Learn all you need to know
If you are here for your first child’s eye examination, you may have some questions or concerns about what is going to happen.
We have extensive experience diagnosing and treating eye problems in children. Over the past 30 years, we have examined thousands of patients, including children with common and rare eye conditions.
We have a team dedicated to providing your child with a comprehensive eye examination. Our eye care team is led by our pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Roberto Warman M.D., our Pediatric Optometrist, Dr. Heidi Volos O.D.
The first visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist is a comprehensive evaluation that will take about one and a half hours. Your visit may take longer if your child needs specialized testing or have complex eye problems.
We will test your child’s vision through a number of techniques that allow us to test babies, preverbal children, and children able to read the eye chart. We use matching games, letter recognition, and even pictures. Each eye will be checked separately, which is important because a child can function normally even if one eye has decreased vision and the other eye sees well.
All new exams normally include a dilated eye exam of both eyes with eyedrops. Dilation takes 30 to 45 minutes. This important part of the exam will allow the doctor to look at the inside and back of the eyes and check the health of your child’s lens, retina, and optic nerve. Dilation also helps us measure the focusing system of the eye to see if your child’s world is in proper focus. We use sophisticated instruments to determine the proper focus. We check for nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism. We also check that both eyes are in similar focus together. If one eye is out of focus compared with the other eye, a condition called amblyopia (lazy eye) can result. When amblyopia develops, the brain chooses to use one eye more than the other, which can cause long-term vision problems in the other eye. Eye patches or glasses may be needed to retrain the brain to use the eye. In many cases, checking your child’s focus can provide important information in diagnosing and treating eye crossing problems.
After the exam, the pupils will remain dilated for several hours. This may result in some mild blurring of near vision as well as increased sensitivity to sunlight.
Others tests may also be performed on an as-needed basis, depending on what the preceding parts of the examination have revealed. These include formal visual field testing, photography, high-resolution scans of the back of the eye, pachymetry to check corneal thickness, and ophthalmic ultrasound.
After the examination, your pediatric ophthalmology team will discuss the results of the exam with you and answer any questions you might have!
What do I bring to my eye exam?
When you come for your child’s eye exam, please bring the following with you:
- A responsible adult (due to legal requirements, we cannot evaluate unaccompanied minors).
- Referring Doctor or Pediatricians Full Name.
- Updated insurance card.
- Make sure you have downloaded and filled up the forms on the PATIENT CENTER section of our website
- Medical records from referring physician, if available.