If ordinary glasses or contact lenses don’t provide you with clear vision, you are said to have low vision or visual impairment.  Don’t confuse this condition with blindness. People with low vision still have useful vision that can often be improved with visual devices. Whether your visual impairment is mild or severe, low vision generally means that your vision does not meet your needs. Though most often experienced by the elderly, people of all ages may be affected. Low vision can occur from birth defects, inherited diseases, injuries, diabetes, glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration.  Macular degeneration, a disease which causes damage to the central vision, is the most common eye disease that results in low vision.

For patients who require more advanced low vision aids or for those who require professional assistance in managing visual needs, low vision examinations are available from our low vision specialists.  You’ve probably had many eye examinations with your regular doctor, or several eye doctors, and they all seemed the same. While most eye examinations are designed to medically diagnose and treat the underlying causes of your vision loss, a low vision examination is focused on helping you to obtain the most from your vision using various techniques and low vision aids.  A low vision examination provides a realistic measure of the needs and goals of a person with low vision and the available methods to achieve those goals. The low vision examination takes about an hour and a half. During the exam, specialized equipment and methods are used to help determine the best way to increase vision and improve function with proper lenses, magnification and other aids.