Wilkies Eyecare expands visual stress service

Scottish independent group, Wilkie’s Eyecare, has expanded its visual stress service.

The optical group has three practices, in Dumbarton, Alexandria and Bearsden. The Bearsden practice was acquired by Wilkie’s Eyecare in late 2022.

The group’s main visual stress clinic has run at the Dumbarton practice since 2019. The specialist service has now expanded to Bearsden, where it is running on a monthly basis.

Optometrist Nicola McDermid, who works at Wilkie’s Eyecare’s Dumbarton practice, oversees the group’s visual stress service.

McDermid is a visual stress expert, and has previously spent 12 years working at the eye clinic at Glasgow Caledonian University. She joined Wilkie’s Eyecare five years ago.

McDermid noted that symptoms of visual stress can include sore or tired eyes, headaches, double vision, and blurring of the text on the page, as well as illusions of shape, colour and motion within text.

Visual Stress can be responsible for print distortion and rapid fatigue when reading, she added.

“Happily, with the diagnostic tools which are now available to us at Wilkie’s, we are able to pinpoint issues much more accurately and offer treatment options,” McDermid said.

She added: “It is a great privilege to be able to make school life easier for children with educational difficulties or to be able to provide adults who have had problems reading all their lives with the joy of reading for pleasure.

“I am glad that we are now in a position to expand the service and bring this solution to even more patients in the West of Scotland.”