What is involved in your Comprehensive Eye Exam?

Our professional eye doctors at San Diego Eye clinic carry out a number of tests during your visit to our clinic for a comprehensive eye exam.  Your visit starts with our asking you about your medical history, and whether you’ve had any vision or eye related issues.  We then evaluate the health of your eye and your eye sights with the following examinations:

• Automatic and objective detection of your far vision prescription, using an instrument called Autorefractometer.

• Evaluation of the pressure inside of your eyes, using a state of the art instrument called Non Contact Tonometer

• Direct viewing and assessment of your retinas and optic nerves, using digital retinal imaging, for high resolution documentation of the health assessment of the back of your eye.

• Examination of the front of your eyes with a device called slit lamp;

• Evaluation of your eye’s focus, teaming, tracking, color sense, depth perception, and other functions, as deemed necessary by your eye doctor;

• Eye chart vision testing to determine if you have any refractive errors and if so, by how much, and the best means of correcting these refractive errors using glasses or contact lenses.

Different age groups in your family may need to schedule exams at different intervals.  Babies and small children in their early years usually only have three major eye exams, but older children and adults need to have annual exams, especially if there are eye health issues that the doctor is monitoring over time.  Adults with eye health conditions and seniors over the age of 60 should visit their eye doctor at least once a year to monitor for eye health conditions.

Please contact us at San Diego Eye Clinic to schedule your family’s next comprehensive eye exam.

The different types of infections could include:

a)     Conjunctivitis or Pink Eye, which occur when blood vessels in the thin outermost membrane around your eyeball becomes red and infected.
b)     Keratitis, which is the swelling of your cornea, the clear layer that covers your pupil and iris, and can be caused either by infection or injury.
c)     Endophthalmitis, a severe inflammation of the inside of your eye, due to an infection.
d)     Blepharitis, or the inflammation of your eyelids, the skin folds covering your eyes.
e)     Stye, which is a pimple like bump that develops from an oil gland on the outer edges of your eyelids.
f)      Uveitis, or inflammation of your uvea (the central layer of your eyeball that delivers blood to your retina) when it is infected.
g)     Eyelid Cellulitis, which is due to infection of eye tissues, often caused by an injury like a scratch to your eye tissues that introduces bacteria.
h)     Ocular herpes, which results from the infection of your eye by the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1).

Our specialist optometrists are well trained professionals that can recommend treatments for all the above conditions, when they occur, after determining whether they are bacterial, viral, or fungal in nature.  Please see an eye care professional as soon as you experience any of the above.

Foreign Object Removal

Foreign object in the eye is anything that enters the eye that does not naturally belong, from dust particles to a metal shard.  Most foreign objects affect the cornea or the conjunctiva, and their presence often causes significant irritation, redness, and pain.  Objects that enter the cornea, can cause scratches, and may lead to infection or damage to your vision.

If you have a foreign object in your eye, prompt diagnosis and treatment will help prevent infection and potential loss of vision.  If you attempt to remove a foreign object yourself, you could cause serious eye damage, so getting immediate emergency treatment is very important, especially, if the foreign object has:

• Sharp or rough edges

• Is large enough to make closing of your eye uncomfortable

• Contains chemicals

• Entered your eye at a high speed

• Is embedded in the eye,

• Is causing bleeding in the eye.

If you have a foreign object, contact an eye care professional immediately, and avoid further injury to the eye by:

• Restricting eye movement

• Bandaging the eye using a clean cloth or gauze

• If the object is too large to allow for a bandage, cover the eye with a paper cup

• Cover the uninjured eye.  This will help prevent eye movement in the injured eye.

For immediate and professional care, please contact  San Diego Eye Clinic.

Diabetic Retinopathy

If you are one of hundreds of thousands of people in San Diego County that have diabetes, you are at risk for developing diabetic retinopathy, a common diabetic eye disease.  You may not develop symptoms of diabetic retinopathy until after you’ve had diabetes for about 10 years, but because of the quiet progression of this disease, it is considered dangerous, and should be monitored regularly by your eye doctor.  Early detection of diabetic retinopathy could save your vision from going blind.

Diabetic retinopathy affects blood vessels in the retina of your eye (the eye tissue responsible for transmitting signals to your brain).  Rise in blood sugar levels can lead to swelling of retinal blood vessels, causing fluid to lead into your macula, damaging your central vision.  In early stages, you may not have any symptoms, but as the disease advances, you may start to see signs of blurred vision, double vision, spots, floaters, and even pain in your eyes.  As with many other diseases, the earlier your eye doctor is able to detect diabetic retinopathy, the more effective the treatment.

Please visit your eye care professional at San Diego Eye Clinic, if you have diabetes, for a routine eye health examination.

What is Myopia?

Myopia or nearsightedness refers to a condition in which you can see clearly up close, but objects that are in a distance appear blurry or out of focus.  Nearsightedness develops if your eyeball is too long or if the cornea, the clear front surface of your eye, is too curved.  This means that the light that enters your eye does not correctly focus the image of the objects that you are seeing, resulting in blurry images of distant objects.

Myopia affects millions of people and it is now considered a pandemic worldwide.  The exact cause of Myopia is not known.  Family history is a contributing factor with at least one parent who has myopia.  It often develops in school age children, and as the eyes grow, myopia generally progresses until around age 20.  Even though it is the most common in children and young adults, myopia can also develop in adults, mostly due to visual stress, or health conditions such as diabetes. 

Treatment

At San Diego Eye Clinic, we use the state-of-the-art equipment to develop a personalized treatment plan for your eyes.  Our non-invasive treatments include customized contact lenses and special prescription eye drops for children.  Clinical studies show a 78% decrease in progression of myopia versus no treatment.  At your initial consultation, your doctor at San Diego Eye Clinic will determine the treatment that will work best for managing your or your child’s myopia. 

Please Click Here to learn more about treatment options offered by San Diego Eye Care’s Myopia Management Clinic.