772.287.9000 Stuart
772.287.9000 Stuart
772.287.9000 Stuart
"..rediscovering colors, it's wonderful!"
- Christine, PanOptix patient at EFEI
About East Florida Eye Institute
At East Florida Eye Institute, we are committed to providing exceptional eye care to our patients. With a team of highly skilled and experienced ophthalmologists, we offer a wide range of services to help you achieve and maintain optimal eye health. Our practice is dedicated to delivering personalized diagnoses and treatment plans tailored to your individual needs. We stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in the field of ophthalmology to ensure that you receive the most effective and innovative treatments available. Our goal is to not only treat eye ailments and disorders but also to prevent them, so you can enjoy a lifetime of clear vision. Trust us to provide you with outstanding care and help you see the world with clarity and confidence.
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Orchestrating Outstanding Care
Orchestrating Outstanding Care
Your Vision Symphony Starts Here
Meet Our Maestros of Eye Care
Dr. Frenkel - Cataract Expert 🌟
Dr. Barikian - Retina Specialist 🌟
Dr. Schacknow - Glaucoma Guru 🌟
Experience the difference at East Florida Eye Institute. Let our doctors conduct your visual masterpiece.
Orchestrating Outstanding Care
Premium Cataract Surgery by Ronald Frenkel, MD, FACS, FICS
At East Florida Eye Institute, we are dedicated to Orchestrating Outstanding Care for your vision needs. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our partnership with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra Program, where the pursuit of perfection extends beyond the stage and into the operating room.
Discover the difference with us:
🌟 Premium Cataract Surgery: Experience the highest standard of care with our renowned cataract surgery specialist.
👁️ Leader in Eye Care: With decades of experience, Dr. Frenkel has performed thousands of successful cataract surgeries, restoring the brilliance of life's most beautiful moments.
🏥 State-of-the-Art Facility: Our modern, cutting-edge facility utilizes advanced technology to ensure exceptional outcomes.
🤝 Personalized Care: We treat each patient uniquely, providing tailored solutions to your specific needs.
🎶 The Atlantic Classical Orchestra: Enjoy the harmonious connection between music and visual artistry as we proudly sponsor the Atlantic Classical Orchestra Program.
Reclaim the symphony of life with clear vision. Schedule Your Consultation Today! Call us at (772) 287-9000 or visit www.EFEI.com.
Discover the Best Ophthalmologist for Your Eye Care Needs
Are you seeking top-notch eye care and considering premium cataract surgery? Look no further than Ronald Frenkel, MD, FACS, FAAO, the esteemed director of East Florida Eye Institute, who has been transforming lives with his expertise and precision.
East Florida Eye Institute - Your Trusted Destination for Premium Cataract Surgery
When it comes to making the right choice for your eyes, three distinguished judges made their verdicts:
"Dr. Frenkel provides the best care in controlling my macular degeneration and glaucoma. Thanks to him, I can still enjoy the view from my condo!"
Robert L. Shipper,
District Court Judge
(Retired)
💡 Experience Counts - Harvard Fellowship Trained Ophthalmologist 💡
Dr. Ronald Frenkel is not only a Fellowship-trained Ophthalmologist from Harvard but also a pioneer in the field of advanced cataract surgery. With years of experience and cutting-edge techniques, he has helped countless patients regain their vision and improve their quality of life.
🌟 Your Vision, Our Priority 🌟
At East Florida Eye Institute, our mission is to provide the highest standard of eye care, ensuring your vision is in the hands of a skilled and compassionate expert. Whether it's cataract surgery, glaucoma management, macular degeneration, or other eye conditions, trust Dr. Frenkel and his dedicated team to guide you towards brighter, clearer days.
📞 Schedule Your Consultation Today! 📞
Don't miss this opportunity to experience excellence in eye care! Call us today to book your consultation and take the first step towards a brighter future.
🌐 Visit our website for more information and testimonials from satisfied patients: www.efei.com
"Thank you for giving me my vision back! The world is a beautiful place again!"
Annual eye exams are vital to maintaining your vision and overall health. EFEI offers the optomap® as an important part of our eye exams. The optomap produces an image that is unique and provides Dr. Frenkel and team members with a high-resolution 200° image in order to ascertain the health of your retina. This is much wider than a traditional 45° image. Many eye problems can develop without you knowing, in fact, you may not even notice any change in your sight – fortunately, diseases or damage such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinal tears or detachments, and other health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure can be seen with a thorough exam of the retina.
The inclusion of optomapas part of a comprehensive eye exam provides:
• A scan to show a healthy eye or detect disease.
• A view of the retina, giving your doctor a more comprehensive view than they can get by other means.
• The opportunity for you to view and discuss the optomap image of your eye with your doctor at the time of your exam.
• A permanent record for your file, which allows Dr. Frenkel and Dr. Barikian to view your images each year to look for changes.
The optomap is fast, easy, and comfortable for anyone. The entire image process consists of you looking into the device one eye at a time. The optomap images are shown immediately on a computer screen so we can review it with you.
Dr. Frenkel PanOptix
Trifocal Lens Implant Results
after Cataract Surgery
Distance: 97% - 20/20 or better!
(able to pass driver's license vision test)
Unlock a Brighter Future
with East Florida Eye Institute's
Premium Cataract Surgery
Call 772-287-900 to Schedule
Your Consultation Today!
GLAUCOMA TREATMENT OPTIONS
Treatment for glaucoma depends on the specific type of glaucoma, its severity and how the eye responds to treatment. The main goal is to lower the eye pressure to a level that stabilizes the disease to prevent further damage/vision loss. The level of “safe” eye pressure is different for each individual. Unfortunately, glaucoma treatment does not reverse damage to the optic nerve.
Lowering eye pressure is accomplished in one of two ways: by decreasing aqueous fluid production (inflow), or increasing aqueous fluid drainage (outflow). Methods of eye pressure reduction used by our physicians in Stuart include glaucoma laser surgery and medications.
Medications in the form of eye drops or pills, or a combination of the two can increase outflow, decrease inflow or a combination of the two. The prescription drugs can be eye drops or pills. Some patients cannot tolerate these medications, and some side effects may outweigh the benefits of the treatments. We helped develop a new treatment, Durysta, which is an implant that slowly releases medication in the eye.
OUR STUART AND PORT ST. LUCIE-BASED DOCTORS FOLLOW SEVERAL DIFFERENT GLAUCOMA LASER SURGERY PROCEDURES.
LASER TRABECULOPLASTY
Laser trabeculoplasty stimulates the trabecular meshwork (drainage angle) to function more efficiently. This is an in-office procedure. It is relatively safe with few side effects. We offer two different types of laser trabeculoplasty: Argon Laser Trabeculoplasty (ALT) and Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT).
SLT and ALT lower the intra ocular pressure (IOP) by ~20%. They are about 80% effective in the first year. However the efficacy may wear off over time: @ 5 years – 50% effective and @ 10 years – 33% effective.
These lasers may not need to be repeated at the frequency that many ophthalmologists are performing them. In a study by Dr. Frenkel, treating 1/3 of the eye is just as effective as treating 1/2 of the eye. While SLT can be repeated over the same area of the eye, ALT cannot.
LASER IRIDIOPLASTY
A laser iridioplasty removes a portion of the iris near the root to alter the shape of the pupil therefore drainage angle, improving outflow of aqueous humor.
TRABECULECTOMY
Glaucoma surgery is called for when eye medications and laser surgery are insufficient to control glaucoma progression. In Trabeculectomy, a new drainage channel is created in the eye. In Aqueous shunt or Seton procedures, a small plastic tube drains fluid from the front of eye to lower eye pressure and is usually reserved for eyes at high risk for failure with trabeculectomy.
MIGS
The goal of glaucoma surgery is to reduce damage to the optic nerve by lowering the pressure inside the eye. The micro-invasive Glaucoma Surgery, or MIGS surgery, done at our Stuart and Port St. Lucie clinics achieve this using microscopic instruments to make very small incisions in the eye. We use VISCO 360. iStent & MicroPulse at EFEI.
GLAUCOMA DIAGNOSIS
REGULAR EYE EXAMINATIONS ARE THE BEST WAY TO DETECT GLAUCOMA.
If you suspect that you might need glaucoma treatment, come to our Stuart office or visit us at our Port St. Lucie location. Your Visual Acuity will be assessed using the Snellen eye chart which measures how well each eye can see. During an examination, our doctors will evaluate your intraocularpressure (IOP) by Tonometry. A high eye pressure reading is often one of the first indicators of glaucoma. The thickness of the cornea is measured by pachymetry, because corneal thickness affects eye pressure readings. At the Slit Lamp Microscope, the doctor will inspect the drainage angle during a procedure called Gonioscopy. An Optic Nerve Exam, performed when the pupils are dilated, is necessary to detect optic nerve damage.
DIAGNOSTIC TESTING FOR GLAUCOMA
Additional Tests may be ordered that allow unique views and analysis of the state of your optic nerve, comparing the way the optic nerve appears during the test to a database of other individuals categorized by age, gender, race, and level of glaucomatous damage.
A Humphrey Visual Field (HVF) or Frequency Doubling Technology (which detects damage faster and earlier in the disease process) analysis of your current amount of peripheral field loss will be ordered. The Ocular Coherence Tomographer, (OCT) scans through your dilated pupil to assess the quantity and quality of the optic nerve fibers themselves. The Heidelberg Retinal Tomographer (HRT) scans the appearance of the optic nerve, including changes in its shape and appearance over time. In Glaucoma, the elevated eye pressure permanently damages these fibers. Tracking the amount of nerve fiber loss helps your doctor in determining when and if to intervene with additional glaucoma treatment. Digital Optic Nerve Photographs or 3–Dimensional Optic Nerve Photographs will be taken to aid in the further evaluation of your optic nerve’s appearance over time. Blood flow to the microscopic cells of the optic nerve is an important factor in optic nerve health, and may be assessed through Ocular Blood Flow Analysis and 24-hour Blood Pressure Monitoring (similar to wearing a Holter monitor).
Three scans are taken of the optic disc and nerve fiber layer. These are combined to create a high quality, 3-D topography. Our research at the Eye Research Foundation set the standard protocol for how to measure ocular blood flow.
EFEI has the FDT which can detect visual field loss in perimetrically normal eyes with open-angle glaucoma. Recently, research has indicated that a technology known as FDT is very useful in detecting visual field loss secondary to glaucoma. Additionally, this same technology has also been shown to predict the visual field loss pattern that would be seen on standard testing.
At East Florida Eye Institute, we make use of this technology daily, and feel we enhance service to our patients with the addition of this technology. On a regular basis, we are able to give our patients thorough, consistent and useful information regarding the status of their eye health and the glaucoma treatments that we offer in Stuart. With the addition of the FDT technology to the practice, we have been able to increase quality and exceed patient’s expectations.
EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN REVERSING BLINDNESS
•Scientists at Harvard have shown that until about the age of two, the neurons in the human brain are still growing
•They have found a molecule (SOCS3) that appears to put the brakes on neuron growth in adult mice.
•They also found that damaged neurons sprout after blocking this molecule in adult mice with crushed optic nerves
•This work is an important advance towards understanding why axons of adult nerve cells don’t regenerate.
•In future the ideal treatment will probably involve delivering drugs to an injured area of the brain or spinal cord so that the nerve tissue re-grows especially in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and Glaucoma.
GLAUCOMA
Glaucoma, often referred to as “the sneak thief of sight”, is a progressive disease that causes damage to the optic nerve. In order to get the best glaucoma treatment possible, come to Stuart’s renowned East Florida Eye Institute. For the convenience of our patients, we also have a location in Port St. Lucie. Increased intraocular pressure in the eye results in loss of nerve fiber layers that transmit information from the eye to the brain. The term “increased” is relative to each individual patient, meaning certain patients can safely maintain an intraocular pressure of 20 without any damage while others experience vision loss with a pressure reading of 12. High pressure in the eye is caused by blocking of the drainage canal that lets fluid from inside of your eye flow out resulting in a build up of intraocular fluids. High pressure can also be caused by a narrow angle, in which the eyes anatomy leaves no room for the fluid to drain out also resulting in a build up intraocular fluids.
As glaucoma damages the optic nerve, peripheral vision is lost at a slow speed without the patient’s knowledge of any problem.
Most people with early stage glaucoma have no symptoms, pain or noticeable loss of vision from increased eye pressure. Because it is not detectable by patients in the early stages, it is important to have a regular eye exam by your doctor for diagnosis and treatment before long-term, irreversible vision loss occurs. People over 40 with a family history of glaucoma should be monitored by an ophthalmologist yearly for early detection. Come to our doctors in Stuart to learn how we can help reverse your glaucoma.
ONCE GLAUCOMA IS DETECTED BY OUR OPHTHALMOLOGISTS, THERE ARE MANY AVENUES OF TREATMENT.
Your doctor may feel you are suspicious of glaucoma but are not a candidate for treatment yet and recommend you be followed at shorter (6-12 month) intervals to monitor the condition as it progresses. If treatment is initiated, the patient has a choice between glaucoma drops instilled in the eye daily to lower the eye pressure or laser surgery for glaucoma to help the fluid drain from the eye thereby lowering the eye pressure. In some cases, your doctor may elect to do surgical intervention once other methods have been tested and failed.
