Eye Exam Health:
Our eye health exams are 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 exam.
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.
Here's what we are checking during your routine eye health examinations:
1) Of course we are always checking your eyesight to ensure proper vision. Your total eye health is extremely important to us and we do everything we can to make sure you receive the best personalized care possible. Did you know that the curve of your cornea determines how the light reflects into your retina and the type of image produced? We measure your cornea, record your vision then consult and recommend the best options available to you with all the latest technology!
2) We check for Glaucoma, a disease where high levels of pressure inside the eye damage the delicate nerve tissue, resulting in a narrowing of your peripheral vision. Early detection of glaucoma is crucial to prevent the loss of sight.
3) We watch for cataracts, when the internal lens of your eye becomes cloudy and necessitates replacement. Do you know what binocular vision is? It's when each of your eyes forms its own image and transfers it to the brain. The brain fuses these two images into one. In order for this to occur, your eyes must move together, be aligned, and produce the same size and shape image. When this doesn't happen it's difficult to see clearly and usually causes strain and headaches. We conduct a series of tests to assess the ability of your eye muscles to make sure that both eyes are working as a team!
Our eye exams are the best you can find!
While so many bargain eye care providers are interested only in volume and getting the next patient in the chair, we put quality above all else. We want to make sure your eyes and your vision are healthy. That's why we offer comprehensive eye exams and follow up care.
For more information, please call or email.
Optomap Retinal Exam:
In 1990, five-year-old Leif Anderson went blind in one eye when a retinal detachment was detected too late. Although he was having regular eye exams, conventional tests were uncomfortable, especially for small children, which made it difficult for the doctor to conduct a thorough examination of the retina. Distressed by the diagnostic methods available, Leif’s father, Douglas, designed the Optomap Retinal Exam that makes retinal examinations easier for both the patient and the doctor, to help prevent this from happening to others.
The Optomap takes just minutes to perform; it is fast, painless, and comfortable for patients. It is particularly helpful when you return for your annual exam as it provides a permanent record of the condition of your retina. Your doctor will compare each year’s Optomap image side by side to discover even subtle changes and monitor your continuing eye health. Early detection of retinal disorders is critical to preventing serious progression and loss of vision.
Detecting Disease with the Optomap Retinal Exam
A comprehensive eye exam, including a thorough retinal exam, can detect early signs of numerous diseases that affect not only your eyes and your sight, but also your overall health. The Optomap Retinal Exam helps your doctor identify abnormalities that could indicate the onset of a number of diseases that often present first in the retina. In these instances, individuals typically do not experience any pain or outward symptoms.
Cancer: Melanomas can grow undetected within the retina. If discovered early, these masses can be treated before they cause serious damage and spread to other areas of the body through the bloodstream.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure): Often the first indicators of high blood pressure, compromised blood vessels, appear in the retina and may signify increased pressure in the blood vessels throughout your body.
Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD): Caused by changes in the retina due to the body’s aging process, AMD blurs the sharp, central vision.
Retinal Detachment (RD): When the retina detaches, it is lifted or pulled from the wall of the eye and, if not properly treated, can cause permanent vision loss.
Glaucoma: Excess fluids within the eye elevate the intraocular pressure, which pushes against the optic nerve and can cause permanent vision loss.
Diabetic Retinopathy (DR): A leading cause of blindness, DR occurs when diabetes damages the tiny blood vessels inside the retina.
Eye Disease Statistics
Every five seconds one person in the world goes blind. A child goes blind every minute.* 80% of blindness is avoidable (60% treatable, 20% preventable). People over the age of 65 have a 30% chance of developing age-related macular degeneration. It is the leading cause of blindness for those aged 65 and older. Blindness is the number one complication of people with diabetes. More than 1.1 million Americans are legally blind. An additional 50,000 people lose their sight each year. Approximately 2.2 million Americans over 40 years old have glaucoma, yet more than half are unaware they have this disease until their sight is compromised.
Contact Lens Evaluation:
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 eyecare professional who provides full-service care in assessing your medical needs, your lifestyle and the best possible products available to meet your needs.
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 Brentwood Eye Care we make sure that vision correction not only helps you see better, but also helps you feel better. That's why we offer contact lens evaluations. 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
Call or email us today for a contact lens evaluation. Enjoy the freedom contact lenses provide!
Treatment of Eye Disease
If you are diagnosed with an eye disease, you want only the best treatment available to get your eyes and your vision healthy again. At Brentwood Eye Care, we offer only the best. Based on your diagnosis, we may recommend a wide variety of approaches, including prescription medicines, therapy and vision exercises, or medical procedures. Whatever we recommend, you can be assured that your vision health is our primary concern.
Vision Correction:
At Brentwood Eye Care, your vision is our primary concern. We offer vision correction for eye diseases and disorders which prevent you from enjoying the world around you. We specialize in treatment of eye diseases such as macular degeneration, low vision, and cataracts. We also can effectively correct vision conditions, such as myopia (near-sightedness), hyperopia (far-sightedness), and presbyopia.
Our vision correction services aren't just about clear vision - they're about healthier vision. That's why we offer a variety of treatment options, including glasses, contact lenses, laser vision, and vision therapy.
We are happy to provide you with some basic information about various vision correction options that are available at our practice.
Child Vision and Learning
Did you know that 80% of everything a child learns, understands, and remembers is acquired through his or her visual system? Vision is very important in the learning process. What's worse is that one in four children have undiagnosed vision problems that affect their learning. Sometimes the problem is misdiagnosed as ADD (attention deficit disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), or dyslexia.
It is important that children receive comprehensive visual exams starting as early in life as possible. Vision screenings at school are not sufficient as a basis for diagnosing vision problems. A comprehensive exam may find a visual problem missed during screenings, and your eye doctor can recommend treatment.
Your child may suffer from a visual problem if they exhibit any of the following characteristics:
struggles with reading grows tired or frustrated with reading can't sit still or stay at a task for any length of time reverses words, numbers, or letters has difficulty remembering the spelling of words frequently loses their place, skips words, or skips lines of text while reading has poor reading comprehension has shown no improvement from medication or tutoring
Children suffering from uncorrected vision problems may face many barriers in life - socially, academically, and athletically. Make sure your child's vision is developing well.
Low Vision
Low vision is caused by several eye diseases, including cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. Few people today are totally without sight. Most have some sight, and suffer from low vision. Low vision can come in many forms, including loss of central vision, loss of side vision, blurred vision, generalized haze, extreme sensitivity to light, and night blindness.
Low vision may be treated by trained optometrists who specialize in low vision. Low vision often requires different therapeutic treatments than other vision conditions. Optometrists who specialize in low vision can examine the patient and recommend treatment which may include therapy and/or low vision devices (for example telescopes and closed circuit tv's).
Refractive Procedures
What are Refractive Procedures? Refractive procedures manipulate the eye to improve vision. Though there are several types of refractive procedures, the most popular is known as LASIK (laser assisted in situ keratomileusis). LASIK involves reshaping the cornea using incisions and lasers. An incision creates a flap which is folded back. Lasers are then used to reshape the middle layer of the cornea and correct the vision. The flap is folded back and allowed to heal, resulting in much clearer vision.
Is LASIK For Me? Candidates should be over 18 years of age with a prescription that is stable, the longer, the better. If you are pregnant, nursing, or suffering from a number of diseases, you may not be eligible for LASIK. Talk to your eye doctor about any concerns. Your Doctor will be able to assess your eligibility, the risks you may encounter, and can recommend how to move forward.
Is the Procedure Safe? In rare cases, there have been complications that have arisen after the procedure, including discomfort, visual disturbance and the inability to wear contact lenses.
Sports Vision
"Keep your eye on the ball!" "Focus on the finish line!" "Don't lose sight of the green!" If there's one thing that seems to be a key to success in sports, it's vision. But did you know you can improve your performance by improving some aspects of your vision? It's easy to recognize problems, and even easier to solve them. The following are some aspects of vision which can be the difference between victory and defeat, and some exercises to improve performance. Dynamic visual acuity is your ability to see objects when they are moving fast. This is important in sports like hockey, racquetball, and tennis. To improve dynamic visual acuity, cut out letters, stick them to a record turntable, and try to identify the letters at different speeds.
Visual concentration is your ability to ignore distractions happening around you. Your eyes naturally react to movement in the field of vision from spectators, other participants or the playing environment. To improve your visual concentration, have a friend stand nearby and wave their hands erratically while you practice.
Eye tracking is following an object with your eyes without much head motion. It is important with any sport that involves a fast-moving ball. Good eye tracking will improve balance and reaction time. You can improve your eye tracking by watching the flight of a ball while keeping a book balanced on your head. Eye-hand-body coordination is how your muscles and limbs react to the information gathered by your eyes. It affects timing and body control. To improve your eye-hand-body coordination, jump up and down on an old mattress while a friend tosses you a tennis ball from a variety of angles. Catch the ball and toss it back.
Visual memory is the ability to process and remember a fast moving, complex picture of people and things. It is very important in basketball, hockey, and soccer, where the game quickly moves up the field. Visual memory helps you know where your teammates and opponents are positioned. To improve visual memory, look at a magazine page for a second, then turn the page. Try to reconstruct the images you just saw. When you've mastered the exercise, allow 5 seconds between seeing the image and reconstructing it.
Peripheral vision is the ability to see what is not directly in front of you, out of the corner of your eye. This allows you to see your teammate to your left or right while focusing on the goal in front of you. To make your peripheral vision more useful, try watching television with your head turned to one side or the other.
Visual reaction time is what allows a batter to hit the ball, or a tennis player to return a serve. It is the speed with which your brain interprets and reacts. To improve your visual reaction time, stand with your back to a friend. Have them toss a ball to you and yell, "Now!" When you hear the yell, turn around and try to catch the ball. By repeating this exercise, you can teach your brain to react more quickly.
Focus flexibility allows a quarterback to quickly focus on his receivers even though they are at varying distances. To improve focus flexibility, post a magazine page on a wall about 15 feet away at eye level in front of you. Hold a similar page in your hand out in front of you, so that it is slightly to one side of your view of the page on the wall. Focus on an object or words on the page on the wall. Then quickly switch focus to the page in your hand. By switching focus back and forth, you will improve your focus flexibility.
Depth perception lets you judge distance. This is especially important in basketball, golf, and other sports involving distance to the goal. To improve depth perception, have a friend point a straw at you, parallel to the ground, with the straw about two feet away from you. Practice quickly inserting a toothpick into the straw.
By improving aspects of your vision, you can improve your performance, no matter what sport you're involved in.
Vision Therapy
Though some vision problems can be treated using corrective lenses, many require a different kind of treatment. Vision therapy is a series of activities or exercises prescribed and monitored by an optometrist to treat problems with visual skill and processing. After a comprehensive eye exam, your eye doctor may determine that vision therapy is the best option for treatment. Vision therapy programs are based on the results of standardized tests, and the needs of the patient.
Vision therapy is administered in our office under the guidance of your doctor. Sometimes a number of office visits are required over a period ranging from several weeks to several months. Usually the patient performs several exercises, then the doctor teaches the patient techniques to be practiced at home to reinforce the developing visual skills.
Vision therapy can effectively treat eye movement disorders, inefficient eye teaming, misaligned eyes, poorly developed vision, focusing problems, and other visual information processing disorders.
