By our Smarty friends at Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates, P.A.
It’s August now and school is around the corner. August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, and now is the perfect time to review all the things you can do to help keep your children’s eyes safe and healthy.
A brief guide to pediatric eye exams
During a pediatric eye exam, an ophthalmic technician will ask you and your child questions about their vision, their medical background, and, if applicable, if they are wearing their glasses regularly. The technician will then perform vision, depth perception, and color vision tests. They will then use a small light to make sure you child’s pupils react normally, and then they’ll check your child’s eye pressure. Additional testing may be necessary if your child has strabismus – misaligned or “crossed” eyes – in order to measure the misalignment.
After these tests, the technician will put eye drops in your child’s eyes to dilate them. These give the doctor the best opportunity to examine the interior parts of your child’s eye and determine the focusing power of their eyes.
Pediatric ophthalmologists are medical doctors that have completed an ophthalmology residency and a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship. They treat all eye conditions found in children including, but not limited to, blocked tear ducts, strabismus, cataracts, glaucoma, retinopathy of prematurity, and uveitis.
Protect their eyes from injury
Eye health isn’t just about vision correction and disease. It means protection from injury, too. Eye injuries are the leading cause of vision loss in children. Most injuries in school-aged children are sports-related, and account for an estimates 100,000 doctor visits a year.
Sports-related eye injuries could be avoided if players wore protective eyewear, such as safety glasses and goggles. Even though many youth sports leagues don’t require players to wear sports glasses, parents and coaches should encourage their young players to do so if projectiles are a part of the game.
Protective eyewear is made of ultra-strong polycarbonate and is 10 times more impact-resistant than other plastics. Ordinary glasses and contact lenses are not protective enough.
Not only do safety glasses not hinder a player’s vision, but they can also be made to match a person’s glasses prescription.
CEENTA has sports glasses for children available in its 12 optical shops. They are available for every sport from lacrosse to football to baseball to basketball.
Premier care everywhere
CEENTA has four pediatric ophthalmologists in child-friendly offices around the Charlotte area:
Taressa Haney, MD (Blakeney)
Elliot McKee, MD (Belmont SouthPark, Statesville)
Timothy Saunders, MD (SouthPark, Matthews)
Erin Schotthoefer, MD (Huntersville, University)
Back to School Sale
Once your child’s eye exam is complete you can get them new glasses, too. From now through Sept. 22, all school-age children can get new corrective lenses for 35 percent off (some restrictions apply). For details, ask our opticians in any of CEENTA’s 12 optical shops.
To make an appointment with any of our pediatric ophthalmologists, call 704-295-3000.
Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates
