation of
potential violations thereof;
to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or protect the
operations or you;
to protect our rights, property or safety as well as yours, the public, or others;
in connection with an acquisition, merger, change in control, debt financing,
reorganization, sales of assets, bankruptcy or other change of our corporate structure or
status; or
as necessary in connection with the performance of requested services or solutions, or as
otherwise appropriate in connection with a legitimate need.
How we store and secure your information
Information Security
We are committed to protecting the confidentiality, integrity, availability and privacy of your Personal Information. We have put appropriate physical, technological and procedural security measures in place designed to help prevent your Personal Information from being lost, used, modified or accessed in an unauthorized way, or improperly disclosed. Examples of such measures include restricted access to offices, training of personnel, using passwords and well-defined internal policies and practices. We also use encryption technology and Secure Socket Layers ("SSL") in all areas of the Website where your personal account information is required.
In addition, we limit access to your Personal Information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need-to-know. They will be required to process your Personal Information only on our instructions and they are subject to an obligation of confidentiality. Our service providers are required to maintain adequate security protections in place designed to help safeguard your Personal Information and are not permitted to use it for any purpose other than fulfilling services to us.
If you have any questions about securing your personal data, please contact us in accordance with the “How to Contact Us” section below.
Information Retention
We will retain your Personal Information for as long as it is needed:
to provide the products and services that you have requested;
to communicate with you about a purchase or a request you have made to us;
to manage your choices and rights you have exercised pursuant to this Privacy Policy;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and to demonstrate compliance,
to resolve disputes and to enforce our rights and agreements.
We may retain non-personal information that has been sufficiently aggregated or anonymized for a longer period.
Once the retention period is over, we will dispose of your Personal Information as provided for in our internal data retention and disposal policy.
Where We Store Information
We use facilities operated by "Amazon Web Services" and located in Canada as our information storage and processing infrastructure. Our service providers can also, from time to time, store your Personal Information in accordance with purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us at 250 640-6370.
Cookie Policy – truenorthoptometry.com
This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are and how we use them. You should read this Policy to
understand what type of cookies we use, the information we collect from the cookies, and how
that
information is managed. For further information on how we handle, store and keep your personal
data
secure, see our Term of use.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files which are stored on the browser or hard drive of your computer or
mobile
device when you visit a webpage or application. A “session cookie” stores temporary information
that
is deleted when you close your web browser or turn off your computer or device. A “persistent
cookie” enables the site to recognize when you return to it and remains stored on your computer
until you delete it. Cookies work to make your experience browsing our site as smooth as
possible by
remembering your preferences the next time you visit the site.
What types of cookies do we use?
There are four variety of cookies which operate on our website:
Essential cookies allow you to be able to experience the full functionality
of
our site. For example, these cookies allow you to change your preferred language and enable
the
website to remember it. Without these cookies, some parts of our site may not work as they
should.
Performance cookies tell us how you use our site and help us to improve it.
For
example, these cookies count the number of visitors to our website and see how visitors move
around when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our site works, for example,
by
ensuring that users find what they are looking for easily. The information collected by
these
cookies is anonymous.
Google Analytics are performance cookies used to track visits to
our
website and user behaviour on site. The data collected is anonymous and is used for
benchmarking purposes to monitor the performance of our site and to measure user
engagement on our site.
Social media cookies from social media sites such as
Facebook, Instagram, and
Pinterest
are used to enable social media buttons on our site to work. Social media buttons
allow
you to share content and interact with your social network. These social media
platform
may set their own cookies on your device. We do not control the settings of these
cookies so we suggest you check the social media website for more information about
their cookies and how to manage them. Our website will not collect or store any
personally identifiable information from the user. To find out how you can opt out
of
accepting these cookies, please visit the cookie policy and privacy policies of the
social media site.
Customizer cookies allow our site to remember your preferences, helping to
customize your experience on our site.
Our customizer cookie, which helps us to manage the technology and cookies which are
used across our site.
Targeting/advertising cookies are set by third party advertising partners
through our digital touchpoints to build profiles based on your interests. These cookies
enable
us to send you relevant content and advertising based on your preferences and track the
effectiveness of our ad campaigns.
Below are several advertising and targeting cookies that are used to identify
different
browsers and devices. They collect data anonymously for the purposes of ad
selection,
reporting, behavioural targeting, and cross-device advertising (i.e. associating
multiple devices together). In some instances, we may provide a hashed version of
your
email address or other information to the platform provider for such proposes. More
information can be found at the following links.
How do you change cookie preferences or block cookies?
Within your browser, you can choose whether you wish to accept cookies or not. Different browsers
make different controls available to you. Generally, your browser will offer you the choice to
accept, refuse or delete cookies at all times, or those from providers that website owners use
i.e.
third party cookies, or those from specific websites. Each browser’s website should contain
instructions on how you can do this.
If you block cookies on our website, you may be unable to access certain areas of our website and
certain functions and pages will not work in the usual way.
Changes to the Cookie Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes we will let you know
but
please regularly check this Policy to ensure you are aware of the most updated version.
This Cookie Policy was last updated on September 25, 2023.
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