Dr. Michael Lange Discusses the Importance of Defending Your Eyes from Harmful Blue Light with Medium.com
Written by Dr Michael Lange on April 4, 2019
Light is emitted as wavelengths, and the longer the wavelength, the less amount of energy it carries. As humans, we have a particular range of the light spectrum that we can see as light and color between approximately 380nm and 700nm, while below 380nm is ultraviolet light (UV) and above 700nm is infrared (IR).
Blue light can be harmful to your eyes, which is a fact that many of us do not realize or understand why we should care. Dr. Michael Lange goes above and beyond primary eye care, bringing a new vigilance to the way eye care and healthcare is addressed. As he implements his vision of how to provide treatment to patients, he champions avant-garde for the preservation of health for all humanity. Dr. Lange took the time to explain blue light, and how we can defend our eyes from harm.
Blue Light
Blue (often blue-violet), ranges from 380nm to 450nm, and blue-turquoise from 450nm-500nm. As with UV light and the risk of medical complications, blue light has high energy as it has the shortest wavelengths of the light that we can see. Unfortunately, Dr. Michael Lange explains that unlike UV light, blue light is unfiltered by our eyes, allowing this light to reach as far back as the retina. With an increasing number of technological advances (mobile phones, tablets, computers etc.) our exposure to blue light is ever increasing, and Dr. Michael Lange believes that this should concern patients and it is important to understand and help defend our eyes from blue light.
Blue Light Defense
Lens companies have come out with new lenses that allow patients to protect themselves from the harmful effects of blue light that work by filtering out this wavelength of light. There are many types of lenses available, but Dr. Michael Lange notes that there are four main considerations that should be made when purchasing blue light filtering lenses:
- The tint of the lens, some lenses may have a yellow tint
- Blue light filter should be a part of the actual lens and not a coating that can flake off
- What percent of blue light is being filtered
- If the lens can block out blue light from a laser
