How Do You Make Healthy Eye Care Choices?
The health benefits of conversation between two or more people extend to the doctor-patient relationship. Establishing a healthy relationship with your doctor starts with trust and being comfortable having medical conversations with your doctor engenders that trust in many intangible ways. Most importantly, comfort in conversation allows you and your doctor to practice having open dialogue about your medical issues.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), with help from the Choosing Wisely® campaign, is embracing the concept of conversational benefits by encouraging ophthalmologists and patients to have discussions about medical options to determine which eye treatments are best for eye patients.
To protect your vision, it’s important to make healthy lifestyle choices to prevent eye diseases, eye infections, and eye injuries. But appropriate medical care also plays a role. From screenings to medicines and surgical treatments, care from an ophthalmologist can make the difference between healthy vision and loss of eyesight.
Medical Issues and Your Eyes
Sometimes, though, it is difficult to know how much eye care is enough, and which eye treatments are best for you. To help make sure you and your ophthalmologist are choosing wisely when you consider your treatment options, the American Academy of Ophthalmology has joined more than 30 other medical societies in the Choosing Wisely® campaign to encourage conversation between doctors and patients as they discuss medical issues for your eyes.
As part of the campaign, ophthalmologists are looking at five specific tests and treatments that could benefit from doctor-patient conversations. They include:
- Preoperative testing
- Imaging tests
- Antibiotics for pink eye
- Antibiotics for eye injections
- Punctal plugs for dry eye
If you have experienced any of these five eye issues, or have questions about them, ECI encourages you to ask one of our ophthalmologists about it. At ECI, we believe strongly in the benefits of healthy conversation that our doctors and patients derive from each appointment together.
~Thank you to the AAO, for the information provided in this article. To find out more, please read the full article.