Low Vision Specialist Brings Lesser-Known Care to Santa Barbara Area
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Losing vision can make everyday life increasingly difficult, but a type of specialized care is helping some patients regain abilities they thought were gone.
John Daly spent years watching his eyesight decline. About three years ago, his vision loss became severe enough that he could no longer read, drive or even see what he was writing.
Daly tried several optometrists without finding a solution before eventually coming to Dr. Andrew Bock, a low-vision optometrist serving patients in the Santa Barbara area.
Low-vision care is designed for people whose eyesight cannot be fully corrected through conventional glasses, contact lenses or treatment. The specialty focuses on helping patients make better use of the vision they still have.
“Low vision is not the easiest thing to understand or describe,” Bock said. “It’s where glasses and or contacts don’t allow people to do the things they love to do.”
What that means can vary from patient to patient. Some may need help reading or recognizing faces, while others want to use a computer, watch television or better navigate their surroundings.
Specialized lenses, magnification and electronic devices can be tailored to those individual needs.
For Daly, electronic glasses made a dramatic difference.
“When he put the glasses on me the first time and I was able to read I got all choked up because it was a miracle,” Daly said.
Bock works with patients who may have gone years without being able to perform certain tasks and may not realize low-vision care is an option.
Daly hopes his experience brings more attention to a specialty that often goes unseen.
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