Dr. David Dean Speck M.D.
Ophthalmologist
35 Arterial West Auburn NY, 13021Practice Philosophy
Traditional Medicine
Rating
5/5
About
Dr. David Speck is an ophthalmologist practicing in Auburn, NY. Dr. Speck specializes in eye and vision care. As an ophthalmologist, Dr. Speck can practice medicine as well as surgery. Opthalmologists can perform surgeries because they have their medical degrees along with at least eight years of additional training. Dr. Speck can diagnose and treat diseases, perform eye operations and prescribe eye glasses and contacts. Ophthalmologists can also specialize even further in a specific area of eye care.
Board Certification
OphthalmologyAmerican Board of OphthalmologyABO- 1985
Provider Details
Dr. David Dean Speck M.D.'s Expert Contributions
Why does my eye hurt when I wear contact lenses?
The three most important rules of contact lens use are: Contacts must look good, feel good, and see good! (Pardon my English) If your eyes are red, take the contacts out. If they hurt, take them out. Never, ever wear a contact lens that hurts! If the vision is not clear, take the lenses out. Contacts may become uncomfortable for many reasons: They may be poorly fit to your eye, especially when you use non-prescription cosmetic lenses. The fit of your contacts can change with time as your eyes change. It is important to have your contact fit reassessed at least once a year by a competent eye care professional. The lenses may be old, dry, dirty, or deposited. If a new lens is uncomfortable, then it may be a poor fit to the eye. About 10% of all contact lens users lose their contact lens tolerance each year. Human eyes were just not designed to live with a piece of plastic on the front of them all the time. Some people just get to the point where no contact lens feels comfortable for them. An uncomfortable lens may indicate the presence of an eye disease or infection. Again, a comprehensive evaluation by an eye care professional is the best approach. Never wear any contact lens that is uncomfortable. READ MORE
What happens if you wait too long for cataract surgery?
"Too long" is difficult to define. Most of the time, there is no danger in delaying cataract surgery. Just because you have a cataract does not mean that it needs to be removed immediately. If you are able to read, drive, see the TV, and do what you want to do comfortably, then you do not need cataract surgery. When you find yourself saying "I can't read, drive, or do what I want to do comfortably, AND that bothers me", then it is time to have cataract surgery. I was taught, and still believe, that an eye with a little bit of cataract is better than any artificial thing we can provide is true. An artificial lens is not exactly the same as a natural lens. I'm a firm believer in the old saying:/"If ii ain't broke (or broke too bad), don't fix it!"./ You should be telling the ophthalmologist that you need cataract surgery, not the other way around. I have seen way too many patients who have had cataract surgery elsewhere come to me complaining that "I saw better before the surgery than I do now". Although cataract surgery generally has an excellent success rate, a small fraction of patients ends up seeing worse even when everything goes "normally". There are certain times when we may encourage you to have cataract surgery if the cataract gets in the way of diagnosing or treating diseases inside the eye like diabetes, retinal detachment, or macular degeneration. If you do have cataract that is causing some degree of visual disability, there are two reasons NOT to delay surgery. First, if your health is good enough for surgery now, and you know that you will need surgery in the future, it is better to have it done while you are healthy enough to undergo the procedure. I have had several dozen patients who deferred surgery too long, but then found that their general health would not permit them to have the procedure. That put them in a bind. They cannot see, but they will never be healthy enough to have the surgery that they need. A selfish reason not to delay surgery is that an early cataract is technically easier to remove than a "mature" or ripe" cataract. The more mature a cataract is, the greater the probability that there will be surgical complications that will produce a less-then-optimal outcome for you. Both you and the surgeon would prefer to have an easy procedure than a difficult one. David D. Speck MD READ MORE
What does high eye pressure feel like?
The great majority of patients with high eye pressure don't feel anything out of the ordinary. The only way to reliably determine the eye pressure is to have an ophthalmologist test the pressure. Just today, for the first time, I saw an unfortunate gentleman who hadn't been examined anywhere in 17 years. He thought his vision was getting bad because of cataract. Sadly, he was essentially blind in one eye, and the other was severely damaged. The pressure in his right eye was 37 and 49 in his left. Normal is 10 to 21 on the same scale used to measure blood pressure. He never had the slightest discomfort. We will not be able to restore any of his lost vision, and it will be difficult to retain what remains, as his eyes are so badly damaged. READ MORE
What can I do for eye pain after cataract surgery?
Very definitely call the surgeon who did your surgery. You should not be having any great discomfort three days after the surgery. Any good doctor should have an answering service and a colleague who is covering for him/her, even on a holiday. Diseases and surgical complications do not respect holidays marked on the calendar. READ MORE
What causes blurry vision after swimming?
I assume you are swimming in fresh water, not sea water. Our tears normally have the same concentration of salt as sea water. Fresh water normally has little or no salt in it. When you get fresh water in your eyes, water will soak into the tissue of the cornea, the front window of the eye, because there is a higher concentration of salt in the eye tissue than there is in the fresh water. The water soaking into the eye tissue causes the tissue to swell and get a bit cloudy, which causes the blurry vision. After a period of time, your body will eliminate the fresh water, and the swelling will decrease, and your vision will return to normal. If you wear swim goggles, you will have less blurring after swimming, and you will also be less likely to catch any diseases from contaminated water. READ MORE
How often should I use lubricant eye drops after Lasik?
Lubricating eyedrops generally last only 20 minutes or so. You may apply them whenever your eyes feel dry or uncomfortable. You will not hurt your eyes by using them "too much." Preservative-free drops may be less irritating if you use them often, but cost substantially more. Be sure to use only tear substitute or lubricating eyedrops. Avoid drops that promise "to get the red out". Your eyes are supposed to get red if something irritates them. Anti-redness drops are only cosmetics that defeat your body's natural defense mechanisms without medical benefit. READ MORE
Eye exams?
No, we could not. We can see only the very frontmost part of the optic nerve. The rest of its 7+ inch length is buried deep inside the skull and brain, where it is extremely well protected. No such devices exist at this time, and it is unlikely that they ever will. The concept is something out of a science fiction novel or far out conspiracy theory. I can't imagine what such a device would accomplish. There are 10 million fibers in the optic nerve of each eye, crammed into a space the size of the lead in an ordinary pencil. There is no room to put anything foreign into the optic nerve without damaging it severely, causing blindness, and no effective way to connect any artificial device to the nerve in any way that would produce any sort of useful result. READ MORE
Should you close your eyes after eye drops?
A number of years ago, a study showed that simply keeping the eyes closed for 2 minutes after applying eyedrops improved the penetration of the drops into the eye by four to eight times over. I recommend this to my patients for all eyedrops. There is some additional benefit to applying gentle pressure to the tear drain in the middle corner of the eye to reduce the flow of tears and medication down into the nose. However, most of my patients who try this don't seem to get it right, so I'm content with just recommending the eyelid closure. READ MORE
Can eye doctors see floaters?
It depends on how large the floaters are. You can see floaters down to the size of a single red blood cell, but floaters have to be 80-100 times larger than that before an ophthalmologist can even begin see them. That means that there is a broad range of floaters that the patient can see, but the doctor cannot. Everyone has some floaters if the look for them, but if floaters increase suddenly, or make it hard to read, drive or see the TV, then they should be checked by an ophthalmologist. READ MORE
Will I need glasses after Lasik?
It depends. If you are myopic (nearsighted), then now, you can probably read without glasses, but you need glasses to drive. If you have a typical myopic LASIK procedure, you will probably be able to drive without glasses, but you will need reading glasses for the rest of your life to see anything well within arms length. Before signing up for the surgery, be sure that you will be happy with this outcome. READ MORE
Can kids have astigmatism?
Astigmatism is a natural condition of the eyes. A "perfect" eye would be as round as a billiard ball, but the front surface (the cornea) of most eyes is usually slightly oval, like the side of a football. The more oval the cornea is, the greater the degree of astigmatism. To correct astigmatism, we prescribe a lens that has the opposite curvature, to cancel out the ovalness of the eye. A "normal" eye is expected to have about one half unit of astigmatism power. Indeed, an eye with no astigmatism at all is rather unusual. So, to answer your question, it is entirely possible for people of any age to have some degree of astigmatism, and is is rather unusual if they do not. READ MORE
Can LASIK be used to change iris color?
No, LASIK changes the curvature of the cornea, the curved crystal clear window at the front of the eye. It does not reach the colored area of the iris. There is no legitimate, safe, medically approved procedure or medication that can effectively change the color of your iris without potentially causing serious damage within the eye. Of all the attributes of your body, the color of your iris ranks as one of the most trivially insignificant. Don't mess with a healthy structure for cosmetic purposes. READ MORE
Can macular degeneration cause blindness?
Yes, and no. Macular degeneration damages the macula, the center of the eye where your best vision is located. When you want to look at something, you point your macula at it. Advanced macular degeneration can damage the central vision in the eye, making it difficult to read, sew, or drive. If bad enough, it can cause legal blindness. Most patients with macular degeneration will retain some of their peripheral vision, which is lower quality than central vision. It is rare for a patient with macular degeneration to become totally blind and see complete blackness. READ MORE
Can an ophthalmologist write medication prescriptions?
Yes, an ophthalmologist is a doctor of medicine who treats medical and surgical diseases of the eyes. Ophthalmologists routinely write prescriptions for medicines to treat glaucoma, inflammations, and infections of the eyes and many other conditions. Ophthalmologists can write a prescription for any medication that falls within their scope of practice. READ MORE
Can crossed eyes be corrected?
Usually yes, A frequent cause of eyes that cross inwards is that the child is extremely farsighted. Simply putting the child in appropriate spectacles that correct the farsightedness will often allow the eyes to straighten. In about 40% of children with an inward turn, glasses alone will not fully correct the misalignment. For these children, surgical procedures are available to reduce the remaining misalignment. The younger the age when the problem is addressed, the more successful the treatments will usually be at producing stable and normal alignment. READ MORE
Are there any side effects after laser eye surgery?
You don't indicate what your eyeglass measurement is like -- nearsighted or farsighted - but if you are nearsighted, then you are likely to be disappointed in the coming years. Most people start to need reading glasses at about age 40. If you are nearsighted, then you can simply take off your eyeglasses and read bare-eyed until you are 99. If you have laser vision surgery to set your eyes for distance, then you will need to find reading glasses to see up close for the rest of your life. Dry eyes which increase with age and require frequent applications of tear drops through the day are a not uncommon side effect of laser vision surgery. You will still develop cataracts as a part of normal aging, and when the time comes, calculation of the optimum intraocular lens implant is much more difficult to accomplish accurately in a post-laser eye. Laser vision surgery patients often read unusually low eye pressures, making detection and management of glaucoma more difficult. Certain types of unusual retinal detachments are also more common is laser vision surgery patients. READ MORE
Treatments
- Cataract Surgery
Dr. David Dean Speck M.D.'s Practice location
David D. Speck MD
35 Arterial West -Auburn, NY 13021Get Direction
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