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Residents may be past due for an eye checkup due to closures from the pandemic.
Optometrist Krista Daigle said it looks different but the experience is very similar to past visits.
“When you come in, we do your regular eye exam, so the actual eye exam looks the same. There’s a lot more fogging up of the lenses and things, we have to take a bit longer because we’re consistently removing the machines to clean off the fogging from the condensation from the masks,” she said.
Daigle said they’re taking extra precautions to ensure safety.
“We’re taking extra precautions to ensure that we’re able to see the entire eye despite that, to make sure that the health of the eye is really good,” she said.
She said glasses pickups are by appointment and are fit on that follow-up visit.
Offices were available or on-call as much as possible while the province was shut down in the case of eye care emergencies and health by calling the patient and also being sent pictures.
“We did get phone calls, a lot of people having eye strain, dry eye, and that was mostly from all the extra computer work they were doing, people on their phones more often, doing close up work, bored at home kind of thing,” she said.
Daigle said in the case of loss of eyesight patients were seen in the office as soon as possible.
Patients are asked to wear a mask and follow standard public safety protocols such as physical distancing and to book their appointment soon to avoid neglect of eye care which may lead to bigger issues later.
