Back to School Eye Exams Can Save Children from a Lifetime of Visual Discomfort

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla., June 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In honor of August's Children's Eye Health and Safety Month, the Rand Eye Institute, a comprehensive eye care and surgical facility, is encouraging you to make the most of your children's education and maximize their potential, livelihood, and development by including a comprehensive eye exam as part of your child's back to school checklist.

Though most children have healthy eyes, one in four (25 percent or 12 million) school aged children either have vision problems or suffer from some degree of visual impairment.  What's more concerning is that 80 percent of preschoolers don't receive a vision screening.

Often starting at an early age, eye conditions such as amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (cross-eyed) and refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatic), if left undetected and untreated, can damage your child's vision and negatively impact a child's learning ability. 

Although your child may not demonstrate symptoms, it is possible for your child to have a serious vision problem without being aware of it.  Some things to keep an "eye" on include squinting, sitting too close to the TV, complaining of headaches, poor hand-eye coordination, or a lack of concentration when reading that requires the child to either point to words or skip them.

Treatments of eye diseases are most successful when detected early," says Dr. David Rand, comprehensive ophthalmology, refractive and cataract surgeon at the Rand Eye Institute, located at I-95 and Sample Road in Deerfield Beach.  "Eye screenings conducted by professional eye care specialists (optometrist / ophthalmologist), are an effective way to detect abnormalities and can help save children from a lifetime of low vision."

A recent study by the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study Group shows that Caucasian male children have the highest rate of color blindness. Color blindness is genetic and distorts the distinction between red and green. It was found that in many cases, children with color blindness will perform poorly on tests or assignments that employ color coded materials, leading color blind children to be inappropriately classified by ability at school. It is recommended that proper and accurate color vision screening start at the age of four.

The Rand Eye Institute recommends scheduling a preventive eye exam at the age of six months, three years, before kindergarten and once every two years thereafter, starting at the age of five. 

In addition to ensuring proper eyesight, comprehensive eye exams can sometimes lead to the first diagnosis of systemic diseases. As the only organ that allows physicians to directly see blood vessels, eyes are often the first to show predictive signs of diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), thyroid disease, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, immune deficiencies and varying types of cancer. Allowing your eye doctor to detect and treat anomalies at the earliest possible opportunity, comprehensive eye exams, provide an additional mean to stratify risk and help identify people who may benefit from early lifestyle changes and preventive therapies.

Specializing in refractive surgeries such as custom no-flap laser vision correction, lens exchange procedures, custom laser cataract surgery, vitreo-retinal surgery and corneal transplantation; the Rand Eye Institute is a comprehensive eye care and surgical facility, which offers a full-range of patient services, including routine eye examinations, treatment for dry eye syndrome, advanced testing and sophisticated ophthalmic treatments for various eye conditions. The Rand Eye Institute's compliment of qualified, Board certified doctors and professional staff provide patients with quality and compassionate care.

Located on the first floor is the Rand Surgical Pavilion, a state-of-the-art fully licensed and Joint Commission accredited surgical facility, which offers the highest level of surgical care, surpassing nationally accepted standards for safety, sterility, technology, and quality outcomes.

Founded in 1979 by William J. Rand, M.D., one of the most experienced eye surgeons in the country, the Rand Eye Institute is centrally located in Southeast Florida at 5 West Sample Road in Deerfield Beach, FL 33064. For more information about the Rand Eye Institute, please visit www.randeye.com or call Jacqueline Sandoval, Director of Community Relations at 800-782-1711.

Contact:
Jacqueline Sandoval, Community Relations 954-782-1700 [email protected]

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SOURCE Rand Eye Institute