Our Doctors Offer Solutions for Low Vision and Macular Degeneration

Our doctors are committed to helping those suffering from low vision maintain their quality of life and continue enjoying every day activities like driving, reading and playing cards. Using a routine eye exam to analyze your remaining vision, our doctors can carefully adjust your regular prescription and provide you with a number of low vision aids that can be used to help you accomplish specific visual tasks. For example, if one of your goals is to be able to read menus when you go out to eat, our doctors may determine that a handheld magnifier will work the best in combination with special low vision glasses. By providing specialized low vision solutions for the activities most important to you, you can remain independent and make the most of your remaining vision.

Two conditions that many of our doctors treat on a regular basis are macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. These eye diseases commonly affect people over age 65, but people of all ages who have diabetes, a congenital eye disease or have suffered from an eye injury can also be affected. Macular degeneration is a vision condition that is characterized by the thinning, atrophy or bleeding of the inner lining of the eye, which is known as the macula area of the retina. Patients suffering from this condition experience central vision loss and have difficulty seeing details, reading and recognizing faces. While this disease is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, as long as you still have a degree of usable vision and specific visual goals in mind, our doctors are dedicated to determining the best visual aids to help you during your important daily activities.

Diabetic retinopathy is another eye condition our doctors routinely treat with low vision glasses for patients who have diabetes. The term retinopathy literally means ‘damage to the retina’, and it is caused when new blood vessels at the back of the eye begin to bleed and leave blood or spots floating in the visual field. The reason this affects those with diabetes is because high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) damages the blood vessel walls, allowing the blood to pass through them. As the condition progresses over time, the hemorrhaging will often get worse and vision can become completely blurred. While actively managing glucose levels can also help manage diabetic retinopathy, it is often still necessary to use the visual aids our doctors can prescribe to improve your vision enough for daily tasks.

If you are suffering from the de-habilitating affects of low vision, our doctors can help. Our doctors are spread out over 20 different states and ready to help you reach your vision goals through a variety of low vision devices. In addition to specialized magnifiers, our doctors can also provide you with low vision reading glasses (prismatic, microscopic, telemicroscopic), telescope glasses (full-diameter, bioptic) and electronic aids.

Contact one of our doctors today to find out more about how an IALVS doctor can help you maintain your independence and quality of life.