At Precision Family Eye Care, we strive to make your experience as convenient and comfortable as possible. To help with a seamless experience, this page will cover what information and materials you will need to bring to your eye exam at Precision Family Eye Care.
ONLINE RECORDS AND PATIENT FORMS
A complete PDF file of patient forms is available at the bottom middle of the home page and your new patient interview is located under Patient Portal in the header menu on our homepage. If desired, these forms can be filled out ahead of time and brought to your appointment.
MEDICAL HISTORY
It is imperative that all patients fill out the patient health history forms fully. Many common conditions such as, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis, or even getting hit in the eye as a child, can have a serious impact on your eye health. In addition, ALL MEDICINES including over the counter medicines, supplements, and vitamins need to be listed. Many of these medications can affect the health of the eye or glasses prescriptions or may require additional testing or monitoring.
Finally, DIABETIC EYE DISEASE is the leading cause of blindness between the ages 25-65, all diabetic patients need to bring (or be familiar) with their most recent blood work (including their typical fasting blood sugar (FBS) and their last HbA1c value (commonly referred to as “A1C”). It is also helpful to supply the name and phone/fax for the treating primary care doctor or endocrinologist. These pieces of information are very important and allow us to use the findings of our exam to better understand your current control level and to communicate these findings via a personalized letter to your managing doctor in a timely manner.
INSURANCES
All patients need to bring both their medical insurance card and vision insurance card (if supplied) along with a photo ID to every visit. The insurance world is always changing and can be confusing. Therefore, we highly recommend that all patients review our explanation of Vision Insurance vs Medical Insurance to better understand how insurances benefits function in eye care.
Please also see our pages on Vision Insurances and Medical Insurances to see what insurance we are currently accepting.
EYE DILATION and ALTERNATIVES
The dilation of the eye is a vitally important and often misunderstood part of the eye exam. There are some situations where dilating the eyes is necessary for prescribing proper glasses or contact lenses. Most of the time, dilation is used for health purposes to rule out cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, along with many, many other conditions. When looking through an un-dilated pupil it is only possible to view about 10-15% of the retina, however, with dilation we are able to view and analyze 100% of the inside of the eye.
Side effects from dilation usually last 3-4 hours and include light sensitivity which will require sunglasses (temporary sunglasses are provided) and blurriness with reading is common if you are under 50 years of age. Dilation will not substantially affect distance vision or the ability to drive a vehicle.
If dilation is not desired or inconvenient we also offer an alternative to dilation using ultra-wide field imaging of retina. While not an absolute alternative to dilation, this is an acceptable way to evaluate the internal health of the eye for routine examination.
OLD GLASSES AND CONTACT LENSES
It is very helpful for the doctor to be aware of what prescription glasses and contacts you are currently using. Please bring any old pairs of glasses or empty boxes of contact lenses to your first visit. This may sound unimportant but bringing this information with you will allow the doctor to tell if there is a change in your prescription and will help to ensure that you are prescribed a precision pair of glasses or contact lenses.
EDUCATION ABOUT GLASSES AND LENSES OPTIONS
At Precision Family Eye Care we carry and recommended only the highest quality frames and spectacle lens options. However, we understand that picking out that perfect new pair of eyeglasses can sometimes be an overwhelming and confusing process. With the number of lens types, material, coatings, bifocals and options ever increasing we want our patients to fully understand what is available and why we recommended certain options for certain individuals.
We strongly recommend that all new patients to our office or anyone interested in better understanding glasses options and how they work, to visit our Demystifying Lens Options page. Here we go through all the commonly encountered lens materials, coatings, and bifocals types, making you, our patients, more educated consumers.