One vision care center tends to offer similar services to the next. Larger vision care centers may have more services as they are likely to have more staff to perform them. Some vision care centers also perform cosmetic eye surgeries such as to tighten up drooping eyelids. Services at a vision care center tend to include eye care exams to screen for problems with the eyes, selection and fitting of eyewear and contact lenses and laser and/or cosmetic eye surgery.
Laser eye surgery called laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) provides an alternative for some patients with vision loss to have their vision corrected without needing glasses or contact lenses. A vision care center that offers laser eye surgery must first make sure a client is suitable for the surgery. Eye care professionals should inform the client about the procedure, including any risks and what the realistic result is likely to be.
Commonly, laser eye surgery is used to correct vision problems such as farsightedness and nearsightedness. Farsighted people can see well at a reasonable distance, but have trouble reading or seeing things up close. Nearsighted people have the opposite vision problem as they can see and read things better up close than they can at a distance. In laser eye corrective surgery, the type of corneal tissue reconstruction done to improve vision depends on the eye problem.
For instance, a laser is used to create a flap in the cornea and another laser tool is then used to form the tissue under the lifted flap in one of several different ways. To improve the vision in farsighted individuals, the tissue is positioned back down, but to create vision improvement in nearsighted people, the tissue is raised up. Vision care center services include follow-up after any eye surgery procedures to be sure the eyes are healing well.
Glasses and contact lenses help improve vision problems in people who choose not to have laser surgery or aren't suitable candidates for the procedure. A vision care center usually has a wide selection of eyeglass frames to choose from. Staff will often assist clients in finding colors that suit their skin tone and frame shapes that compliment each client’s face shape. Most vision care centers make contact lenses as per the client’s prescription as well as prescription lenses that they fit in the eyeglass frames the client chooses.