The eye care medical field has an unusual split between two different types of insurance for covering eye issues: health insurance and vision insurance. Not all patients have both.

In most cases, your health insurance is used to cover medical and surgical eye problems but not routine exams or the cost of contacts or glasses. Those things are often covered by separate vision insurance.

Why the difference? Originally, health insurance was created to take care of health “problems” and wasn’t designed to cover “routine,” “screening,” or “wellness” exams.

Since health insurance wasn’t going to cover “routine” eye exams, the vision insurance industry arose to help insure/cover those routine exams as well as the costs of glasses and/or contacts if they were needed.

That dichotomy now often causes great confusion when you make an appointment at your eye doctor. When making your appointment, the office is going to need to know which insurance, if you have both, you are going to be using for this particular visit.

Why does the office need to know in advance which […]

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that around 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year, and vision can be affected.  Concussions are a type of TBI.

The rate of childhood TBI visits to the emergency department more than doubled between 2001 and 2009, making children more likely than any other group to go to the ER with concussion symptoms.

It was once assumed that the hallmark of a concussion was a loss of consciousness. More recent evidence, however, does not support that. In fact, the majority of people diagnosed with a concussion do not experience any loss of consciousness. The most common immediate symptoms are amnesia and confusion.

There also are multiple visual symptoms that can occur with a concussion, either initially or during the recovery phase.

Visual symptoms after a concussion include:

• Blurred vision.

• Difficulty reading.

• Double vision.

• Light sensitivity.

• Headaches accompanying visual tasks.

• Loss of peripheral vision.

Most people with visual […]

So you’re going about your day and notice a slight twinge when you blink. It starts off as a mild awareness, then proceeds to a painful feeling with every blink. You look in the mirror to see what could be causing it, and there you see a small red bump forming.

You decide to wait to see what happens and one of three things occurs. It might get bigger, redder, and more painful; it might shrink and goaway; or it might stay put, but it is no longer painful or growing in size. Let’s dive into one of the most common eye conditions we treat: hordeola (commonly known as “styes”) and chalazia.

Hordeola (or singular hordeolum), are infectious abscesses of the glands that line the eyelids. Bacteria that are naturally occurring on the eyelids and eyelashes can make their way into the gland and form what is essentially a pimple in the eyelid. If it goes untreated, hordeola can (rarely) lead to spreading of the infection throughout the eyelid (preseptal cellulitis) or even start to invade […]

Itching, burning, watering, red, irritated, tired eyes… what is a person to do? These symptoms are classic signs of Dry Eye Syndrome (DES), which affects millions of adults and children.

What causes this?  Dry eye syndrome can be brought on by many factors: aging, geographical location, lid hygiene, contact lens wear, medications, dehydration, etc. The lacrimal gland in the eye that produces tears, in a person over forty years old, starts slowly losing function. Females with hormonal changes have a higher incidence of DES (dry eye syndrome). Dry, arid climates or areas with high allergy rates tend to have higher incidences of DES as well. Another major cause is increased screentime–when we stare at a computer screen or phone, our blink reflex slows way down. A normal eye blinks 17,000 times per day, usually producing enough tears to be symptom free, if not contenting with other factors.  But blink rates go way down while using screens.

Blepharities, a condition of the eyelids, can cause a dandruff-like situation for the eye, exacerbating a dry eye condition. Contact […]

Just like adults, children need to have their eyes examined. This need begins at birth and continues through adulthood.

Following are common recommendations for when a child needs to be screened, and what is looked for at each stage.

A child’s first eye exam should be done either right at or shortly after birth. This is especially true for children who were born prematurely and have a very low birth weight and may need to be given oxygen. This is mainly done to screen for a disease of the retina called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), in which the retina does not develop properly as a result of the child receiving high levels of oxygen. Although rarer today due to the levels being monitored more closely, it is still a concern for premature babies.

The next time an eye exam is in order is around 6 months. At this stage, your pediatric eye doctor will check your child’s basic visual abilities by making them look at lights, respond to colors, and be able to follow a moving […]

"What are these weird floating things I started seeing?"

The spots, strings, or cobwebs that drift in and out of your vision are called “floaters,” and they are more prominent if you’re looking against a white background.

These floaters are tiny clumps of material floating inside the vitreous (jelly-like substance) that fills the inside of your eye. Floaters cast a shadow on the retina, which is the inner lining of the back of the eye that relays images to the brain.

As you get older, the vitreous gel pulls away from the retina and the traction on the retina causes flashing lights. These flashes can then occur for months. Once the vitreous gel completely separates from the back wall of the eye, you then have a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), which is a common cause of new onset of floaters.

This condition is more common in people who:

• Are nearsighted.
• Are aphakic (absence of the lens of the eye).
• Have past trauma to the eye.
• Have had inflammation in the eye.

When a […]

There are many opinions on the topic of texting and driving. The goal of this blog post is to explore the effects on vision during texting.

So, from a visual perspective, why does texting make you more likely to crash? The problem lies in distraction from driving. For example, it takes a fast texter approximately 20 seconds to read and reply to a text. At 55 mph on the highway, a driver glances away from the road for approximately one-third of a mile. When the driver is focusing on their screen, this essentially gives the driver tunnel vision, causing the visual system to essentially use peripheral vision for driving. Your central vision is used to detect depth perception, detail, and colors such as red or green. So when texting, your depth perception, or 3-D vision, is altered and if cars are stopped ahead or closing in rapidly, it's not as easily detected. Colors, such as red brake lights or traffic signals, are not as easily noticed.

Next time you encounter situations with texting and driving, know […]

Despite requests that patients bring their current glasses to their office visit, many show up without them.

Sometimes it’s an oversight: “I was rushing to get here and forgot them”; “I left them in the car”; “I picked up my wife’s glasses instead of mine by mistake.” Doctors have heard them all.

Sometimes it is unavoidable: “I lost them”; “They were stolen”; “I ran them over with the car”; “I left them on the roof of the car and drove away and now they are gone.”

Frequently, however, it’s intentional. There is a perception by some people that if they don’t like their current glasses or feel like they are not working well for them that they are better off having their eye doctor start from scratch. “Why would I want the doctor to utilize a pair of glasses I’m not happy with as a basis or starting point for my next pair of glasses?”

But bringing your glasses to an appointment is important.

There are two main reasons for eye care professionals to know what […]

Did you know that having one's eyes tested can reveal symptoms of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)? ADHD is a set of symptoms that includes trouble with focus, overactivity, and behavioral control. It is estimated that one in five people has some sort of ADHD.

ADHD is a condition that has multiple symptoms and it can affect any age, though commonly it affects children. There is difficulty with visual processing, which includes doubling letters, reversing letters, and jumping words and lines of print.

Eye examinations are a crucial part of the diagnosis of ADHD. Proper visual function can be assessed through a thorough eye exam. During the exam, visual complaints, focusing, and processing can be assessed to rule out ADHD.

When glasses are prescribed for an patient with ADHD, prescribing the correct type of lens is vital. Many patients benefit from an anti-glare/anti-reflective or AR treatment on their lenses. This cuts unnecessary light from entering the eye, making visual processing easier.

In some cases, it is discovered that the person has a non-ocular visual processing problem. […]

No this is not a late-night personal injury lawyer infomercial.

This is a recommendation that you have your LASIK records available, for your own good, later in life.

There are 2 million cataract surgeries done yearly in the U.S. and the odds are, if you live long enough, you will eventually need cataract surgery, too.

What does this have to do with LASIK surgery? 

When doctors perform cataract surgery they remove the cataract, which is the lens of your eye that has become cloudy.  And they replace that lens with an artificial lens called an Intraocular Lens implant (IOL).

The IOL needs to have a strength to it to match your eye so that things are in focus without the need for strong prescription eyeglasses.

Currently, we determine what the strength the IOL needs to be by using formulas that mostly depend on the measurements of the curvature of the cornea and the length of the eye.

Those formulas work best when the cornea is its natural shape — i.e., not previously altered in shape from […]