Comprehensive Eye Exams

Comprehensive eye exams, performed annually by an eye doctor, are an important part of preventative health care, as early diagnosis and treatment of eye and vision problems can help prevent vision loss. During a comprehensive eye exam at Family Eye Wellness, Dr. Patel will evaluate your vision and assess the health of the eye, while also checking for serious ocular conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, and retinopathy. She will review your medical and ocular history, measure your visual acuities, and perform preliminary tests like retinal imaging, all of which help to evaluate the overall health of your eyes. Dr. Patel will also perform a refraction to provide you with optimum vision. She will not only discuss treatment options, but also methods of prevention so you can develop and maintain the best vision and eye health possible. Along with family history, she will discuss symptoms, lifestyle, diet, exercise routine, and stress management, all of which contribute to your optimum vision and eye health.

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Pediatric Eye Exams

Many schools and pediatricians offer vision screenings, but these “screenings” should not be substituted for a complete eye examination, as their results can be inaccurate. According to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD), it is estimated that 1 in 10 children have a vision problem severe enough to affect their learning in school. Since 70% of a child’s learning is done through their visual system, it is recommended that all children have their first eye exam with a pediatric or developmental optometrist as an infant (six to 11 months of age). If this exam is normal, the next eye exam is performed at the age of 3 years old. This should be followed by another exam at 5 years old and thereafter, annually. Dr. Patel, who is residency trained in pediatric optometry, offers comprehensive pediatric eye exams during which she will check all aspects of eye health, vision, and visual skills. Dr. Patel will review your child’s birth history, family history, and medical history. She will inquire about whether your child is showing signs of developmental delays or is having trouble recognizing shapes, colors, numbers or letters, as these may signal a vision problem. In order to provide optimum care, your child’s eyes may be dilated at the first visit and on future visits. At Family Eye Wellness, we have a myriad of child-friendly tools available to perform eye examinations on children of all ages.

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Infant See Exams

Family Eye Wellness is proud to announce that Dr. Patel is a long-time provider for the InfantSee program, which is a public health program managed by Optometry Cares- The AOA Foundation. Your infant may qualify for a complimentary InfantSee evaluation if no prior eye examinations have been performed or ocular diagnoses have been made. Babies should have their first eye exam between 6 to 12 months of age. Dr. Patel will make sure your precious baby’s eyes are developing normally by checking for signs of near or farsightedness, lazy eye, crossed eyes, or severe cases such as childhood ocular cancer. Because 1 in 5 preschoolers have vision problems that can interfere with learning and behavior, early intervention is critical for successful treatment and proper vision development. Give your infant the gift of vision by seeking an InfantSee assessment.

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Contact Lens Exams

A comprehensive eye examination does NOT include a contact lens examination. If you are interested in wearing contact lenses, please let staff at Family Eye Wellness know prior to booking your appointment. You can even schedule it together with your routine comprehensive eye exam to save time! Because contact lenses are considered medical devices, additional tests and procedures are necessary to determine the best type of contact lenses for you. During your contact lens exam, Dr. Patel will discuss the various contact lenses available and determine the best option based on your individual needs and lifestyle. She will ensure the lenses fit your eyes properly and that the health of your eyes is not compromised from contact lens wear. Skipping annual contact lens examinations as a contact lens wearer may result in corneal abrasions, ulcers, infections, or vision loss. They can stop the cornea from receiving adequate nutrients and oxygen if they do not fit accurately, so for the continued health of your eyes, it is advised to stay consistent with this exam annually.

Please note: At this time, Dr. Patel does not provide scleral or RGP contact lens fittings, but she is more than happy to refer you to an Optometrist who specializes in specialty contact lens fittings.

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Functional/Binocular Vision Evaluations

At Family Eye Wellness, we go beyond the routine comprehensive eye exam – we provide specialty exams known as functional or binocular vision evaluations. Good vision goes beyond seeing 20/20 on the visual acuity chart. It requires both eyes to work together as a team, as well as cohesive functioning of your eyesight, visual pathways, and the brain. During a functional vision evaluation, Dr. Patel will test for the following:

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Visual Processing Evaluations

More than 70% of a child’s learning is done through their visual system. Studies show that 1 out of every 4 children have a vision problem that impacts learning. Unfortunately, many of these problems stem from vision processes parents are unfamiliar with, leading to lack of appropriate testing and evaluations.
This is understandable, because most people think about vision only in terms of 20/20 visual acuity, but vision is actually much more complex than that. It is three interacting processes:

1. Eyesight (visual sharpness and clarity)
2. How our eyes function (eye focusing, tracking and teaming that can be evaluated during a functional/binocular vision evaluation), and
3. Visual processing, which is how the brain interprets, analyzes, and integrates information that our eyes see with other sensory modalities.

Visual processing disorders cannot be corrected by glasses or contact lenses, and patients with visual processing disorders do not “outgrow” this condition. Instead, they often develop techniques on their own to overcome or compensate for these challenges when possible. At Family Eye Wellness, visual processing evaluations are done at a separate visit to all other visits. Once the exam is completed, a parent-doctor consultation is scheduled to review results and treatments. An official report is given with a list of classroom accommodations that can be then shared with the child’s educators and other providers.

Vision-Related Reading and Learning Disabilities can be diagnosed during a visual processing evaluation. Signs of other problems such as dyslexia or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be obvious during this evaluation, but as a formal diagnosis cannot be made at Family Eye Wellness for these conditions, an appropriate referral for further evaluations can be made instead.

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Vision Therapy

Vision therapy is an individualized and supervised treatment program designed to correct visual-motor and visual perceptual deficiencies in both children and adults. It is just like physical therapy but for your eyes. In addition to eye and brain exercises, lenses (“training lenses”), prisms, filters, patches, or balance boards may be used. The goal of vision therapy is to improve and enhance visual efficiency and visual perceptual skills. Once treated, a patient can benefit from a positive lifelong change in overall comfort, performance, and quality of life. Vision therapy is designed to help patients of all ages and with various diagnoses. It benefits children who struggle with school performance or emotional and behavioral challenges that are triggered by functional vision problems. To see if you or your child might benefit from vision therapy, click on the following symptom list:

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Myopia Control

Myopia (or nearsightedness) is a very common condition where objects that are close to you are clear, however, objects far away are blurry. This is caused by elongation of the eye.

Researchers believe that the today’s environment and lifestyle is contributing to the rapid increase in childhood myopia. Contributing factors include lack of outdoor play in addition to too many up close activities (like reading or screen device usage). While glasses or contact lenses compensate for a child’s blurry distance vision, they do not stop your child’s vision from further deterioration. There is plenty of scientific evidence showing myopic patients being more vulnerable to sight-threatening diseases and complications including retinal detachments, myopic maculopathy, glaucoma and cataracts.

The goal of myopia management is to slow the progression of myopia and reduce your child’s eye health risks. The earlier myopia management begins, the more effective the treatment. Here at Family Eye Wellness, we offer non-invasive, non-surgical treatments proven to manage and control myopia including specialty glasses, specialty contact lenses, atropine treatment and MiSight contact lenses. To learn more about myopia management book an appointment with Dr. Patel today!

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Digital Retina Imaging

Using a digital camera system, our optometrists at Family Eye Wellness can clearly see and examine your retina, located at the back of your eye. This examination is critical to monitoring the health of your eye as well as to the early detection of many medical problems. The pictures generated through retinal imaging help us identify problems with your vision and can also help diagnose other medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, or even brain tumors.

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Diabetic Eye Exams

Diabetes can affect more than just your blood sugar. It can also do some damage to your eyes if you are not careful.

Diabetic eye disease can cause vision loss if you are not careful. It can cause you to have trouble with everyday tasks even if you have regular glasses or contacts. It can even cause blindness.

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Emergency Care

Here at Family Eye Wellness, we are here for you in the case of an emergency. There are times when you may need immediate care for your eyes. Any time that you experience trauma to your eyes, you need to be seen. If you get anything in your eye, especially chemicals and foreign objects, you should be seen immediately to limit the potential damage to the eye.

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Special Needs Eye Exams

Here at Family Eye Wellness, we understand that patients with special medical needs have a higher incidence of visual problems. In addition to nearsightedness and farsightedness, they may have other disorders such as eye turns, eye movement dysfunction, distorted depth perception, and visual information-processing defects.

An eye exam is a critical component in the care of adults and children with special needs and we recommend working with a provider who has both a special interest and extensive training in the area.

Dr. Patel provides a specialized examination for patients who require modifications. The examination is tailored to the patient’s level of verbal responsiveness and ability to communicate with the doctor. Dr. Patel will adapt each examination to the patient’s needs.

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Surgery Co-Management

If you are interested in laser surgery, we will begin with a comprehensive eye examination, which will let us know more about you and your needs. We may have to perform some testing to properly diagnose your eye conditions. During this time, the eye doctor and staff will go over what you can expect before, during and after the procedure; we want to make sure to give you realistic answers for your unique vision.

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Dry Eye Treatment

Family Eye Wellness is proud to offer dry eye treatment for our patients. Ocular Surface Disease, also known as dry eye, can occur from certain medications, naturally by aging, or as a symptom arising from systemic diseases such as Sjogren’s syndrome, Rheumatoid arthritis, or Lupus. If you have a minor case of dry eye, you may be experiencing irritation, excessive tearing, fluctuating vision, and/or a burning sensation in your eyes. Excessive dry eyes, or dry eye symptoms that go untreated, have the potential to damage eye tissue, scar your corneas, and impair your vision.

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Cataracts

Cataracts cause a clouding of the lens in the eye, making your vision appear to be foggy. Cataracts are the most common cause of vision loss in people over 40 and are the leading cause of blindness in the world.

Your eyes are meant to naturally adjust to normal light changes, adjust focus, and allow us to see both near and far. Your lens is primarily made up of water and proteins. The proper arrangement of these proteins is what contributes to normal vision. Some of these proteins clump together forming a clouding of the lens.

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Glaucoma

Glaucoma occurs from damage to the eye’s optic nerve and can often lead to loss of vision and blindness. To detect glaucoma, our highly trained doctors will perform a proper screening to determine severity, examine the damage, and help you manage your glaucoma.

Early detection of glaucoma is crucial in preventing vision loss and blindness; the earlier the better. However, there is no official cure for glaucoma. There are several treatment methods that manage, slow down, or halt the process. Treatment for glaucoma will vary depending on the stage and severity for each individual patient.

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Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration is a deterioration of the central portion of the retina, the inside layer of the eye that records the images we see and sends them through the optic nerve from the eye to the brain for processing. The macula, or the center of the retina, is responsible for focusing central vision in the eye and controls our ability to see and process information.

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Computer Vision

Computer Vision is a relatively new term within the optometry field and refers to eye problems associated with the prolonged use of computers and electronics that utilize a digital screen. Although it can be temporary, there are times when computer vision can strain the eyes to a degree that permanently affects your vision as well. An existing eye condition can worsen as the eyes try to focus and adjust to a computer screen, and precautions should be taken if you spend long hours in front of a computer screen.

If you have been experiencing blurry vision, dry eyes, eye strain, headaches, neck or back pain, try adjusting the lighting, posture, and the distance in front of your computer screen. If computer vision symptoms persist, call us to request an appointment, we will perform a full evaluation.

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