Tips For Communicating Effectively With Your Eye Doctor

Learning you have an eye condition or vision problem can be a challenging experience. Your eye doctor will be giving you a lot of information about your condition and treatment options, and it’s important that you understand what you need to do to keep your eyes healthy.

In this post, the team at Berks Eye Physicians and Surgeons gives their tips for communicating effectively with your eye doctor.

Know Your Condition

Get as much information as you need about your eye condition. Feel free to ask questions about any of the following issues related to your eye problem:

• Common symptoms
• How this condition is diagnosed
• Treatment options
• Lifestyle changes you may need to make
• The risks involved if the condition persists or worsens

Your doctor may have handouts or information that you can take home with you. If not, you may want to take notes that you can refer to in the future.

Discuss Treatment Options

There may be one or more treatment options for your eye condition. It’s important that you understand the costs and benefits of each approach so that you and your eye doctor can make the best treatment decision.

Your eye doctor will often recommend a more conservative treatment at first. This is done to avoid the potential risks and complications of more invasive treatments, such as surgery.

Understand that just because you are using one treatment now, that doesn’t mean you won’t need to explore other treatment options in the future. Be prepared for changes in your treatment if your condition worsens or doesn’t improve over time.

Ask What You Need to Do

Eye doctors can’t force their patients to follow their recommendations. In many cases, it’s up to the patient to follow the doctor’s instructions if they want to get the most out of their treatment.

Make sure you ask questions about all of the following things your eye doctor may expect from you:

• How often do you need to administer a treatment?
• Are there diet, exercise, or other lifestyle changes you need to make?
• Are there certain activities you need to avoid?
• How often do you need to schedule eye exam appointments with your eye doctor?
• Are there any follow-up tests you need to schedule?

You can take notes using pen and paper or using a note-taking app on your phone. Some people find it easier to bring a friend to their appointment who can take notes and remind you about any questions you need to ask.

To schedule your next eye exam at Berks Eye Physicians and Surgeons, please contact our Reading, PA office today.