Diagnoses Definitions pt 2

Alright, just a few more diagnoses definitions for you, that I think you will find helpful when you're doing your insurance and billing process. So, Diabetic Retinopathy, so what this is, is this is when the blood vessels that nourish the eye's retina begin to, or might begin to leak or swell or they develop what we call these brush like branches and if this continues to progress, it can cause cloudiness of vision, it can cause blind spots, and even floaters.

So, what is a floater, well a floater is that speckle or that spot that just seems to, on its own, start going back and forth, across the visual field of your eye. Generally, not harmful, however, if a patient experiences a sudden onset of floaters, we want to bring them in, have a check, and make sure it's not an indicator of another eye condition that they might be developing.

Next, we have the dry eye, where the tear glands produce too few of tears and this can create burning, itching, and even a little bit of vision loss. 

And then, finally the Detached Retina. Very serious condition, and this is actually the separation of the light-sensitive membrane or the retina of the eye from its supporting layers. This can lead to blindness, if not caught right away. 

Okay, so I know I personally found this information very, very helpful when I started out in optometry as a new kid on the block and maybe some of you can relate. I felt like I was listening to a foreign language when it came to all of this OD lingo and in fact, I have a very life-changing story that I could share with you, but we’ll save that for another day. Hope you find this helpful and we're going to move forward with more terms and definitions that specifically relate to the filing of the claim next.