Frustrated over trying to locate a dry eye specialist in Florida

[JJdryeye]

I'm really confused about how to go about finding a doctor who has the appropriate training to be able to properly treat a patients dry eye. I've been to five opthamologists between central and south florida for my dry eye, and have been disappointed at the lack of dry eye expertise in the eye care industry. The doctors I've seen all seem to take the typical approach of treating the symptoms rather than looking for the cause first. And the treatments suggested are always the same standard treatments. I even saw a doctor at a nationally known group in Miami who literally said "good luck to you" when her suggestions didn't work.

I've read Dr. ******'s book in which he suggests "looking for an opthamologist who has post residency fellowship training in the cornea, ocular surface or dry eye", but I'm not even sure how I go about finding that level of detail about a doctors past training. Call an office up and the receptionist is not likely to know that either.
(I would consider Dr. ****** out of Tampa, but he doesn't take insurance and quite honestly his fees are astronomical, much more than I could ever afford).

Anyhow, if anyone could give me some good advice on this I'd appreciate it. I'm looking for someone in the central florida area specifically, but I'd travel to other parts of Florida if necessary. Thanks.

[chimera]

I know...Ive been to about 7 doctors in south Fl now including 3 at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute(is that the place you went?) no one could really help me. Tseng is my current Dr & even he had difficulty helping me. I would love to see ****** but I too probably couldnt afford it(& thats not counting the additional the travel price.) Im just as clueless as you are with this. Sorry that wasnt much help but know that your not alone.

[Rebecca Petris]

Word of mouth is always best. It doesn't always work... the doc loved by patient A is not always loved by patient B... but it helps.

The way I used to try to find a corneal specialist for people in locations where I didn't know anybody was the ASCRS site. An awful lot of corneal specialists are ASCRS members because almost all cornea docs do cataract and/or refractive surgery. So I'd get names there and then start picking through them individually. I read their bios on their practice's website very carefully. You're looking for anyone who considers ocular surface disease (or, frankly, almost any kind of corneal disease) a major area of interest, as opposed to refractive surgery. Not that fulltime refractive surgeons can't be decent dry eye docs but, well, most aren't and if you're shooting in the dark you want the best odds you can get.

In the Tampa Bay area, I really like Richard Hector in Bradenton and Craig Berger in Tampa.

Never rule out optometrists. Some of them do a better job, spend much more time with you and cost a lot less than the "dry eye specialist" cornea MDs.

One of the big difficulties with finding a dry eye doc is not just to get someone who's got access to all the diagnostic & treatment approaches, it's to get someone who will truly engage intellectually. Listen well. Someone who feels like they're teaming up with you to tackle the problem. And you can't get that information online, it really does unfortunately come down to trial & error unless you get just the right referral.

ADDENDUM: Well phooey kablooey. I just tried the ASCRS site and they don't seem to have the dr. directory any longer or rather it's only available to members. So anyway the other method is just start googling "cornea specialist [city]". Slog through the hits, pore over the sites. Or use the phone book and then the internet to find individual practice sites. Most multi-doctor ophthamology practices have at least one corneal specialist. Those that have several have one who is more into disease than surgery. Sorry I wish I knew a better shortcut. On the other hand personally if I were within say 150 miles of Tampa I'd just go see Dr Hector Not that he knows everything or can help everyone, but he "gets" it and is compassionate and is very practical and knowledgeable.