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The following article was published in Your Health Magazine. Our mission is to empower people to live healthier.
Donald C. Bartnick, CMPE, CEO
The Season Of Giving
Maryland Eye Associates
. http://marylandeyeassociates.com

The Season Of Giving

How about also considering the perfect gift to give yourself this season? You deserve to give yourself the perfect gift. What is the perfect gift to give oneself? A healthier tomorrow.

How does one acquire such a gift? There are many products, services, programs, classes, videos, memberships, diets, etc. that claim to enhance your health in one way or another. How does one know what is the right choice? Well, we need to know where we are physically before we can map a course to the destination.

The gift to give yourself is a health assessment with your primary care doctor and an eye exam with your ophthalmologist. An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor and surgeon specially educated and trained to care for medical problems of the eye.

Seeing an ophthalmologist for a comprehensive eye exam is a smart gift. An ophthalmologist doesn't just measure your vision and prescribe eyeglasses. The ophthalmologist performs a comprehensive examination of your eyes, inside and out. The ophthalmologist will examine and evaluate the exterior structures of your eyes like the lids, the eyelashes, the conjunctiva, and the lens.

He or she will determine the functioning of your tear glands and ducts, the muscles that control the movement of your eyes, and the shape and clarity of the lens of your eyes.

The ophthalmologist will look inside your eye using special tools and determine the health of the interior structures of your eyes. The ophthalmologist uses various test equipment to measure and assess the functioning and health of your eyes.

Part of this examination is a measurement of your current vision and, by using an instrument called a phoroptor, assessing your best corrected vision. This is called a refraction and is frequently a necessary part of an examination. The refraction does provide the information necessary to provide a prescription for eyeglasses, but that is not the only reason to perform a refraction.

Assessing best corrected vision is essential to diagnosing various diseases and in evaluating the progression of a disease or condition. The ophthalmologist is able to see your blood vessels inside the eye. He or she can diagnose eye disease like glaucoma, systemic disease like diabetes, and structural disease like tumors.

By correlating information acquired during the patient's history taking with physical findings and test results, the ophthalmologist is able to make preliminary or definitive diagnoses of many disease states. There are many instances where the ophthalmologist is uniquely able to perform the earliest diagnosis of some diseases.

The ophthalmologist is frequently assisted by an ophthalmic technician or a medical scribe as he or she collects relevant information from the patient, performs portions of the actual examination, and performs the tests ordered by the ophthalmologist. Ophthalmic technologists and scribes are facilitating the introduction of computerized records in practices by helping with the interface between doctor and computer.

In eye care, there is vision care insurance coverage and there is medical insurance coverage. You need to determine which doctor participates with your coverage when you make the appointment. As an example, an eye examination of the healthy person with healthy eyes may be covered by vision insurance, if you have that benefit.

Such an exam will not be covered by health insurance unless there is an eye related medical problem. Please confirm insurance coverages when you make your appointment.

Make this holiday season special by giving yourself a gift. Make an appointment with an ophthalmologist today.

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