GETTING PAEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLGY SERVICES AT ANGEL EYES

Paediatric ophthalmology services at the Angel Eyes Lasik Centre provides specialized diagnostic, medical and surgical care for children.  Children, unlike adults, need special care and attention when it comes to eye examination or dealing with an eye condition. The Paediatric Ophthalmology services at Angel Eyes are equipped to provide the best possible care for children’s eye problems, whether simple or complex, and can be diagnosed and treated all under one roof by well-experienced doctors, with state-of-the-art technology surgical care.

Why a separate Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinic?

• Because the type of eye diseases that affect children are unlike those affecting adults and treatment methods required for children are also quite different. Moreover, eye specialists for children are distinctive and trained especially for their treatment.
• Many times, children don’t complain if they have an eye problem as they don’t understand and many times parents do not take their complaints seriously as they think that the child is complaining for attention seeking.
• Many parents feel that an eye examination can’t be done till the child learns to start reading.
• But a paediatric ophthalmologist is trained to perform an objective examination of the child’s eye and detect any eye problem or refractive error even without any input from the child

Paed. Ophthal. Services at Angel Eyes will entail the following steps:

1. Appointment
2. Consultation for detailed eye check-up (screening / follow-up) or Consultation for routine follow-up.
3. Treatment
4. Follow-up

1. 1. APPOINTMENT:

The Paed. Ophthal. services operate on all the working days of our centre. You can visit the centre preferably after booking an appointment. When booking the appointment do specify whether you want a complete Glaucoma check-up done or you require a routine follow-up for Glaucoma treatment, as this will entail a different time scheduling than that complete Glaucoma Check-up.

1. 1. CONSULTATION:

You may consult the doctor at our centre for the following services:

Comprehensive ophthalmic evaluation of children

Adult strabismus service

Amblyopia clinic

Adult amblyopia clinic

Low vision clinic

Orthoptic clinic

Eye Check-up Protocol for Children:

During examination, most of the children will need to have their pupils dilated for assessing the status of their vision. The protocol is different children under 4 years. Also, the need for return to normal routine of school etc. will determine what schedule is to be followed.

1. • Under 4 years, the parents are normally advised to apply dilating ointment overnight for 2 consecutive nights before returning for consultation and examination. The dilating effect may take upto 2 days to disappear. During this period, the child will have blurry vision which is a normal side effect of dilating medication.
   • For most of the children above 4 years of age, the category of dilation medication used is usually put an hour before examination. The effect of this lasts for 4 to 6 hours. During this time the vision is blurry and child should not attempt to read or study.

Procedure for getting Complete Glaucoma Check-up done at Angel Eyes:

1. To schedule a complete Paed. Ophthal.  check-up you have to book an appointment where you should clearly mention that you want to schedule a complete check-up.
2. The total time required for the check-up may be around 2 hours so you should come with this much time in hand. Do not try to hurry up the procedure as this may lead to doubtful results.
3. As pupil dilating drops will be used, the parents should schedule for such a time when it is ok to be off studies for the child for a day.
4. Please ensure that when you come for tests your eyes are in reasonably good health. Those suffering from any infectious disease like cough or upper respiratory infections should wait before they come for the check-up.
5. Once at our centre, after contacting the reception and registration, you will be administered the check-up in a step-wise manner as decided by the staff or consultant looking after you.
6. You will need to move to different sections for tests by different equipment as described in our protocol.
7. Almost all the reports are available immediately.
8. Once the reports are available you will be seen by the consultant who will review the reports and inform you about the results.
9. According to your results you will be started on a treatment regime and advised about follow-up check-up schedules.
10.  If the results are normal and your child does not seem to have any eye disease at the moment even then you will be advised to have next screening according the schedule for different age group and as per the presence of risk factors.

A child should go for an eye check-up if the following symptoms are noticeable

• Crossed eyes.
• Keeps object close to his eyes.
• Not being able to see the blackboard at school.
• Things looking blurry or funny.
• Feeling an itching, burning or scratchy sensation in the eyes.
• Injury to the eye.
• One or both the parents wear glasses.

Treatment Options for Children Who Have Refractive Errors

• Wearing spectacles (glasses) is the most effective and safest treatment option in children.
• Contact Lenses can be prescribed in children after the age of 12-13 years when they can handle them well and
• laser correction (LASIK) can be done after the age of 18 years once the power in the eyes become constant.
• Special glasses and medicines like Atropine 0.01% are found to be effective in retarding the progression of myopia (near sightedness).
• There are also methods to reduce hypermetropia (far sightedness) by supporting the process called emmetropization.

Parent’s Role in Preparing the Child for An Eye Exam

• Pay attention to your child’s eyes and behaviour
• Call the doctor if you notice a problem or if your child complains and have your child’s eyes checked at 6 months, 3 years and 5 years intervals and at least once between the ages of 7 and 18.
• Correcting vision problems early is the best way to control your child’s sight.
• Unusual behaviour can sometimes be a sign of an eye problem.

Watch your child for the following warning signals:

• Closing one eye or turning or tilting the head to see the things.
• Squinting to see things at a distance.
• Not being able to see things you point out.
• Consistently holding objects close to the face or sitting very close to the TV.
• Blinking or rubbing one eye a lot.
• Running into objects or falling down at night or in places that are not well lit.