Grandpa Harold, who was the first Turner in our family to qualify as an Optometrist in 1939, was a keen gardener & Rotarian. He applied himself to all he did with a commitment to doing things thoroughly; we are still benefitting from this approach to his gardening today. He was, perhaps without realising it, ahead of the current trend as one of many organic gardeners of his generation.
The effort he applied to preparing the ground, developing his own four year cycle of compost preparation, careful crop rotation, and planting only the best seeds means even today our family enjoy home grown organic veg from the ground Grandfather Harold prepared decades ago. I must thank my Dad Philip, who these days does most of the preparation & planting and then kindly goes on holiday when the crops are ready for picking leaving the pleasure of enjoying the fruit and veg to Jo and I! So why should you choose Turners Opticians? Grandfather Harold and Dad Philip after him, taught me the family approach of attention to detail and dedication to all we do. This approach remains at the core of Turners Opticians to this day. Since Harold started out in 1939 our focus has been giving the best eye care to each & every patient. Our specialist clinical equipment means we are able to examine the health of your eyes with a fine detail not even dreamt of in Harold (& even Phillip’s) time! The gratitude of many patients who have benefitted from early detection and treatment of their eye, vision and general health problems is such a rewarding part of our jobs. As well as my 10 years working in the Bristol Eye Hospital, I along with our associate Optometrist’s, have undertaken specialist additional qualifications in detecting (and often managing) eye conditions including macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease & cataracts. At Turners Opticians we run a successful minor eye conditions clinic for our patients who have dry, sore, gritty, itchy eyes, blepharitis, flashes or floaters and other eye and vision symptoms of concern. The feedback from these high quality, rapid access clinics has been overwhelmingly positive; our patients are especially pleased when we have saved them a 4hr A&E wait! The advent of our latest generation of spectacle lenses, made possible due to the sophisticated manufacturing technology our lab now uses, enables us to fine tune your spectacle lenses to a precision previously not possible. These lenses are so unique to each patient we can even have a micro engraving of your initials hidden in the lens! Clinically we have increased the length of our eye care appointments up to 45 minutes to allow time to listen and understand your individual needs, thoroughly check the health of both the front and back of your eyes and also include our sophisticated 3D eye scans and detailed peripheral vision assessments. Our extended eye exam and minor eye conditions appointments, available to both NHS and private patients, can be booked by calling the practice, popping in to see our friendly team or via our website; www.turnersopticians.co.uk. October is an exciting season for us at Turners Opticians, we are soon to open our second family practice in Henleaze. You are very welcome to pop in to either (or both!) practices and say Hi. I look forward to seeing you soon! Peter Peter Turner is the lead Optometrist at Turners Opticians in Bristol and also works part time as a Senior Optometrist at the Bristol Eye Hospital.
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It never ceases to amaze me when I read the figures comparing the number of children going to see a Dentist with those going to see an Optician. Not wishing to bore you with statistics, I will just say that the reported numbers are largely in favour of the dental checks. Why perhaps? Well I am not sure we know for definite. Certainly I am pleased so many parents regularly book dental checks for their children, why not book children’s vision and eye health checks too?
Around 80% of learning is thought to be visual, knowing this it can only be a good thing having your children's vision checked at least once a year. Mind you, by vision check I do not mean asking a child ‘can you see the plane in the sky’ - which in my eighteen years working is probably the most common explanation I am given by parents for their child not needing to see an Optician! Would you not rather have a highly trained and dedicated professional check the vision and eye health of the children in your family? The NHS even fund children’s visits to the Optician, and at Turners Opticians we give children two free pairs of glasses with their NHS optical voucher. Children with reading or writing difficulties in particular those who report jumbly, wobbly or blurry words, really should have very regular visits to the Optician. I remember when I was at school two of my classmates having tinted glasses, which are often prescribed to aid a child’s reading and school work. We offer this coloured lenses and coloured overlay assessment at Turner Opticians. It has many names including; dyslexic vision assessment, scotopic sensitivity and Meares Irlen syndrome. I have a particular interest in offering this service, I am only too aware of the problems that dyslexic children can experience learning to read and write. Thorough eye care for a child should also detect signs of visual fatigue, where using our two eyes together is much harder than it need be, often due to a prescription or eye muscle imbalance between the eyes. It has been said that for a child with visual fatigue the extra effort required to concentrate on reading and writing during the school day is equivalent to walking a few miles. Often a short course of eye exercises or glasses to strengthen the vision system can relieve this fatigue. One of my younger patients was heard to exclaim to her Dad as she tried on her glasses for the first time ‘oh so this is how everyone else sees!’ Since writing this blog, I have been asked how you can arrange appointments for your family with us at Turners Opticians. Well, we have tried to make this easy, you can choose from the tech option of online booking via our website (using a phone, tablet or computer), email us a request, pick up the telephone or just come on in for a friendly welcome! I hope you all enjoy a wonderful summer, particularly our children who are on their well earned summer holidays! I look forward to seeing you soon! Peter Turner is the lead Optometrist at Turners Opticians in Fishponds and also works part time as a Senior Optometrist at the Bristol Eye Hospital. |
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