Berwick Family Eyecare
Services Provided
Children's Vision /
Behavioural Optometry
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The visual system changes and develops as we grow. The most important stages occur until the age of seven. It is imperative that we examine a child’s visual clarity and comfort before this age.
| Recommended ages for routine ‘milestone’ examination | |
| Immediately if a turned eye, red eye or sore eye, otherwise: | |
| 1. First examination at 3.5 years | 4. Grade 3 |
| 2. Before school begins | 5. Grade 7 |
| 3. Grade 1 | 6. Year 10 |
Some children may have obvious signs of ocular discomfort or they may show an eye turn (squint/strabismus), but others may have no symptoms at all. One of the most common problems is a child with one lazy eye, who seems to function normally because they are using their “good eye”. We need to help these children before they reach the critical age of seven in order to prevent the lazy eye from becoming permanently “lazy”.
| Common symptoms of a potential eye problem |
| Eye rubbing / blinking excessively / squinting |
| Unusual head positions to view tasks |
| Excessive clumsiness |
| Below average progress in school |
We also have the facilities to test the ability of children to process visual information. As outlined above, the first step is to establish that the child can “see”, then if necessary we can look at whether the child can “understand” what they see, that is process this visual information in the brain
For example the ability for children to learn how to read requires many special skills. Step by step we learn and build on these skills and eventually there comes a point when reading becomes automatic! A child’s openness to learn tasks at school relies on a grasp of basic concepts. If the child skips or takes longer than usual to learn a particular task it will make further more complicated tasks more difficult. Researchers have tried to unravel this step by step development of children’s information processing skills and have developed tests to determine if the child is at a normal stage of development. We can implement these tests and offer computerized therapy if required.
Contact Lens Assessment
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Contact lenses are available in hard or soft varieties. The hard lenses (rigid gas permeable lenses) are excellent for patients with high prescriptions, astigmatism and keratoconus. The soft variety, are also suitable for astigmatism and larger prescriptions but may not provide the ultimate visual clarity depending on how large the individual prescription is.
We must always remember that the cornea is living tissue like our skin. It needs oxygen and nutrients to survive. Other parts of the body have blood vessels to channel oxygen and nutrients to the living cells. The cornea however, has intricately structured layers which allow it to be “see through” allowing us to “see”. It does not have blood vessels to provide it with oxygen. It relies solely on oxygen from the air. When we place a contact lens on the eye, this piece of plastic reduces the oxygen going through to the eye. If contact lenses are over-worn or we sleep in lenses that are not suitable for this, the cornea can become starved of oxygen. This can lead to contact lens intolerance or even worse an eye infection. New technology has allowed companies to produce contact lenses that channel more oxygen to the cornea, thus allowing 30 days of continuous wear, day and night. This continuous wear is only suitable for certain patients and does require consultations to assess the reaction and stability of the cornea following wear. Some people wear these lenses as a general day wear lens for better comfort and reduced redness.
No matter what your needs are we can go through the list of contact lenses available and assess you for contact lens wear. We will find the contact lens that fits your cornea for optimal wear. The optometrist will ensure the lens is not too loose as a loose lens will be inclined to move too much and be irritating or even fall off. If the lens doesn’t move enough (too tight), tear exchange behind the lens is minimal and the fluid can become stagnant leading to discomfort and possibly increased risk of infection.
| In the case of disposable lenses, patients are given a free trial of the contact lenses. |
This gives the patient an opportunity to get used to contact lens wear (or a new type of lens if an existing wearer) and the optometrist can review the fit of the lenses after several hours wear.
Once you are successfully fitted with a particular type of contact lens by the optometrist, you can happily wear these lenses as advised like billions of others all around the world!
Visual Fields Assessment
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Small losses in our peripheral vision can be “covered up” by the brain and we may not notice this until the loss is severe. The back of the eye contains over one million receptors, each catching visual information and conducting this to the optic nerve and then the brain. This computerised assessment can be used to determine how well each of your nerves is functioning from the level of the eye to the brain.
The most common eye health problem to affect the visual field is glaucoma. In this sight threatening condition nerve cells from the optic nerve are damaged due to a high eye pressure, and this gradually reduces side vision. Unfortunately this process is painless and so the patient has no warning signs. If left too late glaucoma can cause blindness due to “tunnel vision”, where the loss of nerves is so extreme that only a very small amount of cental vision remains. However, with regular eye examinations from the age of 40 years, we can detect most cases early enough and begin treatment (medication to lower the eye pressure). If detected early and treated, most people outlive the nasty visual side effects of glaucoma.
We have many techniques to assess a person’s ocular health including photography of the optic nerve and retina (digital retinal photography) and measurement of intraocular pressure. The optometrist will let you know if you need to have a visual field examination or by all means if you have a special query or strange symptoms of your side vision, outline these to either Sonja, Priscilla or Richard and we can discuss this with you during the eye examination.