Your eyesight is a precious gift and guarding against vision loss is essential to maintaining your quality of life. By taking the simple step of making a comprehensive eye examination part of your routine healthcare regimen you can protect the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision for a lifetime.
After reviewing your overall medical history and gathering relevant information on your eye health through the years, we perform a clinical exam to check the health of your eyes and assess your vision through a series of comfortable tests. Your visual acuity, the degree to which your eyes work together, how well your eyes follow a moving object, and your depth perception are all thoroughly evaluated.
As part of your comprehensive eye exam, you are also screened for eye diseases that can lead to vision loss. Many eye diseases including glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, as well as other conditions affecting the retina, demonstrate few if any overt signs or symptoms until irreparable damage to your eyesight has occurred. Detecting diseases that can threaten your eyesight in their earliest stages enables the most effective management and care.
If you are interested in wearing contact lenses or you are due to have your current pair of contacts checked, our office will perform a specialized evaluation to measure and assess your eyes. Different from a routine eye exam, an exam for contact lenses not only ensures your contact lenses will fit properly but also makes certain they provide the required vision improvements and that your eyes will be able to tolerate wearing lenses without any harmful consequences. It is important to keep in mind that a contact lens exam does not replace having a comprehensive or routine eye exam to assess the health of your eyes.
The reason different measurements are required for contact lenses is that unlike an eyeglass lens, which is positioned approximately 12mm away from your eye; a contact lens sits directly on the surface of your eye. Once your eyes have been measured and evaluated, our office will discuss the types of contact lenses and wear schedules that are available to you. Depending upon your vision requirements and your lifestyle, we’ll guide you in choosing the most suitable and effective contact lenses to address all your needs.
Diabetes is a complex metabolic disorder that impairs the body’s ability to produce or use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, over time elevated blood sugar levels can cause damage throughout the body with many complications to one’s health and overall wellbeing.
The term “diabetic eye disease” refers to a group of conditions that potentially threaten the eyesight of people with diabetes. This group of conditions includes diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema (DME), cataracts and glaucoma.
Early detection is critical for the prevention of vision loss from diabetic eye disease. If you have diabetes, seeing an eye doctor for a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once a year and more often as recommended is strongly advised.
In addition to scheduling a comprehensive dilated eye exam and taking care to control your blood sugar levels, it’s essential that you pay close attention to any changes in your vision. Contact our office right away if you notice any sudden fluctuations or if your vision becomes spotty, blurry or hazy.
Glaucoma is a progressive disease that diminishes the capacity of the optic nerve to transmit visual information to the brain. When left untreated or uncontrolled, it results in a gradual and irreversible loss of vision. Peripheral vision is initially impaired followed by a decrease in central vision and an eventual complete loss of sight.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the world. In the United States alone more than 3 million people are afflicted with glaucoma, and 120,000 have gone blind from the disease. However, because many types of glaucoma develop without any pain or symptoms, an individual who has not had routine eye care may be completely unaware that they have glaucoma until significant damage to their vision has taken place.
As your eye doctor, our office carefully monitors your vision to check for the presence of a comprehensive range of conditions that may compromise the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision. Glaucoma is diagnosed with an examination that involves measuring the pressure inside your eyes and examining the optic nerve as well as assessing its function. Moreover, we'll also check your peripheral vision to determine if any blind spots have developed. If indicated, additional testing will be conducted to provide information relevant to diagnosis and care.
Although there is no cure for glaucoma just yet, we can help you manage and control the condition to help preserve your vision. Treatment varies depending on the severity of the disease. Current therapies for the most common form of glaucoma are aimed at reducing the intraocular pressure. Treatment may include eye drops, pills, laser procedures or surgical operations to slow down the progression of the disease and prevent further damage.
Taking your child for a comprehensive eye exam at an early age, and maintaining regularly scheduled eye care checkups as they are growing up, is the best way to ensure that your child’s vision development reaches its full potential and to make certain that your child acquires the visual skills needed to fully participate in all activities.
According to guidelines established by the American Optometric Association a child should receive an eye exam at the ages of 6 months, 3 years, before kindergarten, and then once every two years. However, in the presence of certain risk factors or diagnosed vision issues, more frequent exams may be recommended. Children who are wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses should be checked annually.
The members of our professional team are skilled and experienced providers of comprehensive vision care for children and do their best to make sure that your child’s eyes are strong and healthy as they grow. Our specialized pediatric eye care services include child friendly and age appropriate exams to assess visual acuity, eye tracking, and focusing skills, as well as to detect problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, lazy eye (amblyopia), crossed eyes, dyslexia, a color blindness, disease or medical conditions. Depending upon the findings of your child’s eye exam visit, eyeglasses, vision therapy, or additional procedures may be recommended.
Since its introduction a few decades ago laser vision correction has rapidly evolved into an appealing and highly successful outpatient procedure that can reduce or eliminate the need for corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses. With a LASIK procedure, many refractive errors involving nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism can be corrected.
The high success rate of LASIK can be attributed to the advanced technology available today as well as the thorough evaluation process by which candidates are selected for the procedure.
If you are interested in a LASIK, our office will provide you with essential information about your candidacy for the procedure and advise you if any eye conditions, health issues or vision problems may be considerations in your treatment plan. By co-managing care with your LASIK surgeon, our office will help you to prepare for the procedure and take part in your post-operative care to help maintain your eye health and vision improvements.
Adjustment to any vision loss is difficult. It takes self-acceptance, determination, support of family and friends, and learning new techniques to fully utilize any remaining vision. Our goal is to enable people with low vision to improve their ability to use their remaining vision so they can be independent and better able to meet the demands of everyday living.
Macular degeneration is a progressive disease that affects the cells in the back part of your eye, which allows you to visualize objects that are straight ahead. Over time it damages your capacity for sharp, central vision. With macular degeneration, it becomes increasingly more difficult to perform daily tasks such as reading or writing as well as recognizing faces or colors. Among the early signs of vision loss from macular degeneration, are shadowy areas in your central vision and unusually fuzzy or distorted vision. While individuals with advanced cases of macular degeneration are considered legally blind as the result of a profound loss of central vision, their peripheral vision, which is less clear than central vision, is retained. Most people do not experience vision loss in the early stage of age-related macular degeneration and the progression can be slow and painless.
An eye doctor can often detect early signs of macular degeneration before any symptoms are experienced. If signs of the condition are found, additional tests to verify the diagnosis may be ordered. Once the diagnosis has been confirmed, treatment to manage the condition and to slow the progression will be prescribed.
According to the National Eye Institute, over two million adults in the United States have age-related macular degeneration with that number expected to double within the next thirty years. While one defense against age-related vision loss is a nutritious diet and a healthy lifestyle, regular comprehensive eye exams are essential in order to protect the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision.
For those patients needing glasses or contact lenses, we offer a complete optical department. Since your prescription can be filled at the same place it was written, you will not only save time and travel, you will also have the security of knowing the doctor who wrote the prescription is available to answer questions. We carry a wide selection of frames for every budget, including designer, sunglasses and sports.