I went to AEI with my son - after a referral from another eye doctor. My son was complaining of limited peripheral vision, migraine headaches, and eye strain. We had already conducted an eye exam and received a MILD prescription for reading glasses and some astigmatism - but the doctor said we should go to Atlantic Eye Institute for specialized diagnosis/treatment about his limited peripheral vision because they had more advanced testing equipment there, as well as doctors who specialize in eye problems in children. My son is 15. \r
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The initial portion of the appointment and exam went fine, conducted by staff or nurses or whoever the patients see before the ""Doctor in the White Coat"" shows up. This doctor we happened to see was Dr. Charles V. Duss. He briefly looked at my son's chart and then started grilling him on WHY he was wearing the glasses the previous doctor had prescribed - and if he could see ok without them. He had my son take off his glasses and then put them back on, asking if there was a big difference in vision between the glasses being ON and being OFF. My son said there wasn't a big difference (they were MILD reading glasses - which Dr. Duss already knew) and Dr. Duss asked ""why are you wearing them, then?"" During this process, I got several cocky looks from the Doctor - as if either I were stupid to have provided the glasses for my son, or I personally enjoyed spending $500 on glasses for my son to wear if he didn't need them. To me, the answer as to why my son was wearing the glasses was obvious and twofold. 1) Because ANOTHER smart, lab-coated doctor - just like HIM - had written a prescription after examining my son's eyes and 2) because they alleviate the symptoms of headache and eye strain during reading and computer use. DUH. Why else would he be wearing them?\r
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The appointment quickly transitioned from an environment of diagnosis and helping a new patient identify or treat a problem of peripheral vision to one of lecturing us about how, apparently the TWO doctors we had seen previously who HAD felt that my son would benefit from the prescription were wrong and how HE wouldn't have written the prescription at all. So, instead of performing the vision field test (the PRIMARY and ONLY reason we were there) he spent a few moments waving his fingers around, holding up one, two, and 4 fingers here and there and asking my son if he could see those fingers, depending upon where in his field of vision he placed those fingers - but not at the edges of vision, nor anywhere near where it would e necessary to test PERIPHERAL vision. In fact, he angered my son to the degree that he shut down and wouldn't even answer him anymore. \r
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So now - after coming to them for HELP, AFTER seeing 2 other eye doctors - we have 3 differing opinions and still no answer on my son's peripheral vision other than the doctor's off-the-cuff answer that he didn't need to perform any more detailed testing. What we DO know at this point is that the glasses that the OTHER doctor prescribed DO make my son feel better and alleviate his eye strain and headaches, that Dr. Duss would NOT have given us that prescription and apparently feels that it would have been a waste of time, and that Dr. Duss apparently derives great pleasure in trying to make his new patients feel as stupid as possible.\r
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I will say that from a systemic perspective - at least the very nice lady who collected payment was efficient at trying to schedule our next ""annual"" exam. FAT CHANCE.
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