Medical Ophthalmology

When someone has been diagnosed with a chronic and life altering health condition, like macular degeneration, no one else can really understand what that person is going through – unless they’ve been there.

That’s why anyone who has been diagnosed with AMD will appreciate the book, Overcoming Macular Degeneration, A Guide to Seeing Beyond the Clouds. This book is written from the unique perspective of someone who has lived with macular degeneration for over 20 years AND as an ophthalmologist who has treated patients with AMD.

Yale Solomon, M.D. had a busy ophthalmology practice in Bay Shore, New York. At the age of 64 he was diagnosed with AMD in his left eye and 7 years laters in his right eye.

Ophthalmology is an advanced medical field which helps control glaucoma- a disease of the eyes that can cause irreversible blindness if not controlled in its early stages. Regular exams and seeking out professional care can guide one to ultimately good vision.

Ophthalmology is considered one of the most exciting fields of medicine today. Because of the lengthy strides in literally restoring vision to people who would have otherwise been completely blind in one or both eyes, ophthalmology has made extraordinary advances in treatment and technologies that have pushed medical possibilities to new heights.

Ophthalmologist services in New York are utilizing the newest technologies and services available in vision care today. New York eye services include laser surgery, small incision cataract removal, and refractive procedures that ultimately restore vision.

Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT)  is an exciting new technique for examining the internal structures of the eye.  The most common present applications are looking in fine detail at the retina and optic nerve although anterior segment OCTs have also been developed to examine the cornea, iris and lens.

OCT uses the principle of light interference to form a cross-sectional map of the retina or optic nerve.  A super-bright light source such as a special LED is used and a beam-splitter is used to form a reference and a scanning beam.  The reference beam is reflected by a reference mirror and is re-combined with the reflected scanning beam from the eye.  A computer analyses the interference patterns which result.  By varying the position of the reference mirror, different depths of the retina can be studied.  The scanning beam is traced across the retina by a computer controlled mirror which can move the point in a horizontal, vertical or any oblique direction.  The most common strategies used for looking at the retina with this type of OCT use a series of  intersecting scans in different meridians.  This is analogous to scanning from 12 O’clock to 6 O’clock and then from 1 to 7 and so on.