Optometry

Eighty percent of everything children learn comes through their eyes. So why is it that when it comes to eye care for kids, 60% of parents don’t feel an eye exam is an essential part of a child’s healthy checkup schedule?

It’s recommended that kids have a comprehensive eye exam when they’re 6 months, three years and five years old. After that, they should have annually – or every two years if no correction is needed.

Pediatric Optometry

Childhood is the formative period for so many areas of growth and development — and good eyesight is a huge part of that development. When you think about how many critical steps depend on visual coordination and acuity, from identifying objects to mastering manual coordination to learning how to walk, you can see how important it is to make sure your child’s vision is normal — and to diagnose and treat any issues as early as possible.

Detection of Eye Disease

Glaucoma, diabetes-related eye disease, and cataracts are some of the main diseases that we treat here at Family Eye Clinic.

Glaucoma is currently the second leading cause of blindness in the United States, with an estimated 2.5 million Americans being affected by the disease. Glaucoma refers to a category of eye disorders often associated with a dangerous buildup of internal eye pressure (intraocular pressure or IOP), which can damage the eye’s optic nerve – the structure that transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Symptoms of glaucoma include tunnel vision, slowly losing your peripheral vision, mild to severe eye pain, red eyes, halos around lights, nausea and vomiting, changes in vision, and blurriness.

Eye disease related to diabetes includes diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema (DME), cataracts and glaucoma, all of which can potentially result in severe vision loss and blindness.

A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s natural lens, which lies behind the iris and the pupil. Most cataracts occur gradually as we age and don’t become bothersome until after age 55. However, cataracts can also be present at birth (congenital cataracts) or occur at any age as the result of an injury to the eye (traumatic cataracts). Symptoms of cataracts include blurred vision that cannot be corrected with a change in your glasses prescription, ghost images or double vision, glare from sunlight and artificial light or colors appearing faded and less vibrant.

Vision Exams

A comprehensive eye exam includes a number of tests and procedures to examine and evaluate the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision. These tests range from simple ones, like having you read an eye chart, to complex tests, such as using a high-powered lens to examine the health of the tissues inside of your eyes. Eye care is just like whole body care, having regular, annual vision screening and eye exam procedures are important to keeping your eyes healthy.

Contact Lenses

Corrective lens evaluations and prescription management are provided by our optometrist in Lafayette. After a comprehensive eye and vision evaluation, Dr. Jerry Gerdes will discuss the variety of contact lens options with you to select the type that best fits your vision needs and lifestyle. If you suffer from dry eye, allergies, or recurring eye infections, speak with our staff to determine whether contact lenses are right for you.

We also offer cosmetic contact lenses!

Computer Vision Syndrome Treatment

We’re also proud to offer computer vision syndrome treatment and sports vision therapy here in our office. If you have an office job where you spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, there’s a good chance your eyes may be negatively affected. With the right lenses from us, we can help treat computer vision syndrome and prevent further vision damage.