Eye Diseases
Doctor McFarland is committed to providing the most comprehensive eye care to you and your family for a lifetime. One way in which we do this is continuously evaluating patients for various eye diseases that can develop. We are dedicated to preventing eye diseases, or if the disease has already progressed, to offering the best care possible to cure or treat the disease. We provide specialized care to diabetic patients, including digital retinal photography that may allow us to observe the smallest amount of changes.
Our office utilizes a highly sophisticated computerized instrument to provide a more thorough medical analysis of your eyes and neurological system. Our Humphrey Visual Field Analyzer electronically measures retinal function and sensitivity to light. This testing can assist in early detection of many disorders, diseases, and retinal disturbances due to vascular problems or medications.
Diabetes and Your Eyes
Individuals who are at high risk for diabetes need to have regular, dilated eye exams and everyone with diabetes needs to have dilated eye exams every year.
How serious is the widespread occurrence of diabetes? More than 21 million people in the United States have diabetes. However, 6.2 million people with this condition are unaware they have the disease. Today, diabetes can be controlled provided that patients are diagnosed early and follow treatment regimens aimed at managing blood sugar, reducing obesity and increasing exercise.
If you are being treated for diabetes, you have probably been warned about another facet of the illness - diabetic retinopathy, in which damage to blood vessels in the eye can slowly destroy one’s vision. Diabetic retinopathy, the most serious of the ocular complications, often has no visible symptoms until its later stages, after the optimal time for treatment.
How does diabetic retinopathy attack eyesight? Tiny blood vessels inside the eye swell or bleed. Unprocessed blood sugars, fats and proteins leach out of the weakened blood vessels and form exudates, or waxy deposits, on the retina. New, weak blood vessels form to help circulate blood, but these vessels also can break, leading to further damage. When the blood vessels become damaged, the blood supply to the retina is decreased. The result may be a significant loss, even blindness, if the condition is left untreated. Someone who has diabetes may go several years without noticing any impairment of their vision while a great deal of damage to the blood vessels in the eye is occurring.
It is vitally important that people who have diabetes have yearly eye exams to prevent diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults ages 20 to 74.
THE BEST PREVENTIVE MEASURE AGAINST LOSS OF VISION FROM DIABETES IS A YEARLY EYE EXAM.
Annual eye exams provide other benefits to patients:
- Measuring for prescription lenses to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
- Checking for the presence of eye diseases and conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts and diabetic
retinopathy. - Making sure your eyes are working well together, while also evaluating your eyes as part of your overall health.
Eighty five percent of all you experience is through your eyes. Annual eye exams can help you see better and detect serious health conditions.
How to Tell if Your Child Has a Vision Problem
Infants should visit an eye doctor if they have:
- Poor focus on objects after three months of age
- Eyes that are not straight
- An eyelid that is droopy
- A family history of serious eye problems
- A watery eye with overflow tearing
Children should have an eye examination if they:
- Have a red eye with or without discharge
- Squint their eyes to read or see small objects
- Complain of blurred distance vision
- Blink their eyes excessively
- Complain of headaches or double vision
Dr. Howard M. McFarland
Eye Care Facility Hours:
