Pediatric Eye Care


 

Pediatric Eye Care

Dr. Nausheen Khuddus is a pediatric ophthalmologist specializing in examining children with various eye issues and adults with strabismus. Together, with her orthoptist Tammy Toskes, they are able to provide excellence in eye care to all children and adult strabismus patients. Their approach to treating children is unique. They treat each child or adult individually with patience and kindness. They are firm believers that children are not just small adults. Early intervention is the key to preventing permanent visual problems. Diagnosis of ocular disease must occur at an early age to avoid permanent visual deficits. .The whole pediatric team is devoted to making each child feel special.

 

Dr. Khuddus treats patients with:

  • Amblyopia
  • Strabismus
  • Pediatric Cataracts and pediatric glaucoma
  • Syndromic/Genetic Diseases
  • Ocular Trauma/ sports injuries and Eye Infections
  • Failed Vision Screenings and blurred vision/ Routine Exams/ Refractive Error
  • Accommodative/Convergence Dysfunction
  • Nasal Lacrimal Duct Obstructions
  • Headaches
  • Nystagmus
  • Pseudotumor Cerebri
  • Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Uveitis
  • Torticollis
  • Brain tumors, optic nerve problems
  • And many other conditions

 

What can you expect when you take your child to the ophthalmologist?

We are dedicated to providing your child with a comprehensive eye exam by experts who have specialized training in working with children. Our team is led by Dr. Nausheen Khuddus, a fellowship trained pediatric ophthalmologist and Tammy Toskes, a certified orthoptist. Orthoptists are highly skilled technologists who have specialized training in working with children and are able to analyze all types of eye muscle and movement disorders.

The first visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist is a comprehensive evaluation that will take about one and a half hours. We will find out a detailed history about your child and what you as a parent may have noticed. We may ask you if you have pictures that show us what you have noticed. Your visit may take longer if you need specialized testing or have complex eye problems.

Please bring: your child’s medication list (if any) and any insurance information and cards. - If your child has had previous eye surgeries, please attempt to bring prior records.

We will test your child’s vision through a number of techniques that allow us to test babies, preverbal children, children with disabilities and children able to read the eye chart. We use matching games, letter recognition and even pictures. Each eye will be checked separately, which is important because a child can function normally even if one eye has decreased vision and the other eye sees well. We evaluate eye muscle alignment, depth perception, fusion, tracking, as well as other components. Next we evaluate the health of the front portion of the eyes, and the way the pupil reacts to light.

All new exams normally include a dilated eye exam of both eyes with eyedrops. Dilation takes 30 to 45 minutes. This important part of the exam will allow the doctor to look at the inside and back of the eyes and check the health of your child’s lens, retina and optic nerve. Dilation also helps us measure the focusing system of the eye to see if your child’s world is in proper focus. We use sophisticated instruments to determine the proper focus. We check for nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism. We also check that both eyes are in similar focus together. If one eye is out of focus compared with the other eye, a condition called amblyopia (lazy eye) can result. When amblyopia develops, the brain chooses to use one eye more than the other, which can cause long-term vision problems in the other eye. Exercises, glasses and other types of eye therapy may be needed to retrain the brain to use the eye. In many cases, checking your child’s focus can provide important information in diagnosing and treating eye crossing problems.

We only give glasses to children that need them. We are able to determine through our testing if they are truly necessary.

After the exam, the pupils will remain dilated for several hours. This may result in some mild blurring of near vision as well as increased sensitivity to sunlight. Others tests may also be performed on an as needed basis, depending on what the preceding parts of your examination have revealed. These include formal visual field testing, photography, high resolution scans of the back of the eye, pachymetry to check corneal thickness, and ophthalmic ultrasound.

After the examination, Dr. Khuddus will discuss the results of the exam with you and answer any questions you might have!

 

You are in great hands with people who care...

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