General Info/Links

General Information
 

• New Patients
  If you are a new patient to Eyecare Specialties, we welcome you. Please visit our FAQs page to review common questions first-time patients have about our services. Also, to save time at your visit, you may print and fill out your new patient paperwork in advance. Just click on the Patient Forms tab, left.
   
• Our LASIK Partners
  Because of the sensitive calibration of LASIK surgery equipment, this proceduce cannot be performed at our high altitude. However, we have partnered with the best LASIK providers in Grand Junction and in Denver, and we are able to provide all pre- and post-operative care right here in the Yampa Valley. Avail yourself of this local, professional service and avoid numerous trips out of town.

   

  Some of the providers we partner with include:

  Spivack Vision Center (Formerly, Colorado Laser Surgeons), Denver, www.spivack.com

  Grand Valley Lasik & Cataract, Grand Junction, www.grandvalleylasik.com

  Insight Lasik, Denver, www.insightlasik.com

  TLC Laser Eye Centers, Denver, www.lasik.com

  For information about LASIK surgery in general, please click on the Eye Care Articles tab, left.
   

• Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT)
  Corneal Refractive Therapy, also known as Orthokeratology, uses specially designed contact lenses that gently and temporarily reshape the cornea while you sleep. After being fitted with CRT lenses, you simply wear the lenses while asleep then take them out upon awakening. The result is great vision 24 hours a day -- without the lenses during waking hours and while they're in at night. And because you can stop the therapy at any time without permanent changes to your eyes, you have ultimate control over your vision correction. CRT has been proven both safe and effective for patients of all ages. CRT lenses correct myopia (nearsightedness) and myopia with astigmatism. For information about Orthokeratology/Corneal Refractive Therapy, please click on the Eye Care Articles tab, left.
   
• Synergeyes Hybrid Contact Lenses
  SynergEyes® hybrid contact lenses combine the benefits of both rigid and soft lenses. The soft skirt offers all day comfort while the "breathable" rigid center keeps eyes healthy and provides crisp, clear vision, even at night.

   

  SynergEyes® offers a wide variety of hybrid contact lenses to meet your visual needs. Whether you have astigmatism, need vision correction for distance, close up, or reading, or if your vision is affected by keratoconus, SynergEyes® contact lenses provide you with comfortable and crisp vision all day long. For more information, visit the Synergeyes website at synergeyes.com.
   

• Vision Therapy
  Vision is a set of abilities. Nearly all humans are born with the potential for good eyesight, but vision -- the ability to identify, interpret and understand what is seen -- is learned and developed, starting at birth. Since 80% of all information we receive is visual, efficient visual skills are a critical part of learning, working and even recreation. Developing visual skills includes learning to use both eyes together effectively. When both eyes move, align, fixate and focus as a team, your ability to interpret and understand the visual information available to you is enhanced. The visual skills which can be developed and enhanced through vision therapy include:
   
• Tracking, the ability to follow a moving object smoothly and accurately with both eyes
   
• Fixation, the ability to quickly and accurately locate and inspect with both eyes a series of stationary objects, one after the other, such as the words on a page in a book
   
• Focus Change, the ability to look quickly from far to near and vice versa without momentary blur, such as looking from the chalkboard to a book or from the dashboard to cars on the street
   
• Depth Perception, the ability to judge relative distances of objects and to see and move accurately in three-dimensional space, such as when hitting a ball or parking a car
   
• Peripheral Vision, the ability to monitor and interpret what is happening around you while you are attending to a specific central visual task
   
• Binocularity, the ability to use both eyes together smoothly, equally, simultaneously and accurately
   
• Maintaining Attention, the ability to keep doing a particular skill or activity with ease and without interfering with the performance of other skills
   
• Near Vision Acuity, the ability to clearly see, inspect, identify and understand objects at near distances, within arm's length
   
• Distance Acuity, the ability to clearly see, inspect, identify and understand objects at a distance (People with 20/20 distance sight may still have visual problems.)
   
• Visualization, the ability to form mental images in your "mind's eye," retain or store them for future recall, or synthesize them into new mental images beyond your current or past direct experiences.

   

  Symptoms of visual stress include headaches, double vision, losing one's place while reading, difficulty understanding or recalling what has been read, body tension, fatigue, and suppressing information from one eye in order to avoid seeing double.

  Vision therapy focuses on developing, improving and enhancing a person's visual performance. Behavioral optometrists, such as Eyecare Specialties' Dr. Craig Eckroth, work to prevent vision and eye problems from developing; develop the visual skills needed to achieve more effectively at school, work or play; enhance functioning at tasks demanding sustained visual effort; and remediate or compensate for vision and eye problems which have already developed.

  For more information about Vision Therapy, click on the Optometric Extension Program Foundation link below.

   

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  Links to Professional Organizations
• Colorado Optometric Association (COA), www.visioncare.org
• American Optometric Association (AOA), www.aoa.org
• InfantSEE, www.infantsee.org
• Optometric Extension Program Foundation (OEPF), www.oepf.org
• College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD), www.covd.org