Eyewear Gallery provides Medical Eyecare
Based on our name, many people do not know that our office provides Medical Eyecare. We have been medically credentialed for 8 years and take almost all major medical plans when there is a medical issue involved with your vision. If you have a history or a family history of cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma; you are at greater risk for developing these as well no matter what your age. Dry eyes, eye infections, eye injury, signs of early macular degeneration, glaucoma or cataracts are some of the things that we evaluate and we treat many of these in our office.
Many people know that we have always had a niche inMemphisfor high end exclusive designer eyewear. Eyewear names like Chanel, David Yurman, Tiffany and many more hand crafted designer frames from European countries are found at Eyewear shows in cities such as New York,MilanandPariswhich we frequent. These frames are hand picked from vendors by us to offer products that are unique. However, anyone who comes to us for these products are patients not customers.
Usually people’s motives for getting their eyes examined is when they feel like they cannot see or they want/need new glasses or contacts. While these devices help people function day to day; it provides them with a false sense of security in thinking that my glasses still work and I’ll get my eyes examined when I can’t see. That’s like saying I’ll brush my teeth when they hurt. This may sound like a ridiculous comparison but it brings home what you can and cannot replace. The reality is that by the time you notice that you cannot see you may have lost vision that can’t be replaced or improved with new corrective lenses.
One of the most important parts of the medical eyecare provided is in our taking photos of the back of all patient’s eyes. After doing so we like to show them their eye photos. The purpose of this is to help them understand how their vision works and that awareness of their visual quality is an interpretation by the brain that receives an image which is focused in only a small part of their vision system. It is so small that it is the size of a pinhead (macula) and in milliseconds the brain interprets that image and is what the person perceives as their vision clarity or lack thereof. From these photos, the patient is shown that we diagnose sight threatening problems that may be a result of health problems like high blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer and diabetes in their eyes. These explanations offer the patient a start to understanding that their corrective lenses don’t let them know if they are losing their vision. They begin to understand that the good looking frame that they want is really secondary to the prevention of vision loss.
We see our patients once or twice per year to do what we call preventative eye health care. We are Medical in our approach to taking care of our patients. We like to let them know that we understand that their corrective devices are very important in helping them function day to day but they can be losing their vision and not be able to detect it from the way they think they are seeing.
Medication history is also important because if you need medications prescribed from us and we see that that some of your medications might conflict with what we prescribe then we have to change the medication that we originally thought would work. We do submit your prescription electronically to your pharmacy. Our electronic medical programs let us know if there is any drug risk to what you might be taking for any other health problem. We also determine from a list of your medications that some of your visual symptoms may be related to your medications especially dry eyes. Knowledge of your medications and any prior surgeries are needed. Conditions being treated with your medications give us more insight to potential vision risks including cancer.
Remember eyewear is not equal to Medical eyecare! You may be seeing well but could be losing your vision that eventually corrective lenses won’t help. You are not our customer you are our patient.
www.TheEyewearGallery.com Dr. Warren Johnson/ Dr. Burt Bodan http://eyewear-gallery.genbook.com/bookings/slot/reservation/30150274 www.yelp.com/biz/eyewear-gallery-memphis-2 www.facebook.com/EyewearGallery, http://twitter.com/eyeweargallery
