Eye surgery amongst children is incredibly common since many eye and vision conditions are only successfully resolved before the eye fully develops. There are many reasons why a child might need to undergo surgery, and the procedures differ depending on the correction your child requires.
Today, our children’s ophthalmologist will discuss the common types of pediatric eye surgery and outline what the surgery setting is like.
Common Types of Pediatric Eye Surgery
- Strabismus Surgery – tightening or loosening of the muscles to improve the eye alignment.
- Tear Duct Surgery – this surgery can be carried out in 3 different ways (probing, stent, or balloon catheter dilation) all of which aim to open the blocked tear ducts. This surgery has an 85-95% success rate for children 1-year-old, or younger.
- Ptosis Surgery – lifting the eyelid that may be blocking vision.
- Cataract Surgery – removing the cloudiness of the lens of the eye.
- Glaucoma Surgery – reduction of eye pressure, which may be damaging vision.
More About Pediatric Eye Surgery
The process
Firstly, it is important to point out that surgery is usually the last resort. Your pediatric optometrist will begin your child’s treatment with a thorough assessment of their current eye and vision health. Once the results of the assessment are analyzed, your child will go through all the relevant eye tests to ensure the accuracy of the diagnosis. Appropriate treatment will then be administered to your child, usually in the form of eye drops, glasses, patches, medications, or a combination of these.
Only when this treatment doesn’t work as well as expected, or when your child is in a critical condition the child will be referred to the surgery room.
The roles of different physicians
Pediatric Eye Surgery will be carried out by a board-certified pediatric ophthalmologist – not any other kind of optical physician. Only an ophthalmologist undertakes specialized training to become a medical doctor (MD), or a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) of eye and vision care.
An ophthalmologist’s journey to becoming board-certified includes 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 1 year of an internship and at least 3 years of hospital-based residency in ophthalmology. The eye doctor can also choose to undergo additional training to specialize in a certain area, like our founder Dr. Lambert who is also a board-certified strabismus surgeon.
Typically the pre- and post-operative care will be carried out by a pediatric optometrist, who will be responsible for prescribing medications and monitoring your child’s progress. An optometrist has to complete a 4-year Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree and 4 years of postgraduate professional training.
About our Children’s Ophthalmologist in Livingston!
Our exceptional doctors, Amy Lambert, MD, and Rachel Bloom, MD, are both board-certified pediatric ophthalmologists. Dr. Lambert, the founder of Pediatric Eye Associates, Llc, is also a board-certified strabismus surgeon, and Dr. Bloom is additionally fellowship trained.
Our pediatric eye doctors are experts at meeting your children’s eye and vision needs. We pride ourselves on the results we achieve with our patients and we believe the key is not just our medical expertise, but also attitude and patience with the children. Our motto is “to provide the highest quality eye care for children in a setting that is comfortable and reassuring.”
We understand that you will have many questions about our Livingston ophthalmologist, so if any of them are still unanswered, please refer to our FAQs page, or contact us. You can get in touch with us by:
- Visiting our practice
22 Old Short Hills Rd. Lower Level-1, Livingston, New Jersey 07039
Open hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 – 17:00
- Calling us on 973-422-1230
- Submitting the inquiry form on our contact us page
- Checking our Facebook page – Pediatric Eye Associates, LLC
The material contained on this site is for informational purposes only and DOES NOT CONSTITUTE THE PROVIDING OF MEDICAL ADVICE, and is not intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your health.
