Current Articles

Seeing is Believing
Published: Friday 18th June 2010

Thursday June 18 2009

Seeing is Believing

A North-East optician has used space age technology to transform a patient’s life.

In March of this year Aurore Foti, 29, booked an appointment with Querido & Davidson on Chillingham Road in Newcastle.

Aurore, a French teacher in the Newcastle area, had quite a tale to tell optometrist John Davidson.

Aurore, who came to the UK from Nice, France, in 2001, had always suffered from poor eyesight. In 2004 she decided to undergo laser treatment to correct her impaired vision and so returned to France for the operation. To Aurore’s dismay however, the surgery did not improve matters. In fact things got worse!

Aurore picks up the story, "After the operation, things went well for a while but then I started getting blurry vision. And it got worse. Even when wearing specs my eyesight was still poor. It got to the point where I couldn’t drive at night and even reading and writing was difficult.

"It was devastating. I had gone through this operation in the hope of improving my life and it hadn’t done anything of the sort! The surgeon just kept saying everything was okay. But it wasn’t.”

Since then Aurore has been involved in a bitter dispute with the surgeon who carried out the operation and an expert advised Aurore that she needed to have a corneal topography measurement taken. She booked an appointment with Querido & Davidson on Chillingham Road in Heaton.

"John Davidson was like a breath of fresh air,” Aurore says. "I was very nervous but he quickly put me at ease, explaining that there was a good chance he could help.”

Using a corneal topographer, the optometrist can map out the surface curvature of the eye. The resulting three-dimensional image provides exceptional detail and is an invaluable aid in diagnosing and treating a range of conditions.

The topography measurement that John Davidson undertook revealed that the changes in eye curvature induced by the laser surgery Aurore had undergone had created areas of distortion on the surface of both her eyes. This caused a blurring of vision, even when wearing spectacles.

John quickly realised that Aurore needed specialist treatment and recommended an innovative type of contact lens, called gas permeable, only recently introduced into the UK. John chose them because they would comfortably mask the laser induced distortion of the cornea and offer better vision.

Aurore had come to the right place because John Davidson is a specialist in the field of contact lenses. He has lectured across Europe and published a number of scientific papers. In 2006 his practice, Querido & Davidson, was awarded a national eye care award as Contact Lens Practice of the Year, in recognition of clinical experience and innovation.

Since being fitted with her new contact lenses, Aurore’s life has been transformed for the better. She now enjoys something approaching normal sight and for the first time in a long time faces the future with optimism.

Aurore says, "I am convinced that John saved my sight.”

subscribe book an appointment ask us a question...

Eye Tests

Newcastle Opticians

Is your current eyecare provider giving you the service that you expect? ...or is he or she just too rushed or disinterested? Then move on & join us at Querido & Davidson.

We are a national award winning eyecare practice (established in 1956) with a long heritage of providing exemplary service and exceptional products.

Eye Tests & Examinations

Our Optometrists carry out a huge array of checks during to your eye examination. These can include testing your eye pressure (to detect glaucoma - which, if undetected, could lead to blindness), checking sideways field of vision and the health of the back of your eye.

All these checks are quick and painless, and will provide us with important information that will help monitor any slight changes over time.

Contact Lenses

We fit a huge variety of contact lenses types to patients across the whole of the UK. We supply lenses to people of all ages, & all prescription types. Using corneal topography and slit lamp image capture we provide the highest standard of care to all our contact lenses wearing patients.

We specialise in iGo OVC, Ortho-K and Paragon CRT Orthokeratology work for all ages from 6 upwards. We are an accredited Chromagen contact lens practice. We supply varifocal contact lenses and contact lenses to correct astigmatism. We can also supply theatrical contact lenses for television productions.

In 2006 we were awarded the title of Contact lens practice of the year at the UK Optician awards.

Keratoconus Eye Care

We are a keratoconus friendly practice, and are experienced in the following keratoconus management methods:

Spectacles
Soft contact lenses, including Ultravision Kerasoft and Acuity Soft K
Gas permeable contact lenses, including Rose K, So2Clear and Lensdynamics Dyna Z intralimbal
Scleral contact lenses, including Innovative Sclerals

Finding Querido & Davidison:

We are located at:
196 Chillingham Road
Heaton
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 5LN
0191 265 9898