Ophthalmology

Your child’s vision develops up until eight or nine years old. After that age, there are fewer options to change their vision development. Regular eye exams for your child are critical to maintaining healthy eyes. Eye exams are often one of the only ways to know whether there is an issue with your child’s sight.

An eye exam can diagnose anything from eye infections to eye misalignment, and getting the proper treatment in a timely manner could help prevent childhood vision loss.

If your child fails their eye exam, it could also be a result of less common issues in children, such as cataracts, glaucoma or even a tumor in the eye or brain. If left untreated, these issues could lead to serious eye problems.

Once your pediatric ophthalmologist has provided a diagnosis, a treatment plan will be created that considers your child’s condition, age, tolerance of treatments and your preferences. The plan may include one or more of the following eye treatments:

• Having your child wash hands frequently and face daily
• Having your child avoid rubbing the eyes
• Antibiotic ointments for the eyes
• Blind or decreased vision adaptation training
• Bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation
• Chemotherapy or radiation therapy for eye cancer
• Cryotherapy (a freezing process)
• Glasses or contact lenses
• Eye exercises
• Eye patch over a strong eye to improve a weak eye
• Laser therapy or photocoagulation (to create small scars to prevent retinal detachment)
• Massaging (or “milking”) a blocked tear duct several times a day
• Medications, such as antibiotics
• Thermal therapy

Eye surgery we perform

Should your child need surgery to treat their eye conditions, our eye surgeons can perform a wide range of procedures, including:

• Enucleation
• Trabeculotomy and goniotomy
• Trabeculectomy
• Iridotomy
• Cyclophotocoagulation