This a cloudy or foggy formation of the lens behind the cornea, and it usually occurs later in life. By age 80, majority of Americans usually have cataracts or have had cataract surgery to remove the natural lens inside the eye. It is mainly caused by UV sunlight that passes through the lens and is slowly absorbed over the majority of a patient’s life.

A higher percentage of Americans living in sunshine states such as the Southwest region of the United States, and states such as Florida have a higher rate of cataract progression due to the excessive amounts of daytime activity. This leads to more amounts of UV sun rays entering the eye and getting absorbed by the interocular lens, thus leading to the formation of cataracts. Patients who are elderly are at a higher risk of developing cataracts due to the many years of sunlight activity.

Cataracts slowly causes the lens to progress to a yellowish-white appearance, then changes to a dark yellow and brownish appearance in advanced stages. Patients may not notice that they have a cataract until the more advanced stages of the disease appear.

They will start complaining that they cannot see clearly even after an eye exam and getting new eyeglasses. The severe haze of cataracts can cause severe blurriness at both distance and near.

It can also cause extreme amounts of glare with night time driving with other car headlights and street lamps. The best solution is to see an eye doctor to have this condition checked out.

At Eye Town Vision Center, you can see one of our eye doctors to determine what stage of cataracts you have, and what preventive measures and treatment options are available.

This an eye condition that is caused by increased eye pressure or intraocular pressure. Blood pressure and eye pressure are not the same, they entirely different pressures.

Patients who have high blood pressure does not mean they have high eye pressure. The pressure in the eye is not affected by hypertension. When the pressure inside the eye is above the normal level it can cause damage to the optic nerve which is located at the back of the eye. The optic nerve is connected to the brain, and goes all the way to the back of the brain where images form. If the eye pressure is abnormally high, it can put pressure on the optic nerve causing severe damage to it within a short amount of time. The optic nerve can become completely dysfunctional after the damage has been done, which can cause a person to become blind without them even sensing their pressure as being abnormally high.

There are no nerve pain receptors at the back of the eye, so it is very difficult for a person to know his eye pressure as being abnormal.

Glaucoma can affect all age groups, but it occurs more commonly in the elderly. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness for people over the age of 60. The best way to treat this can be as easy as putting medically prescribed eye drops to reduce the pressure inside the eye. If left untreated, the glaucoma can rapidly become advanced leading to blindness, and it would be too late for any type of treatment. Once the nerve cells die, there is no way for them to regenerate or regrow, that is why people who become paralyzed from a spinal injury cannot walk again. There are studies and debates about stem cell treatments but we have to wait and see what that outcome would be. The best way to treat this is to simply walk in for an annual comprehensive eye exam and have your eye pressure evaluated.

It doesn’t matter if you need eyeglasses or not, this is just a physical check of your eyeballs to make sure the pressure and optic nerve in the back of your eyes look healthy. Many people think that they have great vision and do not need to get an eye check up or exam. However, they have their eyes checked later in life to realize that they lost thirty or forty percent of their vision due to never having an eye exam until they reached forty or fifty years old.

Parents think that their pediatrician, family doctor, or even school nurse already check their kids eyes with vision screenings, so they don’t need glasses or have to come in and see an eye doctor.

There are many cases where patients have lost their vision or caused damage to their vision by not coming annually for an eye exam.

You should come in to Eye Town Vision Center to receive a comprehensive eye examination and consult our doctors to get a timeframe of when you should return to our office based on your medical condition.

It is also known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) because it affects people with this condition later in life. It causes a deterioration or degeneration of the macula, which is located at the back of the eye at the center of the retina. It is mainly caused by genetics, as it has a hereditary component.

Macular degeneration is also usually found in white caucasians, older age groups, and patients who are obese. If the patient is smoking then there is 2x higher risk of developing the condition. Also, if the patient’s environment has more sunlight activity than they will be more at risk of developing macular degeneration.

The macula is where the center of our vision is located, damage to this location leads to vision loss centrally. People with this ocular medical disease notice symptoms much earlier than glaucoma and cataracts because of the central vision loss. Such symptoms include not being able to read, drive, read road signs, see people’s faces, watch television, etc.

Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of vision loss, it is more than diabetes and glaucoma, and it affects more than 10 million Americans. There are two types of macular degeneration: Dry and Wet form. The dry form is 80-90% of the disease, with the wet form being about 10-20% of the disease. The dry form of macular degeneration is a very slow progressing disease, that usually gets treated by taking high-dose vitamins with lutein and zeaxanthin.

These two vitamins are anti-oxidants that prevent free-radical formation behind the macular region of the retina. The wet form is the more severe version of the disease. The wet form is caused by fluid or blood leaking into the macula usually underneath, hence the name “Wet.” It usually happens very sudden and rapidly worsens, which can lead to permanent vision loss if not detected early. Early diagnose and treatment with injections to the eye will help cause the fluld to dissolve away and provide a better outcome for vision for patients. Both of these conditions will also require the patients to wear protective sunglasses to prevent UV sunlight from hitting the macula. If you have a family history of macular degeneration, it is highly recommended that you see an eye doctor routinely or annually to be evaluated for this condition.

At Eye Town Vision Center, our doctors do their diligent best to make sure that there is no signs of macular degeneration.

Please call or walk-in to see our experienced eye doctors for a comprehensive eye examination.

This condition is the most common cause of vision loss among patient’s with diabetes, and leads to become one of the leading causes of blindness among adults.

Obesity and over-eating for long periods of time causes one to develop diabetes. When a patient has diabetes whether type 1 or type 2, the longer you have it and the more uncontrolled your blood sugar levels are, the more at risk you are at developing diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetes mainly affects the kidneys, eyes, and lower extremities (your feet). It will lead to kidney damage, visual problems and damage, and sensitivity damage to your feet. When blood sugar levels rise at abnormally high levels, it makes the blood turn into pancake syrup because of so much sugar in the bloodstream. The extremely high amounts of sugar in the bloodstream will enter the eyes causing sudden blurry vision and damage to the blood vessels in the back of the eye. The damage to the blood vessels leads to blood leaking into the retinal nerve tissue in the back of the eye. If not treated it can lead to blindness and severe damage to the retinal tissue.

The best way to treat this condition is to be proactive and see your primary care physician every 3 months for a blood glucose evaluation. Also checking your blood sugar levels everyday, taking your daily meds, and having a proper diet and exercise schedule is proven to reduce the risks of diabetes.

On top of all that, you should see your eye doctor annually or even sooner depending on the severity of the diabetic condition for comprehensive diabetic eye examinations to assess for any visual loss or blood leakage in the back of the eye. It may seem like a lot but this will prevent a lot of severe problems and complications from occurring for the patient.

Here at Eye Town Vision Center, we provide comprehensive diabetic eye examinations for all of our diabetic patients. With the highest quality and patient care, we want to make sure our patients are confident and comfortable regarding their vision care.

This is an eye emergency situation where retinal tissue in the back of the eye pulls away from the tissue that was underneath of it. It starts by the retina peeling away and causing debris to enter the eye.

This can lead to floaters and flashing lights to appear in a patient’s vision due to the retinal detachment tissue tugging at the underlying tissue. The retinal detachment separates from the underlying layer of blood vessels that provide its oxygen and nourishment. So, if not detected early and treated, the condition can lead to permanent vision loss due to lack of oxygen.

If you have sudden symptoms of flashing lights, floaters, or a curtain-like shadow in your vision, then you should come to Eye Town Vision Center immediately or see any eye doctor as soon as possible.

As a person reaches their retiring age, there is a jelly-like material inside the eyeball that gives the eyeball its shape. This jelly-like material is called the vitreous, it becomes more of a liquid form as a person reaches an elderly age. This causes the orginal jelly-like material to shrink and detach off the retina in the back of the eye.

The areas where it detaches will lead to collagen-fibers within the vitreous to come together and cast shadows in a person’s line of sight. It will feel as if there is a bug or shadow flying around the vision for a period of time until the brain gets accustomed to it.

One of the major risks associated with floaters is that as the vitreous detaches from the retina, there is a risk that it may pull the retina causing a retinal tear or detachment. And one of the symptoms of a retinal tear or detachment is having floaters in the eye or seeing flashes of light. So, when one has this condition it is highly recommended to have a comprehensive eye examination with dilation to look for any retinal tears and detachments inside the eye.

At Eye Town Vision Center, we provide these services of comprehensive eye examinations with dilations to search for retinal tears and detachments.

There is a broad spectrum of eye infections such as bacterial, viral, fungal, inflammatory, parasitic and many more. Each of these infections are a class of their own, there are huge variety of different types of infections among each of these classes.

The majority of the population think that “pink eye” is considered to be the majority of eye infections, but it can be any of the classes of infections mentioned earlier. The common notion is that a pink eye is related to a viral infection or a viral conjunctivitis. This is usually found in daycare centers and schools, it is found among children and has a high contagious rate.

Bacterial infections can be from many sources, such as from patients who wear contact lenses, and who are not hygenic in regards to cleaning their lenses or removing their lenses at night. This can lead to red eyes, pain, and possibly a severe ulcer if not detected early and treated.

Fungal infections can occur while working out in the yard, such as mowing the lawn and a blade of grass or a tree branch hits one in the eye. This can lead to a severe infection and red eye. This condition will not recover from antibiotics, it will require a different treatment method such as anti-fungal agents.

Inflammatory conditions can happen by the body’s immune system reacting to any source of an infection. It can react to a bacterial, viral, parasitic, or even trauma to the eye. It is the body’s immune response to an attack to one of it’s organs. So it can cause the eyes to turn red, swell, and become painful. Sometimes patients with severe arthritis can develop inflammation inside the eye due to arthritis being an inflammatory disease inside the body spreading to the eyes. Each inflammatory eye condition has to be treated accordingly and with the proper dosage for it to heal appropriately. Antibiotics, anti-virals, and anti-fungals will have no affect against this condition, it would require a medication to bring down the body’s immune response.

Seeing a local eye doctor such as our doctors at Eye Town Vision Center can help in diagnosing and treating the eye infection with the most care.

Trauma to the eye can lead to damage to multiple parts of the eyeball. Some people who do combat sports without eye protection can cause eye damage without them realizing it. And, sometimes if the damage that was done early in life can usually appear later in life such as glaucoma.

There are many different forms of eye injuries, the most common are direct blows to the eye from combat sports, construction activities, chemical burns, abrasions to the eye, punctures, foreign objects in the eye, retinal tears and detachments, fractured orbital bones around the eye, ligament and muscle tears, swelling of the eyes, bleeding in and around the eye, and the list goes on.

After trauma to the eye, if it is a severe condition from any of the forms mentioned above, then immediately seek medical attention. Most people go to the emergency room when an injury happens to their eye, not knowing that the emergency room does not have all the major equipment needed to handle an eye emergency. Also, ER doctors are great doctors but they are not specialists in regards to the eye. At

Eye Town Vision Center, we highly recommend you see a local eye doctor immediately to prevent any further damage or permanent loss of vision by delaying treatment.

Many people ask if it is possible to get laser eye surgery, and which type of laser eye surgery should they choose from. The most common laser eye surgery procedures are LASIK and PRK, PRK was the first laser refractive surgeries for correcting vision. It is still used today for some patients but has a longer healing time, and more discomfort compared to LASIK. In PRK a flap is not created with the cornea, instead it is dissolved off, thus taking a longer time for it to regrow back after the surgery.

For LASIK surgery, it is the most common and popular laser eye surgery being done today. A flap is created on the cornea, then a laser is used to reshape your cornea. LASIK has a faster recovery time compared to PRK, and has less eye discomfort. PRK and LASIK have their own benefits and disadvantages, in order to know which procedure is right for you, please see an experienced laser eye surgeon who has the expertise and skills you can trust.

At Eye Town Vision Center, we provide pre and post-surgical co-management for laser eye surgery. Patients interested in having laser eye surgery would be referred out to an well-known laser eye center that we are associated with.

For parents with children, it is highly recommended that they have a pediatric eye exam starting at age 4, if possible even less then that.

It is incorrect for parents to say that getting vision screenings for their children is sufficient by their pediatric or family doctor, or school nurse. Vision screenings are barely the tip of the iceburg, there are a lot of factors that are missed.

If a child fools their school or doctor’s nurse with good vision during a vision test, they are then recorded as passing their vision exam with the parent thinking that his or her child sees normal.

At Eye Town Vision Center, we make sure during our pediatric eye exams that a child cannot immitate the doctor’s findings. We make sure that all of the ocular health and vision is normal and corrected if needed. Every child needs to have annual eye exams even if their vision is normal the year before because children are constantly growing and this leads to rapid visual changes in their eyes.

Please see one of our doctors as soon as possible for a comprehensive eye examination.