Vision is a dominant process in the growth, development and daily performance of children. In fact, EIGHTY PERCENT OF WHAT STUDENTS LEARN IS THROUGH VISION. And yet, 86 percent of all school-age children in the US have not had a complete eye examination*. Ever.
“This could mean that thousands of school-aged children simply can’t see correctly,” said Dr. Vivian Kloke. “Parents and teachers need to know that with a complete eye examination, we can diagnose and begin treatment of many of these debilitating vision and eye health issues.”
Students with poor vision can be misdiagnosed as learning impaired, as having attention deficient disorder, or are just plain left behind from their peer group. And these kids don’t know that they can’t see what their friend sees, because they don’t know what normal vision is like.
It also means that many children, by the time they have that first examination, may have a condition, such as amblyopia or lazy eye, which now cannot be treated. If they had had a complete eye examination earlier in their lives, the condition could have been easily corrected.
Teachers can help too by letting parents know the importance of eye examinations and the link between good vision and successful learning. Children need to have a complete eye examination where vision acuity, eye health and vision skills are measured. And they need to have these examinations at an early age.
Comprehensive vision examinations can only be conducted by an eye care professional with the specialized training needed to make a definitive diagnosis and prescribe treatment. Keep in mind that a vision screening, while a useful tool, is a limited process and cannot be used to diagnose an eye or vision problem, but rather to indicate a potential need for further evaluation.
The State of Illinois and/or your child’s school may require an annual eye exam to be completed prior to October 15th each year. The Illinois State Board of Education website contains all the pertinent information on back to school health care requirements. You may also wish to check your child’s individual school for school-specific requirements.
The State of Illinois Eye Examination Report is the paperwork required to be submitted.
The Drs and staff worked so well with my daughter. She had something stuck in her eye and was very scared. The Dr did a great job of calming her and getting the debris out from behind her eyelid.
Family Eye Care of O’Fallon Co-Manages many LASIK patients with TLC Laser Eye Center of St. Louis. This means that Family Eye Care will perform the pre-operative exam and the post-operative follow up care at our local office, thus eliminating extra visits to the St. Louis TLC office. Our doctors have trained and worked with TLC Laser Eye Center surgeon Dr. Stephen Wexler for over 25 years.
If you are interested in LASIK surgery to correct your vision, please mention this to your doctor at the time of your exam. If you are not currently due for an exam, please contact our office and schedule your free LASIK screening where one of our doctors will discuss your candidacy for the procedure.
Dr. Wexler has been performing refractive surgery since 1991. He is one of the most experienced surgeons in the Midwest, having performed more than 35,000 LASIK procedures. He is also certified by VISX® to train and credential surgeons nationwide in the use of the excimer laser.
Dr. Wexler graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1982. Following an internship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Dr. Wexler completed his residency training in ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as Chief Resident of Ophthalmology in 1985.
In 1996, Dr. Wexler was named “Teacher of the Year” by the residents of the Department of Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine. In 2002, he earned recognition as one of the top five LaserVision® surgeons in the United States (LaserVision is a division of TLC Vision Corporation).
Dr. Wexler is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine where his responsibilities include teaching LASIK surgery to ophthalmology residents and cornea fellows. Dr.Wexler is past president of the Missouri Ophthalmological Society. He is board certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and a member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Wexler’s original research on refractive surgery has been selected for publication in ophthalmology journals, and he has presented papers on LASIK at national Ophthalmology meetings. He is a member of the TLC Clinical Advisory Board where he assists surgeons from around the country. Dr.Wexler has received national recognition and is frequently sought after by medical professionals for their own vision correction and that of their families.
Dr. Stephen Wexler recently published an article in The Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery titled: Outcomes of custom laser in situ keratomileusis: Dilated wavescans versus undilated wavescans.
Your retina, located in the back of your eye, is the only place in the body where blood vessels can be seen directly. This means that in addition to eye conditions, signs of other diseases including Stroke, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration, Diabetes, and even Cancer can also be seen in the retina.
Early signs of these conditions can show on your retina long before you notice any changes to your vision or feel pain. While eye exams generally include a look at the front of the eye to evaluate health and prescription changes, a thorough screening of the retina is critical to verify that your eye is healthy.
OptometryThe Optomap ultra-widefield retinal image is a unique technology that captures more than 80% of your retina in one panoramic image while traditional imaging methods typically only show 15% of your retina at one time.
The benefits of having an Optomap ultra-widefield retinal image taken are:
Early detection of life-threatening diseases like cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease
The unique Optomap ultra-widefield view helps your eye care practitioner detect early signs of retinal disease more effectively and efficiently than with traditional eye exams
Early detection means successful treatments may be administered and may reduce the risk to your sight and health.
The doctors of Family Eye Care of O’Fallon trust and rely upon the comprehensive imagery provided by the Optomap so much so that Family Eye Care of O’Fallon has made the investment to bring the technology in-house.
Each new-patient comprehensive exam now receives a FREE Optomap Retinal Image as part of the exam. There is no additional charge to the patient. This allows our doctors to establish a baseline for your eye health.
Each new-patient comprehensive exam now receives a FREE Optomap Retinal Image as part of the exam. There is no additional charge to the patient. This allows our doctors to establish a baseline for your eye health.
On subsequent annual visits, the doctors of Family Eye Care encourage a new Optomap for comparison, although it is not required. On these visits there is a small out-of-pocket fee that is charged to the patient for the images. If the Optomap imagery shows signs of a medical issue, then the cost of the Optomap imagery may be covered by insurance.
All Optomap images are incorporated into your Electronic Heath Record and are made available to your Family Eye Care doctor in the exam room.
Myopia (More commonly referred to as Nearsightedness) is when close-up objects look clear but distant objects are blurry. For example, a child can read the textbook on his or her school desk but is unable to clearly see the teacher’s notes being written on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom.
In simple terms, myopia is an elongation of the eye. Think of myopia as a football instead of a basketball. Once the eye becomes elongated, incoming light focuses in front of the retina instead of directly on the retina as it should. This leads to objects in the distance to appear blurry.
Myopia is considered an eye disease and is increasing at a rate that is of epidemic proportions. Today more than 2 billion people suffer from myopia, and it is estimated that one half of the world’s population will be nearsighted by 2050.
The exact cause of myopia is unknown; however, experts generally agree that myopia in children is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
What exactly does this mean? Well, it is likely that children inherit the ability to be myopic from their parents if their parents have myopia; and given the right lifestyle conditions, children can then go on to develop myopia themselves. Lifestyle conditions include increased up-close activity such as reading, writing and electronics – computers, tablets and phones.
Myopia begins in early childhood, progresses through the teen years, and usually stabilizes in the early twenties. The eyes grow in tandem with the rest of the body, and Myopia will progress in a similar fashion. This means there can be growth spurts and also periods of little to no change in vision.
Typically, myopia is diagnosed in children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. As the body grows more rapidly during the teenage years, Myopia will generally grow worse during this period.
