Author: Angelina Mckinney

The Importance of an Eye Doctor

Angelina Mckinney Eye Care

Whether it’s to fix your vision or keep your eyes healthy, an eye doctor is essential for your health. Your yearly exam will include tests that can help diagnose problems like an aneurysm, which is a balloon-like bulge in the weak wall of a blood vessel.

Eye Doctor

Your eye doctor will use drops to dilate your pupils so they can check the back of your eyes and blood vessels. This part of the test can take an hour or so, and your eyes will be sensitive to light for a few hours afterward. Contact My Eye Doctor Towson now!

Eye doctors are trained to look at the structures of the eye and detect diseases that can have a significant impact on vision. They can diagnose and treat a wide range of eye diseases, such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and cornea injuries. They can also prescribe medications and perform certain surgical procedures. They are America’s frontline health care providers and are recognized as physicians by Medicare.

During a medical eye exam, an ophthalmologist will examine your entire eye area, including the eyes, eyelids, conjunctiva, sclera and cornea. They may use a special tool that shines a beam of light shaped like a small slit, called a slit lamp, to illuminate the eye’s structures. They may also use drops that cause the pupil to expand (this is called dilation), which allows them to see the back of your eye, which includes the retina and nearby blood vessels.

The doctor will ask about your family’s history of eye and health problems, as well as your current symptoms and lifestyle. They will perform a series of tests to check your visual acuity and to measure the strength of your eye muscles. They will also likely test your color blindness and peripheral vision. The tests are usually painless and can include having a bright light shone in your eye or a puff of air blown on the surface of your eye.

A dilated eye exam can help identify a number of health conditions, including high blood pressure and heart disease. For example, if the ophthalmologist notices unusual bends or kinks in the blood vessels of your retina, this could indicate that you have high blood pressure and is a major risk factor for glaucoma. Unusual changes in the size of your pupil can also be a sign of a brain tumor or an aneurysm, a bubble in the wall of a blood vessel that can leak or rupture.

The ophthalmologist can recommend specialists for your specific needs, such as retina specialists and rheumatologists. They can also refer you to your primary care physician for a more thorough assessment of your overall health and a more general testing schedule.

Treatment

An eye doctor treats patients who suffer from various vision-related conditions. They diagnose the problem and prescribe treatments such as eyeglasses or contact lenses. They also treat some common eye diseases like glaucoma, strabismus (crossed eyes) and macular degeneration. They can even perform eye surgeries such as cataract removal and laser treatment for glaucoma and strabismus.

The first thing your New York eye care specialist will do is take a detailed medical history of your family. They will ask about your lifestyle, health problems and family history of eye diseases or other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.

A complete eye exam can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the number of tests your ophthalmologist has to perform. Typically, these tests include:

Your eye doctor may use a variety of instruments to examine the inside of your eye. For example, they may shine a light in your eye to test your visual acuity. They may have you look at a chart with different-sized letters or numbers to see how well you can read the symbols. They will also check your color blindness and your peripheral or side vision. They may even use a machine to blow puffs of air into your open eye to detect the presence of glaucoma.

The doctor will then perform a front-of-the-eye examination, using a tool called a slit lamp to illuminate the eye and check the iris, cornea, conjunctiva and sclera. The eye doctor will also likely dilate your pupils to check the back of your eye, including the retina and nearby blood vessels. If you have a family history of certain diseases, your eye doctor will likely recommend regular visits to the office. This will help them spot symptoms of the disease in its early stages and prevent it from progressing to a more serious stage. Depending on your health insurance, you may be able to get these exams for free or at a reduced cost. The best way to know if an eye appointment is covered by your health plan is to call your provider directly.

Preventative Care

The best way to avoid serious vision-limiting diseases is to make eye care a regular part of your routine. Your eye doctor may advise you to visit on a schedule that fits your age and family history. If you have a history of certain conditions, like glaucoma or diabetes, your ophthalmologist will likely suggest a more frequent exam schedule. You should also visit on a regular basis if you experience symptoms such as reduced vision, eye pain, halos around lights, or floaters or flashes of light.

During a routine examination, your eye doctor will test visual acuity and ask questions about any health-related problems you or your family members have experienced. He or she will also check your general eye and health condition, such as your family history of disease, medications you take, and any work-related and environmental factors that could affect your eyesight.

If you are found to have a refractive error (such as myopia or hyperopia), your eye doctor will recommend corrective lenses, such as eyeglasses or contact lenses. Your prescription will be based on your measurements and your preferences. You will then be fitted for lenses and given advice on selecting frames and lenses that suit your facial shape, personal style and budget.

Your eye doctor will use a special light to examine the interior of your eyes, including the optic nerve and retina. The test, called a slit lamp, is painless and quick.

He or she will shine a bright light into your pupils and measure how they react to the light by looking for changes in pupil size. Pupils that contract quickly are a sign of healthy eyes, while those that stay wide open indicate the presence of an underlying problem.

The ophthalmologist will use drops to dilate your eyes, or widen your pupils, so he or she can see the back of your eyes and optic nerve. This is a simple, painless procedure that takes about an hour to complete. You will probably be sensitive to light for a few hours afterward. If you have diabetic retinopathy, your ophthalmologist will likely recommend laser surgery to stop fluid leaking from blood vessels in the back of your eye and to reduce swelling. This treatment is not a cure for diabetic retinopathy, but it can slow the progression of the condition and may help prevent further vision loss.

Referrals

Referrals in eye care allow patients to connect with specialists that can take the next step in their medical journey. They are vital to ensure that a patient is receiving the appropriate care and can move forward with their treatment. Referrals can also help minimize the risk of unnecessary or overlapping tests, which is important for patient safety and cost savings.

When it comes to building a referral network, face-to-face interactions are best. This can be accomplished by attending educational seminars or visiting local physician offices. This will allow you to get to know your referring providers and build a relationship with them. It’s also a great opportunity to introduce yourself and provide business cards. You can also ask the referring doctor for advice on handling certain patient situations.

Creating a rich referral network takes time and effort. It’s also essential to have a process in place to make sure you are getting enough referrals. This is especially important for new ophthalmologists. There are some things that you can do to increase your chances of gaining a referral from a practice, including asking the ophthalmologist for references, sending relevant clinical examination findings, and describing the urgency of the referral.

One of the most common barriers to referral is a lack of communication between referring doctors and their patients. In a recent study, researchers found that 43% of referrals were considered “failures” because the referring doctor did not communicate clinical examination findings or the urgency of the referral.

Another barrier is a lack of knowledge about the type of pathology referred to an eye care provider. Specifically, the research team found that over half of referrals for PVD and disc swelling were managed with advice only rather than by an optometrist. The research suggests that more training and awareness of the scope of an eye care provider is needed for ophthalmic emergencies.

In addition to ensuring that you have the right skills, it’s also important to present yourself as a medically oriented optometrist instead of a glasses and contacts salesperson. This will be more palatable to PCPs and other medical physicians who do not want to send their patients to a low-quality optometrist just to sell them contact lenses. To learn more about how to establish a referral network, you can visit the website of Rise Optometry, who offer a comprehensive program for setting up quality referral relationships.

Lawn Care Tips

Angelina Mckinney Lawn Care , , , , , , ,

A beautiful lawn not only enhances your property’s curb appeal but also helps to improve the environment. Maintaining a healthy lawn involves many tasks, including mowing at the correct height, watering adequately, fertilizing properly, controlling weeds, and aerating regularly.

Lawn Care

Soil tests can guide your efforts, as can the numbers on fertilizer labels. Aerating helps prevent soil compaction that restricts oxygen and limits nutrient flow to grassroots. Visit https://www.primecutlawnky.com/ to learn more.

Mowing is one of the most essential lawn care tasks. A healthy, thriving lawn needs to be cut at the right frequency and height. For example, cutting your lawn too short can cause it to turn brown in dry weather and make it more susceptible to weeds. A good lawn service will know the best mowing technique for your climate zone. They may also offer a variety of other lawn services, like edging, mulching, and blowing away debris.

Keeping your yard clear of trash and other items is important to maintain the health of your grass. A thick layer of leaves or other debris can block sunlight and prevent the grass from photosynthesizing. A lawn care service can help by removing leaves and other debris from the yard on a regular schedule, often with a leaf blower vacuum.

Another vital lawn care task is aeration, which involves poking small holes in the soil to promote growth. This helps your lawn grow faster and be more drought-tolerant. It’s especially important to aerate your lawn in the spring and fall when the soil is more dense.

Fertilization and weed control are also important to a lush, beautiful lawn. A good lawn care company will have experience with a variety of fertilizers and can help you choose the right one for your needs. They may also use natural weed killers instead of chemical herbicides, which are safer for children and pets.

Many lawn care services will offer regular recurring service, which can save you time and money. This way, you never have to worry about your yard getting unkempt or neglectful. A lawn care pro will be available to handle all the little things that go into making your yard look its best.

Watering

The frequency and duration of your lawn’s watering depend on the time of year, your climate, and your grass type. For example, cool-season grasses need to be watered more frequently in spring than they do during summer. However, too much water can cause a variety of problems, including fungus and thatch buildup. It’s important to find the right balance between frequent, shallow watering and infrequent but deep watering.

The best time to water your yard is in the early morning, preferably between 4 and 6 a.m. This cool part of the day prevents evaporation and reduces fungal diseases, and it also helps ensure that the roots receive the water rather than the surface. Avoid watering at night, as this can encourage weed growth and can scald the grass.

A soil test will provide the most accurate information on your lawn’s watering needs. The results will let you know the proportion of sand, silt, and clay in the soil, as well as its moisture retention capacity. Sandy soil, for example, dries out more quickly than clay soil does. But too much clay in the soil can result in compacted earth that restricts nutrient, air, and water flow.

A regular schedule of lawn care services will keep your turf healthy and strong, allowing it to resist weeds and disease more effectively. Recurring lawn services include mowing or grass cutting, fertilization, seeding/overseeding, and aerating. A professional lawn service will have the equipment and knowledge to perform these tasks safely and correctly. They will also use organic pesticides that contain plant, mineral, or microbial substances instead of chemical products, which are more environmentally friendly and healthier for your garden.

Fertilizing

The soil that surrounds most homes is poor, so grasses have to rely on what is in the ground for their micro- and macronutrients. Regular feeding with lawn fertilizer ensures that the grass will get all the nutrients it needs to thrive, especially during hot, dry weather.

Fertilizers come in granular and liquid forms. If you’re looking for a greener lawn, consider choosing organic fertilizers made from materials like compost, blood meal or fish emulsion. These natural fertilizers release their nutrients slowly, so they help the soil stay healthy instead of depleting it. Liquid fertilizers, on the other hand, provide a quick burst of nutrients and are used more often.

Observe your lawn’s growth to determine how often you should feed it. Generally, it’s best to apply fertilizer in the spring, summer and fall. The fall application helps replenish food reserves before winter, and the spring application encourages root growth before the heat of summer arrives.

Be sure to read the product labels carefully. The numbers on the label reveal how much actual nitrogen and other nutrients each fertilizer contains. Too much can damage the grass and cause the rest of the plant to degrade, while too little will not benefit it.

Avoid using fertilizers near bodies of water, as the excess can run off into rivers, lakes and streams. The nutrients can poison fish and other wildlife and cause algal blooms that wreak havoc on the environment. You should also avoid fertilizing when the soil is frozen. This prevents the nutrients from being washed away or unable to reach the grass roots.

Weed Control

Weeds steal water and nutrients from your grass. They also compete for space and detract from the beauty of your lawn. But if you practice proper lawn care, your healthy turf can outcompete and overtake the weeds.

One way to control weeds is by simply mowing your lawn regularly. Mowing eliminates the ability of a weed to put up a seed head and propagate itself. It is also essential to remove any weeds by hand before they have a chance to grow rhizomes or tubers, or set seed. When removing any weeds by hand, make sure to pull the entire plant and its root. This is especially important for perennial weeds such as dandelion, spurge, or dallisgrass. A dandelion fork or fishtail weeder can help with larger patches of weeds that have deep taproots.

For more serious weed infestations, chemical weed control methods can be used. Whether synthetic or organic, these chemicals work by interfering with the weed’s growth or by killing it. There are pre-emergent herbicides (dithiopyr or MCPP) that prevent weeds from germinating and postemergence herbicides that kill weeds that have already emerged from the soil. Both are effective when the correct timing is used.

It is recommended to only use herbicides in conjunction with mowing, watering, and fertilization. Be sure to read and follow all product labels, closely following the specific application rates and safety precautions. A professional lawn care company can provide you with a tailored plan to reduce the number of weeds in your lawn.

When you choose a professional lawn care company in the Memphis, TN and Olive Branch, MS area to manage your landscape, they will take a holistic approach that includes a customized weed control treatment program. This is the best way to ensure your yard is protected from weeds and looking its absolute best.

Aerating

Lawn aeration is the process of poking holes into the soil to relieve soil compaction and encourage grass root growth. The practice improves grass density and increases curb appeal. Aeration also helps reduce the need for weed control and promotes soil health, helping to prevent soil erosion.

Aeration is a common annual lawn care service, but it’s also important to do on your own. You can rent a lawn aeration tool that looks like a cross between a lawnmower and a tiller, and it’s relatively simple to operate. Aerating on your own is much more cost-effective than hiring a professional.

When a lawn isn’t aerated, the grass becomes unhealthy, with fewer roots and less water absorption. Aeration breaks up thatch and reduces soil compaction, allowing the roots to grow deeper and produce a healthier lawn.

Soil compaction and excess thatch starve the roots of your grass by blocking the flow of air, water and nutrients. Aerating alleviates the problem by perforating the soil with small holes, enabling the roots to breathe and absorb more nutrients.

Aerating also benefits your garden by encouraging the growth of beneficial organisms, such as earthworms, soil insects and aerobic bacteria. These organisms thrive in porous, oxygen-rich soil.

Aerated soil is easier for rainwater to soak into, reducing runoff that can contaminate nearby rivers and lakes. Regular aeration also enhances heat and drought tolerance and decreases disease susceptibility by increasing the thickness and depth of your grass’s root system. To get the most benefit from your aeration, you should time it when your grass is in its growing season–usually early spring or fall for cool-season grasses and late spring through early summer for warm-season grasses.