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12 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday December 2, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com Optometrists say improper eye exams pose health risks to patients Continued from page 7 contempt ­ will be fined $50,000 from now on "for each and every day that the respondents are not in compliance with the judgment." Crane called the conduct of Bergez "highly provocative, arrogant and egregious." Bergez, who represented himself in the contempt case, has indicated that Great Glasses will conform to the order, but he intends to appeal the judgment. The massive penalty against Bergez comes on the heels of a recent decision by the College of Opticians to suspend his certificate to practice as an optician. The college has also filed notice to every Great Glasses franchisee that the college is seeking a court order that will prevent the stores from operating without an optician, optometrist or physician on duty. As for the Great Glasses location on North Service Road, a manager there, who asked to remain unnamed, said the local store has always followed regulations. "This (court decision) was based on the three locations "That place has been staffed by people who have no licence and no training and don't know what they're doing. They were hired off the street." Oakville optometrist Dr. Jeff Mungar but it's been blanketed to include all Great Glasses," she said. "They want to make sure that we're following the regulations which we do, and we always have." The manager said the Oakville store uses an optician ­ not Bergez ­ and sends its customers to an optometrist. "I can't speak for every store, but there's no issue here," she said. "We have a couple of optometrists that we use and we've always gotten good reports from our customers. We'll say, you can use so and so, or you can use so and so." All three optometrists who spoke to The Oakville Beaver ­ Mungar, Sheldon and Dr. Jeff Goodhew ­ said they've had Nutrition and Immunity The way we eat and our lifestyle choices can play a key role in our ability to resist infection. Excessive intake of refined carbohydrates has been shown to inhibit the ability of our white blood cells to mobilize and to attack invading microorganisms. Also, high levels of stress can impact the ability of the immune system to respond to the invasion of bacteria and to ingest and destroy cancer cells lurking in the body. Parallel with this decline of immune status is the high prevalence of nutritional deficiencies. Several causes contribute to this phenomenon and these include the use of multiple drugs, physical disabilities, depression and maldigestion and malabsorption. There are ways that we can help to reduce the risk of infections. The immune system depends on nonspecific stimulation from bacterial antigens in the throat and upper gut. 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OAKVILLE 2391 Trafalgar Rd. (S. of Dundas, East side) NATURE'S EXPRESS In the 24 Q Store HR 905.502.6789 905.257.1655 416.242.8500 905.372.1616 Milton: 20 Market Dr. Windsor: 3920 Dougall Ave. HOURS Mon-Fri: 10-9 Sat: 10-6, Sun: 11-6 Not all items available in all stores. numerous patients come into their offices with either complaints or questions about the validity of eye tests at Great Glasses. "All of the eye doctors in town I think have had patients that went in to (Great Glasses) because they saw the sign, `Free Eye Test,' or thought maybe they were going to get a good deal," said Mungar. "These people ended up getting three pairs of glasses for the price of one and either they couldn't use any of them or maybe two pairs weren't working. They'd come to me to asking, `What's wrong with these? Why can't I see?'" For the past three or four years since he found out about Great Glasses, Mungar has been educating his patients. "If I ever hear anybody mention the place, I just tell them the facts as I know them," he said. "That place has been staffed by people who have no licence and no training and don't know what they're doing. They were hired off the street." The most important part of the court decision, Mungar, Sheldon and Goodhew say, is that the public is no longer at risk. "The biggest issue I had was the misleading of the public on this," said Goodhew, a practicing optometrist in Oakville for just over a year. "A lot of people came out of (Great Glasses) thinking they'd had their eyes examined when in fact they hadn't had them examined properly. The public was at risk because they could be walking around unknowingly with eye disease." The reason people need eye examinations, added Sheldon, is not just to get a prescription for a stronger pair of eyeglasses, but to see if their change in eyesight is related to a medical problem. "We're trained to deal with the exceptions. The measuring of the need for glasses, that's not the difficult task," he said. "We're ensuring there's no eye problem or disease that may be contributing to or causing those changes in sight. "That's really what's being missed here." Sheldon noted the Regulated Health Professions Act defines that the dispensing of eyeglasses, if not done by a professional, constitutes a risk of harm to the public. "This needs to be done in a controlled manner," he said. "This gentleman (Bergez) decided to circumvent that." And, Sheldon believes, he's not the only one doing it. "This has been an epidemic in the industry for years, because it costs money to pay people who are trained," he said. "(Bergez) just took it to a point where he snubbed his nose at the law and he created a whole chain of stores." The case against Great Glasses was brought to court in 2003 by the College of Optometrists. The recent ruling marks the end of a three-year legal battle fought by the organization along with the College of Opticians of Ontario acting as an intervenor. "It's wonderful to finally have the facts out there and to have it proven in court," said Mungar. "It's really nice to see that he was fined as well. It was huge amounts of money he was making illegally for years. It's nice he's being punished for that." -- With files from Torstar Wire Service