Our doctors will evaluate your quality of vision and determine if any correction is necessary to help your eyes see and perform at their highest potential. Correction may be in the form of glasses or contact lenses.
The most important part of a comprehensive eye exam is the evaluation of the health of your eyes. Our doctors perform a detailed evaluation of your eyes using highly specialized instruments to ensure your eyes are healthy.
The pupil of the eye is like a window that allows your doctor to look through and evaluate the inside of the eye. If the window is not large enough, dilating the pupils is sometimes necessary to allow the doctor to see the entire back of the eye to make sure it is healthy. Most eye diseases do not have painful or noticeable symptoms until it is too late. Early detection of serious eye diseases can prevent sight loss. Your eyes are completely evaluated inside and out for not only eye disease, but other health problems that affect the eyes. The following is an example of visual and health problems that can be detected with a routine dilation:
| Glaucoma | Hyperthroidism |
| Macular Degeneration | Hypertension |
| Retinal Disease | Diabetes |
| Retinal Detachments | Multiple Sclerosis |
Experts estimate that one in five preschool children have a vision problem and one in four school age children need or wear corrective lenses. Undetected and untreated eye and vision disorders often become barriers to learning, leading to delayed reading and poorer outcomes in school. In-person comprehensive eye exams provided by an eye doctor are essential and thoroughly effective at identifying and ensuring early treatment for the range of vision and eye health issues that can impact a child's development and learning abilities.
A comprehensive eye examination will assess visual acuity, refractive status, ocular health, eye tracking, eye focusing, and eye teaming.
Visual acuity measures how clearly a child sees objects.
Refractive status measures for nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism.
The child is evaluated for any eye health problems, including active pathology or congenital anomalies.
Eye tracking is the ability of the eyes to fixate, smoothly follow and look between objects or printed words.
Eye focusing is the ability to efficiently change and sustain focus while reading.
Eye teaming is the ability to coordinate both eyes accurately and without fatigue or excessive effort. Accurate eye teaming is also important for accurate two-eyed depth perception or stereopsis.
Computer vision syndrome, also referred to as digital eye strain, describes a group of eye- and vision-related problems that result from prolonged computer, tablet, e-reader and cell phone use. Our doctors are able to diagnose the root cause of this strain and prescribe lenses to alleviate the symptoms.
Dry eye is a condition in which a person doesn't have enough quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye. Tears are necessary for maintaining the health of the front surface of the eye and for providing clear vision.
Treatments for dry eyes aim to restore or maintain the normal amount of tears in the eye to minimize dryness and related discomfort and to maintain eye health. Dry eyes can be a chronic condition, but our doctors can prescribe treatment to keep your eyes healthy and comfortable and to prevent your vision from being affected. The primary approaches used to manage and treat dry eyes include adding artificial tear solutions, conserving tears, increasing tear production, and treating the inflammation of the eyelids or eye surface that contributes to the dry eyes.
Keratoconus is a vision disorder that occurs when the normally round cornea (the front part of the eye) becomes thin and irregular (cone) shaped. This abnormal shape prevents the light entering the eye from being focused correctly on the retina and causes distortion of vision.
Treatment of Keratoconus is most effective with gas permeable contact lenses, designed specifically for the irregular corneal surface. If contact lens treatment is not successful, surgical corneal transplant may be necessary.
Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that may occur in people who have diabetes. It causes progressive damage to the retina, the light-sensitive lining at the back of the eye.
Diabetic retinopathy is a serious sight-threatening complication of diabetes. Diabetes interferes with the body's ability to use and store sugar (glucose). The disease is characterized by too much sugar in the blood, which can cause damage throughout the body, including the eyes. Over time, diabetes damages small blood vessels throughout the body, including the retina. Diabetic retinopathy occurs when these tiny blood vessels leak blood and other fluids. This causes the retinal tissue to swell, resulting in cloudy or blurred vision.
A comprehensive eye exam is the only way to determine if a person's diabetes will is causing damage to the eye, which is why the American Optometric Association recommends that everyone with diabetes have a comprehensive dilated eye examination at least once a year. Early detection and treatment can limit the potential for significant vision loss from diabetic retinopathy.
A cataract is a cloudy or opaque area in the normally clear lens of the eye. Depending upon its size and location, it can interfere with normal vision.
The lens is located inside the eye behind the iris, the colored part of the eye. Normally, the lens focuses light on the retina, which sends the image through the optic nerve to the brain. However, if the lens is clouded by a cataract, light is scattered so the lens can no longer focus it properly, causing vision problems. The lens is made of mostly proteins and water. The clouding of the lens occurs due to changes in the proteins and lens fibers.
When a cataract progresses to the point that it affects a person's ability to do normal everyday tasks, surgery may be needed. Cataract surgery involves removing the lens of the eye and replacing it with an artificial lens. The artificial lens requires no care and can significantly improve vision. Some artificial lenses have the natural focusing ability of a young healthy lens. Once a cataract is removed, it cannot grow back.
Macular Degeneration is an eye disease affecting the macula (the center of the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye), causing loss of central vision.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in adults over age 50. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 1.8 million people have AMD and another 7.3 million are at substantial risk for vision loss from AMD.
This eye disease occurs when there are changes to the macula, a small portion of the retina that is located on the inside back layer of the eye. AMD is a loss of central vision that can occur in two forms: "dry" (atrophic) and "wet" (exudative).
Glaucoma is a group of eye disorders that lead to progressive damage to the optic nerve. It is characterized by loss of nerve tissue that results in vision loss. People with glaucoma can lose nerve tissue, resulting in vision loss and it is the 3rd most common cause of blindness in the United States. Since there are often no symptoms, it can only be detected by a Doctor of Optometry. This condition is treatable when detected.
Eye Infection such as conjunctivitis (pink eye) are common and is the swelling or inflammation of the conjunctiva, the thin, transparent layer of tissue that lines the inner surface of the eyelid and covers the white part of the eye. Causes may or may not be infectious. There are three main types of conjunctivitis: allergic, infectious and chemical. The cause of conjunctivitis varies depending on the type. Using the information obtained from a series of tests, a doctor of optometry can determine if you have conjunctivitis and provide treatment options necessary to reduce or lessen the course of the infection or inflammation.