How to Choose the Right Eye Care Specialist

 By Kristen Mozayeni  |  

 

    

 

What type of eye care specialist are you looking for?

Are you considering LASIK? If so, you want to look for a specialist who is an Ophthalmologist and specializes in LASIK eye surgery. While not all Ophthalmologists are LASIK surgeons, all LASIK surgeons are Ophthalmologists. Factors you should consider when looking for a LASIK consultation include:

1. Visit your eye doctor for a complete consultation to find out if you are an ideal LASIK candidate.
2. Ensure you do not fall for a "bait and switch" tactic that offers a LASIK eye surgery "discount."

These are more than likely full of hidden fees and substandard safety procedures.

Due to the price of LASIK eye surgery, people can succumb to tempting "discounts." These offers are usually too good to be true and can include hidden fees that end up costing you as much, if not more, than the actual surgery price. Furthermore, "discount" laser vision correction runs the risk of being less safe than practices that are upfront with costs.

Does your first eye care specialist choice use safe, up-to-date technology?

Ensure your doctor uses the lastest, FDA-approved technology. Quality eye care specialists will examine your eyes with state-of-the-art equipment that provides a wealth of ocular information. For instance, the Pentacam mapping system thoroughly examines your corneal structure in several ways so your doctor can determine if you are a good LASIK candidate. When choosing a specialist, keep updated technology in mind. Research the standard eye examination equipment they use to see if it will provide you with a safe and in-depth assessment. In addition, visit an eye care doctor who will discuss their findings with you in detail.

Are you diabetic and looking for an eye doctor to manage your vision needs?
If you or a family member have diabetes, visit either an Optometrist or an Ophthalmologist for complete eye care. Select a well-trained eye care specialist who has specific experience in diabetic eye care.

Have you been diagnosed with Keratoconus?

Keratoconus patients should find someone who is an Ophthalmologist actively following current FDA studies on corneal cross-linking, a less invasive, future Keratoconus treatment. In all likelihood, these will be cornea specialists, as Keratoconus is a corneal disease.

Whether you're looking to undergo vision correction surgery, are searching for a reputable specialist for general eye care needs or are looking to handle a disease that affects your eye health, always watch for the following:

• Verify the doctors credentials
• Ask your friends and family
• Read online reviews
• Verify pricing and make sure you understand it.

Above all else, the most important thing to do is find a reputable, certified specialist who meets your unique patient needs. In doing this, you and your family will be well on your way to receiving top shelf eye care from a caring office.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristen_Mozayeni

Is Lasik Eye Surgery Safe For Kids? 

By Dawn Bradshaw  

The topic of Lasik eye surgery and its effectiveness in vision correction for children is a highly debated one. According to the FDA, Lasik should be performed only on people above 18 years of age. The other criteria for performing Lasik is that, the vision condition of the patient should be stable for the past year, which is often difficult for children that are having issues with their vision. Because of this, Lasik surgery is normally not recommended for kids.

What does the medical community say?
Lasik surgery can offer superb results in correcting vision issues even in children. Some, prominent ophthalmologists believe that Lasik can be used for children who cannot wear glasses or contact lenses. This is performed particularly for those children who are not able to read or write properly due to poor vision. There is a direct connection between the eyes and the brain, and the development process of this connection continues until children reach age 7 to 8 and this development process might be hindered by LASIK surgery. On the other hand, according to some eye specialists, maximizing the vision of the eye before the developmental process is complete is vital to ensure that the children have complete vision.

Why Lasik might be ineffective for kids?
The Lasik surgery procedure involves creating a corneal flap, and then using a laser to reshape the cornea. Reshaping the cornea corrects the inability of the cornea to focus incoming light directly onto the lens. However, as a child, the cornea, and lens of the eye is also expected to grow and change their shape naturally. So, if Lasik is performed on a child, the cornea might grow into a different shape again as they grow, making the previous process ineffective. Performing Lasik for children should only be performed for severe cases where it is the only option available for vision correction.

Children can be affected by numerous eye disorders. With proper treatment, these eye problems can be corrected, but they need to be diagnosed at an early age. By performing an eye examination, a skilled ophthalmologist can determine whether your child will be able to see without glasses or lenses in the near future or not. Nowadays, medical science has advanced and most children's eye problems can be solved by the use of different medications or surgeries. With the progress of these new technologies, many critical problems like retinopathy, pediatric glaucoma, cataracts, ptosis and many other abnormal visual imbalances are now being treated and corrected successfully.
 

The physicians at Ophthalmology Associates have offered eye care services in Fort Worth, HEB, Weatherford, and Granbury for over 40 years. For more information call us at (817) 332-2020 or Contact Us Online to request an appointment by simply filling out the on-line form. It's a beautiful world, you deserve to see it well!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dawn_Bradshaw

Corneal Abrasion - A Common Eye Problem That Can Be Easily Treated

By Brent McNutt 

 

    

 

Corneal abrasion is a superficial scratch in the outer lens of the eye. It is usually caused by improper wearing of contact lenses or by particles that get lodged in the eye. A scratched cornea can be painful and alarming. Good thing is that the eyes are one of the quickest healers in the body and scratched corneas are easy to treat. Some of the symptoms of corneal abrasions include pain, redness, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, excessive tears, the feeling that there is an object or particle in the eye, and possible swelling of the eye.

Natural healing process
A scratch in the cornea can heal completely within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the severity, leaving no permanent damage when healed. During this time, the cells will reconnect the undamaged layers and renew the scratched part of the cornea. If you feel like you scratched your cornea, do not rub your eyes! It will only worsen the abrasion. Instead, flush your eyes with water to get rid of the object or particle that scratched your eye. Use a cold compress over your eye to keep it from swelling and lessen the pain. Keep your eyes closed and let it rest. If you cannot wait too long and the pain or discomfort is unbearable, you should contact an eye doctor in urbane scrubs to see if you need treatment.

Seeing an eye doctor
To ease the pain, anesthetic eye drops are typically used during examination and to prevent infection, an eye doctor will usually recommend antibiotic eye drops. After the treatment, the doctor will cover your eye with a tight eye patch to prevent your eyelid from moving. You will have to wear the eye patch for at least 24 hours so that the healing process will not be disturbed and so that it repairs quickly and smoothly.

What to avoid
Those who wear contact lenses should not wear it for the whole period of the treatment and healing period because it will only slow down the healing process. Also, the medication can cloud or stain soft lenses, thereby damaging it. Superficial cornea abrasions do not cause permanent blindness or loss of vision but it may blur your vision temporarily. Once your eye heals, it may take a few weeks before your clear vision returns (if you had clear vision before the abrasion). During this time, it is advised that you refrain from rubbing your eyes. This will slow down the healing process or even aggravate the abrasion.

Recurrence
In some instances, a corneal abrasion can spontaneously recur long after it has healed, usually occurring when you wake up in the morning. This happens when an area of the eye's epithelium failed to reconnect to the deeper layers of the cornea. When this happens, it is best to go to the eye doctor so that a special instrument can be used to form better connections between the layers of the cornea. The treatment will be similar to the one that was administered in the original abrasion. You can also ask your doctor about lubricants or ointments that you can use to prevent recurrent abrasions.

Brent McNutt enjoys talking about urbane scrubs [http://www.uniformhaven.com] and landau scrubs [http://www.uniformhaven.com/landauscrubs.html] and networking with healthcare professionals online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brent_McNutt

What Causes a Headache Behind the Eyes?

By George McKenzie 

    

Having a headache behind the eyes is a relatively common problem, and such headaches happen for a variety of reasons.

Most of the time, such headaches are a sign of some other problem or disorder. This problem may have nothing to do with your eyes or vision.

To stop the pain, you first have to figure out where the pain is coming from.

What Causes a Headache Behind the Eyes?

Here are the most common reasons most people get a headache behind the eyes.
Your sinuses or an infection in your respiratory system can might be the cause. Swollen nasal passages near the eyes can put pressure on nerves behind the eyeballs when you have a cold or the flu..

Unfortunately, there's a possibility your headache may be caused by a tumor. Hopefully, this is not the case.

But the most common problem that causes a headache behind the eyes is related to general eye health and eye conditions or disorders. Something happens that causes the lens of the eye to cast an unfocused image on the retina. When this happens, your brain automatically tightens your eye muscles in an effort to compensate. After this has been going on for a while, the eye muscles become strained, causing soreness.If this situation corrected, the muscles become even more strained and sore.

There are several common vision problems that are likely to result in soreness and pain behind the eyes.The list of vision problems that are likely to produce such discomfort or pain include the following.

Astigmatism - Sometimes there's a change in the shape of the lens, which results in a distorted image landing on the retina. Vision becomes blurry or fuzzy.

You'll notice that people who have astigmatism sometimes have to squint a lot. By squinting, they're trying to force their eyes to focus. Squinting, if it's done often enough, overworks and strains the eye muscles. This causes pain around the eyeballs, which feels like a headache behind the eyes.

Presbyopia - When we're young, and even in our early adult years, the lenses of our eyes are pretty flexible. But with passing time, we lose some of this flexibility.

The result: objects close to us begin to lose their clarity. This is why many people need "reading glasses" as they pass into middle age.

When you have uncorrected presbyopia, you will strain your eyes trying to make them focus as you read. This results in headaches in the area around the eyes.

Hyperopia - This is similar to presbyopia in that images don't focus correctly on the retina. They focus in an area behind the retina instead. Once again, the brain overworks the eye muscles in an effort to resolve the problem. This, of course, lead to strained muscles and soreness around the eyes.

Tips for Relieving Headache Pain

Many different over-the-counter medications are available that will relieve pain from a mild headache behind the eyes. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist for specific recommendations.

If over-the-counter pain-relievers don't work, and your headache persists for several days, call your doctor. He or she may prescribe something stronger.

If your headaches are happening often, and you haven't had an eye exam for a while, a visit to your optometrist is probably in order. Since headaches behind the eyes are often caused by uncorrected vision, a set of eye glasses or contacts may put an end to your discomfort.

Acupuncture and massage may help to some people.

Short of the possibilities just mentioned, your best bet is rest and relaxation. If eye strain is the cause of your headaches, then giving your eyes a break is probably the best prescription for finding relief.

For more information on topics related to this article, click on Headaches Behind the Eyes [http://www.eye-health-info.info/most-common-eye-problems/headache-behind-eyes.html].

George McKenzie is a retired TV anchor, medical reporter and radio talk show host. He is a frequent contributor to Eye Health Information [http://www.eye-health-info.info/], a resource site about eye health and vision.
 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=George_McKenzie

Top 3 Causes of Double Vision

By Jim Kirk 

When you see double, it is no joke. You can often lose your balance, and find it hard to walk or drive your car. Do not insist on driving, take a cab instead. The first major cause of double vision could be the improper prescription of eye glasses, or your vision has worsened beyond what your prescribed glasses can repair. You get dizzy, and images get blurry. Go to your optometrist quickly for a consultation and the prescription of a new pair of glasses.

The second major cause is eye strain. With today's fast pace society and working culture, a lot of us have to review documents or stare at the computer for long hours. This causes eye strain, and bad habits for the eyes. Here are some good habits for you to adopt. Take a break from the computer for at least once every hour. Use your ring finger to gently massage the areas around your eye balls. Rub your palms quickly together and place them on your closed eyes for deep relaxation.

The third major cause is due to an illness. A major bout of common flu can cause you to get double vision and dizziness. Always get a check with your doctor on what the possible cause can be, as it can be a symptom of a major illness.

The best advice is still to get rid of your glasses, and seek to regain your natural perfect eye sight. I have thrown away my glasses several years back, and was thankful that I am saved from a lifetime of eye wear inconveniences and costs.

I now have perfect vision in my right eye, and near perfect in my left. I have searched for natural ways to improve my vision, and have found one that actually works for me. Do check out the scientifically proven, natural and easy way to improve your vision, without burning a hole in your pocket.
 

Go to the website [http://health11.info] for more information.

Jim Kirk has always been interested in natural healing, and has researched on multiple topics in this area. He is a much sought after public speaker and a writer. He highly recommends the natural healing methodology at [http://health11.info] to recover your vision naturally and easily with a scientifically proven trademarked method.
 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Kirk

Eye Exercises to Help Improve Peripheral Vision

By Eoin McDonnell  |   Submitted On March 13, 2010  

 

There are many eye exercises to help improve peripheral vision. When we are young our eyes unintentionally become trained to look straight ahead as we spend our days looking at books, the blackboard and computers. As a consequence of this the muscles we use for peripheral vision become weak because of lack of use. The way to prevent this is to keep our eyes moving and retrain them not to stare or squint which is the most damaging thing we can do with them.

When we are out and about in nature our eyes are constantly moving around taking in our surroundings and moving smoothly from tree to flower to tree without us even noticing. Our eyes only stop when they see something that our brain doesn't immediately recognise. They stop for a moment until our brain realises what the object is and then return to moving around. This is our eyes in their comfort zone.

When we stare or squint it is not natural for our eyes and so they become strained. Particularly if we are trying to take in lots of information which we find boring our eyes become tired and consequently our eyes become strained.

To combat this there are eye exercises to help improve peripheral vision and all of the other ailments our eyes suffer such as myopia, presbyopia, astigmatism etc. which all mostly stem from eye strain at a young age.

One technique is known as tracing which prompts smooth movement in our eyes, allows them to relax and is very simple to do. Basically, pick an object such as a car, a building, a sofa and trace your eyes slowly around the shape of the object 3 or 4 times. This is just one exercise which enables us to use some of the muscles in our eyes that we may be neglecting in our busy daily lives.
 

This is just one of the eye exercises to help improve peripheral vision. Learning exercises to relax the eyes and promote more movement is a great way to develop lasting habits and ensure great eyesight for years to come. If you would like to learn more techniques then http://www.bettervision.info has many very helpful and worthwhile programs and exercises.
 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eoin_McDonnell

The Progress of Macular Hole

By Bianca Gianni 

 

    

 

When your grandmother or grandfather reads every morning, do you notice them that holding their newspaper in an evident distance from their body? They also squint their eyes as they read the periodical. This condition is normal as certain eye irregularities are rampant especially when a person ages and reaches the age of 50 and above. The macula, which is the portion of our eyes which provides sharpness as we need it for reading, driving and seeing fine details, is affected most of the time as the person ages.

If a person is affected with those said condition, he or she has similar symptoms with macular degeneration which usually occurs before the condition progresses. However macular degeneration and macular hole have two distinct damages in the eye, as hole in the macula affects the retina and if this condition grows severe, retinal detachment can be anticipated. The vitreous gel which comprises 80 percent of the eye is in some form, a contributory factor or a conduit of formation of macular hole because, the proportion of vitreous gel diminishes along with the advancement of age. If this happens, as its fluid grows minimal due to ageing, its fibers that are attached to the retina will be pulled away and it can tear the retina which creates a hole in the macula.

This condition is a sight-threatening condition what should receive immediate medical attention. It has three stages namely Foveal detachment (stage 1), without treatment, 50% is most likely to progress to the second stage; Partial-thickness holes (stage 2), without treatment, 70% will progress and grows severe to the last stage; and Full-thickness holes (stage 3).

To avoid the vitreous gel to eventually pull away the retina and produce macular hole, vitrectomy is done in order to allow further improvement and treatment of the condition. This procedure removes the vitreous gel and a bubble containing mixture of air and gas will be replace to act as an internal and temporary bandage that holds the edge of the macular hole in place as it heals. The surgery is done through local anesthesia and the outcome might be uncertain. Most surgeons consider it as "damage limitation". If complication might take place, a cataract can progress rapidly in most patients and most certain than not, the patient might be able to develop a macular hole in the other eye too.
The probability is one in ten chances in most patients.

Recovery from the surgery varies from patient to patient. Those who had macular hole for less than 6 months may recover much more certainly than those who had longer experience of having macular hole. The important thing to consider post operatively is to let the patient have a head-down position maintained and monitor, so as to keep the posture in the correct place while the retina heals.
 

To know further on the information about Macular Hole Surgery just click the proceeding link which can help you. http://Macular Hole Surgery [http://MacularHoleSurgery.org]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bianca_Gianni