Dr. Whitmore’s practice provides comprehensive eye examinations and is equipped to deal with medical and surgical emergencies in and around the eyes. He also fits contact lenses in the office and performs various types of surgery on the eye and the eyelids in his office.
Emergencies
Please call Dr. Whitmore’s office before going to any emergency room or hospital. The office has specialized instruments and diagnostic equipment that are not available in the hospital or emergency rooms which may be necessary for your care.
Cataract Surgery
Dr. Whitmore has performed many thousands of cataract operations over the years. While he no longer performs cataract surgery himself, he can advise you as to whether this surgery is appropriate for you. He can then refer you to one of his many very experienced colleagues to perform the procedure.
Office-based Surgery
Different types of surgical procedures are performed in the office. These include: removal of skin tags, cysts, birthmarks, or other cosmetic blemishes around the eyes; removal of ocular and corneal foreign bodies; biopsies for skin cancer; draining or removing chalazions or sties; laser surgery for open-angle glaucoma; laser surgery for narrow-angle glaucoma; laser surgery for “after-cataract” membranes (posterior lens capsule opacification.)
Refractive Surgery
Many different types of refractive surgery can be performed on the human eye to change the eye focus. Familiar to most people are LASIK (Laser Intrastromal Keratomileusis) and PRK (PhotoRefractive Keratoplasty) used to correct myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism by reshaping the corneal surface using a specialized laser. Newer procedures such as SMILE (Small Incision Lenticule Extraction) offer the promise of more precise and safer corneal surgery to achieve excellent uncorrected vision. All of these procedures involve some risk to one’s sight, albeit very low. Although Dr. Whitmore does not perform these surgeries, he can discuss these procedures with you and advise you whether or not you are a good candidate, and which one would be best for you. He can make sure you are referred to the best surgeon for the particular type of procedure he feels is appropriate for you.
Contact lenses
Recent advances in technology mean that now almost everyone can wear contact lenses to correct their vision, including people with high degrees of astigmatism, mild dryness, or people who were previously uncomfortable with lenses. Dr Whitmore is experienced at fitting all types of soft and rigid contact lenses. Options include disposable (including one day use), tinted and theatrical soft lenses, soft lenses that correct all degrees of astigmatism, soft lenses that correct presbyopia (i.e. bifocal soft contact lenses), and rigid gas permeable lenses to correct corneal scarring and irregular astigmatism.
Diagnostic Equipment
- Zeiss High Definition Optical Coherence Tomography (HD – OCT)
- Optos Wide Field Fundus Photography
- Marco OPD III Corneal Topography with Wavefront Refractive analysis and pupillometry
- Zeiss Visual Field Analyzer
- Zeiss IOL Master
Surgical Equipment
- Surgical Lasers (including SLT, YAG, and Diode Green lasers)
- Cryotherapy Unit
- Extensive collection of ocular microsurgical and plastic surgical instruments