Eye Care Services

Our Optometrists play an important role in your eye health.

If you have not had your eyes examined for quite some time you may not be aware of all the tests involved in a comprehensive eye examination. If it has been more than two years since your last eye test, we generally allow 45 minutes to complete a comprehensive consultation.

Our team of experienced Optometrists detect, diagnose, and treat eye health and vision conditions that affect vision including glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, hypertension, lazy eye and cataracts.

They can also identify general health conditions that are first detected via an eye exam, provide referrals to eye surgeons (ophthalmologists) and often help manage post-eye-surgery health.

The majority of our services attract a Medicare rebate.

Every consultation and eye examination is with an experienced Optometrist using the latest and most advanced eyecare procedures. With our full eye health examination (45 minutes), comprehensive internal and external eye testing is standard and includes:

• Field of vision
• Eye muscle control
• Visual acuity
• Ability to focus
• Ability to see colour

We request you bring the following to your eye examination

• Your medicare card
• Your latest pair of prescription glasses
• Your latest pair of prescription sunglasses
• Any contact lenses you may use
• Previous prescription details or Optometrist’s reports if you are new to our practice

If your child has 20/20 or 6/6 vision, this is only a small part of having good vision. Your child must also be focussed in each eye, must have good eye movement control, good eye-hand co-ordination, good eye health and normal visual perception.

We have a special interest in making sure that your child develops the best possible vision. We test all the visual skills necessary develop good vision.

There are many vision problems that children can have. They include:

• Strabismus
• Amblyopia
• Myopia
• Hyperopia
• Astigmatism
• Muscle Inco-ordination
• Colour Vision Defects
• Visual Perceptual Deficits

Some of these are very obvious and are picked up early in childhood and others are much less obvious.

Strabismus is a condition that interferes with binocular vision because it prevents a person from directing both eyes simultaneously to align with each other at the same spot. This is often known as a squint. Strabismus is present in about 4% of children. Treatment should be started as early as possible to ensure the development of the best possible vision.

Amblyopia (also called lazy eye) is a disorder of sight. It results in decreased vision in an eye that otherwise appears normal. Whenever the brain does not receive visual signals from an eye for a long period of time, there is a risk of amblyopia. It also can occur when the brain “turns off” the visual processing of one eye to prevent double-vision. It is common in children with strabismus.

Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment; this disorder has been estimated to affect 1–5% of the population.

Myopia is a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus, but in focus when looking at a close object. It also known as short-sightedness.

Hyperopia is a defect of vision causing difficulty focusing on near objects, and in extreme cases causing a sufferer to be unable to focus on objects at any distance. Children with hyperopia can experience blurred vision, headaches, accommodative dysfunction, binocular dysfunction, amblyopia, and strabismus. Most school age children are in fact slightly hyperopic and therefore must exert an extra effort to bring their vision into sharp focus for both far and near tasks. For some children it will interfere with their ability to do schoolwork.

Astigmatism is a refraction error of the eye in which there is a difference in degree of power in different meridians. Astigmatism causes difficulties in seeing fine detail. Astigmatism can be often corrected by glasses with a lens that corrects for the difference in power.

Muscle Inco-ordination occurs when the complex muscle system for co-ordinating the two eyes to work as a team are not properly balanced. They often occur together with other vision problems and if left untreated contribute to a worsening of the vision problem.

Colour Vision Defects occur in about 9% of boys and 0.5% of girls. They are almost always inherited but can be the result of disease or injury. Almost all people with colour vision defects see most colours but due to the imbalance of their colour receptors they see them slightly differently to the way someone with normal vision sees them. They will therefore have difficulty in identifying some colours and will confuse some colours.

Visual Perception is the ability to analyse and understand what the eyes are seeing. Children with vision problems are more likely to have difficulty with their visual perception; however these problems can occur with otherwise normal vision. If this problem does exist, the underlying vision problem is treated first and then a program of visual perceptual therapy is administered.

Vision training is a course of prescribed activities, tailored for the individual and designed to improve poorly developed vision and visual processing skills. Your Optometrist will prescribe a vision training plan to help improve things like eye movement control, eye focusing, eye coordination and visual analysis skills. Many of our Optometrists use vision training as part of their treatment plans.

Many spectacle wearers spend years unaware that they are suitable for contact lenses. Our qualified Optometrists will fit you with the most appropriate contact lenses for your prescription and lifestyle.

Contact lenses are available to correct both distance, near and multifocal prescriptions, as well as for patients with astigmatism. We will help you find the right contact lens to suit your specific needs.

Approximately 1.7 million Australians are estimated to be living with diabetes . Diabetes affects vision and eye health. Every person with diabetes is at risk of diabetic retinopathy, where the tiny blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye become damaged and begin to leak blood and other fluids. Diabetic retinopathy can seriously affect vision and in some cases may even cause blindness. So, diabetics must pay special attention to their eyecare. All diabetics are recommended to have annual assessments.

Speak to one of our Optometrists to learn more about managing your eye health if you are living with diabetes.

Diabetes Australia, Diabetes in Australia, 2015, www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/ diabetes-in-australia (accessed March 2017)

Glaucoma is an eye condition which is characterised by damage to the optic nerve and retina, causing progressive vision loss. Glaucoma develops gradually, without pain or any noticeable symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose until it has begun to permanently damage your vision. Right now, 50% of people with glaucoma remain undiagnosed.^*

For optimum eye health, it’s recommended that everyone over the age of 40 have their eyes tested every two years.

* Tunnel Vision. The economic impact of Open Angle Glaucome, Centre for Eye Research Australia, 2008

For some of us, refractive surgery can be a great option. It’s important that laser surgery is undertaken by an expert who understands your eye health history. Our Optometrists have a great relationship with your local ophthalmologists and will make sure you get the right referral with a surgeon who suits your needs. We can also provide aftercare, following your surgery.

Macular degeneration is a condition that causes progressive damage to the macular, the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in Australia and will affect 1 in 7 people over the age of 50 and the incidence increases with age^*. Those with early macular degeneration may have no noticeable symptoms but the disease can cause central vision loss if not treated early.

Early detection of macular degeneration is aided by having regular eye tests. For optimum eye health, it’s recommended that everyone over the age of 40 have their eyes tested every two years.

* Source: Macular Disease Foundation

Optometrists are able to diagnose and manage a number of ocular conditions including age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Our practices are equipped with state of the art equipment such as optical coherence tomography which allows us to diagnose these conditions earlier and monitor them more effectively. Many of our Optometrists are also therapeutically endorsed which allows them to treat a number of infective and inflammatory eye conditions with topical medications such as antibiotics and steroids.