Eye Health Evaluation

More Than Just Vision Correction!

Did you know that your eyes reveal insights regarding your overall health? In fact, your eyes provide early detection for many different diseases that can affect more than just your vision! That's why we routinely perform tests that look for signs and symptoms of many different diseases, not just eye diseases, during your regularly scheduled eye health evaluation.

Illnesses that may be discovered early on through signs in your eyes include high blood pressure, diabetes, and even heart disease. That's why it's so important to leave your total eyecare to professionals. We feel it's important to review your family history then monitor and watch for signs of possibly inherited diseases or illnesses as another precaution.

What We Check During Your Eye Health Evaluation

We start by checking your eyesight to ensure that you have the best possible vision you can. If a change in lenses is indicated, we have a fully staffed optical department that can help you with the latest styles and fashions of eyewear available. We also check your intraocular pressures in each eye. Increased ocular pressures are a sign of glaucoma. Early detection of glaucoma is crucial to prevent the loss of sight.

During the exam we also evaluate your external eye health, checking for any growths, infections, drooping of eyelids, or excessive watering. We also evaluate your eye muscle motility to make sure that both eyes are working together and your binocular visual field to check your peripheral vision.

When the doctor performs the slit lamp examination, he is examining your cornea (the transparent front segment of the eye that covers the iris and pupil), the anterior chamber (fluid filled space between the iris and innermost corneal surface), the conjunctiva (thin transparent mucous membrane that covers the eye and the inner surfaces of the eyelids) and the lens (which does the focusing). This part of the examination can reveal cataracts, dry eye syndrome, allergies, infection, and many other conditions.

Dilation of the pupils may be necessary to check for retinal disorders, diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, and more. If laser treatment is indicated, we can refer you to one of our area Ophthalmologists.

Our Eye Examinations Are The Best

Many bargain eye care providers are interested only in volume and getting patients in and out of the office quickly. Our doctors care about quality above everything else. We want to make sure your vision is the best it can be and that your eyes are healthy. That is why we offer comprehensive eye health evaluations and a variety of treatment options that are performed in our office, along with the necessary follow-up to closely monitor your progress.

Eye Dilation

Do you think of getting your eyes dilated a nuisance? You're not alone. Most people feel that way. Maybe you've never really understood just why we have to put those annoying drops in your eyes. Here's your chance to find out just why it's so important to be dilated.

Our doctors start your eye exam with a thorough examination of your lids, lashes, conjunctiva, sclera and cornea, all which are the external surfaces of your eye. Using a microscope, or slit lamp, the doctor can get a closer look. When a light shines into your pupil, it constricts or becomes smaller. This is where the dilating drops come into play.

Dilating drops work to keep the pupil widely open so that the doctor can get a much better view of your retina, optic nerve, and vessels in the back of the eye. This is a very important part of an eye health evaluation. From the simple action of putting dilating drops in your eyes, the doctor can gather a lot of important information about your eyes. Diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure) are sometimes first discovered during a dilated examination.

Make Your Dilated Exam More Pleasant & Comfortable

• Try to avoid planning activities after your appointment that require very clear, crisp vision. Dilation often affects your vision, especially your near vision.
• After dilation, your eyes will be much more sensitive to the light. Bring along a pair of dark sunglasses for the ride home.
• If you think that you may have trouble driving home after dilation, bring a friend or family member to drive for you.

Vision Exams for Children

When is it time for your child to have a professional eye exam? This is an excellent and often asked question.

We recommend the following guidelines. Of course, if any concerns arise at anytime, immediate attention is warranted. Let's face it, nothing is more important than our children's health and development!

At Birth

The attending physician conducts checks for general eye health and signs of any congenital problems.

Milestones

All infants are born with underdeveloped visual systems that have the potential to grow and develop- progressing from a blurry world as a newborn to performing complex visual tasks by the time she reaches school age. Early detection and treatment of eye health and visual problems are essential for proper visual development.

6 Months - 1 year

A thorough eye exam should be done to test for unequal or excessive amounts of refractive error (the need for glasses)- farsightedness (hyperopia), nearsightedness (myopia), and astigmatism, as well as for eye movement ability and presence of eye health problems. This exam can be done without the verbal input from your child!

Milestones

Your child is now starting to focus on near objects, follow moving objects with his eyes, and begin reaching for things. These tasks will increase in accuracy as hand-eye coordination and depth perception develop. His eyes begin to work and focus together laying the foundation for more complex visual skills.

3 years

A full, formal eye health and vision evaluation should be done to measure visual acuity (how clear your child is seeing), test for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and test for eye teaming abilities. At this age, your child is able to participate in formal testing.

Milestones

Both of her eyes should now focus and work together. Her depth perception is becoming more advanced. Distance judgment and the ability to grasp objects with greater accuracy continues to increase. Color vision continues to develop.

Before Entering Kindergarten

A vision exam will assess your child's reading readiness skills. The evaluation will include checking for eye health, visual acuity, refractive error (need for glasses), depth perception, ability to see colors, and eye teaming abilities.

Milestones

His hand-eye and eye/body coordination increases dramatically with depth perception. Vision skills are getting fine-tuned with developing eye teaming skills and fine motor skills needed for the foundation to begin to learn to read and write.

School Age Children

Regular eye examinations are recommended to test for problems that could affect school performance.

Milestones

The basic skills needed for her school years are clear distancee and near vision, peripheral vision, focusing skills, eye teaming skills, and eye tracking skills for speed, accuracy and control of her visual inspection.

Symptoms that May Indicate a Vision Problem:

• Jerking, erratic eye movements or lack of fixation in infants
• Avoiding activities that require near vision or avoiding use of an eye
• Holding objects close to the eyes or sitting too close to the TV
• Using finger to follow along while reading
• Turning or tilting the head or body when performing visual tasks
• Squinting, closing, or covering an eye
• Rubbing or blinking excessively
• Redness of the eyes, excessive tearing
• Reversing words or letters or numbers when reading or writing
• Omitting words or repeating or skipping lines when reading
• Confusing words with similar beginnings
• Performing below potential