Eye care gets a personal touch from husband and wife team

Ashala Mah and Brandon Baker may be new in town, but they have already impacted the community.

They moved to Squamish in June and immediately received a warm welcome from the community and plenty of interest thanks to their unique husband and wife optometrist team.

The duo, who graduated in the same class at the University of Waterloo six years ago, then worked in Vancouver before deciding to put down roots in the Sea to Sky region, have set up shop with Garibaldi Eye Care in downtown (38222 Eaglewind Blvd.).

“We are happy to be the new clinic in town, giving people a more personalized experience,” Mah says. “Squamish is growing so much and we thought this would a great place to relocate and raise a family.”

While the great outdoors helped lure them to the Sea to Sky region, the move also provided them with an opportunity to offer a much-needed service to the community.

With a growing population in Squamish, they discovered many patients were facing long waits for appointments.

“There’s so much demand here, we felt this was a good place to come,” says Baker, who decided in graduate school that he wanted to become an optometrist because he liked the “people” aspect of offering care to patients.

“I couldn’t see myself doing shift work in a hospital with limited interaction with people,” he explains. “And helping people see better is a joy in itself.

“I also like the fact that I get to meet and talk to a ton of different people from different walks of life, and learn something about them while helping them with an essential service,” Baker says.

“Plus, when you see people year after year, you make ‘micro-friendships’ in the exam room. That makes me feel energized.”

“And, when you work in a smaller community, you can watch kids grow and see the benefits of your work first-hand,” adds Mah, who knew from early on what career path she wanted to follow.

“I think I was in Grade 7,” Mah says. “I really liked that it was a healthcare profession, separate from a hospital setting, yet the treatment you provided could make such a big difference in someone’s life.”

She also enjoyed the fact that the business involved an aspect of fashion and the opportunity to branch out to the field of aesthetics.

In addition to identifying and treating cases of macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma, Mah and Baker will be working on one of today’s more emergent conditions - treating dry eyes.

“With extended screen use on computers and smartphones, it’s becoming much more prevalent, along with eye strain and fatigue,” Mah said, adding there is also a secondary function their equipment treating dry eye cases can perform.

“It can diminish the appearance of crow’s feet and wrinkles,” Mah says. “And that helps us enter the realm of aesthetics.”

Using radiofrequency treatment, the machine stimulates collagen growth which tightens skin.

“It’s being used on eyelids and crow’s feet but can actually be applied to all areas of the face,” Mah says. “It’s a quick, non-invasive treatment.”

For more information about how Garibaldi Eye Care can help you, visit their website at garibaldieyecare.com.