Avoid Eyestrain

Vision health is the ability to track, focus, and see a balanced three dimensional world free of eyestrain, blur, or glare discomfort.  Vision health is directly related to health and wellness because your clear, coordinated vision is important to keep you safe from harm but it is also directly related to eye health because an eye with pathology may cause vision loss.  What’s news to most people is the connection between general systemic health and the eyes.  Did you know that systemic conditions can manifest in the eye?  The most common are hypertension, diabetes, and certain auto-immune disorders.  These conditions can result in vascular changes inside the eye, ischemia/cell death to the retina, bleeding outside the vessels, cataracts, or inflammation of the eye muscles, optic nerves, or visual pathway in the brain.  If you have a systemic condition that indicates an eye health exam your primary care doctor may refer you.  If you your eye doctor educates you of the importance of a medical eye care visit in addition to your annual exam you can get them done at the same time!

So why pay twice to see one doctor for refraction and/or contact lens fit and see another doctor for dilation and medical exam?  The answer is see a doctor that does both: a medical eye care professional that accepts medical insurance for the office visit and bills you or a vision plan for the refraction and contact lens fit.  Optometrists that accepts major medical like 4Sight iCare aren’t surgeons; they are medically trained to manage and evaluate eye disease including ruling out ocular manifestations that appear in the eye from systemic disease.  You can have your medically necessary exam the same day as the glasses/contact lens exam unless the eye disease is affecting your central vision.  If your central vision is threatened by the condition, you may elect to return on a different date for the refraction or contact lens fit, but this is a decision between you and your doctor, not an insurance company or a corporate model.    Coordinated care is achieved through communication between your eye doctor and your primary care physician.  That’s why each medical eye care visit prompts the doctor to write a letter to your PCP.  Call 815-915-4047 for your annual exam today, and if you require a medical visit have it done at the same time.