If you have an eye condition such as glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, you will work with a local optometrist and/or ophthalmologist in addition to your local family physician. A local family physician is a medical doctor who focuses on health and wellness at all stages of life. From annual screening exams to providing immunizations, your local family physician is an excellent resource. Your local family physician can also educate you more about preventing eye conditions such as macular degeneration and/or refer you to an optometrist and/or ophthalmologist if they feel it would be beneficial.
A local optometrist is a vision care professional who specializes in vision care (including prescribing contacts and glasses) and measuring your prescription. A local ophthalmologist is also a vision care professional, but they perform procedures such as LASIK eye surgery, retinal detachment repair and cataract surgery. Even if you’re seeing a local optometrist or ophthalmologist to manage your eye condition, measure your prescription or recover from eye surgery, it’s still essential to vist your local family physician for regular care. Your local family physician can work with your local ophthalmologist or optometrist and other health care providers such as your local endocrinologist to ensure you’re getting comprehensive treatment for optimal health.
On the other hand, somebody who has stubbed their toe to the point that it's bleeding, but who is walking up the stairs to get their Lotto 649 cheque, may not actually pause to notice their pain. On another day, when it's been the worst day of their life and everything bad has happened and then you stub your toe, it feels much more intense even though the injury might have been the same.
The first step to getting assessed for chronic pain is to have somebody assess the area that's painful and determine all of the underlying factors. For instance, in a patient who's had whiplash pain after a car accident, we may look at pain generators in the neck, so we'll look at muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints and decide what's playing a role in that. That may involve help or assessment through a physiotherapist, a massage therapist, the physician. It may involve x-rays or a consultation with another specialist.
Treatment of viral conjunctivitis is really just a matter of time; just like a common cold lasts five to seven days, pink eye or viral conjunctivitis lasts about the same amount of time. A lot of people want to use drops or antibiotic drops to treat their viral infection, and the concern with that is that a lot of the drops have preservatives or other agents in them, which can, in fact, irritate your eye and make your pink or red eye last longer. So, its much better just to use expectant treatment ; maybe warm or cold compresses with a clean cloth on your eye ; and good handwashing so you don;t spread it to other members of your family.
A scanning digital opthalmoscope is essentially a camera, and it's a camera that allows us to photograph the inside of the eye, the retina, up to 220 degrees. With that we can look for signs of glaucoma, we can look for signs of macular degeneration, or changes in macular degeneration, and we can look for changes in cataract development.
From a systematic standpoint we get to look for signs of diabetes, MS will show up in the back of the eye, hypertensive disease, and also atherosclerosis. We do this on our children, and we do this on adults as well. They'll place their eye in here, and within a few seconds the camera will take its picture and that information is sent to the doctor for analysis. Remember that treatment for this condition varies not only with the patient but their individual condition, so always consult your local healthcare provider.
