Your appointment at the Ryegate Children’s centre ophthalmology clinic

Your child has been made an appointment at The Ryegate Ophthalmic Clinic to a consultant ophthalmologist or an optometrist.

The first part of the appointment will be to see the orthoptist. They will check your child’s vision and find out if the eye muscles are working correctly. This may have already been done at a previous visit.

What happens next?

The orthoptist may put eye drops in your child’s eyes before seeing the consultant or optometrist. This is to enlarge their pupils (the black part of the eye) so that they can look at the back of your child’s eyes and do a test for glasses.

The best way to put in eye drops is for your child to lay back with their head in your lap with their eyes closed so the drops can be put in the corner of their eyes.

The eye drops take 30 to 40 minutes to work during which time you may leave the centre.

What effects do the eye drops have?

The drops do not harm the eye in any way. This is a routine test done on children referred to the eye department. You may notice:

• large pupils but this is very normal
• blurred vision which might affect your child’s ability to focus for around 4 hours. Please supervise your child when leaving the department and travelling home and make sure their teacher is aware of the problem if returning to school. Your child needs to avoid playing on climbing frames, cycling, skating and so on until vision has returned to normal
• sensitivity to light so some children feel more comfortable wearing sunglasses whilst travelling home to reduce this

After your child’s examination

If your child needs glasses you will be given a prescription to take to any optometrist of your choice to have the glasses made. This prescription is a voucher which covers the cost of glasses (although some frames will have an additional charge – your optician will be able to advise you which glasses are available without cost). If the glasses are broken or lost during the year your optician will be able to repair or replace them without needing a further voucher form from us.

You will be given more detailed information about glasses when a prescription is issued.

Further appointments to attend the orthoptic clinic will be needed to monitor progress. This will be arranged by the orthoptist and sent out by letter.

Please be prepared to be at Ryegate for 1 and a half hours for this appointment.

What if I need to change the appointment?

If you need to reschedule or cancel an upcoming appointment please contact our appointments team on 0114 305 3691 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday.

When you call we will need to you know your child’s name, hospital number and details of their appointment.