Our Services

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

Did You Know Poorly Fit Contacts Can Harm Your Eyes?

Few things affect the quality of your life more than your eyes. Please don't put them at risk! Start off right by seeing an eye care professional who provides full-service care in assessing your medical needs, your lifestyle, and the highest quality contact lenses available to meet your needs, and proper training to ensure great vision.

It is important to remember that contact lenses are prescription medical devices. Various brands are designed and manufactured differently. The selection of a particular contact lens needs to be based on your vision problems, prescription, eye health, comfort requirements, lifestyle, age and physiological factors like tear flow. We'll discuss the different lens types and brands with you and advise you about the lens choices that are best for your eyes. Because everyone's eyes and vision needs are different, contact lenses are available with varying schedules for removal and replacement. We'll teach you how to properly clean and wear your new contact lenses to maximize vision and minimize potential risks.

At Eyecare Professionals & Grand Island Optical we make sure that vision correction not only helps you see better, but also helps you feel better. Contact lenses aren't right for everyone, but they may be right for you.

Even if you have astigmatism or need bifocal lenses, we may have a solution. Your evaluation will include:

• A look at your vision history
• An examination of your corneas
• A consultation session with one of our doctors, including recommendations and options
• Our doctors specialize in contact lens care, with special emphasis on hard-to-fit cases and solving problems current contact lens patients may be experiencing.

Call us today for a contact lens evaluation. Enjoy the freedom contact lenses provide!

MiSight® lenses by Cooper Vision® are a type of contact lens used to control myopia progression in children. They are daily disposable, soft contact lenses. They're more naturally comfortable to wear, and you can remove them at the end of the day. These lenses come with several advantages: No cleaning is needed since they are disposable.

Click here to learn more about MiSight® lenses

LASIK, a form of refractive surgery, is an popular option for vision correction, often eliminating the need to wear glasses or contact lenses. Simply put, LASIK reshapes the cornea with a laser.

Other surgical alternatives have become available. Among these is a technique called phakic IOL implantation which involves implanting a lens behind the cornea, but in front of the iris. With this new option, many of those who were too highly nearsighted for LASIK are now candidates for refractive surgery.

If you are interested in refractive surgery, please let us know. Refractive surgery is not to be taken lightly. Detailed testing is necessary to determine whether or not you are a good candidate for the surgery.  If testing shows you to be a good candidate, we can help you choose the refractive surgeon who is most appropriate for your case. In addition, we provide post-operative care for refractive surgery. 

Our In-House lab offers our patients convenience and prompt service.

• Fully equipped optical laboratory to provide eyewear orders for our patients more efficiently.
• Finest equipment used in lens production technology.
• Same day service available within prescription provisions if rush services are required.
• Fully trained and experienced lab technicians consistently providing accuracy and quality.

The doctors of Eyecare Professionals use only the most advanced technology in specialized equipment to provide their patients a precise and accurate diagnostic result and treatment option.

OptiLight by Lumenis® is a light-based, non-invasive treatment done in the area below the eyes to manage dry eye. The first and only IPL FDA-approved for dry eye management. The treatment is safe, gentle, and backed by more than 20 clinical studies.

The OCULUS Keratograph® 5M is an advanced corneal topographer with a built-in real keratometer and a color camera optimized for external imaging. Unique features include examining the meibomian glands, non-invasive tear film break-up time, and the tear meniscus height measurement and evaluating the lipid layer.

Download the PDF on OCULUS Keratograph® 5M

Dry eye is a disease, so performing a TearLab Osmolarity test to determine a proper diagnosis is the first step toward relief.

Osmolarity is the accepted standard for diagnosing Dry Eye Disease. The TearLab Osmolarity Test will give your doctor a meaningful measurement of the health and stability of your tear film. Once your eye doctor has determined your osmolarity number using TearLab, he or she can design a treatment regimen tailored to your specific condition.

CLARUS 500 from ZEISS® is the first fundus imaging system to provide true color and clarity within an ultra-wide field of view, enabling clinicians to capture high-resolution fundus images from the macula to the far periphery.

By bringing the optics to the patient, ZEISS® CLARUS 500 helps create a comfortable, satisfying patient experience that provides images free of obstructions, such as lids and lashes, and requires fewer recaptures.

OCT imaging is clearly the most advanced retinal diagnostic imaging available.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging test that uses light waves to take cross-section pictures of your retina, the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye.

With OCT, each of the retina’s distinctive layers can be seen, allowing your eye care professional to map and measure their thickness. These measurements help with diagnosis and provide treatment guidance for glaucoma and retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease.

Click for more information on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

The visual field test is a subjective measure of central and peripheral vision, or “side vision”.

Visual field tests are used to detect blind spots (scotomas), which could be a sign of eye diseases. The size and shape of a scotoma offer important clues about the presence and severity of diseases of the eye, optic nerve and visual structures in the brain. Many eye and brain disorders can cause peripheral vision loss and other visual field abnormalities.

Click for more information on a Visual Field Test