I am very proud and passionate about what I do and I wanted to take a moment to share a story about my patient today and also explain to you what optometrists (eye doctors) do on a daily basis. We not only help restore vision to all kinds of patients, but every patient is given a full eye health exam, which includes looking for (and often diagnosing) eye diseases as well as systemic health diseases ( diabetes, high blood pressure, tumors, etc.) We don't just give you glasses to help you see, but we evaluate your eyes and your overall health. And very often we restore vision to people who are legally blind, save or prevent vision loss, and sometimes save lives.
One of my specialties is the management of a disease called keratoconus, which is when the front part of the eye, or the cornea, becomes extremely steep and thinned and causes blurry vision and visual distortions which glasses do not correct for. My patient today has had keratoconus for many years and has been struggling to see due to his loss of vision. As of today, he was officially legally blind with his vision being 20/400 ( barely able to see the big E on the chart). But today I restored his vision with the design of a custom scleral device/lens. This device acts as a prosthetic and recreates a smooth front surface on the eye. His vision went from 20/400 to 20/30 which is more than 10 x improvement in sight. He was very emotional and super excited to be getting his vision back. I see several patients a week like this and I enjoy each encounter and opportunity I have to help these people.
#legalblindness
#keratoconus
#sclerallenses
#azmaneyecare
#keratoconusinstituteofmd