- When you come in for your visit, please register at the reception desk.
- If you are a new patient you will asked for your identifying information, including your name, address, phone numbers (home, office, cell - and which one is your preferred). Also, your e-mail address - if you would like to receive appointment reminders by e-mail instead of phone. Note that we will not share this information and do not send SPAM. In addition, your insurance information will be taken including scanning of your insurance card.
- Remember that your contract with your insurance company is between you and them - while we participate with many insurance companies, we do not make the decisions relative to what is covered and what is not covered - that is something you need to understand about your own policy. If you have questions, please ask, we will do our best to help you.
- If you are an established patient, our reception staff will verify the information we have on file. PLEASE be sure and let us know if ANY of your information has changed.
- Once information has been verified, the technicians will be notified that you are ready to be called in. A technician will come into the waiting area and escort you into the examination area.
- Often times patients are a bit overwhelmed with the amount of equipment in the office. So we thought it would be helpful to explain some of the equipment we use as part of our examination and testing.
Phoroptor: This is an instrument used to help us measure you for glasses. It contains many individual lenses that can be rotated into place. As you look through this instrument the doctor or technician will ask you to tell us which of two choices looks clearer. When finished, we can use this information to write your prescription for glasses.
Slit Lamp Bio-microscope: This is an instrument that allows us to exam the eye in much greater detail than we could without it. It maginifies the image by 10x to 16x. normal. By adjusting and filtering the lighting we can also see some things that would not be visible in direct light. We have several of these with built in digital video capabilities so we can take picutures like those seen on the right.
Goldmann Applanation Tonometer: This device is mounted on the slit-lamp pictured above. It is used to measure the intra-ocular pressure - or the pressure inside the eye. It is one of the tests we do for monitoring or testing for glaucoma. What the technician or doctor sees when using this device is shown on the right.
Goldmann Prisms: These instruments are used to allow examination of the parts of the inside of the eye, called the anterior chamber angle. We can also use these lenses to examine parts of the back of the eye, including the optic nerve and macula. The image on the right is part of what can be seen with these lenses.
Corneal Topographer: This is one of the types of topographers that we have in our offices. This device is used to analyze the anterior surface of the cornea. The cornea is the front-most part of the eye. It is often important to determine the shape of the cornea as a part of evaluating patients considering refractive surgery, or those with certain corneal problems. The image on the right shows an example of a 3-D rendering of a topography of a person with keratoconus.
OCT: This is an instrument that helps diagnose and manage both glaucoma and some retinal and optic nerve diseases. It provides high resolution details of the part of the eye being studied. The image below is an example of part of what this instrument can show us.
Auto-Refractor: This is an instrument that is also used to help us measure you for glasses.It uses infra-red light to automatically determine a patient's refraction - or need for glasses. Although this instrument is accurate, we will normally only use it as a baseline, and then refine the measurement with the Phoroptor - pictured above.
Visual Field Monitoring: This is an instrument that allows us to map out what is called a visual field. Basically it measures both central and peripheral vision, indicating how small and how dim a light one can see. By creating a map of the visual field, we can follow conditions such as glaucoma as well as other central nervous system and ophthalmic conditions. An example of the print out from this device is shown below.
Keratometer: This is an instrument that measures the curvature of the central cornea. It is used sometimes as part of a refraction - measuring one for glasses, but is also used in contact lens fitting and following patients who have had corneal surgery.
Potential Acuity Meter (PAM): This is an instrument that is used to help us get an idea of what the potential vision could be - if we can eliminate certain conditions that might exist. For instance a cataract, or perhaps a corneal scar. This instruments projects an eye chart into the inside of the eye and one simply reads the letters seen.
Corneal Pachymeter: This device is used to measure the thickness of the cornea. It is an ultrasonic device and measures to within 1 micron. It is used for evaluating and following patients with corneal diseases, corneal transplants, as well as patients with glaucoma.
A & B Scan Unit: This is another ultrasonic device. It measures the length of the eye, used as part of our pre-cataract surgery measurements for helping us to determine the proper strength of intra-ocular lens to be inserted at the time of surgery. This instrument is also used similar to a sonar unit to help us evaluate the inside of the eye, when we can't look inside directly. An A-Scan is shown on the right - top picture and a B-scan on the right, bottom picture.
Specular Microscopy: This is an image of the inner layer of the cornea, called the endothelium. This is the most important layer of the cornea, responsible for keeping your cornea clear. The cells of the endothelium are not able to reproduce themselves, so it is important to be able to examine them in detail for certain corneal conditions. The picture on the right shows some of the variability that can be seen in the endothelial cells with certain conditions.
Hudson Eye Physicians & Surgeons, LLC 2011
