My Eye Doctor Towson examines your eyes and can diagnose and treat problems like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. They can also perform cataract surgery and laser vision correction.
An ophthalmologist typically starts with questions about your medical history and your family’s health problems. Then they may put drops in your eyes to dilate them.
An eye exam is a series of tests and procedures that evaluates your vision and your overall eye health. While these exams vary slightly from practice to practice, most are conducted by ophthalmologists or optometrists. They may also include a clinical assistant, nurse or technician to perform some of the testing and measurements. Once you are seated in the exam room, your doctor will review any symptoms or concerns you may have. They will also ask you about your general health, any medications you take and your family medical history. The first part of the exam focuses on your vision (visual acuity). Your doctor will ask you to read random letters that appear to get smaller and smaller each line, or they will use an Ishihara plate that uses color to identify color blindness. These tests check your ability to see at different distances and how well your eyes work together (binocular vision).
A number of other tests and measurements may be performed, depending on your eye health status and your doctor’s diagnosis. These can include a visual field test, which checks how your vision is affected by things like glare, blind spots and the movement of objects in your field of view. Other assessments can include a corneal topography examination, which takes digital pictures of the curve of your cornea to help your doctor detect irregularities, and optical coherence tomography, which helps to diagnose conditions like retinal disease or macular degeneration by scanning your eyes for damage and taking high-resolution images.
Most eye exams are painless, but some require the doctor to apply numbing eye drops before using a device called a slit lamp to illuminate and magnify your eye. The slit lamp can help your doctor spot cataracts, glaucoma, detached retinas and other conditions by shining a beam of light through the front of your eye to illuminate the inner structures. Another commonly used instrument is a tonometer, which administers a puff of air to measure the pressure inside your eye, also known as intraocular pressure.
Eyeglasses
Eyeglasses are frames with lenses that help people who have trouble seeing. They correct vision problems like nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia) and trouble focusing on close objects because of age (presbyopia).
Eye doctors write prescriptions for glasses. The prescription is a set of numbers that tell people who makes the glasses how to bend light so it focuses on the retina. The numbers also let the eye doctor know if you have astigmatism, which is when your cornea or lens aren’t perfectly round.
When you get new glasses, you might have to try on a few pairs to find the ones that look and feel the best on your face. If you do, the person who helps you will use a special gizmo that lets you quickly switch between different pairs of lenses until you find the one that gives you clearest vision.
The lenses in eyeglasses come in many different shapes and colors, and the frames are available in a wide variety of styles as well. Some are designed to be subtle and undetectable on the face, while others are bold and striking. The frame is the basic structure that holds the lenses, and it can be made from a range of materials including plastic, metal, and acetate.
Some frames are made by a specific manufacturer, and those frames are often more expensive than frames from other manufacturers. If you’re shopping around, ask whether the eyeglass provider will let you bring in your own frames for a lower price. It might save you money and make you more satisfied with your final purchase.
Contact Lenses
A contact lens is a medical device that must be prescribed by an eye care professional. The initial fitting and follow-up evaluations determine the type and proper fit of the lens for your eyes, which will optimize comfort, vision, and safety.
There are many types of contact lenses. Most are made from soft plastics that contain water to allow oxygen to pass through the lens to your cornea. They also come in different shapes to correct your vision. Spherical lenses, for example, help to correct nearsightedness and farsightedness. Toric lenses, which are more weighted on the bottom, correct astigmatism. And there are even multifocal contact lenses that provide both distance and near correction in one lens.
If you wear contacts, it is important to properly insert and remove them. If you are not careful, you could get a corneal abrasion. This can cause pain, redness, and a feeling that something is in your eye. It is also possible for germs to enter the eye and cause an eye infection. If you notice these symptoms, follow up with your eye doctor right away.
Contact lenses are generally easy to take care of, especially if you use disposables. Your provider will advise you on proper cleaning, disinfecting and storage of your lenses prior to your appointment.
Rigid gas permeable (RGP) and extended-wear soft contact lenses can increase the likelihood of protein build-up in the lens, which can lead to eye irritation and allergies. Your provider can recommend special solutions to help dissolve and eliminate the protein. These types of lenses are typically worn overnight and replaced on a weekly basis, although some patients may wear them longer.
Eye Diseases
Having healthy eyes is crucial to your quality of life. But even with regular eye exams, it’s possible to develop eye conditions that can affect your vision and well-being. Some stay small and don’t cause any symptoms, but others can cause pain or change how you see the world around you. Your eye doctor can treat most of these diseases, and early diagnosis is critical to minimize damage and loss of vision.
Common eye diseases include glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Many of these are caused by eye pressure, which can damage the optic nerve and cause blurred or blind spots in your vision. Some are more serious than others, and can be treated with medicine or surgery.
Other common eye problems include cataracts and keratoconus. In cataracts, a yellowish protein builds up in the center of your eye, blocking light and causing vision to become blurry. Surgical treatment can remove the cataract and restore clear vision.
With keratoconus, the cornea changes shape and thins out. It becomes shaped more like a cone instead of the normal dome-like shape and distorts your vision. This condition is a genetic disorder and tends to affect young people, but can worsen over time. Scientists and ophthalmologists are working on gene therapies and other treatments to help people with keratoconus see better in the future.
Eye infections can be very uncomfortable and may cause red, irritated eyes that look goopy. Your eye doctor can prescribe specialized eye drops to treat them quickly and effectively. Many eye infections are caused by bacteria or viruses and are highly contagious. If left untreated, a bacterial infection can lead to a corneal ulcer that is very painful and causes the sensation that something is stuck in your eye. Early treatment reduces the risk of long-term vision loss from corneal ulcers, including blindness.
Eye Surgery
Eye surgery is a highly individualized outpatient procedure. Before your surgery, your eye doctor will perform a complete eye exam to determine whether your eyes are healthy enough for surgery and what kind of surgery is right for you. Other tests may include an eye pressure test, corneal thickness measurements and a measurement of how your pupils respond to light (to help determine your refractive error). You’ll also need to sign a consent form that confirms you understand the risks, benefits and alternative options for treatment.
Most eye surgeries take less than 30 minutes and are done under monitored sedation or general anesthesia. Your eye doctor will place numbing drops in your eyes, and an instrument called a lid speculum will be used to hold your eyelids open. Your doctor will then use a mechanical microkeratome or a laser keratome to cut a thin flap on the front of your cornea.
During laser keratome eye surgery, the computer program tells the laser to remove a precise amount of corneal tissue. As the laser vaporizes tissue, you may hear a ticking sound and feel a sensation similar to having hair shaved off. Once your eye doctor has removed the correct amount of tissue, the corneal flap is put back in place.
The retina is the layer of nerve tissue that covers the back of the eyeball and where images are sharpened and focused before being sent to the brain through the optic nerve. Many conditions that affect the retina can be treated with surgery, including macular degeneration and a detached retina. Retinal surgery includes procedures such as photocoagulation, which uses a freezing treatment or a laser to seal tears in the retina, and scleral buckle — a silicone band placed on the outside of your eye to prevent a retinal detachment from occurring again.