Dr. Richard Vanover: Committed to Comprehensive Eye Care

I really enjoy working with children and their parents, and the opportunity to help them understand what their child’s vision is like and what the future can hold for them. It’s important for me to get the parents to realize the visual process and why it’s important to have the child wear their glasses or follow my instructions for the best long-term outcome (and what the possible outcomes can be if they don’t!).

As a child, I underwent an experimental visual treatment that was designed to minimize my nearsightedness, and so from that perspective, I can appreciate what the child is going through and their tendencies during treatment.

The most rewarding part of my practice is when I see the light bulb go on after I explain how the visual system works or what my findings indicate because that means that they will be more self-motivated to follow my recommendations.

One especially meaningful interaction from my practice was with a patient who came in to get a new pair of glasses and was having no other vision problems. Because her prescription was expired, she needed to have a full eye examination. There was nothing remarkable in her health history and she was having no complaints.

During her exam, I uncovered something out of the ordinary inside of her eyes. I was able to use our advanced diagnostic technology to show her what I had found and armed with this knowledge, she went to her primary physician to have it investigated.

Her regular doctor found nothing wrong and told her not to worry about it. But because of the pictures I showed her from the Optomap Retinal Scanner and the conversation that she and I had, she persisted with her doctor to have additional testing done.

He finally relented and ran additional tests which uncovered a serious systemic condition which was life threatening with a very high mortality rate. Because it was discovered so early and before any symptoms arose, her condition was successfully treated and she is in full remission. To have a patient thank me for saving their life is one of my fondest memories of practicing optometry!