Early Intervention is Vital For a Good Visual Outcome

Early Intervention is Vital

Dr Maree Flaherty, principal Ophthalmologist and managing director at the Children's Eye Centre, was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald in September for a feature to coincide with National Eye Health week. She discussed the importance of early detection and treatment to ensure the best visual outcome possible.

Children have great plasticity in their visual system whilst they are young, especially in infancy and early childhood, and vision continues to develop until around 10 years of age. This provides a window in which to instigate treatment (usually glasses and/or patching) and improve vision. However once this window of opportunity closes treatment becomes much less effective.
StEPS stands for Statewide Eyesight Preschooler Screening and is a statewide vision screening program initiated by NSW Health directed towards all 4 year olds prior to starting kindergarten. All children enrolled in day care centres and preschools across NSW have access to this screening program. If a problem is identified at screening then referral to a paediatric Ophthalmologist for further investigation and treatment is warranted.
However, if you notice a squint (turned eye), that your child appears to have trouble seeing, or you have a strong family history of vision problems in childhood then it would be advisable to seek an opinion earlier than this.

Dr Flaherty also discussed the protective effect of sunlight on the length of the eyeball which is of particular interest to those people who have myopia (short-sightedness). We discussed this in a previous newsletter which can be found here: http://mailchi.mp/0f96ead652d5/developments-in-myopia-treatment

If you would like to see the full SMH article you can access it here: http://childrenseyecentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Childrens-Eye-Health-half-page-SMH-21.9.171.pdf.

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All of the staff at the Children's Eye Centre wish you and your family a very happy Christmas and festive season. We hope you enjoy a safe holiday period and we look forward to seeing you again next year.