Monthly Archives: September 2014

Your Annual Eye Doctor Visit

When it comes to your vision, you can’t be too cautious. Your eye health is extremely important, and to keep it that way you need to stay on top of yearly eye exams to make sure things don’t change too much. Standard eye exams are nothing to be afraid of, and the fact is that it’s pretty easy to predict what you’re going to go through during a normal appointment – one that will often take less than an hour.

It Starts with Your Medical History

Eye doctor and patientEvery appointment is going to start with you giving your medical history. This takes place every time because the eye doctor, or optometrist, also wants to know about any changes since your last eye test. Even things that might seem unrelated like diabetes can directly affect your vision and vision tests. Highly stressful situations can also have an effect on your eyes, so optometrists want to know everything going on with you.

Eye Pressure & Sensitivity

In the beginning, you will get some tests to take a look at eye pressure and sensitivity. These tests often include focusing in on bright lights, testing peripheral vision, and this is where you get the “keep your eyes as open as possible” instruction while air gets blown right into your eyes.

This part of the eye exam can help determine if your eyes appear healthy or are giving some red flags that might indicate a really specific type of problem. Some of these tests can even be the earliest indicators of glaucoma and other similar degenerative eye diseases that build up over time.

Possible X-Rays

The technology advancements over time have been pretty amazing when it comes to checking eye health, and if any of those early tests didn’t come back great, then the eye doctor may choose to perform additional testing. X-rays are not a very commonly performed procedure for the eye and are not part of a standard exam. However, if future diagnostic studies are indicated, it could be something your eye doctor recommends.

Read the Charts

The next part of any eye test will be the classic reading of the Snellen eye chart. This is done not only to test out your overall vision, but there will also be times when you’re asked to read with just your left eye and just your right eye to determine discrepancies between them.

The reason for this is simple. Often someone who doesn’t have perfect vision will have one particular eye that’s stronger than the other. In fact, this is more common than having two eyes that are equally impaired.

To get the perfect pair of glasses or even the right contact lenses, you need to have a prescription given for each eye. When each one is corrected, the result is hopefully perfect 20/20 vision or as close to that ideal result as you can get.

This is followed by multiple questions where the optometrist gives you two options (A or B) and asks which one is clearer. This normally starts out with two widely different lenses and then narrows in to more and more similar ones until they find the best lenses for your particular needs.

Don’t Be Worried

The average eye test is nothing to be worried about, and wherever you go they are relatively standard. By understanding each part of the process, you will know exactly what to expect every step of the way.

Generally speaking, you want to go through the standard eye exam about once a year, and you’ll be happy with the final results.

Advances in Dental Care Provide Many Options for Patients

Today, choosing the best dentist has become a complicated task. Everybody wants the best quality care for themselves and their family. So how can you find the best clinic that offers the right services and staffs highly skilled dentists? On one hand, every dental clinic has their own areas of core competency, specializing in different types of procedures and treatment. In such a situation, you may find it really difficult to identify the best professional available. However, it is becoming more of a trend for top dental offices to offer a wide range of services like preventative, restorative and cosmetic treatments to suit the varying requirements of a diverse patient base.

Not long ago, cosmetic industry was primarily available to the rich and elite only; however, the situation has changed drastically at present. Many common people have realized the amazing benefits of cosmetic dentistry and technological advancements have played a major role in making these dental procedures highly cost effective and result oriented as well. An experienced dentist can enhance the aesthetic appeal of your smile and they will conduct an in-depth discussion with you to find out your unique requirements.

Best clinics always offer different types of cosmetic dental procedures like crowns, implants, Invisalign, lumineers, veneers, white (composite) fillings and teeth whitening and the dentist will also familiarize you with the entire treatment plan well in advance. By providing all the information regarding the procedures and the costs of treatment in advance, the patient is able to prepare financially, as well as work the recommended services into their schedule in a way that is convenient and unobtrusive.

Orthodontic treatments focus on the proper alignment and positioning of teeth and, a skilled dentist will make use of advanced orthodontics procedures to correct problems like extra teeth, crooked teeth, misaligned teeth, crowded teeth, missing teeth, jaw joint disorder, under-bite, overbite and misaligned jaw position. These types of irregularities are rectified with the help of braces constructed with rubber springs and metal wires and they will be attached to minuscule metal plates or plastic aligners.

Orthodontic braces can be divided into two categories: removable braces and fixed braces. Among these types of braces, Invisalign braces or invisible braces are the most popular type, as they provide better comfort, less difficulty in cleaning and are barely noticeable to the observer. In order to ensure long lasting results, orthodontists always perform orthodontic treatments with the help of a two-stage procedure and they include active phase and retention phase.

Dental restorative procedures like crowns, fillings, bridges, veneers and root canals are now able to be performed with much less discomfort and a shorter recovery period than in years past. This makes oral care much less daunting and also more affordable.

Cost effectiveness and excellent results can only be associated with dentists who are versed in the most current procedures. So check the credentials of your professional and see what type of continuing education courses they are availing themselves of to know if they are truly up to date in the type of procedure you are seeking. You should also check their online reviews and feedback from previous and existing patients to identify the best dental provider or surgeon in your area.