How often should you have an eye exam?

12879934_MYou get annual physicals and have your teeth cleaned at your dentist’s office twice a year. How often should you have a vision exam? The answer: You should have your eyes examined every one to two years.

Have children? Children should have their first eye exam when they are 6 years old — earlier if you suspect a vision issue. Children who wear glasses or contact lenses should have annual eye exams. Timing visits to the eye doctor in the summer or around the time of a new school year is a great idea; it can help make sure there are no vision issues and/or that a child’s glasses or contacts are still treating any vision issues effectively.

For adults ages 18 to 60, health experts recommend getting an Adult Routine Eye Exam every one to two years. Seniors 61 and older should get annual eye exams due to higher risk factors for eye disease, including the most common one, age-related macular degeneration. Annual eye exams can also help detect glaucoma early. If you have vision insurance, vision checkups are typically a covered benefit and are allowed every one or two years. (Check with your vision insurance provider if you have one for information specific to your plan).

Checkups are an opportunity for us to spot eye issues and problems at a time when they are the most treatable and you have the greatest number of options for addressing them. If you have an eye issue in between exams, consider making an appointment to discuss it. We have many different ways to address and manage eye conditions such as dryness.

At Utah Eye Centers, we have convenient locations in Bountiful, Ogden, Orem and Salt Lake City where our experienced doctors and staff offer comprehensive vision examinations. Each location has a full-service, state-of-the-art ophthalmic practice where we provide a broad range of procedures and use advanced diagnostic technology and vision correction products to properly treat and enhance your vision quality. Simply put, we do it all!

We also offer a variety of appointment times to accommodate your busy schedule. Need an appointment? Call Utah Eye Centers today to schedule one today at 801-476-0494.

When was your child’s last vision exam?

Pre teen girl doing school homeworkAnother new school year is here, making it a great time to schedule eye exams for your children. Annual vision checkups are an opportunity to catch and correct eye problems early and prevent eye-related learning issues at school. At Utah Eye Centers, we’re proud to have Dr. Michael Bullard on our team. He is the only full-time Pediatric Ophthalmologist in Weber and Davis Counties and is dedicated to eye issues involving children. He and his team are great with children of all ages and have treated a wide variety of eye problems and conditions, including:

Amblyopia. This condition occurs in early childhood and is commonly known as a lazy eye. Symptoms can include a wandering eye, eyes that may not appear to work together, or poor depth perception.

Strabismus. This eye problem is caused by a nerve injury or dysfunction of the muscles controlling the eye. This will cause a misalignment of the eyes which will make one of the eyes turn inward, outward, downward, or upward. Dr. Bullard treats kids and adults for strabismus.

Nasolacrimalduct Obstruction. This is the obstruction of tear ducts, which leads to an excess of tears. Its most common cause is the failure of the membrane at the end of the tear duct.

Utah Eye Centers is the leading provider of vision care along the Wasatch Front. Our mission is to provide each patient — child, teen, adult or senior — with personalized patient care and extraordinary service. We are a full ophthalmic practice, offering general, retina, pediatrics, cosmetic and refractive care. Our doctors are dedicated to reducing the visual impairments patients experience through prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Our nationally ranked surgeons have been performing refractive surgery for more than two decades using the most advanced technology and procedures available, including the CATALYS precision laser.

We have convenient locations in Bountiful, Ogden, Orem and Salt Lake City, where our experienced doctors and staff offer comprehensive vision examinations. Each location has a full-service, state-of-the-art ophthalmic practice, providing a broad range of procedures and using advanced diagnostic technology and vision correction products to properly treat and enhance your vision quality. Want to learn more, or to schedule an appointment? Call us at (801) 476-0494