This specialty of medicine is responsible for studying and promoting the treatment of diseases that affect vision, eye health and nearby structures, such as the organs of the lacrimal system.
Differently from opticians – who are technicians specialized in optics, responsible for producing and repairing lenses and glasses – ophthalmologists are doctors who can have both clinical and surgical activities.
Through various examination techniques, such as the assessment of visual acuity, the degree of glasses and the health of the eyes with eye microscopes and modern devices, ophthalmologists are able to diagnose diseases such as:
- glaucoma
- cataract
- retinopathies
- optic nerve diseases.
- Thus, they can identify the different causes of visual reduction or other ocular symptoms, and propose the best clinical or surgical treatments currently available.
- Ophthalmologists are also responsible for diagnosing and correcting so-called refractive errors, that is, prescribing treatments for nearsightedness, astigmatism, farsightedness, and presbyopia (eye strain).
- During clinical-ophthalmological care, ophthalmologists guide and encourage patients to care for eye health, in addition to preventing eye diseases. They also perform diagnostic tests and treat various diseases with the use of eye drops.
- For surgical treatments, "ophthalmologists specialized in different areas perform cataract, retina, eye plastic, glaucoma, strabismus and cornea surgeries, in addition to laser procedures to correct refractive addictions", explains Dr. Aníbal Mutti, ophthalmologist at the Centro de Medicina Especializada [Specialized Medicine Center] (CME).
Equipment
In addition to a highly trained team, Hospital 9 de Julho has advanced technological resources. "Among them is the 3D OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography), the only exam capable of showing the retina and the optic nerve in detail in three dimensions. Thus, it provides a much more detailed examination of the ocular anatomy, which is essential for the early diagnosis and control of the progression of various diseases, such as senile macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, among others", says Mutti.
