In or Out?

2020 has been quite a year in Albuquerque!  The COVID-19 scare has prompted questions from a few of our patients about telemedicine for optometry. We at Clear Perspective EyeCare have been really fortunate to be able to avoid the worst of what the coronavirus has had to offer.   But . . . we are looking into anything we can do to make our patients safer and their lives easier.

What we can do during telemedicine exams in optometry is limited.  We can diagnose a few common conditions like a stye, perhaps conjunctivitis, or maybe the seriousness of an injury and help you postpone a visit to the office until we have the “all clear” on COVID.  But telemedicine is not going to offer all the benefits of an in-person, comprehensive eye examination by your optometrist.

Your optometrist at Clear Perspective EyeCare is able to assist in the early diagnosis of many serious medical conditions.  By attending to standard eye health requirements, you may get critical early warning of possible conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, lupus, STDs, high cholesterol or hyperthyroidism.  Your annual eye exam is not just necessary to ensure that your prescription is doing its job, but it may also contribute to your overall good physical health.

I’m sure that some of you are wondering how your optometrist can possibly help with an early diagnosis of, say, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes.  When you go in for your exam, the doctor’s assistant does a series of pre-exam tests, including using a tonometer to measure intraocular pressures.  It is used to determine the risk of glaucoma, and glaucoma is a serious eye condition that can accompany high blood pressure.

Diabetes in a patient often presents with a condition called diabetic retinopathy which damages blood vessels in the patient’s retina.  An eye exam is often what detects the first signs of diabetes.  Your optometrist at Clear Perspective EyeCare may be the first person to tell you to talk to your primary doctor about the possibility.  And there are other important signs of serious conditions.  Dangerously high cholesterol is sometimes detected when the patient has a blue or yellow ring around their cornea or when the optometrist sees deposits in blood vessels in the patient’s retina.

While nothing tops the medical benefits of regular comprehensive eye exams, at Clear Perspective EyeCare, LLC we take great pride in both the services and the materials we offer.  There simply is no substitute for browsing, selecting, and trying on frames in our optical.  We’ve all seen software that allows us to simulate an in-person trying-on of a particular frame, and it’s never very satisfactory.  We love visiting with our patients and working with them to find the best fit and most flattering frame for their face and their coloring, but it is equally important to finding the frame that accommodates the right sized lens for their prescription.

So, while we do encourage our patients to call and speak with us about any symptoms or injury to determine whether there is an immediate need to come into the office, we also want our patients to continue to receive the excellent care that Clear Perspective EyeCare has always provided to our patients, in our offices.  I hope we’ll see you soon.