eye doctor

Do I need Eye Exams?

Do you wait until you notice a problem before visiting your eye doctor for an eye exam? Or do you schedule routine check-ups?

Many people are not aware of how important it is to have regular eye exams. In fact, it is the most dependable way to preserve your long-lasting eye health and quality vision.

Don’t make the mistake of waiting until you have a complaint about your vision before reserving your comprehensive eye exam. Book an appointment today with Dr. Wegman, Dr. Gibbs, and Dr. Schirner, your expert optometrist in Carrollton,Texas.

Local Contact lens supplier near you in Carrollton, Texas

Are Eye Exams important ?

Clear and healthy vision plays a primary role in every part of your life, which is why preventive eye care is so critical. What you may not know is that many common eye diseases and vision conditions do not cause symptoms at the beginning. It is only when these disorders, such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration, progress to a later stage that problems appear. Unfortunately, that is also when vision damage has already occurred and treatment has a less positive prognosis. In contrast, when eye disease is caught early by an eye exam, your eye doctor can treat it immediately – before there is any irreversible vision loss.

Along with inspecting for eye disease, Dr. Wegman, Dr. Gibbs, and Dr. Schirner will also check your vision during an eye exam in our La Jolla office. Vision does not generally stay the same throughout all stages of life. We will verify that your current vision prescription is accurate to ensure that you receive the most appropriate vision correction, including eyeglasses, bifocal/multifocal, and contact lenses.

The Contact Lens Centers Eye Clinic and Eye Exams in Carrollton, Texas

Many eye diseases can be quickly and easily diagnosed during a comprehensive eye exam. If you were diagnosed with an eye disease, such as Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular degeneration, Diabetic retinopathy, or Dry eye, you may be overwhelmed by the diagnosis and confused about what happens next. Will you need medications or surgery – now or in the future? Our Carrollton eye doctor has prepared the following answers to your questions about eye disease.

What to Expect During Your Eye Exam

We treat every patient who enters our Carrollton, Texas, eye care center as a unique individual. That means you will benefit from the specific tests and procedures you need, depending upon your age, health condition, visual symptoms, and the judgment of our eye doctor.

In general, a complete eye exam begins with taking your case history and asking questions about your lifestyle requirements. We will then assess visual acuity, binocularity, color vision, peripheral vision, and ocular health. Your eye doctor may also use tonometry (puff test or blue light) to measure intraocular pressure, which is a screening procedure for glaucoma. Depending upon the results of all of these tests, we may perform additional procedures using the latest technology, such as digital retinal imaging and OCT scans.

Local Eye Exams in Carrollton, Texas

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What to Expect During a Pediatric Eye Exam

Children are not simply little adults. That means they have different visual needs and risks than adults. As they grow, they may develop vision problems that could compromise learning and development. Only a comprehensive pediatric eye exam can detect these conditions. That’s why the American Optometric Association advises kids should have their eyes examined at six months old, at three years old (unless diagnosed with a vision condition that requires an earlier examination), and again before starting elementary school (age 5-6). If no vision correction or therapy is needed, follow-up eye exams should be scheduled every one to two years. Our eye doctor is highly qualified and experienced at performing specialized eye exams for kids in the Carrollton area.

During your child’s eye exam in our The Contact Lens Centers practice, we will evaluate the following functional vision skills:

Visual acuity
Eye teaming/Binocularity
Focusing ability/Accommodation
Hand-eye coordination
Visual perception skills

Ocular health is the foundation for clear vision, and our optometrist will also examine the inner eye tissues, as well the tissues around the eye for any abnormalities. If necessary, we may use dilating eye drops to obtain a sharper view.

Find an eye exam near you!

Now that you are aware of all the reasons to have regular eye exams and what to expect during your appointment, we hope you’ll contact us to schedule a visit to our welcoming Carrollton optometry practice!

Call The Contact Lens Centers on 972-362-5043 to schedule an eye exam with our Carrollton optometrist. Alternatively book an appointment online here CLICK FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Just in case you missed them, here are some of our previous blog posts :

Trouble Seeing at Night? All About Night Blindness

Eye Dangers in the Dorm – Eye Health for College Students

How-to Guide for Buying Sunglasses

Women’s Eye Health – 7 Tips for Optimal Vision for Life

Do I have Eye Allergies?

Know the symptoms of seasonal eye allergies and how to get rid of this pesky problem

As the weather warms, flower buds are opening, and your neighbors are dragging their lawnmowers out for an annual spring tune-up. And suddenly you find a need to rub your itchy, red, and sore eyes constantly. Yep, it’s that time of year again – the time that seasonal allergies blossom with the trees.

Nasal symptoms of seasonal allergies, like a runny nose and sneezing, usually get all the attention, but actually, eye allergies (your eye doctor may call it “allergic conjunctivitis”) are pretty common – affecting millions of people in the US. Grass allergy and pollen in the eyes are the primary cause of eye irritation. What’s the best treatment? And how can you get rid of your eye allergies?

Local Contact lens supplier near you in Carrollton, Texas

Eye exam to diagnose eye allergies in Carrollton, Texas eye doctor’s tips on how to recognize and relieve allergies.

The ocular symptoms of your seasonal allergies are caused when your body’s immune system becomes sensitized and overreacts to an environmental trigger that’s really harmless. That trigger, called an allergen, makes contact with antibodies in your eyes – and these cells respond by releasing histamine. Histamine and other natural chemicals cause tiny blood vessels in your eyes to leak, which can lead to redness, itchiness, burning, inflammation, and watery eyes. The symptoms can range from mild to severe enough to interfere with your clear vision. Rest assured – eye allergies are not dangerous, as annoying as they can be.

However, these symptoms alone are not enough to blame seasonal allergies. All of these signs are not unique to eye allergies and could point to several different eye diseases. That’s why a precise diagnosis is imperative! Our Carrollton, Texas eye doctor will perform a comprehensive evaluation of your eyes to identify the cause of the irritation.

The Contact Lens Centers Eye Clinic and seasonal allergies in Carrollton, Texas

Avoid your trigger to get rid of eye allergies

Grass allergy and pollen in your eyes are the most typical triggers for seasonal eye allergies, often called hay fever. Since that’s the case, you’re probably wondering how you can possibly avoid these widespread allergens. Before you lock yourself in your room and wait for the seasons to change, our eye doctor recommends:

Keep windows closed when the pollen count is high. Use a/c in your home, office, and the car in order to clean the air around you.
Do not rub your eyes! This spreads the pollen (and irritation!) all over.
When you are outdoors, always wear glasses and sunglasses to keep pollen out of your eyes. Don’t wear your contacts! Contact lenses can exacerbate eye allergies because they are a great surface for pollen to cling to and pile up.
When you return indoors after being exposed to seasonal allergens, rinse your eyes with saline drops.
Clean your floors with a damp rag, instead of sweeping with a dry broom that pushes any pollen that’s settled back into the air.

Local seasonal allergies in Carrollton, Texas

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What’s the best treatment for eye allergies?

Some of the symptoms can be managed with nonprescription drugs, especially if your eye allergies are mild. Try using artificial tears to keep your ocular surface clean. Decongestant eye drops may also help, however, it’s not a good idea to use these for more than a few days since they can worsen your condition with prolonged use.

What about antihistamines for red eyes and seasonal allergies? Antihistamine eye drops, mast cell stabilizer eye drops, corticosteroid eye drops, and NSAID eye drops are accepted short-term treatment for eye allergies. Because these are all prescription drugs, you will need to visit your eye doctor (and possibly an allergist too) to determine which medication is most suitable for you. Some non-sedating oral histamines may also be effective at relieving your symptoms, but they can dry out eyes – thereby making the irritation worse. If your seasonal allergies are extreme and get in the way of functional living, immunotherapy allergy shots or tablets may offer long-term relief.

Are seasonal allergies disrupting your life?

Visit The Contact Lens Centers for more tips on how to enjoy clear and comfortable vision in Carrollton, Texas, all year-round! Call The Contact Lens Centers on 972-362-5043 to schedule an eye exam with our Carrollton optometrist. Alternatively book an appointment online here CLICK FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Just in case you missed them, here are some of our previous blog posts :

It’s Time to Talk About Blue Light

Can you Really Go Blind from Looking at a Solar Eclipse?

“The Sneak Thief of Sight” Is On Our Minds This January

Understanding Eye Color

What is Vision therapy?, Dr. Willis Wegman – The Contact Lens Centers, Dallas and Carrolton, TX

Our ability to learn and adapt is incredible. The human brain has the remarkable ability to change its structure and function to accommodate new information and abilities, allowing us to learn new skills with remarkable speed and success. This capability is called neuroplasticity and is the guiding concept behind vision therapy’s success. Many people suffer from vision problems that affect their quality of life. In children, conditions like lazy eye, crossed eyes, eye movement disorders and eye teaming problems can hinder development, social interactions, behavior and academic success. These vision problems are treatable. At The Vision Learning Centers, we help people overcome these kinds of challenges by addressing the underlying vision problem.

Vision Therapy for Strabismus
Strabismus is one of the most common eye conditions that we treat with vision therapy. Strabismus is generally diagnosed during early childhood. It is associated with misalignment of the eyes, caused by muscle weakness in one eye. The primary symptom of strabismus can be seen when one eye looks straight, while the other looks inward, outward, up or down.

Dr. Willis Wegman

Vision therapy is a program that consists of several special eye exercises aimed at correcting specific vision issues and common eye disorders. While eyeglasses and contact lenses are effective treatments for refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia, there are other vision conditions which corrective lenses cannot fix. Historically, eye doctors recommended eye surgery to treat eye conditions such as strabismus. Any surgery carries an element of risk and can be traumatic, especially for children. Many parents are happy to learn that alternative treatments exist. Vision therapy trains the visual system to correct itself through a process similar to physical therapy., Dallas and Carrolton, TX eye doctor.

Vision Therapy for Milder Eye Conditions
Convergence Insufficiency, amblyopia (“lazy eye”), focusing problems and eye teaming disorders also respond well to vision therapy. With convergence insufficiency, for example, the eyes are unable to converge to focus on images up close. This can cause double vision and a sense that the words on a page are moving around. In children, this can affect their ability to read and write. In adults, it can lead to eye strain and headache during fine hand-eye activities and other close-up operations. With a tailored exercise program, the eyes can be trained to focus more comfortably. Children who have trouble reading, and adults who have been suffering from eyestrain often turn out to have Convergence Insufficiency, which can be effectively treated with vision therapy.

If you notice misaligned eyes, your child needs a complete eye exam from a pediatric optometrist. Binocular vision and depth perception are achieved when the two eyes work together. Sometimes, weak eye muscles and poor eye control can lead to a loss of depth perception if strabismus is not treated promptly.

Vision therapy has proven to be an effective method of strengthening the weakened eye muscles, straightening out the eyes and, in many cases, avoiding surgery altogether. At The Vision Learning Centers, we provide vision therapy for strabismus, as well as other, more minor, eye disorders.

Professional studies indicate that vision therapy can reduce symptoms of computer vision syndrome, which affects children and adults who spend large amounts of time on computers or other electronic devices.

Are you a good candidate for vision therapy?

Please don't forget to make an appointment to see our Eye Care Specialist

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