Seeing a new physician or specialist can feel daunting, especially if you have young children. Knowing this, we want to help you prepare so that you can fearlessly and confidently conquer your child’s first visit with us. Without further ado, here’s what to expect from your first visit at Eyes to See Pediatric Ophthalmology.
What to Bring: A few things you’ll need for the appointment are insurance cards, parent identification (e.g. driver’s license, state ID, etc), glasses and optical prescription used by the patient (if applicable) and a list of medications (including eye drops and supplements) that your child currently uses. Also, feel free to bring anything that your child enjoys that will help them to feel comfortable and relaxed while they’re here. This could be a baby blanket, a favorite toy or stuffed animal, or even a book to read while you wait. Sometimes snacks are helpful too.
Helping Prepare Your Child for their Appointment: If this is your child’s first ever eye exam or their first dilated eye exam, we recommend briefing them about dilation and some of the other tests we’ll be doing prior to the appointment. We elaborate on tests and what to expect during the exam later in this post. Here’s a video for parents from the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus about what to expect at the pediatric ophthalmologist. The video, along with this article, may help you to understand what we’ll do during your visit so that you can better prepare your child for it.
Getting Checked In: When you arrive, come on in and head to our front desk. From there, the receptionist will ask for your insurance cards and identification. If you haven’t filled one out from home, you’ll also be given a new patient registration form to fill out. Once you’ve completed the form, return it to the receptionist. If you’ve already made an appointment and would like to print a patient registration form to fill out from home, click here. (There is an English and a Spanish side for each page.)
Waiting: We do our best to ensure minimal waiting times for our patients, but to make the time that your child spends in our waiting room more fun, they are welcome to quietly play with toys, or if they’re age seven or older, they can enjoy waiting room trivia on our website. To try our waiting room trivia, go to happyeyes2see.com, click on “MORE”, and then click on “WAITING ROOM FUN FACTS''. If you have a younger child, you can read the questions to them so that they can play along too!
The Work-Up: After a few minutes, an ophthalmic technician will bring you and your child into one of the exam rooms. The technician will run a few tests to examine specific aspects of your child’s vision; when these are finished, they may also dilate your child’s eyes using dilating eye drops. We dilate children’s eyes so that the doctor can get a fuller view of the optic nerve – which is in the back of the eye – and examine it to ensure there are no issues. It also gives us a more accurate prescription should your child need one. Dilation stings slightly (comparable to the feeling of getting soapy water in your eyes,) but the sting will go away quickly. To learn more about dilation and why we dilate our patients' eyes, click here.
Waiting for the Doctor: Once the dilating drops are in, it may take about 30 minutes for your child’s eyes to dilate. The technician will exit the room shortly after administering the drops, and the doctor will visit after your child’s eyes are dilated. During this time, your child’s near-vision will become blurry; this is normal and will dissipate as the dilating drops wear off. Your child's eyes may also temporarily become sensitive to light. We offer disposable shades at check-out to help with this.
The Exam: Once your child’s eyes finish dilating, the doctor will come and examine them. The exam is usually broken into four parts: checking for crossing of the eyes, checking the overall health of the eyes (including viewing the back), checking for a prescription, and fine-tuning the prescription (if applicable).
Next Steps and Check-Out: Depending on the determinations of the doctor, your child may need an OCT (optical coherence tomography; this is an eye test that takes a picture of the back of the eye), other tests, or a further referral. If your child requires a prescription, you can take a look at our in-house optical shop. After this, it will be time to check out. Speak with our receptionist and schedule a follow-up appointment if necessary, and then you’re good to go. We’ll see you soon!
For more information about what to expect at your first appointment with us click “Appointment Info” on the menu, or click here.
If you have any other questions or need to schedule an appointment, we’d be happy to help! Call us at 616-796-9995 to get started!
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