Optometry

Protect Your Vision

Visit Sanford Health Optometry for specialized eye care. Your optometrist provides comprehensive eye exams to look for changes in your vision and to diagnose eye disorders. Catch eye problems fast before symptoms show up and get total vision care at Sanford Health.

Eye doctors catch and prevent vision loss. At eye exams, your doctor will look for changes in your vision and give you updated prescriptions for glasses or contact lenses. They will also test for common eye disorders and more.

See the world with 20/20 vision with help from Sanford Health’s trained optometrists.

Find an Optometrist

Schedule an eye exam today. You should get annual checkups to keep your eyes healthy and your vision clear. Your optometrist will look for vision changes and perform screenings for various conditions. 

Find a Location

Sanford Health has optical centers located around the Upper Midwest. Find an eye center near you to get comprehensive eye care.

Screening for Common Illnesses

During an eye exam, an optometrist performs basic screenings for conditions like:

• Cancer: Most eye cancers are found during an eye exam before symptoms present themselves. Your doctor will look for vision or eye abnormalities.
• Cataracts: Left untreated, cataracts can cause blindness. It is the progressive clouding of the lens of the eye and causes blurriness, double vision, sensitivity to light and more. Your optometrist can usually see cataracts by looking at your eye with a microscope.
• Diabetic retinopathy: People with type 1 or type 2 diabetes can lose their vision to diabetic retinopathy. This damages the blood vessels in the retina and can lead to partial or complete blindness if not treated. Initial symptoms can go unnoticed.
• Glaucoma: Glaucoma damages the optic nerve through the buildup of fluid in the eye. Optometrists can test for glaucoma through several different tests. The most common one is to check the pressure in your eye with a puff of air test. If you have high pressure in your eye, this could indicate glaucoma.
• Hypertension: When optometrists look at the back of your eye, they examine the blood vessels. If the vessels are damaged, this could mean that you have high blood pressure. Many patients discover they have high blood pressure during their annual eye exams.
• Macular degeneration: After using drops to dilate your pupils, your doctor will check the back of your eye for irregularities in your eye. Certain oddities could indicate macular degeneration. This condition damages your central vision and is a common cause of vision loss.
• Vision loss: Your doctor will test for vision loss and changes by asking you to identify different letters on a distant eye chart and one at reading distance. If you need new glasses or contact lenses, Sanford Health has optical stores where you can pick out the perfect frames or lenses for you.

If your doctor suspects or discovers an eye condition, you’ll be referred to a Sanford Health ophthalmologist. These eye disorder specialists will evaluate and treat your disease, either medically or surgically.

Pediatric Vision Care

Vision problems in children can affect their learning. It is important that a kid sitting in the back can see the board at the front of the classroom and read it with ease. Vision problems can also affect a child’s ability to read text a short distance away.

With nearsightedness in children on the rise, make sure your child can see everything clearly with a pediatric eye exam.

Prevent Vision Loss

Avoid or slow the progression of vision loss with these tips:

• Don’t smoke
• Eat healthy
• Exercise
• Get glasses with blue light lens coating for protection from blue light damage caused by phone or computer screens
• Have an eye exam annually
• Wear sunglasses year-round

Call an optometrist or eye clinic today to set up your eye exam.