Health care has come a long way in the last 50 years. The emphasis on regular care and prevention, coupled with the great advances of the information age, has resulted in technologies that diagnose disease earlier than ever, saving lives and improving the quality of those lives saved. Even the last fifty years have yielded such commonplace medical technologies as MRI’s and CT scans, as well as laser surgeries of all types. The wonderful technologies of modern medical eye care in particular are revolutionary in their ability to predict and care for disease. Vista Eye Care strives to make preventative eye care our top priority when seeing patients for their annual comprehensive eye and vision examinations, and technology allows us to treat eyes better than we ever could before.
Among the leading causes of blindness in the United States is macular degeneration. This disease affects the patient’s central vision and can result in an inability to drive, to recognize faces, or to read. This devastating disease tends to occur in patients with short wavelength light exposure to such parts of the spectrum as ultraviolet and blue light. This disease also occurs in patients that have low macular pigment optical density (also called “MPOD”). We measure the MPOD score of all patients ages 30 and up. MPOD is easily measured in-office, and those patients with lower scores can alleviate some of their risk for macular degeneration with dietary supplementation. All patients certainly benefit from having protection against short wavelength light, and our Optical Department has numerous options to protect eyes from this harmful part of the spectrum.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an amazing, painless scanning technology that allows our doctors to view details in eye anatomy. This technology yields results similar in concept to a CT scan, though without utilizing x-rays to do so. OCT is used to monitor macular disease, optic nerve disease (including glaucoma), diabetic retinopathy, and retinal disease. It is also used to assist our doctors with challenging contact lens fits.
Vista Eye Care’s annual comprehensive eye and vision examination includes OPTOS imaging. OPTOS technology allows our doctors to view a wide-field image of your retinas. This view encompasses peripheral retina, optic nerve, macula, and blood vessels. This wide-reaching view of the internal anatomy of the eyes is known as an “optomap” and can be used to monitor for early disease, monitor for changes to disease, or just serve as a high resolution baseline image of your eye’s internal anatomy.
The leading cause of eye dryness is Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). The small oil glands that line the inside of the upper and lower eyelids can get clogged-up and atrophy. When this occurs, these glands are unable to contribute their oil to your tear film. It is this oil that holds tears against the eye, protecting the tears against evaporation, and preventing the eyes from drying out. MGD is most easily treated when it is identified early. Many technologies exist to treat MGD, most effective among them is LipiFlow® which heats and expresses the Meibomian glands, restoring them to optimal health. We perform LipiScan® on all patients with dry eye complaints, or those with risk of developing dry eye. LipiScan® is easily acquired, painless, and can determine how to prevent your eyes from suffering needlessly.
We encourage annual comprehensive eye and vision examinations for all of our patients, even those that don’t have a visual or ocular complaint. The eyes are a fine-tuned system that provides us with our most precious of senses. We can utilize modern technology to diagnose disease before it has the opportunity to affect your eye health and vison. Call our office today at (303) 450-2020 to schedule your annual eye check-up, or use the button below to schedule your examination online: