PATIENT EDUCATION
Insurance and billing
What to expect at your first appointment
Your referring doctor will complete our consult request form or will provide us with a brief summary, or ideally, detailed clinic notes of your problem in advance of your appointment.
Please bring a copy of your previous medical records and results of any diagnostic tests, if possible. Also bring a list of medications and eye drops you are currently on, or bring the bottles with you.
Your initial visit will entail a review of your medical history and a thorough eye examination. Both your eyes will be dilated for the visit, so your vision will be blurry for several hours after. Dilation of both eyes is required for a thorough examination.
Please set aside two hours for your initial consultation. If additional tests are required, your visit could be longer. You may wish to have someone accompany you to help drive you home. Please feel free to take home a copy of your visit notes.
What to expect at your follow up appointments
Your follow-up appointments will be shorter than your initial or first appointment. We will do our best to get you in and out in a very timely manner. We strive to get you worked up at your appointment time. Please note that there is additional time required for various diagnostic tests, prior to being seen by your doctor. So it will take some time after your official appointment time before you are actually seen by the doctor.
It is also important to realize that retinal diseases usually affect both eyes, so please expect that we will usually dilate both your eyes during the visit. We almost always dilate your eyes at each follow up visit. As retina specialists, we need to examine the back of your eyes thoroughly.
Please remember to bring all your eye drops with you to each appointment so that your doctor can discuss them with you, especially any changes that may be required. Please feel free to take home a copy of your visit notes from every visit.
Use of eye drops
Please remember to use your eye drops as instructed. Good compliance is important for the best results. If you are using multiple different eye drops, give it 3-5 minutes in between each one, so that one drop does not wash another one out. This will improve absorption of the medications into the eye, so that all the eye drops will be more effective.
It is helpful to bring all your eye drops to each visit, so that any changes can be discussed with your medications on hand, and you will remember better what to do. Most eye drops can be stored in a cabinet at room temperature, but certain eye drops, such as Xalatan (latanoprost) need to be stored in a refrigerator.
Most eye drops are straight forward to use, but one medication called Pred Forte (prenisolone acetate) needs to be thoroughly shaken in the bottle before use.
We will typically try to electronically prescribe or call in your prescriptions to your local pharmacy, with the appropriate number of refills.
What you should expect after laser
What you should expect after intravitreal injection
What you should expect after surgery
If you undergo retinal surgery by Dr. Ng, he will have you keep an eye patch on your operated eye overnight, which will then be removed the next morning.
Postoperative eye drops will be started the next day, which include an antibiotic eye drop (tan bottle top), a steroid eye drop (pink bottle top), and sometimes a dilating eye drop (red bottle top). Antibiotic eye drops will be used until they run out (approximately two weeks). Steroid eye drops will be continued for at least one month, and then tapered as instructed.
The operated eye should be kept clean and out of dirty water (ocean, swimming pool, jacuzzi, etc.) for one month. It is recommended that strenuous activity or heavy exertion be avoided for at least two weeks. More specific instructions will be provided by Dr. Ng and his staff.
